Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Sale of property with living arrangement.

It's best that your friend have a lawyer in the area to handle it, because there will be questions of competency, coercion, etc. if your friend does it himself. Typically, the lawyer will speak to the seller privately, and ask questions to determine whether he understands what he's doing, whether he wants to do so. There may be other estate planning options. If the seller has a will or trust, they also would have to be examined. As to forms, it would either be a grant deed or a quitclaim deed. If the buyer is unrelated, then there would be a reassessment of the property for tax purposes.

Re: Sale of property with living arrangement.

Mr. Cohen is right; I would however like to add a couple of thoughts.

In older times, this would be done by deed more often than not. Nowadays, more frequently a trust would be used.

Speaking in terms of using a deed, the owner would probably be best served by selling a fee simple interest but reserving a life estate for himself. Another way would be to sell a 1/2 interest and become joint tenants. The property would then pass to the survivor upon the death of either.

The same results can nowadays be accomplished by creating and using a properly-worded trust, and with careful drafting the parties would have greater flexibility, greater assurance that their objectives would be attained despite attack from relatives, changes of mind by one of the parties, or other outside forces. Further, a properly-prepared trust should have probate-avoidance and tax-minimixing effects.

So, my advice is to see a California expert lawyer on living trusts.