What happens after your offer is accepted
The seller said yes. Now a 30 to 45 day process starts, and most of it runs on a clock you agreed to in the contract. This page walks you through every step, in order, the way it typically goes in California. Read it once and none of it will catch you off guard.
The timelines below are the standard defaults in the California purchase agreement. They are typical, and everything is negotiable. Your contract controls. Your agent and escrow officer walk you through every deadline as it comes.
The moment the seller signs your offer, it becomes a binding contract. Within a day or two, escrow opens, so a neutral company holds every dollar and every document while the deal comes together. Neither side can touch the money alone. That protects you both.
A title company also starts searching the ownership records, so no one can surprise you with a claim on the home later.
The clock starts the day the seller signs, not when you feel ready. Your 3-day deposit window and your 17-day windows are already running while you celebrate. Mark the acceptance date. It is day one of everything below.
You wire your earnest money deposit to escrow, typically 1 to 3 percent of the price, so the seller knows you are serious enough to take the home off the market for you. The money sits in escrow, not in the seller's pocket, and it counts toward your down payment at closing.
Wire fraud. Criminals watch real estate deals and send fake wire instructions from lookalike email addresses. Before you send a dollar, call your escrow officer at a number you looked up yourself and read the instructions back. Never wire from an email alone. This one habit protects your entire deposit.
California requires some of the most detailed seller disclosures in the country, so you get to see the home's history before you commit. Within 7 days, typical default, the seller hands you the Transfer Disclosure Statement, the Seller Property Questionnaire, a natural hazard report, and HOA documents if there is one. In plain terms: the seller must tell you, in writing, what they know about the home.
The stack is thick and buyers skim it. Do not. One quiet line like "roof repaired 2019" tells you exactly where to point your inspector while you can still cancel and keep your deposit.
You get a 17-day investigation contingency, so you can inspect everything and still walk away with your deposit if the home fails you. Book a general home inspection right away. Add specialty inspections, like sewer line, roof, chimney, or pool, if the general inspector flags something. Then, if the reports turn something up, you can ask the seller for repairs or a credit.
Seventeen days sounds long. It is not. Good inspectors book out, and you need time after the report to negotiate. Schedule the inspection in your first 2 or 3 days.
And know this: the seller does not have to fix anything. A repair request is a negotiation, not an order.
Your lender orders an appraisal, an independent opinion of the home's value, so you are not borrowing against a price no one else would pay. The lender bases your loan on the lower of the purchase price or the appraised value. The appraisal contingency, 17 days by default, protects you while this plays out.
What happens when it comes in low, plainly. Say you offered $900,000 and the appraisal says $875,000. Your lender now lends against $875,000, which leaves a $25,000 gap. You have four ways out: the seller drops the price, you bring extra cash, you split the difference, or you cancel under the appraisal contingency and keep your deposit while that protection is still in place.
Buyers panic at a low number and assume the deal is dead. Usually it just reopens the negotiation. The seller reads the same report you do, and most would rather adjust the price than start over with a new buyer. Let the number work for you.
Your lender's underwriter now verifies everything: your income, your assets, the appraisal, the title. The loan contingency, 17 days by default, protects you the whole way, so if the loan falls apart for a real reason, you can cancel and keep your deposit.
The do-not-do list, until the keys are in your hand: do not finance a car. Do not open a new credit card. Do not close old ones. Do not change jobs if you can help it. Do not move large amounts of money between accounts without a paper trail. Underwriters re-check your credit right before funding, and a new car payment can shrink your approval at the worst possible moment.
The underwriter will ask for strange paperwork at strange times. A letter explaining a $600 deposit from your aunt. A page you already sent, twice. This is normal. Answer fast and do not take it personally. Slow replies are the number one avoidable delay in escrow.
In California, contingencies do not expire on their own. They protect you until you sign a form giving them up. Nothing happens automatically on day 17. Your protections stay in place, even past the deadline, until you actively remove them in writing.
When you sign the contingency removal, you are saying: I have inspected, the value works, my loan is solid, I am buying this home. From that moment, walking away can cost you your earnest money deposit. So you remove contingencies once, when you are actually sure, not on a schedule.
The pressure runs the other way too. If you sit on your contingencies past the deadline, the seller can issue a notice demanding you remove them within 2 days or they can cancel. Deadlines matter. They are just not automatic.
Buyers assume day 17 works like a lease expiring. It does not, in either direction. Know exactly which protections you still hold at every point. It is one piece of paper, and it is the most important signature between your offer and your keys.
You walk the home one last time, so you can confirm it is in the same condition you agreed to buy, agreed repairs are done, and the seller's belongings are on their way out. This is not a second inspection. It is a verification.
Test things. Run the faucets, flip the breakers, open the garage. If an agreed repair is not done, this is your last easy moment to fix it, usually with a credit at closing. After the keys change hands, your leverage is gone.
In California there is no closing table. A few days before close, you sign your loan documents with a notary, then wire your remaining cash to escrow. Your lender funds the loan. Then the county records the deed in your name, and the moment that recording confirms, the home is yours. Your agent hands you the keys, usually the same afternoon.
Same wire fraud warning as step 2, and it matters even more now because this is your biggest transfer. Call escrow at a number you looked up yourself and verify the instructions by phone. Every single time.
The supplemental property tax
Months after you close, LA County reassesses the home at the price you paid and sends you supplemental tax bills for the difference. They arrive by mail, they look like a mistake, and they are real.
Here is the trap: your lender's impound account is built on the old owner's lower tax bill. It does not cover these. If the previous owner bought decades ago, the supplemental bills can run to thousands of dollars, due directly from you.
We tell you now, so you can set the money aside on day one. Most agents never mention it. A fair rule of thumb: expect roughly the difference between 1.2 percent of your purchase price and the seller's old annual tax, prorated for your first partial year.
The LA County custom sheet
| Item | Customarily paid by |
|---|---|
| Owner's title policy | Seller |
| Lender's title policy | Buyer |
| County transfer tax | Seller |
| Escrow fee | Split, commonly 50/50 |
| Home inspection | Buyer |
| Appraisal | Buyer, through the lender |
| Natural hazard report | Seller |
| Recording fees | Buyer, mostly |
These are LA County customs, not laws. Every one of them is negotiable in your offer, and customs shift by county. Ventura, for example, customarily puts the escrow fee on the seller.