Buying a home in Seattle

Most buying guides start at step three, once you have already decided to hire someone. This one starts where the search data says buyers actually start — wondering whether they need an agent at all.

The sequence

The first three happen before you tour anything, and they decide more than the rest combined.

1. Decide whether you want representation at allWorth settling before anything else, and worth settling honestly. Washington does not require you to have a broker. What changes without one is a specific list of jobs, not a vague loss of support.
2. Lock one lender before you tour anythingShop hard for two weeks, then commit. Changing lenders mid-search does not get you a better rate; it gets you a slower offer, and slow offers lose houses. Ask directly whether you are pre-approved or fully underwritten. They are not the same, and only one of them makes a seller confident.
3. Work out what you actually bring to closingThe down payment is not the whole number, and the loan minimum is not the down payment. Down payment help can change what you bring to closing, so check it before you set a budget.
4. Rank your must-haves as permanent or fixableLayout, finishes and appliances are fixable. The street, the lot, the light and the commute are not. Sort this out before you tour. Then you can decide in days, instead of walking away from a good house in week two over a dishwasher.
5. Tour with the checks in mindStand in the back yard at 8am and again at 6pm. Ask for the seller's pre-inspection on every home. Check the bedroom count against county records rather than the listing.
6. Write an offer built on price and certaintyPrice does most of the work. After that it is financing certainty and speed of close, not a letter about how much you love the house.
7. Use the inspection as a negotiation, not a scareAsk for genuinely broken things. Take dated things off the price instead. Sellers distinguish sharply between a repair and an upgrade, and asking them to fund an upgrade reads as asking for the discount and the renovation.
8. Run the calendar to closingEarnest money, inspection response, title review, financing, walkthrough. Every one has a deadline and nobody sends a reminder.

Worth reading first

• Do you need a realtor to buy in Seattle?
• How much down payment do you actually need?
• Why is this house cheaper than the rest?
• Buying a home with a buried oil tank
• Knob and tube wiring: will it kill your deal?
• Buying an adult family home, or a house to convert

Numbers and tools

• Monthly payment calculator: your payment with property tax, insurance and mortgage insurance
• Search homes for sale: homes for sale in King and Snohomish counties
• Neighborhood prices: the latest median sale price for each area I cover
• The market report: how fast homes are selling, and for how much, this month
• First-time buyer help: down payment programs and who qualifies
• Closing costs: what you pay at closing, line by line
• Who pays the buyer's agent: how buyer's agent pay works in Washington
• Pre-approval or pre-qualification: which one a seller takes seriously
• A house tour checklist: what to check at each house you tour