The First-Time Buyer's Guide to Los Angeles County

Nobody enjoys this part. Here is why it is worth doing before you call anyone: a lender with everything in hand can turn a pre-approval around in days, and a lender chasing you for a missing bank statement takes weeks. Those weeks are usually the ones in which the house you would have loved comes up and goes to somebody who was ready. So do the boring afternoon first.

• Two years of W-2s, and two years of tax returns if you are self-employed, on commission, or have rental income.
• Your last 30 days of pay stubs.
• Two months of statements for every account you will use for the down payment. Every page, including the blank ones, because underwriters reject partial statements.
• Photo ID and Social Security number.
• Retirement and investment statements if you are drawing on them.
• Documentation for any large or unusual deposit in the last 60 days. Underwriters will ask about every one of them, and a cash deposit you cannot source usually cannot be counted.
• If any of the money is a gift, a gift letter and proof of where it came from.
• Landlord contact information and 12 months of rent history.
• If you are divorced, the decree, plus documentation of support paid or received.
• Your DD-214 and Certificate of Eligibility if you are using a VA loan.

And then, until you have keys, do none of these: open a new credit card, finance a car, change jobs, move money between accounts without telling your lender, or make a large purchase. Any one of them can undo an approval a week before closing. This is not theoretical; it happens constantly.

Score each one on the things that will actually shape your week, not the things that sound good in a listing.

• Your real commute, driven at the hour you would actually drive it. Not the map estimate at 2pm on a Sunday.
• The specific school the address is zoned for, confirmed with the district. Boundaries do not follow neighborhood names, and the closest school is often not the assigned one.
• Mello-Roos, yes or no, and the exact annual amount.
• HOA dues and what they cover. A higher HOA that includes the front yard and a pool can be cheaper than a lower one that includes nothing.
• Fire hazard severity zone, because it affects what homeowners insurance costs and, in some cases, who will write it at all.
• Lot size and what backs up to you. A slope, a road, a wash, or a neighbor's second story.
• Heat. Parts of this valley run noticeably hotter than others in August, and it shows up on your electric bill.

Then go read the community pages, which are written by people who live here: Valencia, Saugus, Canyon Country, Newhall, Stevenson Ranch, and Castaic.

Once your offer is accepted, dates start running from the day of acceptance. These are the ones that matter.

About 3 business days: your earnest money deposit is wired. Call escrow at a number you looked up yourself to confirm wire instructions before sending anything. Wire fraud in real estate is common and the money does not come back.

About 7 days: the seller's disclosures arrive. Transfer Disclosure Statement, Seller Property Questionnaire, Natural Hazard Disclosure, HOA documents, Mello-Roos information. Read them. We will read them with you and tell you which parts actually matter.

17 days: the default on the standard C.A.R. purchase agreement for all four of your contingencies: investigation, appraisal, loan, and homeowner's insurance. All of them are negotiated on the contract, so check what you actually signed.

The one that matters most: in California, nothing removes automatically. Your contingency stays in force until you sign a written Contingency Removal form. Before you sign, you can generally cancel for a covered reason and get your deposit back. After you sign, your deposit is genuinely at risk. Do not sign it until your inspections are done, your appraisal is in, and your loan is actually approved.

Closing: loan documents, your final walk-through, signing, funding, then recording. In California the home is yours when the deed records with the county, which is the morning after your loan funds. You normally sign a couple of days before that, and the loan funds the day after you sign.