San Bernardino · Sell as-is
Sell a house as‑is in San Bernardino County.
Half this county’s housing tells its age at inspection: wiring, panels, plumbing. We price it like the builders we are and skip the theatre.
The as-is call from San Bernardino County usually starts the same way: the house is solid, but something an inspector will write in bold has surfaced. Aluminium branch wiring from the ’60s and ’70s. A Federal Pacific panel the insurer suddenly won’t cover. Galvanised supply lines running rusty. In the older halves of San Bernardino, Redlands and Highland these aren’t defects so much as the era, and financed buyers’ lenders and insurers have grown allergic to all three.
We buy the era on purpose. The renovation plan already includes the rewire or the repipe, so the offer doesn’t collapse when the inspection tells us what we already priced.
Where we buy in San Bernardino
San Bernardino, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands and Highland, plus the smaller communities around them.
Not listed? Send the address anyway: the line on a map matters less than the drive.
The ground rules
- No repairs, no cleaning out, no showings
- One walkthrough, not an inspector parade
- One number, with the math shown
- We don’t assign contracts. If it doesn’t close, we buy it ourselves.
The local details
What’s specific to San Bernardino.
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.
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.
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.
Sources: SB County Environmental Health septic FAQ · SB County Assessor-Recorder-Clerk. Figures checked August 2026; we re-verify quarterly.
On the ground
Valley floor and High Desert are different sales
Down the hill, the sale is straightforward: e-recording works same-day through the title company, city stock is on city services, and with clean title we close in about two weeks. Up the Cajon Pass it’s a different transaction: wells, septic, and a county health department that wants a percolation test on file before septic permits move. Financed buyers routinely lose escrow weeks to well flow tests and septic certifications; cash exists to skip exactly that queue, and it’s much of why we’re useful to High Desert sellers.
Either side of the pass, what you don’t do is fix anything first. The number reflects the house as it stands, and the math behind it is on the table, not behind a curtain.
Worth saying plainly: this county gets treated as the region’s discount bin by out-of-area buyers, and owners get offers priced off that prejudice rather than off the actual house. Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga carry real values; Redlands has streets that outprice parts of San Diego. We price the house and the street it’s actually on, and we show the comps we used, which makes lazy lowballing impossible to disguise, including ours.
What to have handy for the first call, none of it mandatory: roughly what you owe on the house, any insurance or inspection paperwork from recent years, and a sense of your ideal date to be done. That’s it. The walkthrough needs no preparation at all. We have seen every version of “I didn’t have time to clean,” and we are not grading.
How it goes
The same three steps, San Bernardino timing.
01 · The conversation
Ten minutes on the phone. What the property is and what’s happening around it. You talk to us, not a call centre.
02 · One walkthrough
Within a few days, valley or High Desert. Tell us your timing and we’ll route the trip around it. Half an hour, no cleaning or repairs first.
03 · One number
With the math shown: finished value, work budget, margin, and a closing date you choose.
San Bernardino questions
Straight answers.
Yes. Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels are a known quantity for us; the panel swap is in our renovation budget before we ever see yours. Your sale doesn’t need the insurer’s blessing; our purchase doesn’t either.
Less than it slows anyone else. County health wants its paperwork (percolation records for septic work, and buyers typically want well tests), but as a cash buyer we’re not waiting on a lender’s checklist. We test for our own information and close on schedule.
Transfer tax is $0.55 per $500 with no city add-ons in the cities we buy in, escrow and title fees are negotiated in the offer, and there are no commissions because nobody is brokering anything. The offer states who pays what, in writing.
We will, with eyes open. The county takes contamination and unpermitted electrical work seriously, and remediation orders follow the property, so the price reflects testing, cleanup and the electrical repair honestly. The rare cases we can’t buy are the ones where title or health-order problems can’t be cleared; we’ll tell you which case you’re in after the walkthrough, not after a contract.
Nearby
The same situation, county by county.
Other situations in San Bernardino
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