Your Offer Was Accepted. Now What? A Plain-English Guide to Escrow in California.

Getting an offer accepted is one of the best feelings in the home buying process. It is also the moment when a lot of buyers look at their agent and say, okay, so what actually happens now?

What happens is escrow. And if you have never bought a home in California before, the next 30 to 45 days can feel like a blur of paperwork, deadlines, and terminology that nobody bothered to explain. This is my attempt to fix that. Here is what escrow actually is, what happens during each phase, and what your job is at every step.

What Escrow Actually Is

Escrow is the period between when your offer is accepted and when you legally become the owner of the property. During that time, a neutral third party called an escrow company holds your funds, manages the paperwork, and makes sure every condition of the sale is satisfied before money and ownership change hands.

The simplest way I know to describe it: think of escrow as a structured handoff. The buyer does their inspections and due diligence, the lender processes the loan, the title company verifies that the seller actually owns the property free and clear, and at the end, when everything checks out, the keys go to the buyer and the money goes to the seller. Escrow is the container all of that happens inside.

Day One: Opening Escrow

Once your offer is accepted, your agent sends the signed purchase agreement to the escrow company, which officially opens escrow. Within three business days you will typically wire your earnest money deposit, usually somewhere between one and three percent of the purchase price. That money is held safely by the escrow company and applied toward your down payment at closing. It is also what signals to the seller that you are serious.

This is also when you will want to formally lock your interest rate with your lender if you have not already, since your loan contingency clock has started.

The Inspection Period

California's standard purchase contract gives buyers 17 days for their contingency periods, though that timeline is often negotiated up or down depending on the market. The inspection contingency is the most critical piece of the first week or two.

A general home inspection is the starting point for almost every transaction. In Petaluma and Sonoma County, most buyers also do a pest inspection. Depending on the property, you might add a sewer lateral inspection, a roof inspection, or a chimney inspection. Your agent should help you figure out what makes sense for the specific home you are buying.

Once the inspections are done, you have three choices: accept the property in its current condition, ask the seller for repairs or a credit, or cancel the contract and get your deposit back if something significant came up. How you handle this phase is one of the places where having a good agent makes the most tangible difference.

The Appraisal

If you are financing the purchase, your lender will order an appraisal. A licensed appraiser visits the property, reviews recent comparable sales in the area, and delivers an opinion of value. If the appraisal comes in at or above your purchase price, you move forward. If it comes in below the purchase price, you will need to either negotiate with the seller, cover the difference out of pocket, or in some cases, walk away.

In a relatively stable market like Petaluma today, appraisals are generally coming in without drama. In the peak years when buyers were routinely offering six figures over asking, low appraisals were a much bigger issue. Still worth understanding how it works before you are in the middle of it.

Loan Approval and Clearing Conditions

While your inspections are happening, your lender is working on the back end to process your loan. They will ask for documents along the way: bank statements, pay stubs, tax returns, sometimes a letter explaining something in your financial history. Respond to these requests quickly. Loan processing delays are one of the most common reasons closings get pushed back, and they are almost always preventable.

Eventually your lender will issue a clear to close, which means the loan is fully approved and ready to fund. That is the signal everyone on the transaction has been waiting for.

What the Title Company Is Doing

Alongside everything else, the title company is researching the property's ownership history to confirm that the seller has the legal right to sell it and that there are no liens, judgments, or other claims that could cause problems after you close. You will receive a preliminary title report early in escrow. Your agent should walk through this with you and flag anything that needs attention.

The Final Week

About a week before your scheduled close date, your lender will send you a Closing Disclosure, which is a detailed breakdown of every number in the transaction. Read it carefully. If anything looks different from what you were expecting, ask about it before you are sitting at the signing table.

A day or two before closing, you will do a final walk-through of the property to confirm that the condition has not changed and that any agreed-upon repairs were completed. Then you will sign the loan documents, either at the escrow office or with a mobile notary. Bring your ID and be ready to sign a lot of papers.

After signing, your lender wires the loan funds to escrow. The escrow company pays the seller, sends the deed to the county recorder, and when it records, you own the home. Keys are typically handed over the same day.

A Few Things That Catch People Off Guard

Wire fraud is real. Before you wire any money to escrow, call the escrow company directly to confirm the wiring instructions. Use a phone number you look up on your own, not one from an email. This is not hypothetical; real estate transactions are one of the most targeted areas for wire fraud scams and people lose significant money to it every year.

The close date can shift. It is not unusual for a closing to move by a day or two because the lender needs a little more time or a document needs to be re-signed. It is usually not a big deal, but do not schedule a moving truck for the morning of your close date.

Your participation matters. Escrow requires you to be engaged, responsive, and on top of deadlines. Buyers who stay in the loop and respond to requests quickly almost always have smoother closings than buyers who go quiet and assume things are taking care of themselves.

The Short Version

Escrow is less mysterious than it sounds. The 30 to 45 days between accepted offer and close goes by fast, especially when you have a good agent and a responsive lender keeping things moving. If you know what to expect at each stage, you can focus on the parts that actually need your attention instead of worrying about the parts that are running in the background.

If you have questions about how this process works for a specific property or situation in Petaluma, that is exactly the kind of conversation I am happy to have.