Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

People don't get added to deeds. They get added to title with a deed. In other words, you would use a deed from yourself to you and your son. But I suggest you speak to an attorney first as transfers like these can have severe tax and other consequences.

You start with whatever form you fill out to talk to a psychologist, because adding a child to title to real property is 99.99% of the time a crazy bad thing to do. Talk to a local lawyer with estate planning knowledge before you do anything, or you are almost certain to regret it.

Maybe you don't need a third opinion ..... but here it is. I agree that adding children to the title (not to the deed; that can't be done) to your real estate is very unwise except in unusual cases, and generally is not a good idea either for estate-planning or for asset-protection purposes. It is a bad idea for estate-planning because of capital gains, gift and inheritance taxes that mightily favor use of your will or an estate-planning trust to transfer your real property to your heirs. If, on the other hand, your motive is to shelter the property from creditor claims, etc., there is the bite of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, under which the creditors can have a court un-do your transfer of an interest to a family member when they find out, which they usually will (see California Civil Code sections 3934 to 3934.12).

I should add that giving (or selling to) someone else an interest in your real property probably violates any loan agreements you have (such as the due-on-sale clause that's in most real property financing deals). It also makes selling, refinancing, etc. more cumbersome, and co-owners also have the right of co-possession, meaning you're taking on a roommate, at least potentially.