You can sell a house by owner in Washington state without hiring a listing broker, and skipping that broker saves you the listing-side commission, which averages about 2.6% of the sale price. In exchange, you take on every task a listing agent would normally handle: pricing the home, marketing it, delivering the legally required disclosures, negotiating the contract, and steering it through closing. Miss a step and the savings evaporate quickly, so the work below is what actually matters for a Washington FSBO sale.
Deliver the Seller Disclosure Statement
Washington requires you to give the buyer a completed seller disclosure statement, commonly called Form 17, no later than five business days after you both sign the purchase agreement. The form covers the structure, water supply, sewer or septic system, electrical and plumbing systems, and environmental hazards such as soil contamination or underground storage tanks.1Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 64.06.020 – Improved Residential Real Property—Seller’s Duty—Format of Disclosure Statement—Minimum Information For each item you mark functional, defective, or unknown. “Unknown” is legitimate if you truly don’t know, but using it to hide a problem you’re aware of is misrepresentation and can bring a fraud claim after closing.
Once the buyer has Form 17 in hand, they have three business days to rescind the purchase agreement in writing. If you never deliver the form, that rescission right doesn’t quietly expire. It stays open until the buyer waives it in writing, which means a missing disclosure can blow up your deal late in the process. Delivering Form 17 promptly is the single easiest way to protect the sale.
If the house was built before 1978, federal law layers a lead-based paint disclosure on top of Form 17. You provide the buyer with the required warning statement, any lead inspection reports or risk assessments you have, and a 10-day window for the buyer to conduct their own lead inspection.2eCFR. 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A – Disclosure of Known Lead-Based Paint and/or Lead-Based Paint Hazards Upon Sale or Lease of Residential Property
Septic Systems
If the property is on a septic system, Washington leaves inspection requirements to county health departments rather than setting a single statewide rule.3Washington State Legislature. Chapter 70A.105 RCW – On-Site Sewage Disposal Systems Many counties require a certified inspection and a clean report before title transfers, and some require a maintenance notice recorded on title before closing. Call your county’s environmental health department early. Scheduling and waiting for a report can take weeks, and it will hold up closing if you don’t start it in time.
Supporting Records
Pull together utility bills, property tax statements, HOA documents, and warranties on major appliances or recent repairs. These aren’t required by statute, but they back up your Form 17 answers and give buyers a reason to trust your asking price. A transferable furnace warranty from two years ago heads off haggling after the home inspection.
Set an Asking Price That Won’t Stall the Sale
Overpricing is the fastest way to kill a FSBO listing. Buyers and their agents compare your home to recent sales within minutes, and a price that doesn’t line up gets skipped. You have two reasonable ways to land on a defensible number.
The first is hiring a state-certified appraiser. Expect to pay $400 to $700 for an independent valuation based on square footage, lot size, condition, and comparable sales. That report carries weight with buyers, and it lines up with what the buyer’s mortgage lender will do anyway when it orders its own appraisal before funding the loan. If your appraisal and the lender’s appraisal land close, you’ve avoided one of the most common reasons FSBO deals collapse.
The second is a comparative market analysis: pull recent sales of similar homes in your area from real estate sites and county assessor records, then adjust for differences in condition, features, and location. The risk is picking the highest comparable and ignoring the rest. Focus on the median of your comparables and be honest about how your home stacks up.
Get the Listing on the MLS
Most buyers and their agents search the Multiple Listing Service first. As a FSBO seller you’re not shut out. Flat-fee MLS services will list your home on the local MLS for a one-time fee, usually a few hundred dollars, and syndicate it to Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com. This is one of the highest-return dollars a FSBO seller spends, because it puts your home in front of the same buyer pool that agent-listed properties reach. Listing periods generally run three to six months, and photography and staging are typically your responsibility unless you buy an add-on package.
Write the Listing Without Violating Fair Housing Rules
When you write your own listing copy, you’re personally on the hook for the federal Fair Housing Act. It prohibits any advertisement that indicates a preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin, and it applies even when the preference is unintentional.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 3604 – Discrimination in the Sale or Rental of Housing Phrases like “perfect for young professionals,” “no children,” “walking distance to [specific church],” or “ideal for singles” can all draw complaints.
Describe the property, not the buyer you have in mind. “Three-bedroom home with a fenced yard” is fine. “Great family home” starts implying a familial-status preference. Washington’s own anti-discrimination law mirrors the federal categories and adds more, so the safest approach is to stick strictly to the property: square footage, features, and neighborhood amenities described in neutral terms.
Decide Whether to Offer Buyer Agent Compensation
Since 2024, Washington law requires a buyer working with a broker to sign a written brokerage services agreement spelling out how that broker gets paid.5Washington State Legislature. Chapter 18.86 RCW – Real Estate Brokerage Relationships That agreement has to be in place before or as soon as reasonably practical after the broker starts showing homes. The practical effect is that many buyers have already committed to paying their agent a specific commission before they ever see your listing.
You are not legally required to pay a buyer’s agent anything. Refuse outright, though, and your buyer pool shrinks. Most buyers still work with agents, and an agent whose client would owe an extra 2.5% out of pocket may steer that client toward listings where the seller is offering compensation. The buyer’s agent commission in Washington averages roughly 2.5% of the sale price, and it’s always negotiable.
If you decide to offer compensation, you can communicate it to inquiring agents directly or through your flat-fee MLS service. Following the 2024 industry changes, MLS listings no longer display the offered commission, but agents can still contact you or the MLS service to ask. Set your number before you list, because it comes straight out of your net proceeds.
The Purchase and Sale Agreement
A verbal offer is nothing in Washington real estate. The deal exists once both parties sign a written purchase and sale agreement that includes the legal description of the property (from your deed or county tax records), the purchase price, the earnest money amount, contingency deadlines, and the closing date. Many FSBO sellers use the Northwest Multiple Listing Service form or have a real estate attorney draft one. Washington doesn’t require an attorney at closing, but having one review the contract before you sign is one of the smartest expenses on a FSBO sale.
Earnest Money
Earnest money shows the buyer is serious. Deposits usually run 1% to 3% of the purchase price and sit with a neutral third party, typically the escrow company. If the buyer defaults without a legal excuse, Washington law lets you keep the earnest money as your sole remedy, but only up to 5% of the purchase price.6Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.04.005 – Liquidated Damages—Earnest Money Deposit For that to be enforceable, the purchase agreement has to specifically designate the deposit as liquidated damages and state that forfeiture is your exclusive remedy.
If the two of you disagree about who keeps the deposit, the holder follows a set process: 15 days to notify the other party of a written demand, 20 days for that party to object, and if there’s an objection the holder files an interpleader in superior court within 60 days. None of it moves fast, so plan accordingly if a deal falls apart.
Contingencies
Most purchase agreements let the buyer walk away without losing earnest money if certain conditions aren’t met. The two common ones are a home inspection contingency, which gives the buyer a fixed window to inspect and either accept, renegotiate, or cancel, and a financing contingency, which protects the buyer if the mortgage falls through. Each contingency has a deadline in the contract. Track those dates. Once a contingency expires, the buyer loses the right to cancel under it, and that leverage matters if negotiations reopen.
Title, Escrow, and Closing
Once you’re under contract, the title company produces a preliminary title report listing everything recorded against the property: liens, easements, covenants, conditions and restrictions, and any other encumbrances. Read it carefully. A forgotten lien or a surprise easement can delay or kill closing, and anything the title company insists on clearing (an old contractor’s lien, for example) has to be resolved before it will issue a clean policy.
Title insurance protects the buyer and lender against title defects the search missed. Washington buyers typically get both an owner’s policy and a lender’s policy. For a home in the $400,000 to $600,000 range, the owner’s policy runs roughly $1,050 to $1,400. The buyer usually pays for their own owner’s policy, but the lender’s policy cost and who covers the title search fee are negotiable and should be pinned down in the purchase agreement.
Washington closings are handled by escrow or title companies, not by attorneys. The escrow agent collects the buyer’s funds, pays off your existing mortgage, deducts closing costs, and sends you your net proceeds. Escrow fees generally run $1,000 to $2,500 depending on price and company, and the buyer and seller usually split them, though that’s negotiable.
Before closing you’ll get a settlement statement itemizing every charge and credit on your side. Go through it line by line. This is where you’ll see real estate excise tax, recording fees, prorated property taxes, any buyer agent compensation you agreed to pay, title insurance, and escrow fees. Errors on settlement statements happen more often than people expect, and they are much easier to fix before closing than after.
Real Estate Excise Tax
Washington charges a graduated real estate excise tax on every property sale, and the seller pays it. You’ll complete a real estate excise tax affidavit reporting the sale price.7Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 82.45.150 The state portion uses these rate tiers:8Washington Department of Revenue. Real Estate Excise Tax
- $525,000 or less: 1.10%
- $525,001 to $1,525,000: 1.28%
- $1,525,001 to $3,025,000: 2.75%
- $3,025,001 and above: 3.00%
These rates are graduated like income tax brackets. Only the portion of the sale price inside each tier is taxed at that tier’s rate. On a $600,000 sale you’d owe 1.10% on the first $525,000 and 1.28% on the remaining $75,000. Your city or county adds a local REET that varies but commonly runs another 0.25% to 0.50%. The escrow company calculates the total and pays it to the county treasurer at closing.
Recording the Deed
The sale isn’t legally complete until the new deed is recorded with the county auditor.9Washington State Legislature. Chapter 65.04 RCW – Duties of County Auditor Recording fees are set by state statute and are uniform across counties. As of mid-2025, the standard fee is $303.50 for the first page and $1.00 for each additional page. The first-page figure is high because it bundles surcharges earmarked for affordable housing and other programs. Escrow files the deed and deducts the fee from your proceeds.
Federal Tax Obligations After the Sale
Selling triggers federal reporting whether or not you owe tax on the gain.
Capital Gains Exclusion
If you owned and used the home as your primary residence for at least two of the five years before the sale, you can exclude up to $250,000 of profit from federal income tax. Married couples filing jointly can exclude up to $500,000 if both spouses meet the use requirement and at least one meets the ownership requirement.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 121 – Exclusion of Gain From Sale of Principal Residence These amounts have not been adjusted for inflation since 1997. Profit here means sale price minus your cost basis, which includes the original purchase price plus qualifying improvements. If your gain sits under the exclusion, you owe no federal capital gains tax on the sale.
Form 1099-S
The person responsible for closing, usually the escrow company, has to file Form 1099-S with the IRS reporting the sale. They can skip it if you certify in writing that the home was your principal residence and the sale price was $250,000 or less ($500,000 for married couples filing jointly).11Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1099-S Above those thresholds a 1099-S will be filed regardless of whether your actual gain is excludable. Getting a 1099-S doesn’t mean you owe tax. It means the IRS knows about the sale and you need to report it on your return, even if the exclusion zeros out the gain.
One boundary to note: if you’re not a U.S. citizen or resident, the buyer has to withhold a portion of the sale price under FIRPTA and remit it to the IRS.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1445 – Withholding of Tax on Dispositions of United States Real Property Interests If you’re a U.S. citizen or resident, FIRPTA doesn’t apply, though escrow may still ask you to sign an affidavit confirming your status.