Recent News

When selling a home, the selling party will typically pay a 5-6% commission to the listing agent, who then pays a negotiated portion of that commission (often, but not always, half) to the buyer’s agent. Technically, the commissions are negotiable, but the National Association of Realtors (NAR), a powerful trade association boasting over 1.5 million… Read More

Easements present one of the most common encumbrances affecting title to real property. An easement allows a property owner to use someone else’s land for a specific purpose, such as ingress and egress, parking, utilities, and even temporary construction. My colleague, Andrew M. McKenzie, wrote an excellent blog post here regarding methods for determining whether… Read More

Security interests in certain types of personal property in the state of Washington are perfected only by filing a Uniform Commercial Code financing statement with the Washington Department of Licensing. “Perfection” of a security interest is important because it is a concept used to determine the priority of competing security interests in the same collateral.… Read More

Developing land is often complicated.  The would-be developer must take into account a host of considerations, not the least of which are: (a) property acquisition; (b) financing; (c) zoning; (d) presence of environmentally critical areas; (d) local development codes; (e) subdividability; (f) bureaucracy and politics of local jurisdictions; (g) market forces; (h) title issues; (i)… Read More

Washington State has recently undergone significant changes in housing legislation. My previous blog posts here, here, and here, outlined some of the most substantial reforms pertaining to housing density adopted in 2023, which specifically related to multiplexes and accessory dwelling units. While 2024 has seen additional housing reform stall by comparison, as outlined in my blog post here, the legislature did pass… Read More

Us residents of Washington State often consider ourselves lucky to live in an area with an abundance of beautiful trees. Naturally, however, the ubiquity of beautiful trees throughout our state has led to the growth of a significant body of law relating to the ownership and maintenance of trees as between neighboring property owners. Indeed, my colleagues… Read More

Real estate contracts were a common form of providing for the purchase and sale and financing of real estate. Under real estate contracts, the buyer purchased the property from the seller and agreed to pay the seller the balance of the purchase price in installments.  (Real estate contracts are to be distinguished from the now… Read More

In 2023, the Washington State legislature passed multiple statutes in an effort to tackle the housing issues facing the public, chief among them, HB 1110 discussed here and here, and HB 1337 discussed here and here (the latter discussing HB 1110 as well). The passing of these laws will have a significant impact on housing in Washington… Read More

Real estate sales usually involve professional realtors who earn commissions when a sale closes.  But buyers and sellers have no obligation to use a realtor.  Generally speaking, parties to a real estate transaction have three options: (1) realtor representation; (2) self-representation; and (3) lawyer representation.  You should give consideration to all three options before deciding… Read More