JW Baelly  /  Journal  /  Buying a home in LA

Guide · No. 01

Buying a home in LA: every step, no surprises

Most of my Korean-American clients buy their first LA home thinking they understand the process, then hit five surprises in the first thirty days. Here is the whole thing, in the order it actually happens.

12 min readUpdated 2026By JW Baelly

01 Before you look at a single listing

Get pre-approved first. Not pre-qualified — pre-approved. The difference matters. Pre-qualification is a guess based on what you say about your finances. Pre-approval is a lender pulling your credit, looking at your tax returns and W-2s, and writing a letter saying they will lend you a specific amount. Without that letter, almost no seller in LA will take your offer seriously in 2026.

I usually send new clients to two or three mortgage brokers and ask them to get rate quotes the same day, so we are comparing apples to apples. A 0.25% difference on a $1M loan is about $40,000 over thirty years. Worth a phone call.

While you wait for the letter, set up a realistic monthly budget. Mortgage payment is the start, not the finish. Add property tax (roughly 1.25% of purchase price annually in LA County), insurance, HOA if applicable, and a maintenance reserve of about 1% of the home value per year. For a $1.2M home, that math comes out to around $9,500/month all-in. People underestimate this badly.

02 House-hunting: less is more

Most of my clients want to see thirty homes. I push back. After about six or seven showings, you stop seeing each home clearly — everything blurs into a comparison of the previous ones. Better strategy: tell me your three non-negotiables and three nice-to-haves, and I will pre-filter.

Non-negotiables are usually: school district, commute time, number of bedrooms. Nice-to-haves are usually: a yard, natural light, a specific neighborhood character. Be honest with yourself about which is which. A 'must-have garage' that costs you the right neighborhood is not actually a must-have.

When we walk a home together, I take notes on three things you can't change later: the lot, the layout, and the immediate neighbors. Everything else — finishes, paint, even a kitchen — can be addressed. Those three cannot.

03 Writing an offer that actually wins

Price is one variable. The full offer has about fifteen. Strong offers in LA right now usually combine: a competitive price, a 14-21 day close (not the usual 30), a clean inspection contingency or short one, a clean appraisal contingency, and a pre-approval letter from a lender the listing agent has heard of.

Cash buyers win not because they have more money, but because they remove uncertainty. Financed buyers can win the same way: by minimizing what could go wrong between offer-accepted and close. Pre-underwriting (not just pre-approval) is becoming a major edge.

Escalation clauses can help. A line like 'We will pay $5,000 above the highest competing offer up to $1,250,000' tells the seller you are serious without overpaying when you don't have to. They are powerful but easy to misuse — talk through the ceiling with me before you sign.

04 Inspection: where most deals quietly die

Once your offer is accepted, you usually have 10-17 days to do a property inspection and decide whether to proceed. Most homes have ten things wrong with them. Five are normal wear. Three are 'good to know.' Two might be deal-breakers.

The deal-breakers I see most often in LA: foundation issues (especially in hillside homes), galvanized or polybutylene plumbing in older homes that needs full re-piping, electrical panels with Federal Pacific or Zinsco breakers (insurance won't cover the house), and undisclosed unpermitted additions.

Don't panic at a long inspection report. Get a contractor to estimate the cost of the real issues. Then we negotiate: ask for a credit, a repair, or a price reduction. Sellers expect this. Walking away should be reserved for issues that fundamentally change what the home is — not for a leaky faucet.

05 Escrow: the boring part that goes wrong

After inspection contingencies are removed, you are in escrow proper. The lender finalizes underwriting. The title company makes sure no one else has a legal claim on the property. Insurance is bound. Wire instructions are issued.

Wire fraud is the single biggest risk during escrow. Criminals impersonate escrow officers and send fake wire instructions by email. Always call your escrow officer at a number you already have, not one in the email, to confirm wire instructions before sending money. I have personally seen six-figure losses to this — be paranoid here.

Final walk-through happens 24-48 hours before close. Check that anything the seller promised to repair is repaired. Check that nothing has been removed that was supposed to stay (chandeliers, mounted TVs, appliances). Run every faucet. Flip every light switch.

06 Closing day and after

Closing day in California is anticlimactic. You don't sit at a table signing papers (you already did that at the notary a few days earlier). The deed gets recorded at the county, the wire transfers complete, and someone — usually me — hands you the keys.

First thirty days in your new home: change the locks (always), set up homeowner's insurance billing, file the homeowner's exemption with the county assessor (saves you about $70/year on property tax — small but it adds up), and make a list of every small thing that needs attention. The list is for next year, not next weekend.

And then — slowly — the home becomes yours, not the previous owner's. That takes longer than people think.