Referee's deed

A referee's deed conveys property sold under court judgment — the instrument by which a court-appointed referee transfers title to the foreclosure auction's winning bidder. Its appearance in a chain of title marks a completed foreclosure: the prior ownership ended involuntarily, through litigation whose file documents the default, the parties, and the sale.

For analysis, referee's deeds carry two signals: the property's history includes documented distress, and the recorded price is an auction outcome — a forced-sale figure that comparable-sales work must treat as its own category. The foreclosure case behind the deed is public record, and it often explains conditions the property record alone cannot.