How It Works: Selling a Fire Damaged House in Seattle

Why We Ask What Has Been Assessed

Most buyers ask what burned. We ask that too, and then we ask something else: has an engineer been out, has a contractor walked it, is the adjuster's estimate the only document, or has more damage kept surfacing since.

The reason is Washington-specific. Your Form 17 disclosure records what you know when you sign it. Learn something afterwards that makes it inaccurate and you must amend, and the amendment gives the buyer a fresh three business day right to rescind at their sole discretion, deposit returned.

So a fire file where nothing has been properly assessed is not just harder to price. It is a file that will probably generate amendments, and every amendment is a chance for the transaction to end.

Are You Asking So You Can Pay Me Less?

The opposite, mostly. Undocumented damage is what buyers discount for, so an assessed property usually prices higher than an unassessed one. What the question really tells us is how stable the transaction will be, and we would rather know that before quoting than discover it in week three.

What We Tell You to Do About It

If nothing has been properly assessed and the damage is more than cosmetic, get an engineer out before you sign anything with anybody.

That advice costs us the chance to buy cheaply from an uninformed seller, and we give it because the alternative is worse for both of us: a deal that collapses in escrow when the report finally arrives and the buyer takes their statutory exit. The statutory position is on our page covering Form 17, IFCA and the excise tax.

The Claim Question in Step Four

The form also asks whether the claim has been denied or stalled. That is not idle either.

Washington's Insurance Fair Conduct Act gives a first party claimant unreasonably denied coverage a cause of action with up to treble damages and attorney's fees, subject to a mandatory twenty day pre-suit notice to the insurer and the Insurance Commissioner. A great many owners with denied fire claims have never been told this exists.

We are not lawyers and we take no part of your claim. But if your answer is that the claim was denied or has gone quiet for months, we will say so on the call, because it can be worth more than the difference between any two offers you are weighing.

Why Would a Buyer Tell Me That?

Because an owner who resolves a claim properly is a better counterparty than one selling under pressure from a denial they thought was final. It is also cheaper for us to say it now than to have you learn about it later and feel you sold badly. Self-interest and candour point the same way here.

What We Check

The county assessor's parcel record for ownership, year built and lot dimensions. The county recorder for the deed and any lien. The city's mapping for the zoning designation and any slope or environmentally critical area overlay, both of which change the rebuild cost and are themselves disclosable. And the permit history, which on older stock frequently explains what a buyer will otherwise discover as a surprise.

What Comes Back

A written figure with every line showing: what a finished house on that parcel is worth, or what the parcel is worth if the zoning supports more than what burned, the cost of getting there including any slope or foundation work, carrying cost, the excise tax at the applicable rate, and margin.

What If the Numbers Say Do Something Else?

Then the email says that. On this stock a contained fire that spared the framing frequently restores economically, and restoring has a second advantage in Washington: a repaired property has a settled condition, which means a clean disclosure rather than an evolving one.

Then It Is Your Call

No deadline from us. Washington closes through escrow rather than attorneys on both sides, so a clean file moves quickly. What slows a Seattle file is a disclosure that keeps needing amendment, a claim nobody has pushed properly, and title.

Compare figures if you want to. The questions on our page about how to tell local cash buyers apart work on us as much as on anyone.

Things That Never Happen

No fee at any stage. No request that you clear the site, board it, commission a report or make any repair first — where an assessment is worth doing we say so rather than requiring it. No requirement that your claim be settled. No assignment of the contract to a third party. And no suggestion that you leave something off Form 17, which is both a legal obligation and, in this state, the thing most likely to end your sale if you get it wrong.

Common Questions About the Process

How Long Does It Take?

Address to written figure is usually a few days. Escrow to closing is quick where title is clean and where the disclosure is settled rather than evolving.

Do I Need to Be in Washington?

No. Out-of-state owners are common on inherited property and remote signing through escrow is routine.

I Have No Assessment and Cannot Afford One.

Tell us and we will price accordingly, with a range rather than a number. We will also be straight that the range is wider than it needs to be, and why.

How This Works, Step by Step