Taxes & Liens

If you have owned and lived in your California home for at least two of the last five years, you can exclude up to $250,000 to $500,000 of profit from capital gains tax.

Five kinds of claims can attach to a California house — a contractor’s lien, a judgment lien, a tax lien, an HOA lien, or a Medi-Cal estate recovery claim. Here is what each one actually requires.

A California quitclaim deed transfers whatever interest the signer happens to have, with no warranty of any kind. It does not touch the mortgage, and it can quietly make a house harder to sell.

A quiet title action is a lawsuit asking a California court to declare who owns a property and wipe out competing claims. Not every cloud on title requires one, and the alternatives are usually faster.

Yes — escrow pays the county out of your proceeds at closing. The bigger question is whether you need to sell at all, because California gives residential owners five years of tax default before the tax collector gains the power to sell.

Yes. Liens are paid out of your proceeds at closing rather than out of pocket beforehand. What matters is which lien you have, because several California lien types expire on their own — and sellers routinely pay ones that had already lapsed.