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Make sure you are well informed about the different deeds available.

Know the difference between a warranty deed and a quitclaim deed? Maybe you thought the term was "quick" claim deed. Here's everything you wanted to know about deeds, but never got around to asking.

1. A deed is a document that conveys, or passes, real estate from one party to another.
Whether you buy a house from a stranger, inherit it from your parents or add your spouse to the home's title, a deed accomplishes the, uh, deed of transferring the title.

2. A deed isn't a sales contract.
A sales contract is a promise to transfer a property in exchange for something, usually money. A deed is the property transfer.

3. A deed contains a legal description of the real estate being transferred.
In urban or suburban locales, the legal description tells which plot of land a property occupies in a platted subdivision. Deeds in rural areas might use meets-and-bounds descriptions of the boundaries that identify where the property lines are in relation to landmarks.

4. The deed identifies who is handing over an interest in the property (the grantor) and who is accepting it (the grantee).
The grantor is generally the seller and the grantee the buyer.

5. A deed wouldn't be a deed without words of conveyance - a passage of text saying the grantor intends to transfer a property to the grantee.
Dude, it's a legal document, so stating the obvious is the point of this piece of paper.

6. The most common deed problem is inaccurate or out-of-date information.
Like an incorrect legal description of the property or people's names are wrong.