Assembling your team

This chapter is for anyone getting ready to buy in San Francisco who wants to know which professionals to line up, in what order, and what each one costs. Buying here moves fast: offer dates usually land 7–14 days after a listing goes live, buyers often drop their contingencies (the conditions that let you back out), and there's no time to find an inspector after the fact. So put your team together before you start touring. The rules for hiring and paying a buyer's agent also changed in 2024–25, and many first-time buyers haven't heard yet.

Who you'll need

Role	When to hire	Typical cost	Required?
Buyer's agent	Before touring	About 2.5% in SF (negotiable; the seller may or may not cover it)	Effectively, for MLS tours
Lender(s)	1–3 months before touring	Origination/points, appraisal	Unless you're paying cash
CPA / financial planner	3–12 months before	Hourly or flat (often four figures)	No, but essential with equity
Home inspector / contractor walk-through	Per property, before the offer date	~$500–$1,500 per walk-through (varies)	No
Real-estate attorney	As needed	Hourly or flat review fee	No (CA is an escrow state)
TIC attorney	Before any TIC offer	Flat review fee	Strongly advised for TICs
Insurance broker	Before the offer date	Paid by carriers	You must bind coverage to close with a loan
Escrow / title	At acceptance (usually picked by the parties)	Per rate sheet	Yes

Cost ranges are rough, practitioner-reported ballparks. Get quotes.

Hiring a buyer's agent after the NAR settlement

What changed

The MLS (multiple listing service) is the shared database agents use to list homes for sale. NAR is the National Association of Realtors, and a 2024 legal settlement changed how its members work with buyers.

1. The NAR settlement (effective Aug 17, 2024): MLS participants must have a written agreement with you before touring a home. Offers of buyer-broker compensation can no longer appear on the MLS, though they can still be negotiated off-MLS, and sellers can still offer general concessions.
2. California AB 2992 (effective Jan 1, 2025) wrote this into state law:
   • A written buyer-representation agreement is required for the agent to get paid. It must be signed as soon as practicable, and no later than when you sign an offer.
   • The agreement must state the compensation (percentage, flat fee or hourly), the services, when payment is due, and an expiration date no more than 3 months out.
   • Automatic renewals are prohibited. A renewal must be signed and dated again.
   • Violations are licensing issues for the agent with the DRE (California Department of Real Estate).
3. Forms: the standard California form is C.A.R.'s BRBC (Buyer Representation and Broker Compensation Agreement). SFAR, the San Francisco Association of Realtors, added a Buyer Broker Compensation Addendum so your offer can ask the seller to cover your agent's fee.

What it costs

Under the contract, the commission is clearly negotiable and clearly your obligation.

• In San Francisco, buyer's agents typically charge about 2.5% of the price, according to local agents. That's $37,500 on a $1.5M condo and $75,000 on a $3M house. Nobody publishes an official SF figure, so treat 2.5% as the usual starting point for your negotiation, not a fixed rate.
• The seller may or may not pay it. Many SF listing agents still have the seller cover buyer-side pay, and you can ask for that in your offer (SFAR's Buyer Broker Compensation Addendum is the form for that). It's a habit, not a rule. Whatever the seller doesn't cover, you owe under your written buyer-broker agreement, so the offer price and how much you ask the seller to pay are really one negotiation.
• For context, national averages run a bit lower. Redfin put the U.S. average at about 2.4% in 2025, and about 2.2% on $1M+ homes.

Some quick math: 2.5% of $5M is $125,000. On a high-priced home, your agent's work (pricing comparisons, early read from the listing agent, sorting through disclosures, managing escrow) doesn't grow in step with the price.

How to pick an agent

Ask for the last 10 deals they represented buyers on: neighborhood, list price, sale price, days on market, and whether the offer was contingent. Homes closed at about 124% of list in August 2026, so you want an agent who can tell you what a listing will really sell for. They should also know the listing agents in the neighborhoods you like. Then ask:

• How do you estimate where a listing will actually trade, and how close were you on your last 5?
• How many offers did you write last year, and how many won?
• Do you get pre-offer feedback from listing agents, and how?
• Which inspectors, contractors, lenders and attorneys do you use, and do you get any referral benefit?
• How do you handle pre-emptive offers?
• Have you closed TICs, 2–4 unit buildings or new-construction condos (whichever you're targeting)?
• Who actually shows up: you or a junior team member?

Lenders

Most SF purchases above about $1.56M with 20% down need a jumbo loan, meaning one bigger than the government-backed limit (the SF conforming limit is $1,249,125 for 2026). Each lender sets its own jumbo rules, so the one you pick can decide whether you qualify at all, not just your rate. Get quotes from at least:

• A private bank (JPMorgan/First Republic, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Goldman, UBS, BofA/Merrill, Wells). They offer better pricing if you bring them your other accounts, plus interest-only (IO) loans, loans backed by your investments, and more flexibility if much of your pay comes as company stock. Expect them to ask you to move assets.
• A credit union (SF Federal CU, Patelco, Redwood CU, First Tech, Provident, Meriwest). Competitive ARMs (adjustable-rate mortgages) and IO loans, and TIC loans at some.
• A mortgage broker. They shop many wholesale jumbo lenders, which helps if your income is complicated.

Ask each one the same questions: what reserves (savings left after closing) they require, their ARM caps and margins, and whether they'll pre-clear a condo building. Get a fully underwritten approval rather than a pre-qualification, because you'll probably waive the loan contingency. Full detail is in Mortgages for tech buyers.

Inspectors and your own contractor

SF listings usually come with a pre-inspection packet: pest, general, and often roof and sewer scope reports paid for by the seller. You still want your own experts. Their job shifts to reading the seller's reports and walking the house before the offer date, because once you waive contingencies, it's too late.

Who to have on call:

• A general home inspector who'll do a quick pre-offer walk-through and read the seller's reports.
• A licensed pest/structural-pest inspector for a second opinion on Section 1 work (active damage, like termites or dry rot, that needs fixing now).
• A general contractor who can put prices on the problems the reports flag. A tour with a contractor tells you more than a perfect PDF.
• A structural engineer for foundation concerns, hillside lots, or anything with "settlement" in the report.
• Specialists as needed: roofer →, plumber/sewer →, electrician →, foundation contractor →.

Real-estate attorneys: optional in California, sometimes worth it anyway

California is an escrow state. Agents use standard forms (the SFAR Purchase Agreement or C.A.R.'s RPA), and escrow and title companies handle the closing. A plain single-family or condo purchase doesn't require an attorney, and most SF buyers don't hire one. Hire one when:

• You're buying a TIC (tenancy-in-common, where you co-own a building with others; see below).
• The building has tenants (questions about OMI, or owner move-in evictions, and Ellis Act evictions, tenant estoppel letters, Rent Board history). See Property types.
• There's an unwarranted unit (one built without permits), a boundary or easement issue, or an unusual title exception.
• You're co-buying with friends or a partner and need a co-ownership agreement (buyout formula, exit, death or disability).
• You want someone to review the contract terms your agent proposes, especially non-standard addenda.

TIC attorneys

A TIC purchase makes you a party to a TIC agreement, which sets the rules among co-owners for default, sale, renovation and disputes. Some are well written and some aren't. A specialized SF TIC attorney (a small group of firms handles most of the city's TICs) should review:

• the agreement itself, including default remedies and right-of-first-refusal terms
• the fractional loan structure, or any group loan
• the building's eviction history (which can block condo conversion and owner move-ins)
• any conversion claims

Ask for the review as a flat fee, and schedule it before the offer date.

CPA or financial planner

If you're using savings, a family gift or a 401(k) loan for your down payment, a CPA can still help you plan the timing and paperwork. If part of your pay is company stock, a CPA matters even more: for many of these buyers, the biggest money mistake is how they fund the house, more than what they pay for it. Selling concentrated stock can cost about 37% in combined federal and CA long-term gains tax for top-bracket CA residents, and about 54% for short-term gains. Exercising ISOs (incentive stock options) can trigger AMT (alternative minimum tax) in the same year you need the most cash.

A fee-only planner (paid hourly or a flat fee, not commissions) can help you weigh a bigger down payment at roughly 7%+ jumbo rates against keeping more of your money invested. That's personal advice, which this guide can't give.

Insurance broker

Lenders won't let you close a financed purchase until homeowners insurance is in place. In 2026's California market, get quotes during your due diligence, before you win. SF isn't a wildfire hotspot, so coverage is far easier to get here than in the hills. Still, high-value and older homes often need specialty high-net-worth insurers, and their interest in California comes and goes. An independent broker can shop several insurers, including for earthquake coverage (CEA or private). For condos, they should also review the HOA (homeowners association) master policy and suggest loss-assessment coverage. See Insurance & earthquakes.

Escrow and title

Escrow and title officers are neutral. They hold the money, clear title and record the deed. By SF custom, the buyer typically pays for the owner's title policy and usually the escrow fee, and the seller typically pays city transfer tax. All of it is negotiable. Details are in Escrow to keys.

The order to hire them in

Sources & verification›

• NAR settlement information — San Francisco Association of REALTORS®
• California's new requirements for buyer-broker representation agreements — Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, 2024
• AB 2992: buyer-broker representation agreements — CalMatters Digital Democracy
• What licensees need to know: changes to buyer representation — California Mortgage Association, Jan 2025
• The BRBC form: what Bay Area buyers need to know — Seb Frey
• Buyer's agent commissions tick up to pre-NAR-settlement levels — Redfin via Business Wire, Aug 2025
• Redfin: buyer's agent commissions stable after NAR settlement — HousingWire
• California conforming loan limits — JVM Lending, 2026
• Restricted stock units employment income (B3-3.3-07) — Fannie Mae, Mar 2026
• More TIC lender choices — Inside SF RE
• San Francisco real estate market report, September 2026 — Mark McHale / Vanguard, Sep 2026
• Closing costs in San Francisco: who pays what — The Lederer Team