Why This is Really That Easy

Jack Butala: Why This is Really That Easy. 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.

Jill DeWit: Jill DeWit with Jack Butala here.

Jack Butala: Hello today.

Jill DeWit: Welcome to our show. In this episode Jack and I talk about why this really can be this easy. Awesome show today. Super excited. First let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landacademy.com free online community.

Jack Butala: Awesome. Josh asked, "The owners, husband and wife are alive but not well. They're alive but not well and they're not able to meet with the notary to sign. The son-in-law is handling their estate and has power of attorney over their assets and says that he can sign off on their property for them. He has all the needed documents and I am unsure how to word the new deed to buy for [inaudible 00:00:50]. Do I put it in the property's name on a deed or does a POA simply sign for them, the son, or do I put a spot with the son-in-laws name as the power of attorney?" That's the gist of it. What do you think Jill?

Jill DeWit: Well first of all, the grantor and grantee and all that good stuff, that doesn't change. Whatever the grantee was, if it's mom and dad's names, however it was, you still word it the exact same way. Then you're on the right track Josh. When you get to the end and you're getting ready to sign, you're going to have the son who has power of attorney sign, but you're going to say, as power of attorney for X, Y, Z document. It's got to be worded just right.

My little tip, what I do in this situation, there's power of attorney and there's legal stuff going on, there's probably an attorney involved. This attorney has already been advising the son how to sign for things like these. That's what I would ... First ask him, "How does your attorney have it worded on everything else that you've signed up until this point?" I would copy that. Jack?

Jack Butala: Yeah, there's two types of power of attorneys in general. I don't want to make this a legal show at all. There's a specific power of attorney which you issue to do one specific thing like sign over property. Then there's a universal power of attorney, and they're named to different types of things where they just handle the whole estate. Chances are, if mom and dad are incapacitated, this is a universal power of attorney. That makes it a lot easier. In some cases, you may or may not need to see that document. In some rare cases, the county may or may not need to see that document, and it might need to be recorded. Jill's advise is perfect. The attorney that's involved already on the estate, will tell you exactly what to do.

Jill DeWit: Exactly. Basically too, when you have a power of attorney, you're never forging that person's name. That doesn't mean that gives you that authority to do that. You're still signing your own name. The son is going to sign his name as the power of attorney and then however it's worded. Jack brought up a really good point. Another great way to check is to check with the county and say, "All right. I got it all filled out correctly. Do you need me to record the substantiating evidence of the document to support this, along with the deed?" They'll tell you yes or no. That's a good thing.

Jack Butala: That's a good question. This question is based on the fact that this person is doing this deal. They're actually doing deals. Our members are doing deals. This is not a what happens if this happens. This is a real situation, and Josh, I don't know the last name, we have multiple Josh's, I think right, is going to get it done.

Jill DeWit: You know what else is nice? This is a clear example of Josh solving a problem for these people. This kid who's obviously taken over the property for his parents was probably scratching his head going, "How am I going to sell this property?