It’s done!

We have the keys!

WOO HOO!

We had the representative of the estate of the property owner come and sign the deed over to us, and we handed over the check. If you have never bought a house, this whole process took approximately 30 minutes, 25 of which was spent introducing ourselves and talking about other stuff like the neighborhood. Two signatures (one from the estate rep and one from our notary friend), and we were off to Mason!

A picture of the house! …the courthouse.

Anytime you change a property owner, the deed must be registered at the county where the property is situated. In our case, the house is in Ingham County, so we took an immediate trip down to Mason. Here, we paid the remainder of the due taxes, as well as a registration fee to record the deed, and left a copy of the the other necessary papers to prove that the seller had the legal right to sell the house. We should get all of those papers back in the mail sometime next week. In that time, the Register of Deeds will do some research on the property to make sure everything is clear and there are no other claimants to the land, and add the deed to the appropriate liber (liber (book) and page number are how you would reference a registered deed in the future.)

Since this is an unusual sale for us, purchasing through a trust, we sprung for title insurance also. This is a legal support just in case there are any issues with leins or unclear title progression. It’s relatively inexpensive, and the company would provide assistance on our behalf in case our title needs to go to court.

By the time we got home, it was starting to get dark, and since there is no power at the hoard, we weren’t able to get inside to take stock or give you guys any pictures, but we did ID some trees that will need to go. I think that upping the curb appeal should be our first step, since the place is so overgrown, and neighbors (us) would really appreciate that…