Quit claim deed and refinancing

[Zayna Callier]

My grandmother is planning on signing a quit claim deed to grant me ownership in our family home since she is getting older. There is still a small mortgage on the house which I have been paying for the last few years. My question is how long do I have to wait to refinance the house to put it only in my name and take her off the mortgage? My second question is once that happens am I able to to get cash out to do renovations? Any advice is much appreciated! Thank you.

[Dan Roush]

I was recently divorced and my ex-wife signed QCD's for two properties, 1 rental property in NC and the other was our primary residence in TN. I was able to get a HELOC on the primary residence in my name only without refinancing the property and refinance the rental property in NC. I think as long as the QCD has been recorded and is in the books you should be able to refinance whenever you are ready.

[Zayna Callier]

Thank you Dan!

[Veronica Frieling]

You could typically record the quitclaim deed at the time of the refinance. If you record the quitclaim prior to a refinance, the quitclaim will be "uninsured" meaning- it was recorded without having title insurance and will show up on title as an uninsured deed. When you go through the refinancing process, your grandmother will need to execute an Affidavit of Uninsured Deed that declares that quitclaim was true and correct. That document will then need to be notarized.

I'd just refi and execute the deed at the same time so you don't need to do double the work.

[Tom Gimer]

@Veronica Frieling That's a California policy. Requiring someone to declare what has already been declared is a bit odd.

In most other places this issue is addressed by doing a title search and determining what interest grandma had when she transferred the property. 

Zayna, check with your lender regarding timing requirements. Typically this is a non-issue if title is good.

[Veronica Frieling]

@Tom Gimer oh- well that's good to know. They do that to protect fraudulent transfers.