A checklist works best when it is in your hand. These are ours, one for each part of the job, ready to download and print. They follow the same order the steps come in, and each one leaves room for your own notes.
Printable Checklists
Selling or Leaving the Family Home: Printable Checklists
Printable checklists for selling the family home, the documents a lender will ask for and moving. General information, not legal or tax advice.
Download the checklists
Each checklist is a one- or two-page PDF that prints cleanly. The same lists appear below, so you can read them here first.
- Selling the Family Home Checklist (PDF) — Steps for a sale during or after a divorce, with your attorney and advisors alongside.
- Documents to Gather for Your Lender (PDF) — The papers most lenders ask for, so you are ready when the request arrives.
- Moving to San Diego County: A Checklist (PDF) — Practical steps for a move, from three to six months out to your first 30 days.
Selling the Family Home Checklist
Steps for a sale during or after a divorce, with your attorney and advisors alongside. Download the PDF.
Before you decide
- Ask for a market report so both spouses see the same numbers.
- Ask your attorney about timing and who must sign the listing and sale documents.
- Ask a tax advisor how the home sale exclusion applies to each of you.
Getting ready
- Collect the property documents in one folder.
- Decide which repairs are worth doing and who pays for them.
- Set showing times that respect everyone living in the home.
The sale
- Complete the seller disclosures together, carefully and completely.
- Review offers on price and terms, including timing and any rent-back.
- Give escrow written instructions on how the proceeds are divided, as the settlement provides.
Moving on
- Schedule the move and update your address everywhere.
- Save the closing papers for your taxes.
- If a purchase is next, meet a lender first.
Documents to Gather for Your Lender
The papers most lenders ask for, so you are ready when the request arrives. Download the PDF.
Income
- Two years of tax returns and the W-2s or 1099s that go with them.
- Pay stubs for the last 30 days.
- If you are self-employed: two years of business returns and a year-to-date profit and loss statement.
- Letters that show pension, Social Security or disability income.
Assets
- Complete statements, all pages, for the last two months from each bank account.
- Recent retirement and investment account statements.
- If family is helping with the down payment: a signed gift letter and the transfer records.
- A written explanation for any large deposit.
Identity and history
- A government photo ID.
- Two years of addresses, and your landlord’s contact information.
- Court documents that affect your finances, such as a divorce decree or support order.
- When you have an accepted offer, send the contract and an insurance quote.
Moving to San Diego County: A Checklist
Practical steps for a move, from three to six months out to your first 30 days. Download the PDF.
Three to six months out
- Talk with a lender and get pre-approved so your budget is real.
- Do not stop at the mortgage payment; add tax, insurance, HOA dues and any special assessments to see the real monthly figure.
- Coming from another state: Ask a CPA how a move to California changes your income taxes, especially if you are coming from a state without an income tax.
- Coming from another country: Start gathering the identification, income and bank records a U.S. lender will want, and ask how money from another country is documented.
- If you are selling; Coming from elsewhere in California: If you own a home now, decide whether your purchase depends on its sale, and estimate the proceeds.
- If you are selling; Coming from elsewhere in California: Ask the assessor about Proposition 19 before you list, if you are 55 or older, severely disabled or a disaster victim.
- If you are renting: Decide what you can pay in rent and when to revisit buying, with the rent-versus-buy tool.
- See the area on a weekday morning, a weekend and after dark before you commit.
- Coming from another state: Check for air conditioning: it is not universal in older coastal homes.
One to three months out
- Estimate closing costs and the cash you will need at escrow with the closing cost tool.
- Request written quotes from a few movers, try the moving cost planner and confirm what their insurance covers.
- If you are selling: Assemble permits, HOA documents and repair receipts so a buyer’s file is complete.
- If you are selling: Ask for a personal market report, then plan repairs, staging and photos.
- Learn the neighborhood: groceries, parks, pharmacies and the routes you will actually use.
Once you are under contract
- Work through the Transfer Disclosure Statement and the Natural Hazard Disclosure with your agent and flag anything to inspect.
- Ask for the HOA’s CC&Rs, budget, reserves and meeting minutes, and read them before your contingencies end.
- Do not remove contingencies until you have seen an insurance quote for the home.
- At escrow you will sign the loan papers and a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report, which goes to the county assessor.
- Schedule the inspection and the pest (termite) report as soon as the contract is signed.
- Ask about smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms and water-heater bracing, which California requires to be in place at a sale.
Move week
- Forward your mail with the postal service and update your address with your bank, employer, insurers and subscriptions.
- Walk through the home before you sign to confirm repairs, appliances and overall condition.
- Measure doors, stairs and rooms for big furniture, and ask your HOA or building about moving-truck rules.
- Pack a first-night box with chargers, medications, documents, bedding and a few tools.
Your first 30 days
- Watch for the supplemental tax bill California sends after a purchase; it is separate from the regular bill.
- Coming from another state: Put a DMV visit on your calendar; new California residents are generally expected to license drivers and register vehicles quickly.
- Update your voter registration with your new address.
- Coming from another country: Set up banking and start a U.S. credit history; a lender can explain the steps.
- If you are renting: Read the lease for notice, deposit and renewal terms, and keep a copy.
- Re-key or change the locks, test the alarms, and locate the shut-offs and the electrical panel.
- Set up utilities and internet ahead of move day and find out what a typical year of bills looks like.
- Find local health care providers and a vet and move your records over.
- Coming from elsewhere in California: License pets with the city or county and learn the trash, recycling and street-sweeping schedules.
How to use them
- Print, or keep on your phone. The checkboxes work on paper; on a phone, the PDF opens in your reader.
- Skip what does not apply. Not every item fits every home or every move.
- Ask for the personal version. Rudy can add the dates, the addresses and the local details for your own plan.
Common questions
Are the checklists free?
Yes. Print as many copies as you like.
Are they legal or tax advice?
No. They are general orientation from a real estate agent. Your lender, an attorney and a tax professional advise on those questions.
How current are they?
They are redrawn when the wording changes, and each PDF shows the month it was prepared.
Keep exploring
- The guide — The whole process, step by step.
- Closing cost estimator — Estimate the cash to close.
- Moving cost planner — Estimate the cost of the move.
- A Divorce and Home Glossary in Plain English — The terms in plain English.
Talk to a lender. Rates, loan programs and approvals come from lenders, not from websites or real estate agents. Talk to your own mortgage broker, or use our preferred lender, Point Mortgage Corporation (NMLS #231073), at (619) 475-4095. You are always free to choose any lender you like, and you can verify any lender’s license at nmlsconsumeraccess.org.
General information for orientation, not legal, tax, financial or appraisal advice. Details change; confirm anything that matters with the official source, your lender and your agent.