Guide · June 27, 2024 · 3 min read
Deed issues do not have to stop a Salt Lake City sale.
Most deed problems surface at the worst moment, when a sale is already underway. They are fixable. The question is who does the fixing, and who waits while it happens.
A deed issue is anything on the public record that prevents clean transfer of a property from one owner to the next. Most owners find out they have one the same way: a title search during a sale turns it up, and a transaction that looked simple stops moving. The problem is almost always fixable. What differs between a traditional sale and a cash sale is who carries the fixing, and whether the buyer is still there when it is done.
The deed problems we see most in Salt Lake City
Errors in the public record. Misspelled names, a missing signature, a wrong legal description, a notarization defect on a decades-old transfer. Older properties that have not changed hands in a long time are the usual carriers, because more of their chain was recorded by hand. These are cured with corrective deeds and affidavits, which is paperwork, not drama, but it is paperwork that takes weeks.
Tax liens and other liens. Unpaid property taxes, an old contractor judgment, an IRS lien from a previous chapter of the owner's life. A lien does not prevent a sale; it attaches to the proceeds. It gets paid off at closing out of the purchase price, and the title company handles the payoff letters. What a lien does do is scare off retail buyers, who read "lien" as "lawsuit".
Transfers that were never valid. A deed signed by someone without authority, a transfer inside a family that skipped probate, a quitclaim from an owner who had already died. These need the underlying ownership resolved, sometimes through a probate case. If that is your situation, the inherited home and probate page covers it in detail.
Boundary and description disputes. The fence has been in the wrong place for thirty years, or the deed describes a parcel that does not match the survey. Cured with surveys, lot-line agreements, or occasionally a quiet-title action.
What a traditional sale does with these
A listed sale needs a buyer, a lender, and an underwriter to all stay comfortable for sixty days, and deed problems make all three uncomfortable. The usual sequence: the buyer's title commitment flags the issue, the lender refuses to fund until it is cured, and the buyer either walks or demands a price cut for the delay. You end up doing the curative work anyway, on your own, while the house sits listed and the carrying costs run.
What we do with them instead
Here is the honest version, because the folklore version overpromises. Nobody, including us, can hand you money for a house whose title will not transfer. Every closing in Utah runs through a title company, and the title company clears the record before anyone is paid. What a cash buyer changes is everything around that fact.
We have bought houses with recording errors, liens, open probate questions, and boundary tangles, so the title company's list of requirements does not scare us off or reprice the deal. There is no lender in our closings, so there is no underwriter with veto power. Liens are paid from proceeds at closing, the way they always are, and what is left comes to you. And the waiting happens on our side of the table: the offer is made on the house as it stands, the price does not change while the curative work runs, and you are not paying for showings and staging in the meantime.
The result is not magic. It is a sale where the deed problem becomes a checklist item instead of a deal-breaker.
If the title mess comes with a bigger mess
Deed problems rarely travel alone. The same houses tend to come with deferred repairs, a tenant, or an estate still being settled, and none of that changes the process: we buy houses in any condition, and one walkthrough prices everything at once.
If a title problem is sitting between you and a sale, request a cash offer and tell us what the title search found. A real answer about whether and how it can close costs you one phone call.
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Where the house is, your name, and a number we can reach you on. We call back within one business day, and you're free to say no.