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
Divorce and Home: Printable Checklists
Printable checklists for keeping the family home, the documents a lender will ask for and moving, with your attorney and advisors alongside.
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.
- Keeping the Home: Refinance and Buyout Checklist (PDF) — Questions and steps to work through, with your attorney and lender, if one spouse keeps the home.
- 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.
Keeping the Home: Refinance and Buyout Checklist
Questions and steps to work through, with your attorney and lender, if one spouse keeps the home. Download the PDF.
Understand the numbers
- Ask an agent for a market value estimate, or order an appraisal.
- Collect the loan statement, property tax bill, insurance and association papers.
- Work out the equity, and ask your attorney how it is to be divided.
Can you keep it?
- Talk to a lender about refinancing in your name alone.
- Budget the full monthly cost on one income: loan, tax, insurance, utilities and upkeep.
- Ask your attorney who is responsible for the current loan until the refinance closes.
Tax and property
- Ask a tax advisor how the transfer between spouses is treated for property tax and for income tax basis.
- Ask the county for the permit history and check for unpermitted work before an appraisal.
- Plan a repair fund so a big repair does not become a crisis.
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.
- Your most recent 30 days of pay stubs.
- If you are self-employed: two years of business returns and a year-to-date profit and loss statement.
- Award letters for pension, Social Security or disability income you want counted.
Assets
- Two months of statements for every bank account, all pages.
- Statements for retirement and investment accounts.
- 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
- Your driver’s license or passport.
- Addresses for the last two years, and a landlord’s contact if you rent.
- Court documents that affect your finances, such as a divorce decree or support order.
- Once you have a contract: the purchase agreement and your homeowners 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.
- Write down the true monthly cost of owning: the loan payment, property tax, homeowners insurance and any association dues or special taxes.
- 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: If your funds or income are abroad, ask a lender which documents they need and how long each takes.
- 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: If you are 55 or older, ask the county assessor whether you could transfer your property-tax base under Proposition 19.
- If you are renting: Set a rent budget and a date to look at buying again; the rent-versus-buy tool compares the two.
- Spend time in the area on a weekday morning, a weekend and an evening, and drive the commute at rush hour.
- 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.
- Price the move itself early: compare movers, check their coverage and use the moving cost planner.
- If you are selling: Order the home’s permit history and gather HOA documents before you list.
- If you are selling: Get a personal market report and a plan for preparing the home.
- Walk or drive the neighborhood and note the shops, parks, and services you would use each week.
Once you are under contract
- Read the seller’s disclosure package closely, including the Transfer Disclosure Statement and the hazard report, and list your questions for your agent.
- 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.
- Order a home inspection and a termite (wood-destroying pest) report soon after the contract is signed; both are customary here.
- Confirm that smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms are installed and the water heater is braced; California requires both at a sale.
Move week
- File your change of address and update it with banks, employers and insurers before move day.
- Walk the home one last time before closing to check repairs, appliances and condition.
- Check that large furniture fits, and reserve the elevator or loading zone if your building requires it.
- Keep the essentials in one box you open first: chargers, medications, important papers and sheets.
Your first 30 days
- After closing, watch the mail for a supplemental tax bill; it is separate from the regular one.
- Coming from another state: Check the DMV: new residents are generally expected to get a California driver’s license within 10 days and register vehicles within 20.
- Register to vote at 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.
- Change or re-key the locks, test the alarms and find the water shut-off 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 a doctor, dentist and vet, and transfer records and prescriptions.
- Coming from elsewhere in California: Look up the pet license, trash, organics recycling and street-sweeping rules for your new address.
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.
- Real Estate Terms for Divorcing Homeowners — 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, Rodrigo Ballon with CrossCountry Mortgage, at 858-735-0255. You are always free to choose any lender you like, and you can verify any lender’s license at nmlsconsumeraccess.org.
Sources
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.