Skip to content
Margie Lupo
Margie Lupo

Insights · Guides · Community

The Brentwood Blog

Market notes and the questions clients keep asking, written from my desk in Trilogy.

In this collectionAll posts55+ LivingBuyingLocal GuideMarket UpdateSelling

12 guides in Buying

A two-story home above a grassy slope and rock-lined shore, with a wooden dock and a small white boat on a calm Delta waterway at sunset.
Buying

Buying a Waterfront Home in Discovery Bay: What to Check

Flood zone, a new levee assessment on the 2026-27 tax bill, the CSD water and sewer bill, and the dock's permit trail. What I check before a Discovery Bay offer.

6 min read
Read
Close-up of dry, cracked valley clay soil meeting the edge of a concrete driveway in warm late-afternoon light.
Buying

Why Do Brentwood Homes Crack? The Clay Soil, Explained

There's a USDA soil series named Brentwood, and it's heavy clay that swells in winter and shrinks all summer. Which cracks that causes are normal, which aren't, and what a seller must disclose.

9 min read
Read
A grant deed and a fountain pen resting on a wooden kitchen table beside a set of house keys, in soft morning light.
Buying

How Should You Hold Title to Your Brentwood Home?

The few words after your names on the deed decide who gets the house and how. Joint tenancy, community property, trusts, and transfer on death deeds, explained before you sign.

9 min read
Read
A printed disclosure report and reading glasses on a kitchen table, with golden East Contra Costa hills visible through the window behind them.
Buying

Fire or Flood Zone? Reading a Brentwood Hazard Disclosure

Every California sale comes with a Natural Hazard Disclosure. What its six Yes-or-No lines mean, why Brentwood's fire maps changed in 2025, and how to check an address yourself.

9 min read
Read
A single-story home with a no-step front entry and a short walkway to the door.
Buying

Single-Story Homes in Brentwood Without the 55+ Rule

Trilogy's 55+ rule isn't the only way to get a one-story floor plan in Brentwood. Four neighborhoods I search by hand, what you trade for lower HOA dues, and where Prop 19 still applies.

8 min read
Read
An illustration of a single-story house with a ladder and repair tools set out in the front yard.
Buying

Are Home Inspectors Licensed in California? A Brentwood Guide

California requires no license, exam, or bond for home inspectors. What the law does require, the free termite-report database, and three lines I read twice on every Brentwood report.

9 min read
Read
A living room shown before and after a home renovation.
Buying

Can You Build an ADU in Brentwood? The 2026 Rules

Brentwood must approve a complete ADU application within 60 days, an 800-square-foot detached unit skips most design rules, and a rebate of up to $15,000 expires September 30, 2026.

10 min read
Read
A glowing line chart over a downtown street, seen from a café window over a cup of coffee.
Buying

The Supplemental Tax Bill Every New Brentwood Owner Gets

Contra Costa mails property tax bills in late September. If you bought this year, a second bill is coming too, and your lender won't pay it. Dates, penalties, and what to do.

9 min read
Read
A bright open-concept living room and kitchen with large windows and light wood floors.
Buying

What Happens Between Accepted Offer and Keys in Brentwood

Who holds your deposit, which contract dates can move, three Brentwood-only disclosures, the three-day Closing Disclosure rule, and why keys arrive on recording day. Plus the wire-fraud numbers.

9 min read
Read
A clipboard checklist resting beside a small model house on a kitchen table.
Buying

Brentwood Homeowners Insurance: Lock It In Before You Close

A lender won't fund without a bound policy, and a FAIR Plan quote can move your payment by $200 a month. Start shopping the day your Brentwood or Trilogy offer is accepted.

9 min read
Read
A Brentwood property tax bill with the special tax line highlighted.
Buying

Why Is My Brentwood Tax Bill So High? Mello-Roos, Explained

That extra line on your Brentwood property tax bill runs $23 to $80 a month, depending on which side of a district boundary your house sits on — and it doesn't expire.

7 min read
Read
Will Farm Noise Wake Me Up? Brentwood's Right to Farm Rule
Buying

Will Farm Noise Wake Me Up? Brentwood's Right to Farm Rule

Buy within 2,000 feet of Brentwood farmland and you'll sign a form accepting 5 a.m. tractors, dust, and spraying as normal — permanently.

6 min read
Read