Evaluate what you can't see.

The seller's package is not the county's file

California sellers fill out a disclosure form — the TDS — about what they know: the leak they fixed, the fence dispute, the remodel. Read every word. But it has a ceiling: a seller cannot disclose what they never knew. The garage converted two owners ago, the fault zone mapped under the block, the fire-severity zone on the state's map — none of that depends on the seller's memory. It sits in county and state records.

The expensive surprises in Bay Area deals live in that gap: unpermitted square footage, an address no carrier wants to insure, a condo project lenders have flagged. The seller's package can be clean — honestly clean — and the problem is still there.

One more reason not to lean on the package: sometimes there barely is one. California generally exempts certain sales from the statutory disclosure form — many trust sales by a successor trustee who never lived in the house, probate sales, bank-owned homes (Civil Code 1102.2). Those are exactly the houses nobody has lived in recently and nobody knows the quirks of. A thin package isn't a red flag by itself; it's a signal to inspect harder, because the records are most of what you get.

Get the insurance quote before the inspection

The sequencing change that matters most in 2025–26: on a hillside or wildland-edge property, the thing that kills the deal is no longer the inspection. It's the insurance quote. If no carrier will write the house — or will only write it at a price that breaks your budget — you can't close a financed purchase, and neither can the next financed buyer when you resell.

The scale of this is public. As of June 2026 the California FAIR Plan — the state's insurer of last resort — reports 696,562 policies in force and $768 billion of exposure, per its own statistics page. And a FAIR Plan policy is a fire policy, not a homeowners policy: the plan itself points buyers to a Difference in Conditions policy for the perils it doesn't cover. If a house is headed for the FAIR Plan, price both policies before you commit.

So sequence it: a quote by phone before the second showing, a written bindable quote before you release any contingency — never after. On a house that was never going to be insurable, that phone call just saved you the inspection fee.

The order of operations

Every check below can end a deal. The free ones end more deals than the paid ones — so a careful agent runs them in cost order and doesn't spend a dollar of yours until the house has survived everything that's free. The order is the method:

Does the paper match the house?

Permit history is free almost everywhere — sjpermits.org in San Jose, the building department's portal in most cities. San Francisco is the paid exception: the 3R report runs $388.48 ordered online and takes 7–10 business days as of mid-2026, per sf.gov, and it covers building permits only — plumbing and electrical are a separate search. Order it the day you get serious, not the week contingencies come due.

The classic tell is a counting exercise: the record says two units and you toured three, or the assessor's square footage stops a room short of the listing. That's unpermitted work. It isn't automatically a dealbreaker — it's a price, plus a risk: Fannie Mae requires the appraiser to comment on additions without permits, and a carrier can dispute a claim on square footage the county doesn't know exists. The one thing you can't do is find out after close.

The permit file also answers the earthquake question. If the house is wood-framed, built before 1980, and sitting on a raised foundation, assume it needs a brace-and-bolt retrofit until a permit shows the work was done. The state program's own figures (CRMP):

• Brace and bolt — pre-1980, raised foundation

  Program-published contractor cost of $3,000–$7,000; grants up to $3,000 when registration is open.

• Soft story — pre-2000, living space over the garage

  Typically $15,000–$28,000 per the program; grants up to 75% of cost, capped at $13,000, in a limited pilot area.

Grant registration opens only part of the year and isn't guaranteed. Price the retrofit into your offer; treat any grant as a bonus.

Condos: you're entitled to the file — use it

On a condo or HOA property, California law makes the seller hand you the association's paperwork — Civil Code 4525 — including the latest structural inspection report under the balcony-inspection law and, on request, the last 12 months of board minutes. You are not asking a favor. Read the minutes first: boards discuss the roof, the lawsuit, and the special assessment long before any of it reaches a disclosure form.

Then the highest-leverage free check in condo buying: before anyone orders the appraisal, have your lender run the project through Fannie Mae's Condo Project Manager. If the project is flagged — unfunded repairs, litigation, insurance gaps — conventional financing is off the table no matter how strong your own file is. Five minutes of your lender's time decides whether the appraisal fee is worth spending.

The tax bill Google gets wrong

Search a county's “effective property tax rate” and you'll find numbers like 0.65%. That's an average across every owner — including people whose assessments date to 1978. Under Prop 13, your assessment resets to your purchase price, so your bill runs off the full nominal rate: roughly 1% plus voter-approved bonds and direct charges. Budget on the effective rate and you'll be off by about half.

Then comes the bill no monthly-payment estimate includes: the supplemental. Worked example — close in September 2026 on a Santa Clara County house at $1,950,000 (the county's June 2026 median, per C.A.R.), where the seller's old assessed value was $400,000:

• Your new ongoing tax: about $19,500 a year at an illustrative 1% base rate — before bonds and direct charges.

• A one-time supplemental bill of roughly $12,865: the $1,550,000 jump in assessed value, taxed and prorated for a September change under the state's monthly schedule.

• Your escrow impound was funded off the seller's old $4,000-a-year bill — so the supplemental arrives months after close, as its own bill, outside your mortgage payment.

Budget the supplemental as cash. For the real number on a specific parcel, read that parcel's current bill on the county portal — rates vary by tax-rate area. And planning around Prop 19, family transfers, or how you take title is a CPA-and-attorney conversation, not a guide.

When to walk — and how to waive

Some findings aren't negotiation openers; they're exits. From the checks above, the ones that should end a tour:

• The record shows fewer units than you toured — appraisal, insurance, and financing risk stacked on one line.

• No carrier will produce a bindable quote. You can't close financed, and neither can your eventual buyer.

• The condo project is flagged in CPM with unfunded critical repairs — the buyer pool collapses to cash.

• A mapped active-fault trace under the building footprint. State law constrains what can ever be built there.

• The seller won't produce HOA documents the law entitles you to. Assume the reason is in them.

And if you're waiving an inspection contingency to compete — a Bay Area reality — waive with your eyes open:

• Inspect before you offer. SF and Peninsula listings usually release the disclosure package and seller-ordered reports up front; read everything before the waiver, so it's informed rather than blind.

• Ask direct questions in writing. Generally, California law does not protect an intentional misrepresentation made in response to a direct inquiry — a written question changes the seller's position.

• Waive the contingency, not the inspection. Give up the right to cancel if you must; keep the right to look.

Waiving a contingency generally waives your contractual exit, not the seller's statutory disclosure duties — but the law also expects reasonable care from you, and skipping an inspection that would have found the problem weakens your position. What a specific waiver means in a specific contract is an attorney question.

Common questions

Why is home insurance hard to get in the Bay Area hills?

Carriers have pulled back from fire-exposed areas, pushing hillside homes toward the FAIR Plan — 696,562 policies in force as of June 2026, per the plan's own statistics. The practical answer: get a written bindable quote before you release contingencies, because on these houses the quote, not the inspection, is what kills deals.

What does a non-warrantable condo mean?

A project that fails Fannie Mae's rules — unfunded critical repairs, litigation, insurance gaps, too much commercial space — so conventional loans won't fund there, whatever your own finances look like. Have your lender run the project in Fannie Mae's Condo Project Manager before paying for an appraisal; it's free.

How much is the supplemental property tax bill in California?

Roughly the gap between the seller's old assessed value and your purchase price, taxed at about 1% plus local add-ons and prorated by your closing month. On a $1,950,000 Santa Clara County purchase over a $400,000 old assessment, a September close produces a one-time bill around $12,865 — arriving months after close, outside your mortgage payment.

Do trust and probate sales require seller disclosures in California?

Generally no — Civil Code 1102.2 exempts several categories, including many trust, probate, and bank-owned sales, from the statutory disclosure form. Expect a thin package on those listings and lean harder on county records and your own inspections.

The order is the method: free checks first, money later — and never an inspection fee on a house the insurance market already declined.

General information for Bay Area buyers, not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Statutes and program figures are cited as of July 2026; confirm current terms with the agency, your lender, and your carrier.