How to sell your home yourself in Los Angeles

No. California is an escrow state, meaning a licensed escrow and title company acts as the neutral third party that holds funds, pays off existing liens, collects the buyer's funds, pays the transfer taxes, and records the deed with the LA County Recorder. You never sit across a table from the buyer for a formal closing. The escrow officer at companies like Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title, or any local independent title firm will walk you through their instructions packet, which replaces the role an attorney plays in states like New York or Florida. You can hire a real estate attorney for contract review if your deal is complicated, but it adds cost without being legally required.

Yes, and the duty is identical to what an agent-assisted seller must provide. California Civil Code 1102 requires the Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS) on any sale of one to four residential units, regardless of whether a licensee is involved. You fill it out yourself by disclosing every known material defect: water intrusion, unpermitted work, neighborhood nuisances, HOA disputes, anything a buyer would consider material. A Natural Hazard Disclosure (NHD) report from a third-party company (typically $100 to $150) is also required and flags whether the property sits in an earthquake fault zone, seismic hazard zone, fire hazard severity zone, or flood zone under state maps. Older Los Angeles homes often also generate a lead-based paint disclosure (for pre-1978 construction). Missing or incomplete disclosures are the most common source of post-sale litigation in California, so do not rush through them.

In Los Angeles custom, the seller pays for the owner's title insurance policy and the buyer pays the lender's title policy (if any). Escrow fees are typically split 50/50, though the purchase agreement can change this. On a $900,000 sale expect roughly $1,500 to $2,500 in escrow fees split between the parties, and the owner's title policy running another $2,000 to $3,000 depending on the insurer. The preliminary title report, which escrow orders early to surface any liens or clouds on title, is usually included in the title fee. Ask for a written fee sheet from the escrow and title company the moment you open escrow so there are no surprises on the closing statement.

A general home inspection by a California-licensed home inspector is nearly universal. Because of the age and topography of LA housing stock, buyers also routinely add a sewer line inspection (a camera scope of the lateral line from house to street, which can reveal root intrusion or failed clay pipe, typically $250 to $400), a wood-destroying pest (termite) inspection required by most lenders, and sometimes a chimney inspection or roof inspection on older homes. In hillside neighborhoods buyers may request a geological or foundation inspection given slope and fill-lot concerns. As the seller, you can order these yourself before listing to eliminate surprises and present a clean disclosure package, which often speeds the contingency period. You are not required to order them, but buyers will almost certainly request them anyway.

Most buyers in Los Angeles search through the CRMLS, the regional MLS that feeds Zillow, Realtor.com, and Redfin. As a homeowner you cannot post directly to the CRMLS, but you can pay a flat-fee MLS service, typically $200 to $500, to list your property and get it into the agent-fed search results. Make sure the service enters your listing in CRMLS, not just a secondary database. For sellers who want to handle the sale independently and avoid commission fees, Anyone.com is a direct-to-buyer platform available in LA that verifies buyers, displays offer badges to filter serious inquiries, and guides you through the closing process. Since LA attracts many out-of-state and international purchasers, a platform spanning multiple countries can expand your reach beyond local agent searches. Yard signs and neighborhood social media still generate local leads in many LA submarkets, but skipping the MLS puts you out of reach of most agent-represented buyers.

Measure ULA thresholds reset every July 1 for inflation. For transactions closing after June 30, 2026, the City of Los Angeles applies a 4% supplemental transfer tax to gross sale prices above $5,400,000 and 5.5% at $10,900,000 or more, per the LA Office of Finance. The prior year (after June 30, 2025) the figures were $5,300,000 and $10,600,000. The tax is calculated on the full sale price once a threshold is crossed, not just the amount above it, and the seller customarily pays it at closing. Because the number changes annually, confirm the threshold that matches your actual closing date on the LA Office of Finance website rather than relying on last year's figure.

Possibly, but you should not count on it. A statewide initiative called the Local Taxpayer Protection Act qualified for the November 3, 2026 California ballot. If it passes, it would cap every municipal real estate transfer tax, including Measure ULA, at 0.05% of the sale price and require two-thirds voter approval for new local taxes. As of mid-2026 the outcome is uncertain and the measure is contested. Until any change is actually in effect, Measure ULA continues to apply at the current rates, so a seller above the threshold should price and plan around the law as it stands and confirm the rate that legally applies on their specific closing date.

It depends heavily on pricing. Redfin reports the citywide median time to sell at about 52 days over the three months ending April 2026, slightly slower than the 49 days a year earlier. Greater LA Realtors data for April 2026, however, shows a 14-day median for single-family homes, reflecting that sharply priced listings move within about two weeks while overpriced ones sit and take cuts. After you accept an offer, opening escrow on a financed deal typically takes another 30 to 45 days to close. So a realistic plan is a few weeks of prep, a marketing window that can be short or long depending on your price, then roughly a month or more in escrow.

For a rough benchmark, Redfin puts the median sale price for the city of Los Angeles near $1.0 million over the three months ending April 2026, down about 1.9% year over year. Greater LA Realtors data for April 2026 shows a median single-family sold price of $1,037,410 and a median condominium price of $699,000 across Greater Los Angeles. These are area-wide medians; LA neighborhoods vary enormously, so the figure that actually matters for pricing is recent sold comps on truly comparable nearby homes, not a citywide or county median.

No. Measure ULA applies only within the City of Los Angeles limits. Homes in separately incorporated cities such as Santa Monica, Pasadena, Burbank, Culver City, or Beverly Hills, and in unincorporated parts of LA County, are not subject to it. That said, some of those cities levy their own high-value transfer taxes on different schedules, so being outside the City of LA does not automatically mean no local transfer tax. Because the city boundary can run mid-block in parts of the region, confirm which jurisdiction your parcel sits in, then check that city's or the county's transfer-tax rules before you price.