The notarization itself is valid anywhere. The certification that has to travel with it is what eats the calendar. An out-of-state, even a foreign, notary can validly notarize California real estate documents. The catch is that a specific attachment or certificate has to accompany the notarization for it to be accepted, so it's more involved than walking into any notary and signing. The complications are logistics. We had a client based in Australia who drove hours to reach a notary, then hours more to an embassy to get the documents properly certified, and the whole thing still took about two weeks. We also had an active-duty Navy client stationed at sea who could only reach a base notary once the ship returned to port, which pushed signing back roughly two and a half weeks. If you'll be signing from out of state or overseas, flag it to your escrow officer and lender early. The paperwork can absolutely be done, but the certification step and the travel involved can add days or weeks, and you don't want that surprise landing on your closing deadline. Extra lead time keeps a solvable logistics problem from threatening the whole timeline.