Selling a home in Orange County runs in five stages: price it against the homes buyers can see today, prepare it, market it, give the buyer California's required disclosures, then negotiate and close through escrow. Escrow commonly takes about 30 days from an accepted offer, longer with a slow loan or a complicated title.
1. Price against what buyers can see today
Buyers compare your home with the listings next to it, so the starting point is current competition: the homes for sale in your community, their list prices, their price per square foot and how long they have sat.
Every community page on this site shows those figures for its city — active listings, median list price, median price per square foot and median days on market — synced nightly from the MLS. Recent closed sales on your street matter too; ask the team for them before you settle on a number.
2. Prepare the home
Repairs a buyer's inspector will find anyway are cheaper to fix before listing than to negotiate after. Cleaning, decluttering and staging change how the photos look, and the photos are where nearly every buyer first sees the home.
3. Give the disclosures California requires
California makes the seller of most one-to-four-unit homes tell the buyer, in writing, what they know about the property. The main forms are:
- The Real Estate Transfer Disclosure Statement (Civil Code §1102 and following): the condition of the home and anything you know is wrong with it.
- The Natural Hazard Disclosure statement (Civil Code §1103 and following): whether the property sits in a flood, fire, earthquake-fault or seismic-hazard zone.
- Statements that the water heater is braced and that smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are installed as state law requires.
- HOA documents, where the home is in an association, and any Mello-Roos or other special-assessment district it is in.
4. Market it
Professional photography and film, the MLS (which feeds the major portals), targeted campaigns and open houses put the home in front of buyers. A new listing draws the most attention in its first days on the market, so the opening price matters.
5. Negotiate, open escrow and close
Most Southern California offers are written on the California Association of REALTORS® Residential Purchase Agreement. Once you accept one, escrow opens with a neutral escrow holder, the buyer makes the good-faith deposit, and the buyer's contingency periods start.
Under the standard form, the buyer's investigation, appraisal and loan contingencies run 17 days unless the contract says otherwise. When they are removed and the loan funds, the deed records with the Orange County Clerk-Recorder and the sale is closed.
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