You will often see a deed say the property was transferred for “$10 and other good and valuable consideration.” People put $10 (or $1) on a deed for two main reasons: to keep the real price or the gift nature of the transfer private, and to satisfy the old legal idea that a contract needs some consideration to be valid. It is a normal, legal convention, but it does not lower your taxes. Here is what it actually means.
1 The consideration rule
Traditionally, a deed recites consideration, something of value given in exchange, to show the transfer was a real, bargained transaction. Rather than print the true price, drafters use a nominal figure like $10 plus “other good and valuable consideration.” It checks the legal box without publishing the number. This phrasing has been used for generations and is completely routine.
2 Privacy on a public record
Because recorded deeds are public, anyone can look them up. Owners who do not want the world to see what they paid, or that the property was a gift, use the $10 recital to keep the real figure off the visible deed. The transfer itself is still public; only the dollar amount is masked.
3 Gifts and family transfers
The nominal amount shows up most on gifts and family transfers, a parent deeding a home to a child, adding a spouse, or moving property into a trust or LLC. There is no real sale price, so $10 and “love and affection” or “good and valuable consideration” stands in. That does not make the transfer a sale; it is still a gift for tax purposes.
4 It does not dodge taxes
Here is the part people get wrong: putting $10 on the deed does not reduce transfer taxes, gift tax exposure, or the buyer’s future capital-gains math. New York bases transfer tax on the actual consideration or fair market value, and the IRS treats a below-value transfer as a partial gift regardless of what the deed recites. The $10 is about privacy and legal form, not tax savings.
5 Doing it right
If you are transferring property and want the deed drafted with the right recital, notarized, and recorded correctly, we handle it. See our NYC deed and document recording service, or call 347-762-0262. For anything with tax or estate complexity, loop in a professional first.
Transferring a deed in NYC?
We prepare it with the correct consideration recital, notarize, and record it through ACRIS.
For privacy on a public record and to satisfy the legal tradition that a transfer needs consideration. The $10 is a placeholder, not the real price.
Does the $10 lower my taxes?
No. Transfer tax is based on the actual value or consideration, and the IRS treats below-value transfers as gifts regardless of the $10 recital.
Is putting $10 on a deed legal?
Yes. Reciting a nominal amount plus “other good and valuable consideration” is a long-standing, routine practice.
Related: can my mom sell me her house for $1 and are deeds public record in New York.
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Consideration, transfer tax, and gift rules vary by situation. Consult a professional before transferring property.
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Where the real number goes
If the deed does not state the price, the actual consideration is reported elsewhere. It appears on the transfer tax filings, the state return TP-584 and the real property transfer report RP-5217, which is how the taxing authorities see what changed hands even when the deed says ten dollars.
So the convention conceals the price from a casual reader of the deed. It does not conceal it from the city or the state, and it does not reduce the tax.
What it can cost you later
A nominal recital occasionally causes trouble years afterwards.
A title examiner reading a chain that includes a ten dollar transfer between people with different surnames will look harder at it, because that pattern also appears in fraudulent conveyances. It is usually explained easily, and it is still a question raised at a closing when you would rather no questions were raised.
Where a transfer genuinely was a gift, saying so plainly in the deed and reporting it correctly on the forms produces a cleaner record than a nominal figure that invites interpretation.
It does not affect the taxes people hope it affects
Two beliefs worth correcting. A nominal price does not reduce the transfer tax, which is calculated on actual consideration including any mortgage assumed. And it does not change the recipient’s basis for capital gains, which follows the nature of the transfer rather than the number written on the page.
See can my mom sell me her house for a dollar for how that plays out in practice.
Where the convention comes from
The habit is old and rooted in contract law. A deed traditionally recited some consideration to show a bargain had occurred rather than a bare promise, and ten dollars became the customary token.
The phrase you will usually see is ten dollars and other good and valuable consideration. That trailing clause is doing the real work: it acknowledges that something else was exchanged without stating what.
You will also see one dollar, and occasionally love and affection, which appears on family transfers and means exactly what it sounds like.
When you will meet it
Family transfers, adding or removing a spouse, moving property into a trust or a company, correction deeds fixing an earlier error, transfers following a divorce, and estate distributions where no money passes between the parties.
In none of those is the property genuinely worth ten dollars, and nobody involved believes it is.
Reading it as a buyer or a researcher
If you are researching a property and the chain contains a nominal transfer, do not assume anything from the figure alone. Read the surrounding documents. A mortgage recorded the same week suggests a purchase. An estate proceeding nearby suggests an inheritance. A divorce index reference suggests a settlement.
The document list tells you what the deed will not. See the ACRIS guide.
Getting the deed signed and recorded
Whatever the recited consideration, the mechanics are the same. Only the grantor signs, and the signature must be acknowledged before a notary public before any county will record it.
A defective acknowledgment is the most common reason a submission is rejected, so check the venue, the date, the signature, the stamp and the commission expiration before it leaves your hands.
New York City records through ACRIS for Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, and through the Richmond County Clerk for Staten Island. We handle the filing from intake to recorded confirmation, including the transfer tax forms that carry the real number.