Adventures in land ownership

[shikamaru]

The Warranty Deed does not appear to - the Warranty Deed does exactly that. And In FACT, the GENERAL WARRANTY DEED is for all time past and present.

If you are gonna play with DEEDS - you need to make yourself familiar with - a BARGAIN AND SALE DEED.

Look it up for yourself - you will be glad you did!

I am most partial to quitclaim deeds myself .

[Treefarmer]

Precisely, shikamaru. Tree Farmer was correct in his evaluation of this deal: he got attorned (i.e. screwed)!

In fact the whole Section 9 (b) i, ii, and iii is a dead giveaway that this contract maintains the statutory status of the contract. Title insurance is only recommended in such contracts in lieu of an abstract of title. Whenever you agree to such a contractual stipulation, you operate within the statutory realm.

Also, the fact that a Warranty Deed was issued is also a dead giveaway as this is only evidence of "title under color of law," but not yet title in fact. If you can trace the land back to a land patent, you're in much better shape with regard to being able to claim an "allodial" nature of ownership. Better yet would have been to obtain a Grant Deed from the seller, forego the involvement of the attorney, and not record that instrument with any statutory authority (i.e. the county or the state) but only "notice" them (i.e. the county assessor) of the change in ownership as recordation is now seen as "registration" of property with the statutory authority. When you record a deed these days you've just entered into a contract with the county and the state, which operates as a "kind of" parens patriae in commerce to maintain the commercial viability of the property within their "legal" system of governance. You are, however, under no obligation to avail yourself of the state's services in matters such as this, is my understanding of the matter.

There are ways to correct this. When I have more free time (months away at this point, as I am buried in work that takes priority over any project that would entail a detailed explanation of law in matters such as this) I will return with my findings based on my practical experience and open a thread to explain what I have learned and accomplished and how others can go about following suit. I have recently taken the property I own out of the statutory realm and provided notice of such to the appropriate county officials.

This is not that difficult to understand or to accomplish once you have access to a reading of the law that you can rely upon as an ultimate authority. I've spent the better part of the last two years studying this and have all the legal citations (or at least a great many of them) to back it up.

How about giving us some leads in the meantime?
I like to read up on things myself.
Thank you.

[Treefarmer]

Continuing:
After I got the Real Estate Purchase Agreement document from the lawyer, I met with the seller of the property, or land, at his kitchen table and I gave him a cashiers' check for $30,000 and $5,000 in cash.
He signed the paperwork and we shook hands and that sealed the deal.

Then I took that signed Purchase Agreement to the lawyer to "draw up the paper work".
He also recommended that I "purchase" title insurance, which he also sold, and I agreed to that too.

Then the lawyer asked me about the purchase price and I, feeling put on the spot and confused about it, said $25,000. Since I didn't know what I was doing, that seemed like a good compromise at the time.
Something didn't sit right with me about that though, because the purchase agreement didn't name the price, and I felt like that was none of the lawyer's business.
He tricked me into disclosing a sum though by having a blank space on the deed for the purchase price, so I thought it had to be provided.
In hindsight, I did not have to disclose that private deal at all!
I have since noticed that most recorded deeds say nothing about how much the land was sold for.
Attorned again!

A few days later I went by the lawyer's office and picked up the completed WARRANTY DEED and paid him for it.
The document was stapled to a blue piece of heavy paper, the exact same color which Motla68 showed on his picture of his private agreement, which he called Robin egg blue. Not sure I've ever seen a robin egg, and I noticed that Motla68 may be banned now, but it makes me wonder about the symbolism of it. Does anyone know about this?
The lawyer said I needed to record the Warranty Deed at the County Court House.
When I went there, I was surprised that I had to pay a hefty "transfer tax" which was a percentage of the purchase price.
I knew I was getting screwed, only I didn't know what to do about it.

I felt like I didn't have a choice and paid up.

I've attached the sanitized Warranty Deed.

[Treefarmer]

Continuing:
I acquired another adjacent 5 acres some years down the road from my mother, who gave it to me as a wedding present.
She had originally bought it to build a cabin on it, so she could visit me and spend time in the woods.
Then she realized she liked neither the climate, nor the chiggers (red bugs), nor the native Tennessean culture, and especially not my new husband, so voilà - the perfect wedding gift.
I am very grateful and appreciative of this of course and I do count my blessings, realizing my unworthiness

This tract of land had been bought for $15,000, paid in cashier's check in a private deal with the neighbors, who also live next door.
The Warranty Deed shows as purchase price the $ amount of an old assessment value though.
Interesting how that works.
Again, it seems like it was unnecessary to put any price on there, because none of the previous owners' deeds showed purchase prices. These are private land deals after all.
Attorned again, this time by a new lawyer, who took over that only law office, after the previous lawyer I had dealt with was promoted to county court judge.
I noticed that the new lawyer did not utilize the blue paper wrappers, which the previous lawyer had been in the habit of stapling to the deed documents.

I did not purchase title insurance on this one.
My mother had purchased the title insurance, and I was getting tired of being attorned, so I let it go. I figured the title was probably good.
I had to pay a transfer tax at the court house again when I registered my deed.

Attached is the Warranty Deed for the 5 acres.

[shikamaru]

Land patents issued by the government of the United States are in the form of a quitclaim deed.

The land was held in trust for the States by the United States. Various states ceded their land claims to the United States upon joining the Union.

[Michael Joseph]

Land patents issued by the government of the United States are in the form of a quitclaim deed.

The land was held in trust for the States by the United States. Various states ceded their land claims to the United States upon joining the Union.

It sounds to me that you have done quite a bit of extensive research in the State archives or in the Land Records Office. So have I. Who granted the land to the States? You cannot get around the King's Grant. The King sent His Citizens, His subjects to settle these new proprietory settlements - commercial ventures. Think me wrong? Let us explore just one such settlement. The Carolinas.

Sir Walter Raleigh, being the Surveyor - so that the Claim could be made....

north carolina land patent.pdf

[Treefarmer]

The Quit Claim Deed is the next thing I want to look at in this thread.
Attached is the Quit Claim Deed for the mineral rights to my land, which were conveyed to me separately.
The mineral rights (mining rights as I understand it) to the entire area of Tennessee that I'm in had been held by a holding company which held the assets of a bankrupt mining company.
They were released some years later to a land speculator via Quit Claim Deed (he owned about a thousand acres here) after it was determined that there was nothing to mine here.
My land has never been mined, but there's an old mine about 8 miles away.
More on that history later.

Years ago I met the old land speculator in person and got to ask him some questions about the land.
He passed on the Quit Claimed mineral rights pertaining to my parcel to me shortly before he died.

The so-called "hydrocarbon estate", i.e. any oil, coal or natural gas that may exist beneath the surface of the land I'm on, was never released by the mining companies which used to own all the land here.
It is still being bought and sold separately from the surface land by oil companies, if it indeed exists.
I'll show an example of that later.

I'm trying out a larger file size for the attachments in the hopes it will be legible.

[shikamaru]

It sounds to me that you have done quite a bit of extensive research in the State archives or in the Land Records Office. So have I. Who granted the land to the States? You cannot get around the King's Grant. The King sent His Citizens, His subjects to settle these new proprietory settlements - commercial ventures. Think me wrong? Let us explore just one such settlement. The Carolinas.

Sir Walter Raleigh, being the Surveyor - so that the Claim could be made....

north carolina land patent.pdf

I don't doubt your words nor do I contest your questions and points . The information I typed that you highlighted above is courtesy of David Wilbur Johnson.

Only the 13 colonies would be "King granted land". States created after the 13 colonies were created as territories initially.

[Michael Joseph]

I don't doubt your words nor do I contest your questions and points . The information I typed that you highlighted above is courtesy of David Wilbur Johnson.

Only the 13 colonies would be "King granted land". States created after the 13 colonies were created as territories initially.

I will accept that. Virginia was on heck of a large State....so was Carolina. Much, Much larger than the boundaries of today. That is why when one went out west one had to "stake a claim". First Survey, then Claim, then Possession, which established Rights of Use.

It is all just trust law based on Real Property Rights.

[shikamaru]

I will accept that. Virginia was on heck of a large State....so was Carolina. Much, Much larger than the boundaries of today.

Yes . Virginia was HUGE.

That is why when one went out west one had to "stake a claim". First Survey, then Claim, then Possession, which established Rights of Use.

It is all just trust law based on Real Property Rights.

This is similar to what William the Conqueror did with his Doomsday Book. The survey of the land was for purposes of taxation.

Survey is similar in sense to assessment.