MBE Real Property Practice Test 2026 – Your Comprehensive Guide to Mastering the Exam!

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A landowner donated land to a charity by quitclaim deed. The charity did not record. The owner then sold the same land by warranty deed to a woman who paid valuable consideration and did not know about the prior gift. The woman promptly recorded her warranty deed. A month later, the charity recorded its quitclaim deed. The following year, the woman conveyed the property to her son by quitclaim deed, which the son recorded. The jurisdiction has a race-notice recording statute: 'No unrecorded conveyance or mortgage of real property shall be good against subsequent purchasers for value without notice, who shall first record.' Who owns the land?

The charity, because the charity recorded its deed before the son recorded his deed.

The son, because he is a donee and thus protected by the shelter rule.

The charity, because the charity never recorded before the woman's deed.

The woman, because she recorded before the charity and is protected by the race-notice statute.

Under a race-notice recording statute, a purchaser for value who takes without notice and records first against any later unrecorded interests will prevail. Here, the woman paid valuable consideration for the land and had no knowledge of the charity’s prior gift. She recorded before the charity did, so she becomes the protected title holder. Even though the charity later recorded, its interest remained unrecorded at the time the woman’s deed was recorded, and the race-notice rule protects the woman as the first qualifying purchaser to record.

The subsequent transfer to the son doesn’t defeat the woman’s title. He acquired by quitclaim from the woman and, crucially, did not take for value. The shelter rule could extend protection to a transferee who takes from a protected grantee, but it does not give the son value-based priority here, so it cannot overcome the woman’s recorded title.

Charity’s later recording is irrelevant against a prior, properly recorded, value-based purchaser who recorded first. Therefore, the woman owns the land.