Hi, I am selling a piece of property (land) in AZ. We’ve agreed on a price, and he has sent me a copy of warranty deed that I need to sign in front of a Notary. I then scan this and send it back to him with our deed sent via snail mail.
My question. How am I assured that I will receive his cashier’s check? Should there be a Title company involved here? What recourse would I have if he didn’t send a check?
Thanks in advance for your answer/answers.
Russ
@russell-bronson did you get title insurance (or have any title company do a title search on the property at any point to verify that the title was clear)? I only use a Warranty Deed when I’m 100% confident there is a clear title (i.e., when I have title insurance).
When I’m not sure about this, I’ll use a Special Warranty Deed instead, or even a Quit Claim Deed in some cases, which doesn’t put much liability on me.
But… to answer your question, if you’re not using a title company, you could use something like SafeFunds for this.
This video explains how it works: https://youtu.be/gWSt6ZAdO9E?si=iADHADfhvZCbl2wV
Otherwise, you could try to do it on your own and trust that the other party will follow through, but as you’re probably realizing, there aren’t any real safeguards unless you wait to get the cashier’s check BEFORE you record the deed (and in that case, the buyer would have to shoulder the risk that you won’t follow through).
Another option is to meet the other party in person to do the exchange, but for a few potential reasons, this has its own set of obstacles and drawbacks.