Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: homestead

Why do you want to record a homestead? Your home is exempt from creditors' levies to the same extent whether this is recorded or not. Same for bankruptcy exemption.

The practical effect of recording a homestead is that the credit rating services may downgrade your credit score. If you are applying for credit or will soon, you may not want to do that.

I can't advise about what form to use without seeing the forms you have.

Re: homestead

I looked at the California Judicial Council web site to see if there were an "official" form or forms for filing Declaration of Homestead. I did not find any. Therefore, I conclude you are looking at buying a commercially-prepared form from a for-profit forms publisher.

In that case, you will have to ask your question to the private publisher.

Without seeing the forms, I cannot say whether one, the other, both, or neither of them, would work in your case.