Townhouse or condo in Seattle: what you actually own

5 min read · 7 sections
By Henos Adhana · Licensed WA Real Estate Broker #25016434 · eXp Realty

In Seattle, townhouse describes the shape of a building, not what you own. Many townhouses sit on their own unit lot, which you own along with the house on it. Others are legally condominiums, where you own the unit and share the land. The legal description tells you which, and it changes the loan, the insurance, who fixes the roof, and the paperwork you get.

Townhouse is a shape. Condo is a form of ownership.#

The word townhouse tells you about the building: attached, usually on two or three floors, with its own front door. The word condo tells you about the ownership: you own a unit and share everything else with the other owners through an association. A Seattle townhouse can be either.

The same row of four townhouses could be four houses on four unit lots, or four units in a small condominium. From the street they look identical. On paper they are different purchases.

The unit lot townhouse#

Seattle lets a builder split a site into unit lots, one per home, and it is a common way to sell a row of townhouses. The city describes a unit lot subdivision as dividing land only for the purpose of selling single-family houses, townhouses and rowhouses, without creating separate legal building sites.

You own your unit lot and the house on it. What you do not get is a fully independent parcel. Seattle's unit lot plats carry a note that the unit lot is not a separate buildable lot, and that development standards still apply to the original parent lot, which can limit what you add later.

Anything shared runs on recorded agreements. Seattle's plats require access easements and joint use and maintenance agreements for shared garages and parking areas, common open space and similar features, recorded with the county. Read them before you offer. They decide who pays when the shared driveway needs repaving.

Some unit lot rows also have a small homeowners' association to run the shared parts. Others rely on the agreements alone.

Sources

• Land use permit: plats, including unit lot subdivisions, Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections

The condo townhouse#

Some townhouse rows are set up as condominiums instead. The land and the structure belong to the owners in common, the association maintains whatever the declaration says it maintains, and you pay dues.

Everything in the guide to buying a condo in Seattle applies: the resale certificate, your five days to cancel, the reserve study, and the lender's review of the whole project.

How to tell which one you are looking at#

Read the legal description. A condo reads as a unit in a named condominium. A unit lot reads as a lot, or unit lot, in a named plat or short plat.

Ask for the documents. A condo comes with a declaration and, once you are under contract, a resale certificate. A unit lot comes with a recorded plat, its easements and maintenance agreement, and sometimes association documents too.

Look at the dues and what they cover. Condo dues usually cover exterior maintenance, insurance on the structure and reserves. The shared costs on a unit lot row are usually narrower.

If the listing is vague about it, I pull the recorded documents before you write an offer. It takes a day and saves a surprise at the lender.

What the difference changes#

The loan. A townhouse on its own unit lot is usually financed much like a house. A condo townhouse puts the whole project through the lender's review, and for FHA the project needs approval, or the unit needs a single-unit approval.

The insurance. On a unit lot you insure the whole house yourself. In a condo the association's master policy covers the structure and you insure the inside of your unit, so find out what the master policy covers and what its deductible is.

The repairs. On a unit lot, the roof and siding over your home are yours, and anything shared depends on what was recorded with the plat. In a condo, the declaration decides what the association looks after and what you do.

The paperwork. A condo resale comes with the resale certificate and the right to cancel after reading it. A unit lot resale comes with Form 17, the standard seller disclosure, like any house.

Which is better?#

Neither, on its own. A well-run condo townhouse with healthy reserves beats a unit lot with a vague maintenance agreement and a shared driveway nobody has budgeted for. And a unit lot you can insure and maintain on your own terms beats a condo with thin reserves and a lawsuit in the minutes.

The useful question is not which label is on the listing. It is what you will own, and what you will be responsible for, in writing. Get those two answers before you write the offer and the rest is a normal purchase.

Common questions#