Nevada's Quick Deed Transfer Process: How a "Quick Claim Deed" Really Works

If you typed "quick claim deed" into a search bar, you found the right document with the wrong name. It is a quitclaim deed — the grantor quits their claim to the property. The misspelling has stuck for decades, and it makes a certain sense, because speed is exactly why people reach for this deed. It is the fastest, cheapest way to move Nevada real estate from one name to another.

Nevada makes the signing part easy. Where Florida and a handful of other states still demand two witnesses at the table, Nevada asks only for the grantor's notarized signature. But Nevada makes the filing part harder than most states, and that is where do-it-yourself transfers fall apart: every deed must arrive at the recorder with a completed Declaration of Value, and the recorder audits it before the deed goes on record. Here is how the process actually works.

What a Nevada quitclaim deed actually transfers

Nevada's own administrative code describes a quitclaim deed as a conveyance operating by way of release — it passes whatever title, interest, or claim the grantor may have, without professing that the title is valid and without any warranties or covenants.

That is the whole design. A grant, bargain, and sale deed — Nevada's usual deed of choice in a real sale — carries implied covenants that the grantor has not already conveyed the property to someone else and has not encumbered it. A quitclaim deed carries nothing. If the grantor owns the property outright, full ownership passes. If the grantor owns a half interest, a half interest passes. If it turns out the grantor owned nothing, the grantee gets nothing and has no recourse.

Liens, deeds of trust, judgments, and HOA assessments all survive the transfer untouched. They attach to the land, not to the name on the deed.

That sounds reckless until you look at who actually uses these deeds. Quitclaim deeds appear overwhelmingly in transfers between people who already know the title history cold: a parent and a child, two spouses, a person and their own LLC, co-owners rebalancing shares. No stranger is involved, so no warranty is needed.

When Nevadans use one

• Adding a spouse to title after marriage, or converting to community property with right of survivorship

• Removing an ex-spouse after a divorce, per the decree

• Transferring to an adult child or between siblings

• Funding a revocable living trust — the single most common use in Clark and Washoe Counties

• Transferring into or out of an LLC for a rental or short-term rental property

• Removing a joint tenant or co-owner without consideration

• Correcting the record — a misspelled name, a wrong vesting, a scrivener's error in a prior deed

What a quitclaim deed is not good for: an arm's-length sale to a buyer you don't know. Those call for a grant, bargain, and sale deed, a title search, and title insurance.

Want to prepare it yourself?

Our editable deed form templates give you properly formatted documents you can fill in on your own computer — correct margins, the recorder's blank space, the APN block, a mailing-address-for-tax-statements line, and a compliant notary acknowledgment. Fill it in, print it, sign it, record it.

Editable Deed Form Templates — $9.99

Get the Editable Templates →

The Declaration of Value: the form that stops most DIY filings

This is the Nevada-specific step that catches nearly everyone, and it is not optional.

Under NRS 375.060, every deed presented for recording must be accompanied by a Declaration of Value on a form prescribed by the Nevada Tax Commission. There is no statute that lets a recorder take a deed without one. The form is signed under penalty of perjury by the grantor, the grantee, or an agent, and it must state the names and mailing addresses of both parties, a description of how the property is used, and the full amount paid or to be paid.

If you are claiming an exemption from transfer tax — and most family transfers do qualify for one — you claim it on this form, by number, with a written explanation of the relationship or circumstance. Recording the deed does not claim the exemption for you.

The recorder audits this. The Clark County Recorder's office reviews documents subject to transfer tax at the time they are presented, and supporting documentation for the declared value or the claimed exemption has to be in hand at that moment. Showing up to claim a trust exemption without the certificate of trust means you are going home and coming back. There is no charge for recording the Declaration of Value itself, but there is a very real cost to getting it wrong.

Nevada's execution requirements, step by step

1. Get the legal description right

A street address is not a legal description. You need the lot, block, and subdivision with plat book and page, or the metes-and-bounds description, exactly as it reads on the current recorded deed. Pull it from the prior deed or the county assessor's records, copy it character for character, and proofread it twice. A transposed lot number is the most expensive mistake in this entire process — fixing it takes a corrective deed at best, and a quiet title action at worst.

2. Put the assessor's parcel number where the recorder expects it

Clark County requires the 11-digit parcel number at the top left corner of the first page. Other counties have their own placement rules. This is a formatting rejection, not a legal defect, but it costs you the same trip either way.

3. Include everything NRS 111.312 requires

• Name and address of the person or business requesting the recording

• Mailing address for the grantee, where the recorded document is returned

• The name and address of the person to whom the property tax statement should be mailed — a specific Nevada requirement that generic online forms routinely omit

• Full legal description and the assessor's parcel number

• Consideration stated, even if nominal

• A blank margin at the top of the first page for the recorder's stamp

4. Sign in front of a notary — no witnesses needed

Nevada requires the grantor's signature, acknowledged before a notary public. That is it. There is no two-witness requirement of the kind Florida imposes, which is one reason Nevada transfers move faster than transfers in the Southeast. The grantee does not sign the deed.

If the grantor is out of state or out of the country, a notarial act performed under another state's law is generally acceptable, and Nevada's remote online notarization rules allow the whole thing to happen over an audio-video link.

5. If it is community property, both spouses sign

Nevada is a community property state, and neither spouse can convey or encumber community real property alone. If the home was acquired during the marriage, both spouses join in the deed — even if only one name appears on the current title. A deed signed by one spouse alone invites a challenge later, and title companies will flag it.

Real Property Transfer Tax: what it costs and how to avoid it

Nevada imposes a Real Property Transfer Tax on the recording of a deed, collected by the county recorder. The base rate under NRS 375.020 is $1.95 per $500 of value or any fraction of $500, and counties add to it:

County

Combined RPTT rate

Clark (Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas)

$2.55 per $500

Washoe (Reno, Sparks) and Churchill

$2.05 per $500

All other Nevada counties

$1.95 per $500

Two things surprise people. First, the tax is calculated on value, not on money changing hands — if no cash is exchanged, the recorder generally looks to a sale within the last five years, or to the property's taxable value from the assessor. Second, grantor and grantee are jointly and severally liable for the tax, so the recorder does not care which of you is supposed to pay it.

Worked example: a Las Vegas home with a taxable value of $400,000 deeded from a parent to a child, with no exemption claimed, is 800 units of $500 x $2.55 = $2,040 in transfer tax. Claim the correct exemption and it is $0.

The exemptions that matter for family transfers

NRS 375.090 lists fourteen exemptions. These are the ones that come up over and over in ordinary transfers:

Situation

Parent to child, or spouse to spouse

State the relationship explicitly on the Declaration of Value — "mother to son," "parents to daughter and son-in-law." "Family transfer" is not enough.

Transfer between spouses under a divorce

Reference the decree; be prepared to produce it.

Removing a joint tenant or co-owner without consideration

The deed must reflect that nothing was paid.

Transfer to or from your own trust without consideration

A copy of the trust or a certificate of trust must be presented at the time of recording, showing the trust name, date, and all currently acting trustees' signatures.

Deed upon death (transfer on death)

Recorded under Nevada's deed upon death statutes; not taxable when recorded.

Correcting title or recognizing true status

A complete written explanation on the Declaration of Value — a quitclaim to fix a flaw in title is not a taxable transfer.

Change of entity form with identical common ownership

Documentation of the ownership match.

Grandparent to grandchild is not the same as parent to child. The family exemption is read narrowly, and stretching it is what triggers an audit letter after the fact. If your relationship is not squarely inside the language, ask the recorder's transfer tax auditor before you file rather than after.

Recording: where it goes and what it costs

The deed is recorded with the County Recorder in the county where the property sits — not the county where you live.

Nevada recording fees work differently from most states. Rather than charging per page, Clark County charges a flat $42 per document — a $25 base recording fee plus statutory add-ons for legal aid, foster care support, court investigators, and technology. Other Nevada counties are at or near the same figure. E-recording typically adds a small vendor fee. There is no separate charge for the Declaration of Value.

So a routine exempt family transfer in Las Vegas costs about $42 in government fees, total. A non-exempt one on a $400,000 home costs about $2,082. That gap is the entire reason to get the Declaration of Value right the first time.

Recording is what puts the world on notice of the transfer. An unrecorded deed can still be valid between the two parties, but the public record will still show the old owner — which creates problems at refinance, at sale, and at death.

Rather have it done for you?

We are legal document preparers. We pull the legal description and parcel number from the county records, prepare a recorder-compliant quitclaim deed, complete the Declaration of Value with the correct exemption claim, and deliver the package ready to sign — typically within 24 to 48 hours.

Quitclaim Deed Preparation — flat fee $225
Includes deed preparation and Declaration of Value. County recording fees and any transfer tax are paid separately to the recorder. Mobile notary and remote online notarization available.

Five things a quitclaim deed will not do

It does not remove anyone from the loan

The deed changes who owns the property. The promissory note is a separate contract with the lender. An ex-spouse who signs away the house on a quitclaim deed is still fully liable on the loan until it is refinanced or paid off, and the deed of trust stays recorded against the property regardless of who owns it.

It does not get around the due-on-sale clause

Most deeds of trust let the lender call the loan on transfer. Federal law (the Garn–St. Germain Act) protects several common family moves — to a spouse, to a child, into a revocable trust where the borrower remains a beneficiary — but not all of them. Moving a mortgaged rental into an LLC is the classic way to trip this.

It does not carry your property tax cap along with it

Nevada caps annual property tax increases through a partial abatement, with the lowest cap reserved for owner-occupied primary residences. That abatement is tied to the property's status and the owner's claim, not to the parcel forever. When ownership changes, the new owner may need to file a claim to establish the residential cap — and the Declaration of Value has a section for exactly that. Skipping it can mean a materially higher tax bill for the person you were trying to help. Check with the county assessor before you record, not after.

It does not avoid probate the way people think

A plain quitclaim deed to a child during your lifetime gives up your control immediately, exposes the property to your child's creditors and divorce, and hands them your original cost basis instead of a stepped-up basis at death. If the real goal is keeping the property out of probate while you stay in full control, Nevada gives you a purpose-built tool: the deed upon death, Nevada's transfer-on-death deed. You record it now, you keep every right you have today, you can revoke it any time, and it only takes effect when you die.

It does not clean up title

A judgment lien, an unreleased old deed of trust, a mechanic's lien, or delinquent HOA assessments all pass straight through to the new owner.

Five mistakes that force a second trip to the recorder

1. Filing without a Declaration of Value, or filing one with the exemption box checked and no explanation.

2. Retyping the legal description instead of copying it from the recorded deed.

3. Omitting the tax-statement mailing address required by NRS 111.312 — the field most out-of-state forms don't have.

4. Claiming the trust exemption without bringing the certificate of trust to the counter.

5. Putting the parcel number in the wrong place, or leaving no clear margin for the recorder's stamp.

Frequently asked questions

Is it a "quick claim deed" or a "quitclaim deed"?

Quitclaim. The grantor quits their claim. "Quick claim" is a widespread mishearing, not a separate document — if a website offers you a "quick claim deed," they are selling you a quitclaim deed.

Does Nevada require witnesses on a deed?

No. The grantor's signature must be acknowledged before a notary public, but no subscribing witnesses are required.

Does the grantee have to sign?

No. The grantee's name and mailing address appear in the deed, but only the grantor signs. Note that the Declaration of Value may be signed by either party or by an authorized agent.

How fast can this be done?

Preparation takes a day or two. Signing takes fifteen minutes. Recording is same-day to a few business days depending on the county, with e-recording generally the fastest.

Can I do this if I live out of state?

Yes. Nevada real property transfers under Nevada rules regardless of where the grantor is standing, and a notarization performed in your home state is generally acceptable. Remote online notarization is also available.

Do I need a lawyer?

Not for a straightforward transfer between people who know each other and agree on the terms. You should talk to a Nevada real estate or estate planning attorney if there is a contested interest, an active foreclosure or bankruptcy, an unclear chain of title, a Medicaid planning question, or a transfer that is really one piece of a larger estate plan.

Two ways to get your deed done

 Cost

$9.99 template

$225 flat fee

Turnaround

Your own pace

24–48 hours

You handle

Legal description, parcel number, all data entry, Declaration of Value, exemption claim, recording

Signing and recording

Best for

Simple transfers where no exemption is being claimed and you're comfortable reading the record

Trust funding, parent-to-child transfers, divorce transfers, LLC transfers, anything where a wrong exemption claim costs four figures

Get the $9.99 Editable Deed Templates    Call (321) 283-6452 for $225 Preparation

Noble Notary & Legal Document Preparers is not a law firm and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. We are a nonlawyer document preparation and mobile notary service. We may only type the information you provide us; we cannot select forms for you, advise you on your rights or remedies, tell you how a document will affect your legal position, or explain what course of action you should take. This article is general information about Nevada law and procedure and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Statutes, tax rates, and county recording requirements change — verify current requirements with the County Recorder in the county where your property is located, and consult a licensed Nevada attorney about your specific situation.