Single Point of Failure in Real Estate Explained

Jack Butala: Single Point of Failure in Real Estate Explained. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don't even have to read it. Thanks for listening.

Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit.

Jill DeWit: Hello.

Jack Butala: Welcome to our show. In this episode, Jill and I talk about a single point of failure in real estate explained, and why you never want this really in anything. Before we get to it Jill, let's take a question posted by one of our members on landacademy.com, our online community, it's free.

Jill DeWit: Okay. Jay asks, "So far, I've been having success with simply copying the property descriptions from previous deeds to new deeds. What do you do when the last deed was created in 1977, and the starting point references an intersection that no longer exists? One road is gone, a faded line in the trees, and the other road has a new name. I assume it is the same road." This is so funny. "The old deed also references three sub-division lot numbers, only one of which still exists."

Jack Butala: This is a question made for you. I think we're going to have the same answer on this.

Jill DeWit: First thing I would do is check with the county.

Jack Butala: Who in the county would you call?

Jill DeWit: Probably the planning guys, because they're the ones that keep track of the roads and everything like that. The assessor doesn't do that, and the recorder doesn't do that, and zoning is zoning. Zoning and planning are often in the same department.

Jack Butala: Yeah. I would call the recorder first.

Jill DeWit: The recorder?

Jack Butala: Yeah. Go ahead, keep answering.

Jill DeWit: This actually is good, because I don't know why you would ... the recorder just is the recording. I mean for them to point you in the right direction?

Jack Butala: No.

Jill DeWit: That's a good place to start.

Jack Butala: I have never got a deal ... here's my answer. Can I go ahead?

Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jack Butala: I have never done deal in my life where we changed the description from the grantor deed to the grantee deed. Never, in my life, ever, even if it was wrong. Wrong descriptions, incorrect descriptions, they get recorded through what's called a deed of correction or a corrective deed, depending on where you are in the country. That's how they get corrected. They don't get corrected through conveyance.

Jill DeWit: Correct. That was going to be my first point too, you shouldn't be touching it.

Jack Butala: Yes.

Jill DeWit: My first point is yeah, that was really my gut thing was, why do you know this much, number one, and you shouldn't be touching it.

Jack Butala: Yeah. Why do you know this much? That's my question too. Why are you looking into this deal so much that you know every little tiny thing about this. Here's the thing Jay, and anybody else, these are very, very good questions, by the way. This is a transaction I would close through real estate, through a title agent, or through an attorney if it's back east. There better be enough room in the deal for you to afford the $800, because this is a pretty critical issue. If the property gets conveyed to you, and it's not conveyed properly, and you go to sell it a year from now or 20 minutes from now like we do a lot in this group, and you can't get ahold of the seller anymore. Let's say they just went dark, or they passed away, or whatever, this is a huge problem. I would record this with title insurance.

Jill DeWit: Let me go back to the original thing too. If this was me, and it was coming to me, and I knew all this, who's to say that the guy conveying it to me is correct?

Jack Butala: That's right.

Jill DeWit: I almost, if it were me, before I buy it even, I want to make sure that the person I'm buying it from gets it all squared away before it gets to me.