Your offer got accepted, someone said "you're in escrow," and then the congratulations stopped and the paperwork started. Nobody hands you a map of what happens next.
Here is the map. A typical California purchase runs about thirty days from acceptance to keys, and almost everything in it happens in a fixed order. Once you can see the order, the process stops feeling like a month of surprises.
Days 1–3: Your Deposit Goes In
Within three business days of acceptance, you wire your earnest money deposit to the escrow company — a neutral third party that holds the money and the paperwork while both sides perform.
The deposit is not extra money on top of the price. It is part of your down payment, parked early to show you are serious. Whether you can get it back if things fall apart is controlled entirely by the contingencies below — which is why they matter more than any other part of the contract.
Week 1: The Seller Hands You the Paperwork
California requires sellers to disclose, in writing, what they know about the property. The two big ones are the Transfer Disclosure Statement and the Seller Property Questionnaire — together they cover repairs, leaks, additions, neighborhood noise, insurance claims, deaths on the property, and more.
You will also get a Natural Hazard Disclosure report saying whether the home sits in a flood, fire, or earthquake fault zone.
Read these the day they arrive. Not because they are thrilling — because your clock to object starts running, and a disclosure you skimmed is a problem you bought.
Weeks 1–2: Your Inspections
The standard contract gives you an investigation period — commonly seventeen days, though it is negotiable and often shorter in competitive offers — to inspect the home with any professional you choose.
A general home inspection is the floor, not the ceiling. Depending on what it turns up, you might add a roof, sewer lateral, or foundation specialist. In much of San Diego's older housing stock, the sewer scope is the one that pays for itself.
If the inspections surface real problems, you have three moves: ask the seller to repair, ask for a credit, or walk away with your deposit. All three only work while your investigation contingency is alive.
Weeks 2–3: The Appraisal and the Loan
While you inspect, your lender orders an appraisal to confirm the home is worth what you offered. If it appraises low, your appraisal contingency is what lets you renegotiate or exit.
Your loan file moves through underwriting at the same time. The single most useful thing you can do all month is respond to your lender's document requests the same day they arrive. Escrow delays are almost never caused by escrow — they are caused by a loan file waiting on a pay stub.
The Form That Changes Everything: Contingency Removal
Here is the part of California escrow most buyers do not know: your contingencies do not expire on their own. You remove them actively, in writing, on a form called the Contingency Removal.
Until you sign it, your deposit is protected. After you sign it, backing out generally means losing that deposit. It is the single most consequential signature of the whole month — treat the decision with the respect it deserves, and do not sign until your inspections, your appraisal, and your loan are actually resolved.
The Last Week: Signing, Funding, Recording
A few days before close, you do a final walk-through to verify the home is in the condition you agreed to buy. Then you sign the loan documents with a notary, wire in the balance of your down payment and closing costs, and wait for two words: "we've recorded."
Recording is the moment the county logs the deed in your name. That is the finish line — keys usually follow the same day.
What to Do With All This
Print the timeline, or just remember the shape of it: deposit, disclosures, inspections, appraisal, contingency removal, signing. Every date in your contract hangs off one of those six events.
Buying somewhere in San Diego and want a walkthrough of the contract dates before you write an offer? That conversation costs nothing and tends to save the deposit-sized mistakes. Reach us any time.