How to sell a house without a realtor in Washington

Selling it yourself is the route most people picture. Listing with a broker for less than full service and selling straight to a cash buyer also get you around a traditional listing. The comparison of a cash sale and a listing puts the costs of all of them side by side, with the national figures on how few sellers go it alone.

1. Choose an escrow company or a title company and call them first. Ask what they charge, whether they'll close a sale with no broker on either side, and what they need from you to open the file.
2. Complete the seller disclosure statement before you list. Its wording and questions are set out in RCW 64.06.020; the version brokers fill in is the Northwest MLS form called Form 17. The questions cover title, water, sewer or septic, the structure and systems, any homeowners association and environmental issues, and you answer from what you know. If the house was built before 1978, add the federal lead-based paint disclosure.
3. Set the price from sales of similar houses near you in the last few months, then check it against what's listed and pending now, because that's what buyers will tour the same weekend. If the house needs work you won't do, price it as-is and say so.
4. Market it: good photos, a clear description, the online by-owner sites, a flat-fee MLS listing if you want brokers' buyers to see it, and showings at times buyers can come.
5. Put any offer in a written purchase and sale agreement. With no broker drafting it, a real estate lawyer can write or review the contract for you, including the inspection, financing and closing dates.
6. Deliver the disclosure statement within five business days of mutual acceptance, unless the agreement says otherwise. The buyer then has three business days to accept it or rescind in writing, for any reason, and get the earnest money back.
7. Get through the inspection and the buyer's loan, if there is one. Expect a repair request and decide ahead of time what you'll fix, credit or refuse; the guide to what devalues a house the most covers the findings that cost sellers most.
8. At closing you sign at the escrow office. The escrow officer prepares the settlement statement, pays off your loan and any liens, collects the excise tax and sends the deed and the affidavit to the county to record.

Under RCW 18.44.021, anyone who does business as an escrow agent in Washington needs a license from the state Department of Financial Institutions. Title insurance companies and their licensed agents, banks, and lawyers working through a law practice's trust account are exempt. In practice, a by-owner sale usually closes at an independent escrow company or at the escrow desk of a title company.

The deed, the excise tax affidavit and the other closing papers are usually prepared by a limited practice officer, or LPO, a non-lawyer licensed by the Washington Supreme Court under its Admission and Practice Rule 12 to prepare approved closing documents. The LPO fills in the documents but can't tell you how they affect you, which is why sellers without a broker often pay a lawyer for an hour on the contract.

By local custom the seller usually pays for the buyer's standard owner's title insurance policy and the escrow fee is split between buyer and seller. The purchase agreement can say otherwise, so write down who pays what.

Washington's excise tax is charged in steps on the price: 1.1% on the slice up to $525,000, 1.28% on the slice from there up to $1,525,000, 2.75% on the slice from there up to $3,025,000, and 3% on anything above that. A local rate goes on top, 0.5% in Seattle and Tacoma.

For example, on a $600,000 sale the state portion is $6,735 and a 0.5% local rate adds $3,000, so about $9,735 in all, before title, escrow and recording fees. The dollar thresholds of those steps rise on January 1, 2027.

The tax is due on the date of sale, and the affidavit, the deed and the payment go to the treasurer of the county where the house is, not to the Department of Revenue. Penalties and interest start if it isn't paid within a month. RCW 82.45.080 makes the tax the seller's obligation, and the Department of Revenue notes the buyer becomes responsible if the seller doesn't pay.

This is general information about Washington law. For advice on your own sale, talk to a real estate lawyer.

When I make a cash offer, I walk the house first and work from its likely value once fixed, the repairs it needs, the costs of buying, holding and reselling it, and a margin for my risk and time. You get the offer in writing within 24 hours of the walkthrough. With a clean title a sale can close in as little as 7 days, though most take longer. How I get to the number is on the page about how I make an offer, and how a sale runs from first call to closing is in how it works.

I'm also a licensed broker, so if a listing with Windermere Real Estate would leave you more than a cash sale, I'll put that estimate next to my cash offer, after the same costs, and you pick. Jason Bryant is a licensed broker with Windermere Real Estate (license 101377).

If you'd still rather sell it yourself, that's a fair choice for a house in good shape and an owner with time. The list of what not to do before you sell covers the projects that rarely pay back.