Your best bet is to see an attorney immediately, you may be able to reverse it as you can not transfer ownership without paying off the mortgage unless it was a non qualified assumption or you let your mortgage company know and they approved it. if not right there are your examples to overturn it. as well if you were under duress. get to the attorney now, you may be able to go to court to get a cease and desit or some sort of relief, only an attorney can guide you as to your states law. good luck with working it out. Lesson learned ..dont do business with friends and relatives.

Ana,
FI brought up a good point with the escrow question. You indicate you transferred the deed through escrow. Which one? Title Company, Independent, Broker owned etc.? This doesn't sound like something an escrow company should do and you may have recourse there. If this was to have been a sale, then you should have gotton title insurance too. If that was the case, you could go back to them. The attorney recommendation is sound, particularly if you had a notice of default on the property before your "friend" bought it and you were living in it at the time (California Civil Codes 1695 and/or 2945 may apply). You can call Brian Cain, of the Cain Law Group, at 858.277.2122, for some help. You can also call me if you have more questions-no charge. 619.507.5688 . I am not an attorney, however, I do specialize in foreclosure and foreclosure prevention and can offer you some other suggestions.

What kind of escrow was that that would just transfer the title without paying off the liens including the mortgage lien? In this case, you would have been the friend/buyer's lender, and you should have paid the existing mortgagee! Otherwise the buyer does not have clean title, and should inherit all liens on the title. If the mortgagee doesn't know the title has been transferred, may be you should notify them, and let them chase the new title-holder! This is a bizarre case. It all depends on who is goofier. I'm no expert, just my opinion. You could get a real estate attorney for $300/hr.

Who advised you to transfer the deed over? Also, were you under the influence of any narcotics or alcohol at the time of signing. Or if you were duped into the deal you might have a leg to stand on. EIther way a good real estate attorney will better assist you. However, you would have to absorb the attorney fees...