It's not about the house.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Apparently, There Is At Least One

Okay so I called, and even though the nice man said that there are no stupid questions…

I guess the big hilarious joke at closing was that I had my deed, in my hand, when I asked the question.

I don’t think that’s very sporting of them all, do you?

I changed my mind. I hate my lawyer.

See, first I went up to the attic for all my original paperwork. It wasn’t there, so I came back down and looked in the junk drawer and voila – I am an idiot. But anyway…

I was only looking for it in the first place because I wanted to say to the nice man “What you have on file is the same quitclaim that I got the day that I passed papers” – but I wanted to make sure that I did, in fact, get that quitclaim on that day.

(I should probably interject right here that I still have no idea what a "quitclaim" is, exactly -- just that that's what it says on the piece of paper and it makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about if I throw it around.)

The first thing I found was that very Declaration of Homestead form, signed by little old stupid, amnesiacal me.

Hey, I was preoccupied that day, all right?

Anyway, under that was the quitclaim, and the nice man on the telephone said that that was it. I shouldn’t expect any sort of quill-signed parchment roll-out or anything (my “Really Most Sincerely Deed,” as it were). That quitclaim is all she’s ever gonna write.

My copy doesn’t actually have my name written on it anywhere, though -- unlike the girly one on file at the registrar's office. I find that odd, but I’m going to leave well enough alone.

Oh, and apparently -- a "quitclaim"? Is a deed.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quitclaim deed: "contains no covenants and merely is to transfer any title presently possessed by the grantor or used to remove any clouds on the title". Which is a fancy way of saying that it is a legal document that transfers property from a seller (grantor) to a buyer (grantee). There are other, more specific, deeds but you don't need to know about those. :)
I am a little puzzled, though, when you say that your copy doesn't have your name on it.

Midwest Bicycle Company said...

If you want something a little more substantial, you'll want to acquire an "Abstract of Title". The abstract lists all conveyances, transfers, grants, wills, judgements, liens, etc.

The abstract for my house is huge - it includes the original title for the land, showing the US government giving it to Ephriam Dukes (who later donated all of the land to create the town of Greencastle) up to and including my ownership of it. I found out some interesting things about my house, such as; it is entirely likely that Buffalo Bill Cody visited my house while he was here for his Wild West show - the guy who owned my house, owned the Greencastle Opera House where Bill's show ran.

Definitely check into getting an Abstract...

Larry

EGE said...

Wow. Thanks for all the info everybody. I'm curious about the history of the place so maybe someday I will get an Abstract of Title thingy -- though I kind of doubt Annie Oakley ever stayed here or anything...