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Featured Replies

As durable power of attorney, my wife is selling her mom’s house. It is under contract with closing scheduled for late July. The kicker is her mom just passed away. There is a transfer on death deed that will transfer the property to my wife.

 

My question is, can she proceed with the sale as the POA or do we have to execute the TOD deed prior to sale?


As durable power of attorney, my wife is selling her mom’s house. It is under contract with closing scheduled for late July. The kicker is her mom just passed away. There is a transfer on death deed that will transfer the property to my wife.
 
My question is, can she proceed with the sale as the POA or do we have to execute the TOD deed prior to sale?
The TOD deed is automatic assuming it was properly acknowledged and hopefully filed. What do you mean by execute to TOD ?

The seller has also changed here, may make a difference to the title company.
  • Author
The TOD deed is automatic assuming it was properly acknowledged and hopefully filed. What do you mean by execute to TOD ?

The seller has also changed here, may make a difference to the title company.

It was filed with the county clerk. By execute, I just mean that I have to provide a death certificate for the transfer to happen. The title company is in the loop.

It was filed with the county clerk. By execute, I just mean that I have to provide a death certificate for the transfer to happen. The title company is in the loop.
Then it's really a case of what the title company wants.

A Trust really shines in this situation.
  • Author
Then it's really a case of what the title company wants.

A Trust really shines in this situation.

Agreed.

Unluckily, there’s just the house, a bank account, a pension, and a 401K for assets. Luckily, there’s no debt at all. The funeral home said a week for the death certificate so closing shouldn’t be delayed at all. My wife was already a co-owner on the bank account. The 401K and any pension payout will be rolled into an inherited IRA for my wife. The timing works for our retirement in 6 years so that we could not draw our own retirement and just takes the required payout from the inherited IRA to minimize taxes that year.

The title company already sent updated documents for my wife to sign. I emailed at 9pm and it arrived at 7am. They must really want to get paid.
34 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:


Agreed.

Unluckily, there’s just the house, a bank account, a pension, and a 401K for assets. Luckily, there’s no debt at all. The funeral home said a week for the death certificate so closing shouldn’t be delayed at all. My wife was already a co-owner on the bank account. The 401K and any pension payout will be rolled into an inherited IRA for my wife. The timing works for our retirement in 6 years so that we could not draw our own retirement and just takes the required payout from the inherited IRA to minimize taxes that year.

The title company already sent updated documents for my wife to sign. I emailed at 9pm and it arrived at 7am. They must really want to get paid.

Such is the way of the world. 

as others have said, whatever the title officer says is what matters.  That always seems to be the case in this sort of thing. 

1 minute ago, Gil Bang said:

as others have said, whatever the title officer says is what matters.  That always seems to be the case in this sort of thing. 

And some of them are cool and about 20% make you jump through hoops.

which is why I send all of my business to one specific company.  They tend not to fuck around with a good customer 

5 hours ago, ocugolf said:

And some of them are cool and about 20% make you jump through hoops.

Isn't that true for just about anything? But yeah as @Gil Bang a good title company is worth their weight in gold. Ive been using the same lady for 20+ years 

6 hours ago, ocugolf said:

And some of them are cool and about 20% make you jump through hoops.

I recently refinanced a construction loan on my house. One of the contractors had recorded an extension of time to file lien. Basically, the GC and I were arguing over some items so payment got delayed. The sub filed the extension to preserve his lien rights if he wanted to exercise them.  All above board, and no lien was ever filed.

Title company made them record a release of a lien that didn't exist so I could close.  Truly mind bottling.

2 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

I recently refinanced a construction loan on my house. One of the contractors had recorded an extension of time to file lien. Basically, the GC and I were arguing over some items so payment got delayed. The sub filed the extension to preserve his lien rights if he wanted to exercise them.  All above board, and no lien was ever filed.

Title company made them record a release of a lien that didn't exist so I could close.  Truly mind bottling.

I’ve had to explain that the decedent couldn’t sign sign a waiver of appraisement when selling the decedent’s home during a probate. Hounded me for weeks. Took all I had to say “you either want a dead guy to sign it or me to commit malpractice, neither happening”. Then he said he’d “run it up the pole to his manager”. Never heard anything back and we closed a couple weeks later. 

On 6/25/2025 at 4:16 PM, UTPhil2006 said:

Ive been using the same lady for 20+ years 

Haven’t we all?

On 6/25/2025 at 11:08 AM, ocugolf said:

And some of them are cool and about 20% make you jump through hoops.

The title company for our current house rejected our signed documents because none of our signatures included a middle initial. It was the weirdest thing ever. I told them I would go back and just write it at the top but refused to re-sign everything. Now every legal document I own has the same signature except for my mortgage documents. So weird.

2 minutes ago, HRSchenker said:

The title company for our current house rejected our signed documents because none of our signatures included a middle initial. It was the weirdest thing ever. I told them I would go back and just write it at the top but refused to re-sign everything. Now every legal document I own has the same signature except for my mortgage documents. So weird.

What name was on the disclosures 

Our full name. Maybe that's why? Still seems stupid to me. Shouldn't a signature be universal? 

18 minutes ago, HRSchenker said:

Our full name. Maybe that's why? Still seems stupid to me. Shouldn't a signature be universal? 

Oh I agree with you, and it's definitely nitpicky but yeah that's why 

When I was buying my first house the title company called me about 30 minutes before closing saying I needed to bring $6500 with me to closing. I was floored, as the day before it was confirmed (for the 3rd time) that I was in the clear at closing.

Well shit, 22 year old me was in a frantic moment. I couldn’t just shit that out on top of the down payment of $12k I was already nutting.

So I’m scrambling like a chicken with its head cut off for about 5 minutes, freaking the fuck out and thinking this was going to fuck the deal up.

Then they called back, and profusely apologized, as they read it wrong. The seller owed $6500 for their closing costs, not me. I was actually getting a check for $4500, as I took the allowances at closing instead of applying them to the note.

Other times, I’ve had wonderful title companies. Bend over backwards to make things happen.

Guess once you find a good one, stick with them if you can. 

the whole closing industry is a shitshow.

I was a manager of an escrow company.  I didn't do escrows, I managed a fund control for construction lenders, but downstairs we had about 10 escrow officers doing closings and exchanges.  There was somebody crying at her desk every fucking day. 

@JohnnyM and our team dabbled in creating a title company. Maybe @Dbeasy too. But the only way we would do it would be to take the aforementioned above title lady and her team. I gotta think it's a relatively easy job outside of the actual lawyer behind it, but you're fighting for loans just like any other LO/realtor 

5 minutes ago, UTPhil2006 said:

@JohnnyM and our team dabbled in creating a title company. Maybe @Dbeasy too. But the only way we would do it would be to take the aforementioned above title lady and her team. I gotta think it's a relatively easy job outside of the actual lawyer behind it, but you're fighting for loans just like any other LO/realtor 

I'm your huckleberry. Seriously, I want to get into the title company game, and I have lawyers to throw at it. 

Lunch date soon? You're buying. 

1 hour ago, hornian said:

I'm your huckleberry. Seriously, I want to get into the title company game, and I have lawyers to throw at it. 

Lunch date soon? You're buying. 

Billy's on Burnet.  Mmmmmmmm

6 hours ago, UTPhil2006 said:

@JohnnyM and our team dabbled in creating a title company. Maybe @Dbeasy too. But the only way we would do it would be to take the aforementioned above title lady and her team. I gotta think it's a relatively easy job outside of the actual lawyer behind it, but you're fighting for loans just like any other LO/realtor 

 

Certainly would be interesting, and help the mortgage side out too 

Also, I’m sure you could make them an offer they wouldn’t be wise to refuse.

 

 

6 hours ago, hornian said:

I'm your huckleberry. Seriously, I want to get into the title company game, and I have lawyers to throw at it. 

Lunch date soon? You're buying. 

 

Or, um, some clients buying, right? 😂

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