Transactions and Title

We represent buyers and sellers of farms, ranches, timber land, homes and rural parcels. We do not list or market property. We work with the client’s real estate agent and the title company.

Once the parties have reached terms, we write or review the purchase and sale agreement and see the transaction through closing: the deed, the closing statement, and the promissory note and trust deed where the seller finances part of the price. We also prepare deeds and easements for transfers between family members and neighbors.

For a buyer, we review the preliminary title report and help with due diligence on water rights, access, zoning and whether a survey is needed. Where the report shows a problem, we work to clear it before closing: an unreleased mortgage, a misspelled name, a bad legal description, an estate that was never probated. Where documents cannot clear the title, we bring a quiet title action.

Services we provide

• Purchase and sale agreements
• Deeds and closing documents
• Seller financing: notes and trust deeds
• Title report review and title clearing
• Quiet title actions

Statutes and rules

• ORS 41.580, Statute of fraudsan agreement for the sale of land, or of any interest in it, is unenforceable unless it is in writing and signed by the party to be charged.
• ORS 93.010, Conveyance by deeda conveyance of land, or of an interest in it, is made by a deed in writing signed by the grantor.
• ORS 93.040, Mandatory statements in deeds and land sale contractsthe statements every deed and land sale agreement must carry: check the approved uses with the planning department, and the rights of neighboring farm and forest operations.
• ORS 93.640, Unrecorded instrument void against later purchaseran unrecorded conveyance is void against a later purchaser in good faith, for value, whose conveyance is recorded first.
• ORS chapter 86, Mortgages; Trust Deedsthe seller carried trust deed and how it is foreclosed if the buyer stops paying.