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Dispatches

Notes for Seattle owners who need to sell soon. Each one takes a single question that tends to surface in a quick sale and answers it plainly, with the names of the people who can confirm the legal and tax parts.

Written by Austin Hellickson, Managing Broker, LPT Realty, from the questions sellers bring to the first call.

Brass house keys and a closed manila folder on a worn wooden kitchen counter, rain streaking the window beside it and a city skyline faint across the water

Seller Closing Costs in Seattle, Line by Line

· 6 min read

A Seattle seller usually pays the real estate excise tax (the state’s graduated rate plus the city’s local portion), the owner’s title insurance policy, a share of the escrow fee, any commission and buyer credits agreed to, and the payoff of every loan or lien on the house. Property taxes and final utility bills are settled up to the closing date. Your escrow officer prepares the exact figures on the seller’s settlement statement.

The file

One question to a dispatch.

Law, tax and insurance points stay general here. Each dispatch says who to confirm them with.

  1. A rusted heating oil fill pipe with a round cap and a bent vent pipe rising from mossy ground beside the peeling painted foundation of an old house, wet maple leaves around it

    Selling a Seattle House With an Old Oil Tank

    Do you have to decommission a buried heating oil tank before selling a Seattle house? What the rules ask, what buyers expect, and your options.

    6 min read

  2. A 1920s craftsman bungalow with a stone porch above a sloped front lawn on a rainy day, a round sewer cleanout lid set in the planting strip beside the wet sidewalk

    Who Pays for a Bad Side Sewer When You Sell in Seattle?

    In Seattle you own the side sewer out to the city main. When to scope before listing, how to read the report, and who pays if it needs repair.

    6 min read

  3. A converted basement apartment with a painted concrete foundation wall, one small high window, a boxed-in heating duct, a compact kitchenette and a sofa on vinyl plank floors

    Can I Sell a House With Unpermitted Work in Seattle?

    Yes, with honest disclosure. How to check SDCI permit records, describe an unpermitted basement unit, and decide whether to legalize it first.

    6 min read

  4. A dark wood dining room in an older house, a glass-front china hutch full of dishes, folded linens and stacks of old books sorted on the table, a rolled rug on the floor and afternoon light through lace curtains

    Clearing Out a Parent’s House Before You Sell It

    Clearing out an inherited Seattle house to sell: who can act, insurance, a family deadline, estate sales, paperwork, and when to sell it full.

    7 min read

  5. The deep front porch of an old Seattle house at dusk, the porch light on above a wooden door, plain moving boxes stacked beside a potted fern on rain-wet boards

    Rent-Back After Closing: How Long Can a Seller Stay?

    How a seller rent-back works in Washington: the NWMLS form, rent and deposit, the buyer’s lender, insurance, and other ways to buy time.

    6 min read

Your house has its own question. Ask me.

Send the address and a phone number. I’ll call, answer what I can, and tell you who to ask about the rest.

Or call 206.940.0942, or write to Austin.Hellickson@homexa.com.