"What Is Minnesota's Certificate of Real Estate Value (eCRV), and Who Files It Before My Deed Is Recorded?"

A few days before you close on a home in Minnesota, the title company sends a short email. It asks for the full legal name, mailing address and Social Security number of everyone who will be on the deed, and how you plan to use the property. None of it is for the lender, who already has all of that. It goes onto a state form called the Certificate of Real Estate Value, and the county will not record your deed until that form has been filed.

In Minnesota, every home sold for more than $3,000 needs an electronic Certificate of Real Estate Value, called an eCRV, filed with the county when the deed is presented for recording. The statute lets you, the seller, or the legal agent of either one file it, and on most financed purchases the title company does. The county cannot record the deed without it, and the property cannot be classified as your homestead until it is on file.

I'm Jeff Moran, a mortgage broker in Bluffton, South Carolina, originating since 1996, licensed in fifteen states, including Minnesota, NMLS #483943, through C2 Financial Corporation.

What is a Certificate of Real Estate Value in Minnesota?

It is a record of the sale itself: who sold, who bought, what was paid, and what came with the property. The requirement is in Minnesota's certificate of value statute, Minn. Stat. 272.115. It applies whenever real property is sold for more than $3,000, by warranty deed, quitclaim deed, contract for deed or any other method of sale. The certificate gets filed with the county auditor in the county where the property is located, at the time the deed or other document is presented for recording.

The value it reports is the full price you paid, which the statute calls the full actual consideration, and it includes any loan or lien you take over from the seller as part of the purchase. The Minnesota Department of Revenue's eCRV basics page describes the same requirement. Assessors use the sales reported on these certificates as market data, including the Department's sales ratio studies that compare assessed values with actual sale prices, so your price becomes one of the sales other homes are measured against.

The certificate is also where the sale price gets reported on the record. The deed tax is figured on the price paid in that same sale, and how Minnesota's deed tax and mortgage registry tax work at closing covers who pays it and where it lands on your Loan Estimate. This article stays on the form.

Hennepin County's recording page notes that the Department of Revenue stopped accepting paper certificates effective October 1, 2014. Today a certificate is created and submitted through the state's eCRV submission site.

Who files the eCRV, the buyer or the seller?

Minn. Stat. 272.115 names three possible filers: the grantor, which is the seller, the grantee, which is you, or the legal agent of either one. The law does not pick one of those three for every sale, so the job goes to whoever is handling the recording.

On an ordinary Minnesota purchase with a mortgage, that is the title company. A Minnesota closing runs through a title or settlement company rather than a closing attorney, and the closer prepares the eCRV, submits it, and records your deed and your mortgage in the same pass. You supply your part of the information, and the closer does the filing as the legal agent the statute allows.

The picture changes when nobody is acting as your agent. If you are buying directly from a seller without a title company, or recording a contract for deed yourself, the statute still says the certificate has to be filed, and you are one of the three filers it names. Faribault County's own Certificate of Real Estate Value page tells buyers directly that they must file a certificate when the price or other consideration is more than $3,000. In that situation, you'll want to settle with the seller, in writing, which of you is submitting it before anyone heads to the recorder's office.

The information the Minnesota eCRV asks for

According to the Department of Revenue's eCRV basics page, the certificate asks for the following.

• Your name, address, phone number and email, for every buyer, and the same for every seller.
• The Social Security number or federal tax identification number of every buyer and seller. Minn. Stat. 272.115 requires it on the certificate.
• The property's location and its planned use, meaning how you intend to use it after you buy, alongside how it was used before.
• The terms of the sale, including the purchase price.
• Any personal property included in the sale, with a description and a dollar amount, because the statute has personal property listed and subtracted from the price.

Once the title company asks for your piece of this, please provide the full legal name of each person who will be on the deed, exactly as it will appear there. Please include each person's Social Security number and your mailing address, for both of you if two of you are buying, even when only one of you is on the loan.

Two answers are worth a second look before the closer submits. If the purchase agreement puts a value on the hot tub or the furniture, that amount belongs in the personal property section so the real estate price is reported correctly. For the planned use, you'll want the answer that matches how you will actually use the home: your main residence, a second home or an investment property. The county uses that answer when it decides how to classify the property for taxes.

The eCRV submission site warns that certificates are public data, so if you file one yourself, please enter Social Security numbers and tax IDs only in the fields built for them.

How does the eCRV affect my homestead classification in Minnesota?

Minn. Stat. 272.115, subdivision 4, says that real estate sold or transferred where a certificate is required cannot be classified as a homestead unless the certificate has been filed with the county auditor. If the eCRV is missing, the homestead classification that lowers your property tax bill cannot start.

So the eCRV and the homestead application are two separate filings, and the second one depends on the first. On most financed purchases, the title company files the eCRV as part of recording. The homestead application is yours to file with the county assessor, and how to get homestead classification on a Minnesota home you just bought walks through that application and its December 31 deadline. Some cities make the link explicit. Edina's homestead classification page asks applicants for their eCRV number.

That makes the eCRV ID worth keeping. Crow Wing County's Certificate of Real Estate Value instructions tell submitters to save the eCRV ID and the edit PIN the system gives them. After your closer finishes the filing, please ask for the eCRV ID number for your records, and keep it with your closing documents.

A Minnesota home with a well, or a contract for deed

If the property has a well, the seller owes you a written well disclosure before you sign the purchase agreement, and a well disclosure certificate follows at closing. The Minnesota Department of Health's e-Well Disclosure guide describes its system as built for transfers that have a well and require a Certificate of Real Estate Value, with the county recorder validating the well certificate once the deed is presented. The article on what the Minnesota well disclosure tells you before you sign covers what each well status means and who pays to seal a well that is no longer used.

If you are buying on a contract for deed, the certificate statute lists that method by name, and the certificate is filed when the contract is recorded. Under Minn. Stat. 559A.01, most sellers on a contract for deed count as investor sellers. The main exception is an owner who lived in the home as their primary residence for a continuous twelve months at some point before the sale. With an investor seller, the law also gives you a disclosure package and ten calendar days before anyone signs, which is covered in the Minnesota contract for deed ten-day review.

The steps before your Minnesota closing

1. You'll want to ask your closer early who is submitting the eCRV. On a financed purchase it will almost always be the title company. If the answer is unclear, you'll want it settled before the closing is scheduled.
2. Please provide your information as soon as it is requested, with the full legal name of each of you as it will appear on the deed, each Social Security number, and your mailing address.
3. Please look over the personal property and planned use answers on the draft, or ask the closer to read them to you, so the price and the use match your purchase agreement.
4. Please ask for the eCRV ID number once it has been submitted, and keep it with your closing documents.
5. After closing, you'll file your homestead application with the county assessor if the home will be your main residence, using that eCRV number wherever the form asks for it.

A complete and accurate eCRV is what lets your deed record cleanly and your homestead classification start on time. The closing costs explained page covers the rest of what happens between the signing table and the recorder's office.

Common mistakes with the Minnesota eCRV

Leaving a buyer off the certificate. When two of you are taking title, the statute calls for the Social Security or tax ID number of each buyer, so both names and both numbers belong on it. The Department of Revenue states that a county cannot record a deed without the eCRV.

Folding personal property into the price. If the purchase agreement puts a value on furniture or equipment, reporting the whole amount as real estate overstates the sale price that goes on the record.

Assuming somebody else filed it on a private sale. Without a title company, the statute still requires the certificate, and it names you as one of the parties who may file it.

An illustration, so the order is clear

Details below are made up to show the mechanism. They are not a real file and not a quote.

Say you and your spouse are buying a Minnesota home for $380,000 with a mortgage, and the purchase agreement says $2,500 of that price is for the furniture in the lower level. The title company emails both of you a week before closing for your legal names, Social Security numbers and mailing address. You reply that day.

The closer drafts the eCRV with both of your names on the buyer side, your main residence as the planned use, and the furniture listed as personal property at $2,500, so the real estate portion reported is $377,500. The closer submits it, gets an eCRV ID, writes that number on your closing packet at your request, and records the deed and your mortgage.

Once you have moved in, you file the homestead application with the county assessor, list that eCRV number where the form asks for it, and the classification reaches the next year's tax bill the way it should.

Your next step

If you are shopping in Minnesota, you can see the whole picture with your own numbers before you write an offer. You will see rates priced for your own scenario when you run your numbers on the homepage, along with your debt ratio and closing costs built against Minnesota's deed tax and mortgage registry tax rather than a national average. It works without a credit pull or an account, and nobody will call you.

If you want a letter a Minnesota seller will take seriously, getting pre-approved for a Minnesota mortgage is where your income, debts and credit get reviewed with your documents in hand.

Nothing here is a loan approval, a denial, a commitment to lend, or legal or tax advice. The certificate of value requirement is set by Minnesota statute, the current forms belong to the Minnesota Department of Revenue, and your county auditor and recorder decide what they need to record your documents.

Common questions

Do I need a Certificate of Real Estate Value when I buy a home in Minnesota?

Yes. The statute sets a small dollar threshold that essentially every home purchase clears. Minn. Stat. 272.115 requires a certificate of value whenever real property is sold above that threshold, whether the sale is by warranty deed, quitclaim deed, contract for deed or any other method. It is filed with the county auditor in the county where the property is located when the deed is presented for recording, and the Minnesota Department of Revenue states that a county cannot record a deed without one.

Who is responsible for filing the eCRV in Minnesota?

The statute allows the grantor, the grantee, or the legal agent of either to file it, so the seller, the buyer or someone acting for one of them may submit it. On a typical financed purchase, the title company handling the closing prepares and submits the eCRV as part of recording the deed. On a private sale with no title company, the buyer and seller should agree in writing which one will submit it, because the statute names both of them.

What information does the Minnesota eCRV ask for?

The certificate asks for the name, address and phone number of every buyer and every seller, along with the Social Security number or federal tax identification number of each one. It also asks for the property's location, its prior use and planned use, the terms of the sale, and any personal property included in the price, with a description and a value. Certificates are public data, so the state tells filers to enter Social Security numbers and tax IDs only in the fields designed for them.

Can I get homestead classification in Minnesota without an eCRV?

No. Minn. Stat. 272.115, subdivision 4, says that real estate sold or transferred where a certificate of value is required cannot be classified as a homestead unless the certificate has been filed with the county auditor. The eCRV is filed when the deed is recorded, and the homestead application is a separate filing you make with the county assessor, with a December 31 deadline for the following year's taxes.

Is a paper Certificate of Real Estate Value still accepted in Minnesota?

No. Hennepin County notes that the Minnesota Department of Revenue stopped accepting paper certificates effective October 1, 2014, and county recording pages such as Faribault County's state that paper copies are no longer accepted. Certificates are now submitted through the department's eCRV website, and the submitter receives an eCRV ID number worth keeping with your closing documents.