In real estate, a quitclaim deed is something you sign when you’re willing to pass your ownership of a property on to someone else. You “quit your claim” to it. It’s used for a few reasons, but I see it mostly when a couple is getting divorced and one is keeping the house.
What I never like to see is for someone to sign one of these while they’re still on the mortgage. Why? Because that’s accepting all of the responsibility and having none of the decision making ability. The only thing they can do is pay for it so they won’t get foreclosed on. They can’t sell it, rent it, Airbnb it, sign a sales contract or even put it on the market.
So in life when people make decisions for us and expect us to accept the responsibility and consequences of those decisions, it’s a lot like signing a quitclaim deed but staying on the hook for the mortgage. That’s bad.
Before you take on the responsibility of a decision that’s being made, make sure you are first involved, able, and willing to negotiate on your own behalf. It’s when we sit back and let someone else write our stories for us that we lose traction of our own lives, our resources and energy get hijacked…and maybe we even get foreclosed on.
Deeper Than a Puddle 