Can you sell a house as is without an inspection, and what does as-is mean?
Yes. As-is is a promise about repairs: you won't make any, and the price allows for that. The inspection is a separate question, and it belongs to the buyer. The purchase agreement says whether they get one, how many days they have, and whether they can cancel or renegotiate over what it finds.
No state law makes a seller order a home inspection, though some local rules require one specific check at sale, such as the septic Report of System Status in Pierce County. A buyer with a loan will usually want an inspection contingency, a set number of days to have the house looked at and to cancel or renegotiate if the report turns up something they can't live with. A cash buyer may walk the house once and skip the formal inspection. Either way, Washington still asks one thing of you on almost every sale: the seller disclosure statement, where you answer in writing what you know about the roof, the water, the sewer or septic, the structure and the rest. Skipping the inspection doesn't skip that form. The simplest way to sell with no inspection at all is usually a cash buyer who accepts the house after a walkthrough, and you still sign the disclosure unless the buyer waives it.
As-is language protects you from a repair list. A buyer can still look. The words also give no cover for a problem you knew about and left off the disclosure, which is where a seller can get into real trouble.
Does a house have to pass inspection to be sold?
No. A Washington home inspector writes up the condition of the house as they found it, and the buyer decides what the report means to them. What can actually hold a sale up is the buyer's lender, through the appraisal, and the terms of your contract.
Washington licenses its home inspectors under chapter 18.280 RCW, a law from the 2008 legislative session, which defines a home inspection as a professional examination of the current condition of a house. The inspector reports on what they can see and reach and doesn't open walls. You can check any inspector's license on the Department of Licensing's lookup.
The appraisal is a separate step. If the buyer is borrowing, the lender sends an appraiser to value the house, and an appraiser who notes a safety or soundness problem can make the loan wait on a repair. That's why a house with a failing roof or a bad foundation often ends up with a cash buyer: the lender of a financed buyer may not fund it as it stands.
Plenty of buyers give up the inspection contingency on their own. In NAR's Realtors Confidence Index for September 2026, 20% of buyers waived the inspection contingency, against 21% a year earlier. That's a national survey of agents about their latest sales, so read it as a rough national share.
What do you still owe the buyer if there's no inspection?
You still owe the seller disclosure statement in RCW 64.06.020. Agents use NWMLS Form 17, which follows it; if you sell without an agent, you use the statute's own text. You answer from what you actually know, and with no inspection report your answers are what the buyer leans on.
- Timing: RCW 64.06.030 gives you five business days after mutual acceptance to deliver the completed, signed form, unless the contract sets another time.
- The buyer's window: once the buyer has the form, they get three business days, unless the contract sets a different period, to approve it or rescind the sale in writing and take back their earnest money. A buyer who skipped the inspection can still walk away here.
- What you're on the hook for: RCW 64.06.050 says you aren't liable for an error you had no actual knowledge of, including one in information you took from a licensed professional such as a structural or pest inspector, an engineer or a contractor. A problem you knew about and left off gets no such protection.
- Something new comes up: if you learn of a problem after you've delivered the form, from anyone other than the buyer or the buyer's inspector, RCW 64.06.040 says you amend it and give the buyer the update, or fix it at least three business days before closing. An amendment gives the buyer three business days to rescind.
If you're not sure whether something you know belongs on the form, ask a real estate attorney before you sign it.
Can the buyer waive the disclosure statement?
A buyer can waive it, with a limit. RCW 64.06.010 lets a buyer expressly waive receiving the disclosure, but not the environmental section if any answer in it would be yes. That section covers things like flooding, fill dirt, an old fuel tank or contamination. The same statute lists the sales the form doesn't apply to at all, including foreclosures and a sale by the estate's personal representative, which comes up with an inherited house (an heir selling it in their own name still fills out the form).
Houses built before 1978
Federal law adds one more step for older houses. The EPA's lead-based paint rule has the seller of a pre-1978 home give the buyer the EPA's lead pamphlet, disclose any lead paint they know of, hand over any lead records or reports they have, and allow 10 days for a lead inspection or risk assessment. The buyer can waive those 10 days, or you can agree in writing to a different period, but the lead disclosure itself still goes with the contract.
Which buyers will buy a house without an inspection?
Cash buyers are the usual ones. With no lender there's no appraisal condition, so a cash buyer can take the house after a walkthrough and price the risk themselves. A buyer with a loan can waive the inspection as well, but their lender's appraiser still sees the house, so the condition can come back into the deal later.
- A buyer with a loan
- Usually inspects, and the appraisal can raise repairs even when they don't. Pays the most for a house in good shape. Most likely to come back with a repair request on an as-is listing.
- A cash buyer who inspects
- Takes a short inspection period, then either closes or cancels. Fewer moving parts than a loan, but the offer can still change after the report.
- A cash buyer who walks it and buys
- Looks at the house once, prices the repairs in up front and writes an offer with no inspection contingency. The fewest steps of the three, and the price reflects that the buyer carries every unknown.
Even with no inspection contingency, a deal can still fall apart over title, payoffs or a buyer who never had the money. In the same NAR survey, agents said 7% of contracts in the three months to September 2026 were terminated. Ask any buyer how they'll pay and get it in writing; the questions to ask a cash home buyer covers what to check.
When we make a cash offer, I walk the house with you first and work from four things: what it would be worth 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.
Should you get your own inspection before you sell as is?
Sometimes it's worth it. A pre-listing inspection tells you what a buyer's inspector would find, so you can price it in or fix the one thing that would scare a lender. The catch is that anything it shows you becomes something you know, and what you know goes on the disclosure statement.
Handing buyers the report up front lets them price the roof, the side sewer or a damp crawlspace before they write an offer. A report from a licensed inspector also helps you under RCW 64.06.050: if you base a disclosure answer on it and had no actual knowledge it was wrong, the error isn't yours. When a pre-listing inspection is worth paying for is in my answer on it in what not to do before you sell.
In Pierce County, a house on septic needs a pumped inspection and a Report of System Status from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department before it sells, as-is or not. Other checks an as-is sale often runs into, such as a sewer scope, are on the guide to selling a house as is.
If you can't decide between listing it as is and taking a cash offer, I'll put a listing estimate next to the cash number with the offer, after the same costs, so you can see what each would leave you. Jason Bryant is a licensed broker with Windermere Real Estate (license 101377).
Sources
- RCW 64.06.010, sales exempt from the seller disclosurechecked
- RCW 64.06.020, the seller disclosure statement (Form 17) questionschecked
- RCW 64.06.030, delivery of the disclosure and the buyer's right to rescindchecked
- RCW 64.06.040, amending the seller disclosure after it is deliveredchecked
- RCW 64.06.050, seller's liability for errors in the disclosure statementchecked
- Chapter 18.280 RCW, home inspectors (licensing, passed 2008)checked
- Washington Department of Licensing, license lookupchecked
- US EPA, lead-based paint disclosure for home saleschecked
- Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, septic Report of System Statuschecked
- National Association of REALTORS, Realtors Confidence Index, September 2026 (released October 13, 2026): buyers who waived the inspection contingency, contracts terminatedchecked
