We Buy Houses for Cash in California

Selling a house in California usually means more paperwork than people expect: escrow, a stack of state-required disclosures, and, depending on location, a fire, earthquake or flood zone that has to be spelled out for the buyer. Some owners are also dealing with wildfire damage, an inherited home with a new property tax picture, or a notice of default. Swifty Home Buyers buys California houses for cash, as-is, with no agent commissions and no repair requests, and you pick the closing date. Here are the California taxes, disclosures and foreclosure rules that shape a sale.

We buy houses in all 50 states. This guide covers the rules that matter in California.

California's documentary transfer tax comes from Revenue and Taxation Code 11911. A county may charge 55 cents for each $500 of value or fraction of $500, which works out to $1.10 per $1,000, figured on the price minus any lien that stays on the property. A city inside that county may add its own tax at half the county rate, and under Section 11931 the county then credits the city tax against its own. On a $600,000 sale that is $660. Some cities charge far more. In the City of Los Angeles the base real property transfer tax is $2.25 per $500, or 0.45 percent, and Measure ULA adds a further tax on top of it: 4 percent on sales above $5,400,000 and 5.5 percent at $10,900,000 or more, using the thresholds the city set for transactions closing after June 30, 2026. The statute does not say whether buyer or seller pays, so the contract and local practice decide. Also plan for escrow and title fees, loan payoffs, HOA transfer charges, prorated property taxes and, in a listing, agent commissions, which are negotiable and often the largest single cost. In a cash sale to Swifty there are no agent commissions and no repair credits, and every cost is written out before you sign.

A California deed of trust foreclosure is normally a trustee's sale under the power of sale, handled outside court. Civil Code 2923.5 generally makes the servicer wait 30 days after contacting the borrower, or after meeting its due diligence requirements, before recording a notice of default. Once the notice of default is recorded, Section 2924 requires at least three months to pass before notice of sale, and Section 2924f requires the notice of sale to be posted, published and recorded at least 20 days before the sale date. Under Section 2924c you can reinstate until five business days before the first scheduled sale date. Two newer rules matter to sellers of one-to-four-unit homes. Under Section 2924f, if the trustee receives, at least five business days before the sale, a listing agreement with a California licensed real estate broker, the sale is pushed back an additional 45 days; this works only once. Under Section 2924m, eligible tenant buyers and eligible bidders have 15 days after a trustee's sale to submit a bid or notice of intent, with 45 days in some cases. On the debt, Code of Civil Procedure 580d says no deficiency judgment is allowed on a note secured by a deed of trust when the property is sold under the power of sale; ask an attorney about any other loans. If you live in the home and a notice of default is recorded, California's equity purchaser law (Civil Code 1695 and following) generally lets you cancel a contract with an equity purchaser until midnight of the fifth business day after you sign, or until 8 a.m. on the day of the scheduled trustee's sale, whichever comes first. The California Mortgage Relief Program is no longer accepting applications, so a HUD-certified housing counselor is a good first call. Selling before the auction keeps any equity with you.

• Sell as-is
• Inherited house
• Foreclosure
• Tenants or rental property

Los Angeles County after the January 2025 fires

FEMA lists the California Wildfires and Straight-line Winds disaster (DR-4856) with an incident period of January 7 to January 31, 2025 and a declaration date of January 8, 2025, affecting Los Angeles County. Inside the City of Los Angeles, a sale also carries the city's base transfer tax of $2.25 per $500, and Measure ULA applies only above $5,400,000 for sales closing after June 30, 2026. We buy fire-damaged homes and cleared lots as-is.