Step 1

What it costs

Everyone knows about the down payment. Four other things come due before closing, and they arrive earlier than most people expect. Here they are in the order you will meet them.

Earnest money goes to escrow within days of mutual acceptance, not at closing. It is applied to your down payment, so it is early rather than extra, but it has to be in your account before you write an offer.

Inspection is paid up front, before you know whether you are buying the house. Book it the day you go mutual; good inspectors are booked out and contingency periods are short.

Closing costs are lender fees, title, escrow, recording and taxes. Washington closes through escrow rather than requiring an attorney at the table, which helps, but it does not make this small.

Prepaids and reserves are the ones nobody mentions: property taxes and insurance collected in advance. Not a fee, your own money moved forward, but it still has to be there.

One document answers all of this for your actual purchase: the Loan Estimate, which a lender must give you within three business days of your application. It is standardised, so two lenders can be compared line by line. Ask for it before you fall in love with a house.

Step 2

Assistance you may qualify for

Washington's main down payment programme surprises almost everyone who looks at it, and all of this is published by the Commission itself.

It is 3%, 4% or 5% of your loan amount, at 0% interest. Home Advantage DPA is a payment-deferred loan: no monthly payments, and the balance comes due when you sell, refinance, move out or pay off the mortgage. It can cover closing costs, not just the down payment.

The income limit is $215,000. Statewide. Most people assume assistance means low income and rule themselves out without checking.

You do not have to be a first-time buyer. The Commission states plainly that first-time homeownership is not required for Home Advantage DPA. The home must be your principal residence.

There is one requirement people discover too late: a free homebuyer education class, sponsored by the Commission, with a certificate. Take it early. It has delayed more closings than it should have.

What I cannot do is tell you whether you qualify. That is a Commission-trained loan officer looking at your actual file. What I can do is stop you deciding you are priced out on your own, because a lot of people do and are wrong.

The income limit is $215,000. Statewide.

Step 3

Financing, and the three levels of it

Buyers use "pre-approved" to mean three different things. Sellers do not, and it is worth knowing which one you are holding.

Level 1, verbal. Someone told you a number. It takes an afternoon and it is worth roughly that. If you find a good house you will not have time to fix your financing before the review date.

Level 2, pre-approval. One to two days. Average strength, and it is what most buyers show up with. It is checked by a computer, not a person, which is why you cannot safely waive the financing addendum on one.

Level 3, fully underwritten. About a week. A real underwriter has verified your income and your assets. This is what makes waiving the financing contingency survivable, and in a competitive North Seattle house it is often the difference.

One more line to know about. For 2026, the conforming limit in King, Pierce and Snohomish is $1,063,750. Everywhere else in Washington it is $832,750. Under that line you are in conventional territory and the rules are the ones you have read about.

Over it you are in a jumbo, and lenders want more. Expect a larger down payment, and expect to hold cash reserves after closing rather than spending your last dollar on the down payment. Reserves can usually sit in a 401(k) or in stock, so this is less brutal than it sounds, but it has to be there and it has to be documented.

Other loan types. A VA loan, for eligible veterans and service members, can mean no down payment and no mortgage insurance. FHA loans are government-backed too, with their own down payment and credit rules. One conversation with a lender tells you which you qualify for.

A computer checks a pre-approval. A person checks an underwrite.

Step 4

Buying when you have a home to sell

If some of the money for this house is tied up in the one you live in, the order you do things in matters as much as the price of either. There are five ways to do it.

Sell first and ask for a rent-back, so you can stay a few weeks after closing while you buy. Sell, rent, then buy, which means moving twice but buying with cash in hand and no deadline. Buy with an offer that depends on your sale, which keeps you to one move but is a weaker offer. Buy first, then sell, if your income can carry both homes for a while. Or borrow against your current home with a home equity line or a bridge loan, which releases money for the down payment before you sell.

Each trades certainty against convenience, and which one fits depends on your equity, your income and how much uncertainty you can live with. The seller's guide goes through all five in detail. I will walk through them with your numbers, and your lender should be in that conversation too.

Step 5

Who is on your side

Two questions come up here, and I would rather answer both plainly than have you wonder.

Do you need an agent? Sometimes no. Buying from family at an agreed price. A new build on a builder's fixed contract. The house you already rent, from a landlord you know. In those, most of what a buyer's agent does is not the job, and what is left is paperwork you can hire.

It is harder than people expect when the property is competitive, the condition is unclear, or it is your first. Not because the forms are difficult, but because three things are invisible from outside: what a house is worth against very recent nearby sales, what an inspection report means in money, and how strong your offer looks next to the others.

How I get paid. Washington requires a written services agreement between you and my firm, signed before or as soon as reasonably practical after a broker starts working for you, and I ask for it before I show you homes. The law says what it has to contain: how long it lasts, whether it is exclusive, whether you consent to limited dual agency, what I am paid, and whether I will show you homes where nobody has offered to pay my firm. You also get a four-page pamphlet, Real Estate Brokerage in Washington, which every broker has to hand over. That is chapter 18.86 RCW, not a house rule of mine.

Most sellers still offer a credit that covers my fee at closing. The average offered is around 2.5%. When that is what happens, you pay me nothing directly. Northwest MLS did not join the 2024 national settlement, so when a seller offers something, the amount is public and we can see it before you write.

If the seller's credit is lower than my fee, we can usually wrap the difference into the offer, so it comes out of the transaction rather than out of your pocket.

If a listing does not say what the seller will offer, we can simply ask for it in the offer, and the seller weighs it alongside everything else.

If the seller's credit is higher than my fee, the difference comes back to you as a rebate at closing. That is worth knowing, because nobody volunteers it.

My agreement runs a year, covers any property from any source, and you can cancel it at any time for any reason. If you would not sign that, do not sign a worse one with somebody else.

Step 6

What to ask a lender

Past the rate, which everybody asks about, four questions tell you whether you have the right lender.

Are you Commission-trained, and which Washington programmes do you actually originate? Not every lender does, and the ones who do not will not mention them.

What is my all-in cash to close? Then ask for it in writing, on the Loan Estimate.

Is this a full underwrite or a pre-qualification? A pre-approval letter can mean very little. Full underwriting means income and assets are verified. On a competitive offer that is worth more than a small rate advantage.

What would make this fall apart? A good lender answers plainly.

The lender is part of your offer, not just your rate. A local lender with a name for closing on time can help an offer win. A large bank or credit union often has the best rate but can be slow at weekends, so build in extra time. An online lender can work well on a house that is not competitive. On a house with several offers, the name on your pre-approval letter gets read closely.

Step 7

Two markets, two playbooks

Whether a house sits for three weeks or goes in four days changes everything about how you should write on it. Most guides describe one process. There are two.

When homes are moving slowly, over about seven days on market. Tour at your pace. Offer at list or below. Earnest money around 3%. Keep your inspection contingency. If the appraisal comes in low, that is the seller's problem to solve, because you have room to renegotiate.

When homes are moving fast, under about seven days. Be fully underwritten before you look. Tour the day it lists. Offer at or above list. Earnest money 5% or more. Waive inspection, but only after a pre-inspection, and expect to cover an appraisal gap yourself.

Most disappointment comes from using the wrong playbook: the slow one in a fast market, or the fast one in a slow one.

Most competitive homes here list Wednesday or Thursday with an offer review date the following Monday or Tuesday. You do not have to wait for the review date. A motivated buyer can write on day one, and sometimes that ends it before the competition arrives.

Step 8

Touring, and how to judge a house

Photographs are chosen to sell the house. A tour is your chance to see what they left out, and to decide quickly, because on a competitive house you may only get one visit.

Outside first. Your first impression from the street, whether the roof looks like it has years left in it, and whether the paint is cracking or the siding is tired. Then the yard: its size, its condition, and what the neighbours can see.

Then the way the house lives. How the rooms connect, where the bedrooms sit in relation to each other, the size of the main bedroom and its bathroom, the closets, and whether there is somewhere to work. The kitchen gets the longest look: cabinets, appliances, light and ventilation.

Then score it before you leave. Out of seven, while it is fresh. Then ask what would make it a six. If the answer is paint, it is a candidate. If the answer is moving it three streets over, it is not.

At the back of this guide there is a sheet for tour notes. Fill a column in at each house, because by the third one they blur together.

Step 9

Check these on any Seattle house

None of these is a reason not to buy. All of them depend on the property, and all of them are cheaper to know about before you write than after. Tick what you have checked.

• Heating oil tankMuch of pre-1970 Seattle was oil heated. Ask whether a tank was decommissioned, and check the state register.
• Knob and tube wiringCommon before about 1950. Some insurers will not write a policy on it, which makes it a financing question rather than an electrical one.
• The side sewerYou own it all the way to the city's main under the street. Look up its side sewer card on the city's map, then have it scoped.
• Form 17The seller's written disclosure. Read it slowly. What is left blank matters as much as what is filled in.
• PermitsFinished basements, converted garages, added bathrooms. Check the permit history against what the listing claims.
• Roof and water heaterAsk the age of both. Each has a lifespan, and each is a fair negotiation if it is near the end of it.
• The lotSlope, and where water goes. Photographs flatten everything. Stand in the yard, in the rain if you can.
• ParkingTownhouses especially: where exactly do you park, and is it yours on paper?
• Unit lot or condoOn a townhouse the legal description says which, and that decides the dues, the insurance, the loan and who fixes the roof.
• The arterialWhich busy road is it near, and what does the house sound like at five in the afternoon?

Step 10

Buying new construction

A new build runs on the builder's timeline and often on the builder's paperwork, and several things work differently from buying a house somebody has lived in.

If you want your own agent, bring them to the first visit. Many builders will only work with an agent who registered you on that first visit, and will not recognise one who turns up later.

Your earnest money may become non-refundable sooner, and upgrades chosen at the design studio usually need a further deposit you will not get back. Know when each one locks before you sign anything.

Get your own inspection anyway. New does not mean without problems. The final walkthrough is where you mark the small ones for the builder to fix before you take the keys.

Questions worth asking the builder, and worth having answered in writing:

• When will it be finished?And which homes could close now, if your timing is tight.
• Do I have to use your lender?And what incentives come with them. Compare them against a lender of your own.
• What upgrades are there, and what do buyers usually spend?Also which appliances are included, and whether they can be upgraded.
• When are offers reviewed, and do you expect several?And how far over the price recent homes have gone.
• Your contract, or the standard forms?If it is theirs, ask whether you can add an escalation clause and your own inspection.
• How much earnest money, and when does it become non-refundable?Also how long the financing contingency runs.
• What are the HOA dues?And whether that figure is firm or likely to change after closing.
• Have homes here appraised at the contract price?And who covers a low appraisal under their contract.

Step 11

Buying a condo or a townhouse

With a condo you are buying into the association's finances as much as the unit, and in Seattle a townhouse can be either kind of ownership. Houses and condos are separate markets at the moment: condos have been slower, which gives you room to negotiate and makes the documents matter more.

The resale certificate is your disclosure. The association has 10 days to produce it once the seller asks, and you can cancel within five days of first receiving it: five business days under the newer condo law, WUCIOA, and five days or until closing under the older Condominium Act, which still covers many older buildings until 2028.

The lender reviews the building as well as you. For FHA, check HUD's list of approved projects; if the building is not on it, a single-unit approval is sometimes possible. A building outside the mortgage agencies' standards can still be financed, usually with more down.

A townhouse on its own unit lot is owned like a house, but it is not a separate buildable lot, and shared driveways and parking run on recorded easements and maintenance agreements. Read them before you offer.

What to read, and what to look for in it:

• The resale certificateAssessments, special assessments, lawsuits, insurance and rental rules. Your five days start when it arrives.
• The reserve studyUpdated every year, with a professional site visit at least every third year. Compare what it says to save with what the budget saves.
• Special assessmentsAny already approved must be on the certificate. Who pays one that is approved but unpaid is negotiable.
• The meeting minutesThe last year or two. Leaks, disputes and assessments show up here first.
• The master insurance policyWhat it covers, its deductible, and who pays that deductible after a leak.
• Rental rulesMany associations cap or ban rentals. Check before you offer if you might ever rent it out.
• The legal description, on a townhouseA unit in a named condominium, or a lot in a named plat. It decides everything above.

Step 12

Better terms beat a better price

Sellers do not simply take the biggest number. They take the offer most likely to close, and price is only one part of that.

I have watched an offer $40,000 over list lose to one $25,000 over. The lower offer won because it also waived the appraisal, released the earnest money, and used a local lender the listing agent could ring on a Sunday. The higher one came with an out-of-state lender. The seller took $15,000 less for certainty.

What makes up offer strength: price, your loan status, closing speed, earnest money, which contingencies you keep, and whether your lender is somebody the other side has heard of. A cover letter and the relationship between the two agents sit on top of that.

Two terms people forget. Offering the seller a rent-back, so they can stay a few weeks after closing, costs you little and can be worth a great deal to someone who has not found their next place. And sometimes the strongest move is to leave escalation out and write one firm, clean number, because it is easy to say yes to.

You do not have to be the richest buyer in the room. Most of that list is free.

The seller took $15,000 less for certainty.

Step 13

Contingencies, and when to waive them

Washington contracts favour buyers by default. Contingencies are the conditions that let you walk away with your earnest money if something goes wrong. Waiving one makes your offer stronger, and it means you carry that risk yourself. Here is what each covers, and how to reduce the risk if you do waive it.

Waiving inspection means buying it as it stands. Reduce the risk by reading the seller's pre-inspection properly, or paying for your own before you write.

Waiving financing means you cannot walk away if your loan falls apart, including for a job loss. Reduce the risk by being fully underwritten first, using a strong local lender, and building extra time into the closing date.

Covering the appraisal gap means that if the house appraises below your offer, you bring the difference in cash. Reduce the risk by holding real reserves and getting a hard valuation from me before you set your number.

What a low appraisal costs, worked. You offer $700,000 with 20% down: $140,000 of your own and a $560,000 loan. It appraises at $690,000. Your lender lends against the appraisal, so 80% is now $552,000, and you bring $148,000 instead of $140,000. That is $8,000 more, not the full $10,000, because you were always paying a fifth of it.

Non-refundable earnest money releases part of your deposit to the seller at a milestone, usually once your inspection is done, and it stays theirs if the deal fails for any reason other than their default. This is the one to be slowest about: use it only once your loan is solid, and only with money you could stand to lose.

None of this means do not waive. It means do the second half of each line above first.

Step 14

Escalation, worked

An escalation clause is the most misunderstood thing in a competitive offer, so here is one with numbers on it. The figures are an example, not a recommendation.

You offer $650,000, the list price. You set an increment of $5,000, meaning you will beat any genuine competing offer by that much. You set a ceiling of $690,000, and you will not go past it whatever happens.

A real competing offer arrives at $668,000. Your offer steps up to $673,000 and stops. You did not pay your ceiling, and you did not have to guess.

Two things people get wrong. The seller has to show you the competing offer, so this is not a blind auction. And your ceiling is the number you will actually pay if somebody pushes you there, so set it at what the house is worth to you rather than at what you could technically scrape together.

Step 15

Under contract

Mutual acceptance is the day both sides have signed. From here to the keys is usually about thirty days on a financed purchase, and most of it is waiting for other people.

The clock. Every contingency has a deadline, and Washington's standard purchase agreement counts them one way. Day one is the day after mutual acceptance. A period of five days or fewer skips weekends and legal holidays; a longer one counts them. Every deadline ends at 9 p.m., and one that lands on a weekend or a holiday moves to the next business day. Put each one in your calendar the day you go mutual; there is a page for it at the back.

Earnest money goes to escrow within a few days. It sits there until closing, when it becomes part of your down payment. You get it back if you end the deal under a contingency before its deadline. If you walk away without a reason the contract allows, the seller can keep it, and where the contract makes that the seller's only remedy, Washington caps it at 5% of the price.

Two exits the law gives you. Three business days to rescind after you receive the seller's disclosure, Form 17, unless your contract sets a different period. And on a condo, five days to cancel after the resale certificate arrives.

Wire fraud. I will never email you wire instructions. If an email that looks like it comes from me or from escrow asks you to wire money, call escrow on a number you already have and confirm the account details by voice before you send anything. Scammers target exactly this moment, and a wire sent to the wrong account is very hard to get back.

Inspection. Every inspection finds problems; that is what it is for. On an older house, add a sewer scope: in Seattle you own the side sewer all the way to the city's main under the street. The ones that matter are health and safety: roof, foundation, electrical, plumbing, water, mould. If you could see it on the tour, it is already in the price. The seller does not have to fix anything and everything is negotiable, so the conversation is about what is fair rather than what is owed.

If something does need fixing, a credit is usually cleaner than a repair. You choose who does the work and how well, instead of hoping the seller's contractor does it the way you would. Get a bid first, so you know what to ask for.

Appraisal. The lender's valuation, and not an inspection. At or above your price, nothing happens. Below it, what happens next depends on whether you kept the appraisal contingency, which is why the step on contingencies comes before this one.

Financing. If you kept the financing contingency and the loan cannot be obtained by the closing date after a good-faith effort, the agreement ends and your earnest money comes back. That protection is written into the standard form. It only exists if you kept it.

Step 16

Closing, and the keys

Three to five days before closing, the final walkthrough. You are checking that the house is as it was when you agreed, that any negotiated repairs are done, and that nothing that was included has left.

The day before, you sign. Escrow will book you in or send a mobile notary. Bring identification. Your closing funds are wired before this, never on the day.

Closing day. The county records the deed, and the house is yours when it does. In practice keys change hands in the evening, usually between 5:30 and 9pm, because recording happens late in the day.

Utilities. Set them up before you move. On a Seattle townhouse without air conditioning, water, sewer, garbage and electricity together run about $400 to $600 a month. Internet is separate.

Then it is yours. If at any point you would like a second pair of eyes on any of this, the last page is how.