https://sellnow253.com/blog/ The Ledger, from Sell Now 253: closing costs, foreclosure deadlines, tenants, divorce, zoning and the smelter plume, for Tacoma home sellers. en-us Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Austin.Hellickson@homexa.com (Austin Hellickson) https://sellnow253.com/blog/tacoma-smelter-plume-selling-house https://sellnow253.com/blog/tacoma-smelter-plume-selling-house Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Austin.Hellickson@homexa.com (Austin Hellickson) Washington’s seller disclosure form, Form 17, asks if you know of soil contamination on the property, so if your yard was sampled or cleaned up, or you otherwise know about arsenic or lead in the soil, it belongs on the form. You aren’t required to test. Looking up your address on the Department of Ecology’s Dirt Alert map is a sensible first step, and an attorney can confirm exactly how to word your answers. https://sellnow253.com/blog/seller-closing-costs-washington https://sellnow253.com/blog/seller-closing-costs-washington Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Austin.Hellickson@homexa.com (Austin Hellickson) A Washington seller usually pays the real estate excise tax, the buyer’s standard owner’s title policy, half the escrow fee, the mortgage payoff, and whatever commission and buyer credits the contracts call for. Property taxes and utilities are split to the day of closing. Your escrow officer prepares the final figures. https://sellnow253.com/blog/sell-house-before-foreclosure-washington https://sellnow253.com/blog/sell-house-before-foreclosure-washington Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Austin.Hellickson@homexa.com (Austin Hellickson) Yes. In Washington you own the house until the trustee’s sale, and you can sell it at any point before then as long as the sale closes and pays off the loan in time. The practical deadline comes weeks earlier than the date on the notice, because a buyer and a title company both need time, and your lender has to receive the payoff before the auction. https://sellnow253.com/blog/home-in-tacoma-zoning-selling https://sellnow253.com/blog/home-in-tacoma-zoning-selling Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Austin.Hellickson@homexa.com (Austin Hellickson) It might. Since February 1, 2025, Tacoma’s old single-family zones have been replaced by three Urban Residential zones, UR-1, UR-2 and UR-3, and all three allow more than one home on a lot that used to hold one. Whether a small builder would pay more than a family depends on your zone, the lot’s size and shape, alley access and trees, so look up the zone first and then get a number from each kind of buyer. https://sellnow253.com/blog/tenant-notice-selling-tacoma-rental https://sellnow253.com/blog/tenant-notice-selling-tacoma-rental Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Austin.Hellickson@homexa.com (Austin Hellickson) If you need the house empty to sell it, Washington law generally requires at least 90 days’ written notice when an owner sells a single-family residence, and Tacoma’s rental code adds its own forms and rules. If the tenants can stay, you may not need to end the tenancy at all: the lease carries over and the buyer becomes their landlord. Confirm the current requirements with the city’s rental housing staff and a landlord-tenant attorney before you serve anything. https://sellnow253.com/blog/divorce-house-sale-washington https://sellnow253.com/blog/divorce-house-sale-washington Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Austin.Hellickson@homexa.com (Austin Hellickson) Usually, yes. Washington is a community property state, and state law says neither spouse can sell community real property unless the other joins in signing the deed, so a title company will expect both signatures even when only one name is on title. If the two of you can’t agree on selling, the court handling the divorce can make orders about the house, and that part is a question for your attorneys.