How to read a deed: legal descriptions, grants, and exceptions

A deed does three jobs: it names the parties, states what is being conveyed, and lists what is being held back. Buyers read the first two and skip the third — which is exactly where the problems live.

The granting clause

The granting clause says what kind of interest is passing. A warranty deed carries the seller's promises about the title; a quitclaim deed carries none and simply hands over whatever the seller happens to own, which may be a fraction of the parcel or nothing at all. A quitclaim from a motivated seller at a low price is not a bargain signal — it is a question.

The legal description

The description is the deed's actual subject. Metes and bounds descriptions trace the boundary by bearings and distances; lot-and-block descriptions point to a recorded plat; government survey descriptions use section, township, and range. Compare the description to the parcel map: the acreage in the listing is marketing, the description in the deed is the land.

Watch for descriptions that reference older deeds you have not seen — "being the same premises conveyed by deed recorded in Book 812, Page 44." Pull that deed too. The chain of title is only as strong as its least-read link.

Exceptions and reservations

This is the section that quietly keeps things: mineral rights reserved by a seller three deeds ago, an easement to the power company, a right of way for the neighbor, a life estate for a relative. Each one limits what you are actually buying, and each one survives the sale.

• "Reserving" means the grantor keeps something — minerals, timber, access, an easement.
• "Subject to" means you take the land bound by something already recorded — a road, an easement, a restriction.
• "Excepting" carves a piece out of the description entirely.
• Anything unclear should be decoded by the title company or an attorney before closing, not after.

The deed is the only document in the deal that actually transfers land. Every other page is a promise about it.