What a deed actually does
A deed is the written instrument by which an owner, the grantor, hands title to a grantee. It is not a receipt and not a record entry: it is the act of conveyance itself. Everything Georgia demands of a deed exists to prove that a specific owner meant to give a specific parcel to a specific person.
The Georgia requisites
Georgia requires that a deed be an original document, in writing, signed by the maker, attested by an officer as provided by law and by one other witness, delivered to the purchaser or the purchaser's representative, and made on good or valuable consideration.
- Two attesting signatures are needed, an authorized officer plus one other witness. A notary alone is not enough.
- Only the grantor signs. The grantee must accept the deed but never signs it.
- Recited consideration is not conclusive; it may be inquired into when the principles of justice require it.
Georgia rule: the second attesting witness is a Georgia requirement. There is no three-witness rule anywhere in the Code.
Recording is not a requisite
Recording with the clerk of superior court is not an element of validity. A deed is completely good between grantor and grantee without it. Recording only protects the grantee against later purchasers who take without notice. This is the trap: candidates see "recorded with the clerk" in a list of requisites and accept it.
Delivery and acceptance pass title
Title passes when the grantor delivers the properly executed deed during his lifetime and the grantee accepts it, normally at the closing table. Signing alone conveys nothing, because an undelivered signed deed is just paper. Paying transfer tax on the PT-61 is a recording prerequisite, not the conveyance. Indexing by the clerk is the most common wrong answer of all: it gives constructive notice to the world, but ownership already moved at delivery.
Form does not defeat a deed
No prescribed form is essential to validity. An instrument sufficient in itself to make the transaction known is good despite a want of form, so a handwritten deed carrying the 44-5-30 elements is valid. It is not void, and no court reformation is needed.