My offer was accepted. What happens now?

Once the seller signs, a calendar starts, and nearly everything that follows has a day attached to it. A typical financed purchase in the South Bay closes 30 to 45 days after acceptance. The deposit goes in during the first three business days, the disclosures arrive in the first week, your inspections and loan are settled by about day 17, and the last two weeks belong to the lender and to escrow. This page walks through it in order, using the default time periods printed in the California purchase contract. Your contract may shorten any of them, so read your own.

What happens in the first three days?

Escrow opens and your deposit is due. The contract gives you three business days after acceptance to deliver the initial deposit to the escrow company, normally by wire. Escrow in California is a neutral third party that holds the money and the documents and follows written instructions from both sides; the state’s description is here. Before you send anything, call the escrow officer on a phone number you obtained independently and confirm the wire instructions aloud. Criminals send convincing emails with altered account numbers at exactly this moment, and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded more than $3 billion in losses to this kind of email fraud in its 2025 report. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s advice is to confirm by phone using numbers you saved in advance, and never to follow instructions that arrive by email. A five-minute call removes the risk. In the same three days, book your inspectors and send the signed contract to your lender so the appraisal can be ordered.

Which documents will I receive in the first week?

The seller has 7 days by default to deliver the disclosure package. Expect the Transfer Disclosure Statement, in which the seller states what they know about the property’s condition; the Natural Hazard Disclosure, which reports whether the home lies in a mapped flood, fire, earthquake fault or seismic hazard zone; a detailed seller questionnaire; the preliminary title report; any report the city requires; and, for homes built before 1978, the federal lead-based paint disclosure. If the home is a condominium or townhome, the association’s documents arrive too: the governing documents, budget and reserve summary, current and approved assessments, any notices of violation, a year of board minutes if you ask for them and, since January 1, 2026, the most recent inspection report on balconies and other elevated exterior elements. Read these as closely as the inspection report. The reserve summary and the minutes tell you whether a special assessment is on its way. If a required disclosure reaches you after you have signed the offer, California law gives you three days to cancel if it was handed to you, and five if it was mailed or sent electronically.

Which inspections should I order?

A general home inspection first, and then the specialists it or the house suggests. On this coast those commonly include a sewer line camera, a termite and wood-destroying pest inspection, a roof inspection, a chimney inspection where there is a fireplace, and on hillside or bluff property a geologist or soils engineer. The pest report separates Section 1 items, which show active infestation or damage, from Section 2 items, which are conditions likely to lead to it. Ask for an insurance quote on the address in the same week; on the hillsides of the Peninsula it can take longer than a standard policy, and it is better to learn the premium on day five than on day thirty. You have 17 days by default to complete all of this. Attend the general inspection in person if you can, because an hour with the inspector tells you more than the written report does.

What if the inspections find problems?

They will find something, since every house has a list. Sort it three ways: matters of health and structure, items that are expensive, and ordinary maintenance. Then you have four choices. You can accept the house as it is. You can ask the seller to make repairs. You can ask for a credit or a price reduction, which is usually better than repairs because you control the work. Or, if the problem is more than you want to take on, you can cancel within your contingency period and have your deposit returned. Sellers respond best to a short request, supported by the relevant pages of the reports, that leaves out the small items. If the seller declines, you still hold all four choices until you remove the contingency.

What is a contingency, and what does removing it mean?

A contingency is a condition that lets you cancel and recover your deposit if it is not met: most often the inspection, the loan and the appraisal. In California contingencies do not expire on their own. They stay in place until you remove them in writing. If a deadline passes and you have not done so, the seller can deliver a notice giving you two days to act, after which the seller may cancel. Removing a contingency is the point at which your deposit is truly at risk, so remove each one only when the underlying question has been answered: the inspections are complete and any request resolved, the appraisal is in, and the lender has issued final approval. Where the contract’s liquidated damages clause has been initialed by both parties and you are buying a home to live in, the amount the seller can keep if you default is limited to 3 percent of the price.

What is happening with my loan during all this?

The lender orders the appraisal, and an underwriter checks your file against the property. Answer every request for documents the same day. Do not change jobs, open new credit or move large sums between accounts without talking to your loan officer first. If the appraisal comes in below the price you have three options: renegotiate, make up the difference in cash, or cancel under the appraisal contingency if you still have it. At the end you will receive a Closing Disclosure setting out the final loan terms and costs, and federal rules require that you have it at least three business days before you sign the loan. Compare it line by line with the Loan Estimate you received at the start, and ask about anything that has moved.

How should I hold title?

Escrow will ask, and the answer has legal and tax consequences that neither the escrow officer nor your agent is permitted to advise on. The common forms in California are community property, community property with right of survivorship, joint tenancy, tenancy in common and a trust. The California Land Title Association publishes a plain comparison. Decide it with your attorney or CPA in the first two weeks, not on the day you sign.

What happens in the last week?

You will walk through the house within five days before closing to confirm that it is in the condition you agreed to and that any repairs were made. You will sign your loan documents and closing papers with a notary or at the escrow office a few days before the closing date, and wire the balance of your down payment and costs, confirming the instructions by phone once again. The lender then funds the loan, and the deed is recorded with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder. There is no closing table in California and no gathering of the parties: the recording of the deed is the closing. Under the standard contract you take possession once recording is confirmed, unless the seller has arranged to stay on, and your agent hands you the keys.

What should I expect after closing?

Three pieces of mail and one task. The recorded deed arrives from the county some weeks later, and you should keep it with your title insurance policy. The county reassesses the home at your purchase price and sends one or two supplemental property tax bills, generally three months to a year after closing, directly to you, even if your lender collects taxes in your monthly payment. You will also receive offers to sell you a copy of your deed for a fee; the county provides copies for a few dollars, so ignore them. The task is to file the homeowners’ exemption with the Assessor, a small annual saving that also matters later if you ever wish to move your tax basis under Proposition 19. If anything that arrives puzzles you, send it to us. We stay with our clients well past the day the deed records.

Time periods are the printed defaults in the California Association of REALTORS Residential Purchase Agreement and can be changed by agreement; your signed contract governs. Statutory references include Civil Code sections 1102.3, 1103.3, 1675 and 4525. Agency guidance was checked on September 20, 2026. This page is general real estate information, not legal, lending, tax or insurance advice.