Guides
Guides
Straight answers to the questions that come up before a Seattle-area transaction.
- Converting a house into an adult family home
Which houses convert cheaply and which fight you the whole way. A broker's view of the property side, from someone who grew up in one. - What do adult family home owners actually make?
Most answers online tell you what residents pay, not what owners keep. Here's the difference, and the property costs that decide whether an AFH works. - What it costs to start an adult family home in Washington
The licence fees are the small number. The one that decides whether you make it is how long you carry the property before a single resident arrives. - Zoning and permits for an adult family home in Seattle
Zoning is rarely the obstacle. The permit is. Seattle requires one to establish the use even when you are proposing no construction at all. - Buying and selling at the same time in Seattle: five ways to do it
Five ways to sell one Seattle home and buy the next: rent-backs, contingent offers and the bump, bridge loans and equity lines, and how to choose between them. - How to buy a house without a realtor in Seattle
Thinking of buying a Seattle home without an agent? A licensed local broker on the WA process, the paperwork, the risks, and when going solo makes sense. - Buying a condo in Seattle: read the building before you buy the unit
The resale certificate, reserve study, special assessments, loan approval and the 2028 law change: what to check on a Seattle condo before you offer. - Should you take the cash offer on your Seattle house?
Instant cash offers spend heavily to reach Seattle sellers. How to compare one with listing, net to net, and when the cash offer is genuinely the better deal. - Can I build a DADU on this lot in Seattle?
Before you write an offer, here's how to check whether a Seattle lot can take a backyard cottage: zoning, lot size, and the city tools to verify it. - Do you need a realtor to buy a house in Seattle?
No, you are not required to. Here is exactly what changes without one, what the 2024 rules did to who pays, and when going alone genuinely makes sense. - How much down payment do you actually need in Seattle?
The loan minimums are 0% to 3.5%. But that's not the real answer. Here's how Seattle-area assistance programs stack, and what you actually bring to closing. - Earnest money in Washington: how much, where it goes, and when you lose it
How much to put down in Seattle, when it is due, who holds it, when you get it back, and the 5% limit Washington law puts on what a seller can keep. - Form 17: Washington's seller disclosure, explained
Who has to fill out Washington's seller disclosure, what it asks, when the buyer gets it, the three-day right to rescind, and what it cannot promise. - How long it takes to sell a house in Seattle, and how to make it faster
Getting ready, time on the market and closing, stage by stage: how long a Seattle sale really takes, what slows it down, and what genuinely makes it faster. - Knob and tube wiring: what it does to a Seattle purchase
Knob and tube is an insurance and lending problem before it is a safety one. Here is what to check before you offer, and how it gets negotiated. - Selling a house with knob and tube wiring in Washington
You can sell it. The real question is whether your buyer needs a mortgage, and why the loudest warnings come from companies that want to buy it cheap. - Buying a Seattle home with a buried oil tank
An underground oil tank is not automatically a dealbreaker, but an undocumented one can stop your loan. Here is how to check before you write the offer. - Selling a house with a buried oil tank
You do not have to remove it before you list, but you will pay for it either way. Here is how to decide between decommissioning now or pricing it in. - Side sewers in Seattle: the card, the scope, and who pays
In Seattle you own the sewer line to the city main under the street. How to read the side sewer card, what a scope shows, and what to do when it comes back bad. - Seller credits in Washington: what they pay for, how much, and when to ask
What a seller credit can pay for, the loan limits (3%, 6% or 9% conventional, 6% FHA), a credit against a price cut worked for a Seattle house, and when to ask. - Townhouse or condo in Seattle: what you actually own
Many Seattle townhouses sit on unit lots; some are legally condos. How to tell which you are buying, and what it changes: the loan, insurance, dues and repairs. - Washington's real estate excise tax, worked to the dollar
Graduated state rates, Seattle's 0.50% on top, and new bands from 1 January 2027. Worked to the dollar at three Seattle prices, from DOR's own tables. - Who pays the buyer's agent in Washington?
What Washington's 2024 agency law changed, what the Seattle-area MLS still shows on listings, and what your written buyer agreement has to say. - Why is this house cheaper than everything around it?
A home priced well below its comparables usually has a reason, and it is usually one you cannot renovate away. Here is how to find it before you offer.