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Buying a home in San Francisco, stage by stage
Start wherever you are. Each stage tells you what to do now, which services you can shop for and how much shopping saves, and exactly what comes next.
Stage 1 of 8
Should you buy in San Francisco?
Decide whether owning in San Francisco beats renting for your budget and timeline: rent-vs-buy math, the true monthly cost, a readiness check and a timeline.
Stage 2 of 8
Money and mortgage
How SF buyers save on the mortgage: down payment, DALP and CalHFA help, conforming vs jumbo, underwritten pre-approval, shopping lenders, locks and taxes.
Stage 3 of 8
Your agent and your team
How buyer-agent pay works after the 2024 settlement, how to pick an SF agent, what the agreement commits you to, and the inspectors and attorneys to line up.
Stage 4 of 8
Finding the right home
How to search for a home in San Francisco: neighborhoods, condo vs TIC vs house, the disclosure package, HOA documents and red flags that cost six figures.
Stage 5 of 8
Evaluating the price and making the offer
How to price an SF home from comps instead of the list price, decide each contingency, size an appraisal gap, and handle pre-emptive offers and counters.
Stage 6 of 8
In contract: escrow to closing
What happens between an accepted SF offer and keys: escrow and title customs, inspections, appraisal, insurance in a hard market, closing costs and signing.
Stage 7 of 8
Closing day and moving in
Closing day in San Francisco: recording and keys, seller rent-backs, setting up PG&E, water and Recology, hiring movers, and the papers to keep forever.
Stage 8 of 8
After you buy
Owning in San Francisco after closing: the supplemental tax bill, homeowner exemption, Prop 13 and 19, appeals, insurance, refinancing, renting and selling.
Where shopping around actually saves money
The services where comparing providers changes the price the most. The full shop-and-save list covers every service you'll pay for, by stage. We never take referral fees from any of them.
| Service | Stage | When | Savings from shopping | How to shop it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mortgage lender | Money and mortgage | After your readiness check, before you write offers | High: shop it hard Freddie Mac estimates $600 to $1,200 a year from multiple quotes on typical loan sizes; SF loan sizes are several times larger, so the dollar savings scale accordingly. | Get a fully underwritten pre-approval from two lenders, then request Loan Estimates from three or more (a broker, a bank or credit union, and a direct lender) on the same day and compare rate, Section A fees and lender credits line by line. |
| Jumbo mortgage lender | Money and mortgage | As soon as your target price implies a loan above $1,249,125 | High: shop it hard Jumbo pricing is not standardized the way agency loans are; bank-advertised relationship discounts alone range from an eighth of a point to a full point depending on the balance you bring, and lenders can differ by half a point on the same borrower. | Request same-day quotes from a portfolio bank, a credit union and a mortgage broker for the exact loan amount, and ask each for its relationship pricing tiers, reserve requirement and whether it will also quote a high-balance conforming structure. |
| Buyer's agent (compensation and terms) | Your agent and your team | Before you sign any representation agreement | High: shop it hard A half point on a $1.5 million purchase is $7,500 and a point is $15,000; agreement terms decide whether you can leave a poor fit without owing anything. | Interview three agents, ask each for rate or flat fee, caps, shortfall terms and a non-exclusive trial, and negotiate term, cancellation and protection period in the written agreement. |
| Mortgage lender vs developer preferred lender | Finding the right home | Before you sign the developer's contract, and again before your rate lock | High: shop it hard Freddie Mac's research puts the saving from multiple quotes at roughly $600 to $1,200 a year on typical loan sizes; a quarter point of rate on a $1.2 million loan is about $3,000 a year in interest, which outweighs a modest builder credit within two or three years. | Get the preferred lender's Loan Estimate and three outside Loan Estimates on the same day for the same loan, subtract the builder credit from the preferred lender's costs, then compare rate, Section A fees and lender credits. Send the outside estimates to the preferred lender and ask it to match the rate, or ask an outside lender to match the credit. |
| Mortgage lender for 2-4 units | Finding the right home | Before you tour, so you know whether 5% conventional, FHA, high-balance or jumbo fits the price band | High: shop it hard Freddie Mac's research puts the saving from multiple quotes at roughly $600 to $1,200 a year on typical loan sizes, and the spread is wider on multi-unit files because price adjustments and rent treatment are not standardized; on a 2-4 unit purchase the difference between lenders is often approval versus denial rather than a quarter point. | Request same-day quotes from a mortgage broker, a bank or credit union, and a portfolio lender, for the exact unit count and price. Ask each how it counts the rent schedule, whether it runs the FHA self-sufficiency test up front, what multi-unit and high-balance price adjustments apply, and how many 2-4 unit owner-occupied loans it closed in the past year. |
| General contractor | Finding the right home | Once you have drawings or a written scope, before you set your offer price or remove contingencies | High: shop it hard Bids for identical SF scope routinely differ by tens of thousands of dollars, mostly in allowances, exclusions and how they handle the unknowns in an old house. As of 2026-10-24 there is no published San Francisco benchmark, so three bids on the same drawings are the benchmark. | Get three written bids on the same drawings with the same allowances, verify each license, bond and workers' compensation on the CSLB site, ask who pulls the DBI permit, and check the contractor's recent permit history by address on DBI's records. |
| Homeowners insurance | In contract: escrow to closing | The day you open escrow | High: shop it hard Quotes for the same SF home differ by thousands of dollars a year and some carriers decline outright; shopping is often the difference between an admitted carrier and the FAIR Plan. | Three same-day quotes through at least two channels, a direct carrier and an independent broker, built on identical rebuild cost and deductible inputs. |
| Movers | Closing day and moving in | Two to three weeks before recording, once funding is confirmed | High: shop it hard The spread between the highest and lowest legitimate quote for the same SF move is commonly hundreds to more than a thousand dollars as of 2026-10-24; check current quotes for your size of move. | Get three written not-to-exceed estimates after an in-home or video survey from carriers with a current California MTR license, and compare stair, long-carry, elevator and packing charges plus the valuation coverage, not just the hourly rate. |
| Refinance lender | After you buy | When the closing costs pay back comfortably inside the time you expect to keep the loan | High: shop it hard Freddie Mac puts the saving from multiple quotes at roughly $600 to $1,200 a year on typical loan sizes; a quarter point on a $1.2 million SF loan is about $200 a month. | Three Loan Estimates on the same day for the same loan, including your current servicer, a broker and a bank with relationship pricing; compare Section A fees, credits and the five-year total. |
| Listing agent (when you sell) | After you buy | Three to six months before you plan to list | High: shop it hard Commission and concession are negotiable contract terms; a half point on an SF sale is thousands of dollars, and the preparation and pricing decisions move the result by more than the fee. | Interview three agents with recent closed sales of your property type, compare pricing strategy against comps, the preparation plan and the proposed fee and buyer-agent concession, and get net-proceeds estimates in writing. |
| HOA master insurance (commercial broker) | After you buy | 90 days before the master policy renews, and the day a non-renewal notice arrives | High: shop it hard Quotes for the same building differ by thousands of dollars a year and some brokers reach carriers others cannot; we found no published San Francisco benchmark as of 2026-10-24. The real saving is staying off the FAIR Plan, whose placement costs more and can make every unit non-warrantable. | Have the board send one identical submission (replacement cost estimate, five years of loss runs, roof, electrical and retrofit documentation, the SB 326 report) to three commercial brokers who place condo associations, including one with surplus-lines access, and compare limits, deductible and named exclusions, not just premium. |
| Seismic retrofit contractor | After you buy | Before you accept any bid, and before a grant registration window closes | High: shop it hard Bids for an identical bolt-and-brace or soft-story scope in San Francisco routinely differ by thousands of dollars, and as of 2026-10-25 there is no published SF benchmark; a grant of up to $3,000, or up to $13,000 for a soft-story house, covers part of the lowest sound bid, not the highest. | Give three CSLB-licensed contractors the same standard plan set or engineer's drawings, ask for addresses of recent permitted SF retrofits, and check the Brace + Bolt contractor directory; compare the permit, inspection and engineer's letter line items, not just the total. |