Selling a house, start to close.

Most sellers are surprised by the same three things: how much of the work happens before the listing goes live, how many of the costs are set by the city rather than by the agent, and how much of the timeline belongs to other people. This page walks through the whole sequence for a house in Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Santa Clarita or the San Fernando Valley.

1. What the house has to have before it can close

California cities attach point-of-sale requirements to a transfer. These are not optional and they are not negotiable between buyer and seller, because the city is the one asking. Depending on where the house sits, that can mean water conservation fixtures, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, seismic gas shutoff valves, a sewer lateral inspection, or a certificate of compliance issued after a city inspector visits.

The list is different in every city, and the line between them is often a single street. A house in Toluca Lake can be inside Burbank or inside the City of Los Angeles, with two different sets of requirements. The full breakdown is here: what retrofits are required before you can sell a house in Los Angeles.

Two local cases worth knowing early. If the property is a soft-story building in Burbank, the retrofit has its own deadlines and grant money. If it is in the Santa Clarita Valley and has a salt-based water softener, that unit has to come out, and the sanitation district removes it free of charge.

2. Disclosures, which are where deals actually fall apart

California disclosure law is broad and the penalty for getting it wrong arrives after closing, when it is expensive. The Natural Hazard Disclosure report is the one most sellers have never heard of, and the form itself is out of step with the statute that triggers it on the fire hazard question.

Death on the property has a specific rule with a specific time window, and it is narrower than most people assume: what California actually requires.

The preliminary title report usually arrives early and gets skimmed. It should not be. Easements, mechanics liens and old recorded restrictions surface here, and they are far cheaper to resolve in week one than in week four. Here is what it covers, and what it deliberately does not.

3. Pricing, and why the comparables argument matters

Pricing is not a number pulled from a portal estimate. It is an argument built from closed sales, and it has to survive an appraiser who will look at the same houses and reach their own conclusion. A price that cannot be defended with comparables tends to produce an appraisal gap, and an appraisal gap arrives at the worst possible moment.

Older housing stock complicates this. Two houses on the same block, both listed as three bedrooms, can be twenty years apart in construction and completely different in what a buyer inherits. Alla holds a California general contractor licence and reads a house from the structure out, which is the part of pricing that photographs do not capture.

4. What it costs, and what the city takes

Los Angeles County charges a documentary transfer tax of $1.10 for every $1,000 of value, under Revenue and Taxation Code section 11911. That part is the same everywhere in the county. What changes is the city, and only five cities in Los Angeles County charge a transfer tax of their own: Culver City, Los Angeles, Pomona, Redondo Beach and Santa Monica. Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and Santa Clarita do not.

On a $1,200,000 sale that difference is $1,320 in Burbank against $6,720 inside the City of Los Angeles. The mechanism, and the reason the credit does not apply, is explained here: who pays the transfer tax when you sell in Los Angeles County.

Commission is negotiable and is set in the listing agreement before anything is marketed. It is discussed openly at the first meeting, in writing, with the other closing costs beside it, so the net figure is visible from the start rather than at signing.

5. The timeline

Escrow in California typically runs thirty to forty-five days on a financed purchase, and most of that window belongs to the lender and the title company rather than to the buyer or the seller. Knowing which days are yours and which are not is the difference between a calm close and a stressful one. Step by step, with what happens in each phase.

What Alla does

Reads the property first: permit history, what was built when, what was altered without a permit, and what a city inspector will ask about. Assembles the disclosure package before the listing goes live rather than during escrow. Prices from closed comparables and defends that price to the appraiser. Handles the city compliance items so they are not discovered three days before closing.

What Alla does not do

Does not promise a sale price. Does not give legal, tax or financial advice, and will say so and refer you to someone licensed for that. Does not list a property she has not walked. Does not pressure anyone toward a decision on a deadline she created.

She works in Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, North Hollywood, Encino and Santa Clarita, and speaks English, Ukrainian and Russian. Neighbourhood detail by city is in the area guides.