California property deed transfer services.

A Document Assistant (LDA) is a California-registered, bonded paraprofessional authorized to prepare documents at your specific direction. An LDA cannot give legal advice or represent you in court — only a licensed attorney can. But an LDA can prepare every form, petition, deed, and filing you need at a published fee, typically a fraction of attorney rates.

TruPoint Legal is LDA #268, registered and bonded in Santa Clara County. We’re an excellent fit when you know what you want to file and you need it prepared accurately and affordably.

TruPoint Legal’s complete living trust package is $950 for an individual or $1,500 for joint (married couples). That includes seven documents: the revocable living trust, pour-over will, financial power of attorney, advance health care directive, HIPAA authorization, certification of trust, and declaration of trust. The deed that funds your home into the trust is a separate $325 per property.

Most San Jose attorneys charge $3,000–$8,000 for the same package. Because we’re an LDA preparing documents at your direction (not providing legal advice), we can offer pricing without compromising quality. See our San Jose living trust service.

Yes. California law specifically authorizes Registered Legal Document Assistants to prepare deeds at your direction. TruPoint Legal prepares grant deeds, quitclaim deeds, interspousal transfer deeds, and trust transfer deeds — and electronically records them across all 58 California counties.

Property deed preparation starts at $325 plus the county recording fee. In-office consultations or fully remote — your choice. See our California deed preparation services.

Yes — if the non-attorney is a Registered Legal Document Assistant (LDA) who has filed with their county and posted a $25,000 bond. California’s Legal Document Assistant law was enacted specifically to make legal-paperwork preparation more accessible and affordable.

You can verify any LDA on the relevant county Clerk-Recorder website. TruPoint Legal is LDA #268, Santa Clara County — verify here ↗.

Yes. Quinnie Do works with clients in English, Vietnamese, and Cantonese, and TruPoint Legal has Spanish-speaking support through our office partner. Every document can be explained in your language — from initial intake through signing — without a translator hand-off.

We have dedicated Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt), Cantonese (粵語), and Spanish (Español) pages.

Yes — that is most of what we do. Adding or removing a spouse, funding a living trust, moving a home into an LLC, or gifting to family are all transfers that don’t involve a sale. We prepare the deed and e-record it the same day in any of California’s 58 counties. We do not handle purchase, sale, or refinance recordings — those go through your escrow or title company.

Often the same day you sign. We prepare your deed, arrange notarization, and submit it electronically to the county recorder, so a non-sale transfer can be on record within hours — in all 58 California counties, without anyone visiting the recorder’s office.

Published fees, quoted before you commit to anything. Most deeds are $325, entity deeds $400, certification of trust $200, small estate affidavit $600, affidavit of death $325, title reports from $30, living trust packages $950 individual or $1,500 joint, and name change $500. County recording and court filing fees are separate and paid at cost.

Because most of them only prepare deeds as part of a sale they are already handling. If there is no sale — you are adding a spouse, gifting to a child, funding a trust, moving a rental into an LLC, or clearing a deceased owner — there is no escrow file to attach it to, so they decline. That is the gap we exist to fill, and it is why most people arrive here having already been turned away somewhere else.

With the last recorded deed, because how title was held decides which document you need. Joint tenants means an affidavit of death of joint tenant. Community property with right of survivorship means an affidavit of death of surviving spouse. Property held in a trust means an affidavit of death of trustee. If the deceased owned in their own name alone, a probate route applies — and where the qualifying personal property is $208,850 or less, a small estate affidavit may avoid court entirely. Once you select the document you want prepared, we confirm the fee before any work begins.

Yes, and it is one of the more common reasons people call. Rejections come from a short list: the legal description was copied from the tax bill instead of the recorded deed, the notary acknowledgment was incomplete or on the wrong form, the documentary transfer tax declaration or exemption statement was missing, the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report was not attached, or the margins failed the recorder’s format rules. Send us the rejection notice with what you submitted and we prepare a compliant version and re-submit it.

It depends who is receiving it. Spousal transfers are excluded. Moving your own home into your own revocable trust is not a change in ownership. A parent-to-child transfer may qualify under Proposition 19, but only for a family home the child makes their principal residence, with a claim filed and a value cap applied — rentals and second homes are reassessed at market value. We are not tax advisors: we claim the exemption you direct on the face of the deed, and the County Assessor decides.

Yes, at the same fee. What matters is where the property is, not where you are. We prepare the document and email it with signing instructions. From another state you sign before any notary public licensed where you live and send the scan back. From outside the country the acknowledgment is normally taken at a U.S. embassy or consulate, and California also accepts a notary of that country, though some counties want the signature authenticated first. Recording happens here, so you never travel to California.

You can, and for a simple transfer it sometimes works. The failures we get called about are consistent: the template was written for another state, the exemption recital was left blank so a property tax exclusion is lost, the legal description was copied off the tax bill, or the vesting did not match what the family intended. A rejected deed costs you a week. A deed that records with a failed exemption is worse, because the reassessment notice arrives months later and by then it is on the public record.

All 58 California counties. Our office is at 434 Blossom Hill Rd in San Jose, and we prepare and e-record statewide — Bay Area, Central Valley, Central Coast, and Southern California alike. Because intake, review, and signing all happen remotely, where you live rarely changes anything except how you get to a notary.

For anything involving real property: the current recorded deed, or the property address and APN so we can pull it; the exact legal names of everyone giving and receiving; and whether the transfer is a gift, a sale, a divorce transfer, or a move into a trust or entity, because that determines the exemption you direct us to claim. You select the document; our deed-type pages explain each one, and for advice on which fits your situation, please consult an attorney. Intake takes about ten minutes.