I'm not sure what kind of grass you have, but some have good dormancy mechanisms and/or better drought tolerance than you might think.

Sure, they look dead, but either the crown is just asleep or the root is alive but napping.

Watering might wake it right back up (or rain, which is kind of scarce in your area).

Warm season grasses can (and in fact have to be) put in during the warm period. I have a sneaking suspicion you have some sort of warm season grass, but we'd need pictures to be sure.

In that locale, cool season grasses are not likely and I wouldn't recommend one. You're really close to LA, which is pretty much south temperate semi-arid.

Oh that make me feel much better! I was really upset with them for selling us a house then killing our lawn!

According to what the seed pods look like (we dont own a mower yet) and the roots I suspect that its mostly Bermuda grass. It has 3-5 pronged seed pods and seems to all be interconnected. Is this a type of grass that I can help out now? And if so, should I try overseeding with more Bermuda seed, or something else?

Thanks so much!

Oh that make me feel much better! I was really upset with them for selling us a house then killing our lawn!

According to what the seed pods look like (we dont own a mower yet) and the roots I suspect that its mostly Bermuda grass. It has 3-5 pronged seed pods and seems to all be interconnected. Is this a type of grass that I can help out now? And if so, should I try overseeding with more Bermuda seed, or something else?

Thanks so much!

Definitely water it now and see what you get. Set out some tuna or cat food cans and time how long it takes to fill the cans. Memorize that time because you'll use it from now on. Water once to fill the cans and let the area dry out for 5 days. Then water it again for that same time period. If you water it every day, you'll have every seed seed germinating. All you want to grow is the grass which might still be alive. This deep and infrequent water cycle will get to any established roots and still prevent new weeds.

If you don't have an underground system, the best sprinkler is a turbo oscillator on the end of a 3/4-inch hose. It will take more than 5 hours to fill the cans with this, but that's fine. That allows the water to sink in slowly rather than run off.

What kind of grass do you want? Let me suggest that the only grasses suited to your location are bermuda and St Augustine. If you want a fast, inexpensive lawn, you can get bermuda seed now and put it down NOW. It needs hot soil to germinate. But seeded bermuda is a pesky lawn. It is invasive to other garden areas. There is also a hybrid bermuda which goes on as a sod. It is an excellent turf grass and much less invasive. It requires a lot of work with mowing 2x per week and fertilizer every month to really look great. St Augustine is the other adapted grass for your area. It is much less hassle. It can go for 2 or 3 weeks without mowing if it is not growing fast. It only needs fertilizer 3x per year. St Aug goes down as sod only. Both of these grasses will spread to fill thin areas. St Aug has the unfortunate characteristic of going straight to dead if you don't water it for a month or so during the summer. The rest of the year monthly watering is normally fine.

Zoysia is another grass which will grow there, but I would check out zoysia lawns first. If you like them, then talk to the owner to see what he does to keep it nice.

Another grass which is extremely popular in SoCal is Marathon I, II, or III. Marathon is a dwarf fescue. Generally fescues are better adapted to the north or west of the 405 freeway in LA, but not your area. That is not saying that people don't make it work in the heat, but they pay a lot extra for water. In California right now that is highly frowned upon.

You might take a drive to Descanso Gardens and/or Huntington Library and look at the grasses they have growing there. Those places are pretty close together, but you'll want to make a full day of it. Wear comfortable shoes and bring a camera.

Does your yard have any trees, shrubs, buildings, or fences providing shade? If so then bermuda would not work in those places. It will thin out and die. Many people start with a bermuda lawn and a small tree. Later when the tree canopy covers the yard, they switch to St Augustine.

Zones are almost meaningless when talking about lawns. The zone number is used when selecting plants for winter hardiness. You can be zone 10 with summer temps in the 90s while Palos Verdes can be zone 11 with summer temps in the 70s. They can grow Marathon all day long down there.

I am most certainly not a Bermuda expert, but one will chime in quite soon, I'm sure. We have several (I do northern lawns).

A little quick research shows that Bermuda does have a dormancy mechanism, so it's doubtful the lack of water killed it unless it went on for a very long time (eight weeks is not a very long time).

It's just asleep and waiting for better days and some water. Some grasses don't have a dormancy mechanism, so consider yourself lucky. :-)

Proper watering to bring it out of dormancy and to maintain it thereafter will be the key, Maintenance will involve deep and infrequent watering (but in your area, that will be more frequent than others due to your dry air, winds, and abundant clear-air sunshine). I'm not sure of the best way to bring Bermuda back, though.

Like I said, wait for a Bermuda person or join another Bermuda thread and direct their attention here.

I spoke too late, you have an expert on your case. :-)

And for now don't worry about getting rid of the weeds. Just see what grasses grow. We'll ask for pictures a soon as you want to provide. The best pictures are taken on a cloudy day or when the sun is low in the sky. Just just don't want sunshine on the grass or the contrast is too high.

You might want to fertilize with an organic like alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). Call these feed stores and see what price they have before you leave. The organic will improve your soil even though you have no appreciable lawn to speak of.

Everyone this is amazing advice I cannot thank you enough!

Here is the backyard (these are the pictures the seller posted when trying to sell the house; nice and green). There is an area that is shaded but since the back yard is southern facing, the majority of the shade throughout the day is over the planter boxes and not the lawn. If Bermuda is what I have, and its tolerable to the crazy hot summer here I'll support it! Is there some sort of seed I can add under the trees? Would it be best to over seed the rest of the lawn with Bermuda seed or something else? Also there are definitely weeds there, should I RoundUp them? Or use a weed whacker? Or will over seeding the lawn suffocate them ;)?
Sorry for all the questions, I've lived in an apartment for the last 10 years and my family is in northern california ergo why I have literally no idea what Im doing.

Thanks again!

Ah I wrote the above post before seeding your second post, so please ignore pretty much all of that!

You asked good questions. Don't over seed anything. If you currently have hybrid bermuda, then seeded bermuda will be a permanent weed. Those are two different plants related only by a biological technicality.

But I'm not convinced that's bermuda. From this altitude and distance you should not be able to see bermuda blades. That might be St Augustine or a coarse zoysia. Do you see runners criss crossing over top of the soil? That would indicate St Augustine.

What kind of trees are those? (sorry I'm ADD sometimes)

That's a flat lawn. When you water, watch carefully for puddling. Mark those spot somehow and watch how long it takes for the water to drain away. If it doesn't puddle or they drain away in an hour, you're fine. You just can't have water standing in one place for days at a time. That would require a different approach from the start. And now is the start, so watch for puddling to see if you need to do this other thing first. I'm not going to mention it unless I have to. You have plenty to deal with right now.

Grass care is pretty easy when you boil it all down. You need to water, mow, and fertilize. If you're doing that right, then everything else, all the little problems like you're having now, will go away - almost. Here are the basics.

Watering
This is the single most important part after you have selected an adapted grass type. All lawns will need water once a week when temps are above 90 degrees. When temps fall into the 80s, the lawn should go for 2 weeks between watering. When you water, water for that target time you found with the tuna cans. If it rains then reduce your watering so the total for the week is an inch.

Mowing
Mulch mow at the mower's highest setting for most grasses and at the lowest setting for bermuda.

Fertilizing
If you want to use chemical fertilizer, apply on Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. If you want to continue to use organic like alfalfa pellets or Milorganite or whatever, apply on Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. Apply organics at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. For chemical fertilizers read the bag for directions. I have not used any chemical ferts since 2002.

If you follow that advice on mature turf, which you don't have yet, then you should not have to deal with weeds or other problems.

If you determine that you have bermuda, then find the Bermuda Bible online (Google). But I would not bother with that until you know what you have.

Crazy hot summer. Bwahahaha. You mean compared to the freezing summers of the Bay Area? Come and visit me in Texas darlin' (not a real invitation).

Here are essentially our before (now) pictures:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uhoby367tidnqr5/AAAP2PwSB3mKxZPN0C9byjKva

Above are all the pictures I could gather last night. Obviously you were right and the grass under the tree shade is not Bermuda, it looks more like a finer grass, maybe a fecue. I think I observe AT LEAST 4 grass variations, the majority looks like a creeping short grass.

Whatever nothing I can do yet until we get it green again. I'll update the photos in a couple of weeks when we get it green again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dropbox of sad grass

Fescues don't have a dormancy mechanism and can be damaged or killed by extended dry periods. So if it's fescue, you might have a problem there.

On the up side, they have fantastic drought resistance and very deep roots, on average. Plus being under a tree will tend to shade them and drop the temperature.

On the really up side, they're cheap to buy as seed, seed easily, and sprout fast. You can always reseed when your temperatures start to drop for fall and a fescue will mature and look great before your "winter" sets in (winter in quotes because...well, compared to me, your winter is my mid-spring).

That is common bermuda, so it will come back with water and fertilizer. I would wait to fertilize until you have mowed the green grass two times. It will be thin in the shade of a tree, building, or fence. In there you can use fescue or St Augustine. Fescue is not California drought friendly. You might be better off mulching under the tree or putting in flowers with mulch underneath. Or there are other ground covers that will work. Asiatic jasmine comes to mind. Mondo grass will work, but it will eventually spread into the yard (in 10 years). Cast iron plant will work not as a ground cover but as an ornamental. It cannot tolerate much direct sunlight, though.

So it came back...sorta. Here's a drop box with how it looks now. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8bjmc3msf7e0w1i/AAAbm1vcV6p6zqSbJp3AcGvCa

The problem now is some of the grass is awful to walk on barefoot. Like its really painful cause its in hard clumps of grass or dry dry dry. We want lush soft grass. How can we take this hodgepodge of different grasses and make it mostly homogenous or at the very least soft everywhere?

Here is a link that might be useful: dropbox of grass

How often are you watering and for how long?

For the bermuda, you are not mowing low enough and likely not often enough. Common bermuda likes to be mowed at about 2 inches twice a week.

Have you fertilized this summer? Bermuda can take all the fertilizer you can give it.

I see another problem with nutgrass. That "grass" is a sedge that will poke you when you walk on it. Quite often you can get rid of it by proper watering. Nutgrass is a swamp grass, so I'm thinking you are watering far too frequently. With temps in the high 70s, you should only be watering once every 3 weeks. More than that and the nutgrass will start to take over.