Quit Claim California?

Question

I have a friend who owns a house and got in way over on her bills. She owes a little less than the house is worth but can't pay. She has been keeping up with payments on the first but the HELOC is behind.
Since there are two houses on the lot my plan is to Quit claim on title, put some money into the second house and rent it out and just pay her mortgages, taxes and insurance and just let her live in the second house for free. When she dies I would take over the whole property.
This is what she wants. Faster the better.
Is this possible? The real estate gurus say to do this but what is the procedure?
Is it better to get on title as the main owner and keep her on title as well and do my above plan? I just don't want to start a new loan cause of the huge jump in mortgage and property tax. This would be much easier.

Answer 1

You might want to get something signed between the two of you as to what and why you are doing this.

Quitclaim deeds are a legal document in the state of California. All you have to do is both you go before a notary sign the quitclaim deed, after which the notary will notarize the document. You then take it to the county recorder's office at the county court to get it recorded. That is legal and the most economical way of getting it done.

The best way and, it probably will cost a bit more is to call a local title company set up an appointment, go into their office sign the quitclaim deed in front of their notary. They will make sure that the quitclaim deed is recorded at the county court. This might cost a bit more, but it will save lots of potential legal problems in the future.

Once you have signed the quitclaim deed make sure that you pay the mortgage by checks, not money orders or cashier checks but by personal checks. This will be useful later on because once you have paid the mortgage for a year most lenders will treat you as a refinance as oppose to a person that is purchasing the house.

Depending on the interest rate your mortgage payments should not jump that much after your year is up and you refinance the property.

You might hear about a due-on-sales clause which is in 99% of the current loans that are written today, but I would not concern myself with this matter as most lenders will not come knocking on the door to find out who is living there.

I hope this has been of some use to you, good luck.

"FIGHT ON"

Answer 2

Quit claims don't mean squat when it comes to estates and inheritances. My family got burned badly on that one when my evil stepmother got a 1/3rd of my father's separate property, after he passed away, even though she had signed a Quit Claim deed.

I'm not sure if the relationships here, but you are better off having the titles fixed property with rights of survivorship.