Recent News

The Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) saga continues. Just recently, I wrote a blog post here about the push for private real estate listings in Washington State, spearheaded by Compass Real Estate and some other brokerages. As mentioned, this has been part of an ongoing argument about the merits of requiring new listings to become immediately available to… Read More

In March of 2025, King County added over 3,500 new residential listings to the market, a jump of over 20% from the same time last year. Edmonds itself added almost 20 new listings in March of 2025, compared to the same time the prior year, an increase of almost 36%. Meanwhile, average listing prices have… Read More

For decades, Washington State real estate brokerage firms have operated under agreement to share all real property listings with the public and the rest of the brokerage community. They have traditionally done this through the multiple listing service. These same properties will typically also show up on popular websites like Redfin, Zillow, and Trulia, where… Read More

The recent decision, Vision Landscapes v. Amundson, concerns a landscaping company (“Vision”), and a married couple, the Amundsons. The Amundsons hired Vision for landscaping services but disputed Vision’s final invoice. The dispute arose when the Amundsons refused to pay Vision, which then filed a lien and filed a lawsuit. Following extensive motion practice, the Amundsons… Read More

The process of buying and selling a home can involve a myriad of potential issues, just one of which was addressed in Ryan Foltz’s excellent article here about the dangers of waiving an inspection contingency. Even so, to be competitive in an aggressive market, buyers will often waive not only inspection contingencies, but financing contingencies, title contingencies,… Read More

A defendant served with a lawsuit may face a multitude of different risks and consequences depending on the nature of the litigation. One issue, however, often not considered by those facing suit is the immediate impact a lawsuit can have on their property ownership. Indeed, depending on the circumstances, the mere filing of a lawsuit… Read More

In today’s competitive housing market, submitting an offer with an inspection contingency could jeopardize a buyer’s ability to purchase a home.  Performing a detailed inspection of the existing condition of the property is always the best practice to identify defective conditions that were not disclosed by the seller.  Although waiving a home inspection can speed… Read More

In the recent Washington Court of Appeals case DWP General Contracting, Inc. v. Wilson Architects, PLLC, Dr. Harold Lee hired DWP General Contracting to build an apartment complex. The contract required DWP to complete the project within 180 days. But construction delays and payment disputes caused work to halt, leaving the project only 60% complete… Read More

An easement is a right to use land that belongs to someone else.  Most of the time, it will “run with the land,” meaning that it will continue on even if ownership of the burdened property changes hands.  Frequently, easement language does not on its own settle questions of interpretation, and the document may be… Read More