A bargain and sale deed is a type of legal documents used within a change of real property ownership under US law. It is issued with limited warranties as to encumbrances that may be imposed on the property transferred. As such, it doesn’t guarantee that a new owner will not encounter problems with third-party claims to the property. Download a free bargain and sale deed form below and fill it in on your computer.
Last Updated: October 2026. This guide is reviewed and updated regularly to reflect current law. If you notice an error or outdated information, please contact us.
Passing of real-estate ownership in the United States can be covered in several types of deeds, which vary in the level of new owners’ rights protection. While some of them guarantee good title, i.e., unencumbered in the past and/or in the present, a bargain and sale deed doesn’t usually imply such warranties. This document serves to state that a grantor has ownership rights in the real estate in question but doesn’t entail that no liens are attached to the property.
The latter part refers to probable encumbrances placed on the property both during the grantor’s ownership and before it. So, a buyer coming into ownership under a bargain and sale deed will inherit all outstanding liens created against the asset. Obviously, it is likely to become an obstacle to obtaining title insurance coverage.
Terms you will see in a deed:
As it follows from the above, this legal document is composed without covenants clearly expressed in the written form. However, a would-be owner can still gain a greater level of protection against charges with certain warranties added to the deed.
For example, bargain and sale deeds with covenants against grantor’s acts state that the current owner has taken no actions to result in any liens while being in ownership of the real estate. Namely, the NY Real Property Law Article 8, Section 258 provides the statutory form C for individuals to deliver this warranty, along with the similar CC form for corporate users.
Including these covenants in the document makes it equal to a special warranty deed, which is also aimed at formalizing the grantor’s promise of no encumbrances imposed during their ownership. Yet, a deed with covenants against the grantor will be less protective for a new owner compared with a warranty deed.
The limited warranty nature of bargain and sale deeds land them in a narrower usage with real-estate transactions since grantees are sure to prefer better protection through other types of deeds. However, grantors, in their turn, don’t want to be liable for possible encumbrances in case they could not exercise control over the property during the whole time of its existence. Specifically, this covers:
In the above cases, the grantor, be it a governmental entity, financial institution, estate administrator, or an individual owner, may not even know about liens placed on the property, which makes them seek protection against legal liability. For a buyer, property coming with a bargain and sale deed incurs higher risks, though covenants against grantor’s acts secure their “bona fide purchaser” status.
Because bargain and sale deeds refer to legal documents with a limited warranty, it can be easily confused with quitclaim deeds, which also do not offer safeguards against liens and similar limitations. However, the latter does not even imply that the grantor is a legal title owner — it transfers only the ownership rights that the grantor might have.
In essence, the person signing the deed just confirms his or her refusal to claim their part in the property if they have such a right and transfers this right to the grantee. Thus, this type of deeds is seen as the least advantageous to a beneficiary, and its usage is usually limited to:
Thus, quitclaim deeds are not common for buying and selling real estate.
As it was mentioned before, some states provide approved yet nonprintable forms for bargain and sale deeds with or without covenants, while others just suggest rough wording and details to include. Generally, the deed would cover:
Mind that not all states have similar requirements, but in most cases, the deed has to be signed by two witnesses along with mandatory notarization.
Having a bargain and sale deed form at hand facilitates real-estate transactions concluded with this type of legal documents. It reduces all the efforts to filling out a couple of blank fields while containing the required wording to take full legal effect immediately after participating parties sign it. For a buyer, it is better to opt for a form that includes covenants, but the steps for completing the forms with/without warranties will not vary.
The screenshots under each step show the FormsPal Bargain and Sale Deed template filled with sample entries in blue, so you can see where each answer goes. The names, addresses, dates and amounts are examples only.
Have these details ready before you start:
At the top of page 1, enter the mailing address and the Attn name for the person or office that prepared the deed.
Enter the mailing address and the Attn name for the person who should get the deed back after it is recorded.
Type the property’s tax or assessor parcel number on the line under the return-to block.
Under the GRANT, BARGAIN AND SALE DEED title, enter the full name and the address of the Grantor, the seller.
In the next part of page 1, enter the full name and the address of the Grantee, the buyer. The property description and the “Subject to” items are already printed on the form.
On page 2, fill in the day, month and year on the DATED line. Then the Grantor signs and completes the By, Name and Title lines.
Fill in the STATE OF and COUNTY lines, the day, month and year of the acknowledgment, and the name on the “by” line. To notarize the document, a notary public specifies the state and county he or she is appointed in, the date of signing the paper, the names of the parties and subscribing witnesses if any.
Then, the notary public signs the deed and includes his/her commission expiration date. The date goes on the “My commission expires” line under the Notary Public signature.
On page 3, repeat the Tax Parcel Number on the Exhibit A line. Page 1 points to this exhibit for the property description. It also specifies the legal description of the property conveyed, including the unit number, lot, block, and section.
The template is a PDF, so you can fill it in on screen or on paper. Either way, a little preparation saves time once you start typing, and the tips below cover the small points that most often lead to a second draft.
If you would rather not fill in the PDF by hand, the FormsPal editor lets you type, add your signature and save the finished file in one place.
Once every field is filled in, a few practical steps remain before the deed is ready to hand over. Go through them in order and check each one off before you move on to the next.
Most problems with a filled-in deed come from small slips, not big ones. A slow read-through of every page before anyone signs catches most of them, so give yourself a few quiet minutes for it.
If you spot one of these after the deed is signed, do not write over the page. Fill in a fresh copy of the template and have it signed again, so the final paper stays neat and easy to read.
Yes. The template has fillable fields, so you can type into it after you download it. You can also use the FormsPal online PDF editor to fill in and sign the PDF.
The Grantor signs on page 2, right below the DATED line, and then completes the By, Name and Title lines. The notary signs in the acknowledgment block lower on the same page.
Exhibit A is the last page of the template. It has a Tax Parcel Number line, and page 1 points to it for the property description.
Yes. Print the pages and write in each field in clear, dark ink. A typed copy is easier to read, so many people fill in the PDF on screen first and print it afterwards.
Once the notary has finished, two things are left to do.
Yes. The sample entries in the screenshots are only examples, so enter your own details in the real form.
General information, not legal or tax advice.
