the inland empire
We buy houses in San Bernardino County.
From the older neighbourhoods of San Bernardino and Redlands out through Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga and Highland.
Cities we cover
San Bernardino, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands and Highland.
Not listed? Send the address anyway. The line on a map matters less than the drive.
What’s different here
The housing stock varies enormously by decade here, which matters for what's behind the walls: galvanised plumbing, aluminium wiring and panels that no longer pass inspection are all common in the older parts of the county.
The local details
How San Bernardino actually works when you sell.
The courthouse, the recorder, the tax line and the housing stock: the specifics that decide how a San Bernardino sale really goes.
Recording a deed
The Assessor–Recorder–Clerk records at the Hall of Records in San Bernardino, publishes a fee calculator, and supports same-day e-recording through authorised submitters, which in an ordinary escrow means the deed records the day of closing. Budget for the state’s $75-per-document Building Homes and Jobs Act fee on non-sale recordings; it surprises people doing family transfers.
Transfer tax
Documentary transfer tax is the standard $0.55 per $500 of price, and none of the cities we buy in (San Bernardino, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Highland) levy a city tax on top.
Probate here
Since February 2024, probate isn’t heard in downtown San Bernardino at all: decedents’ estates are filed and heard at the Fontana and Victorville districts. Probate notes, the examiner’s to-fix list for your petition, post to the court’s online portal two weeks before the hearing, and clearing them before the date is the difference between one hearing and three.
The housing stock
The valley floor tells its age in decades: prewar and postwar bungalows in central San Bernardino and older Redlands, 1960s–70s ranches through Highland and the mid-city, and 1980s-onward tract across Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga. The older half is where inspection findings cluster: galvanised supply lines, aluminium branch wiring from the late ’60s and ’70s, and Federal Pacific panels that insurers increasingly refuse outright.
What kills deals here
In the High Desert (Phelan, Piñon Hills, the unincorporated fringe), water and waste are private: wells, septic tanks, and a county health department that wants a percolation test on file before a septic permit moves. Financed buyers routinely lose weeks to well tests and septic certifications, which is why cash matters more up there than down the hill. On the valley floor it’s the older-stock trio above (plumbing, wiring, panels) that resets buyers’ numbers at inspection.
Sources: SB County Assessor-Recorder-Clerk · Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino · SB County Environmental Health septic FAQ. Figures checked August 2026; we re-verify quarterly.
Situations
What we handle in San Bernardino.
San Bernardino questions
Straight answers.
San Bernardino, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands and Highland, plus the smaller communities around them. If you're not sure whether you're in range, send the address and we'll tell you in one message.
Yes. That's most of what we do. Condition changes the number, not whether we're interested.
Usually within a few days. We batch trips to the area, so tell us your timing and we will work around it.
Have a house in San Bernardino?
Send the address and we'll come look at it in person.