In nearly all cases, sellers of residential real property in Washington are required to fill out a “Seller Disclosure Statement” (also referred to as Form 17) and provide it to a buyer who enters into a written agreement to buy their property. The buyer has 3 days from the time of delivery to review the form to their sole satisfaction. Given that timeline doesn’t start until the Seller Disclosure Statement is delivered, we make it a practice to have it available at the time of listing.
The disclosure consists of 6 pages, which require you to answer a series of questions regarding different aspects of the property. It is important you fill out the form completely, as an incomplete form will not trigger the 3 day review period to start.
This is the ONE form in the entire transaction that we can’t fill out for you. The law requires the disclosures to be those of the homeowners, not their broker. We realize a few of the questions may be confusing, so please reach out if you need clarification as to what specifically is being asked. Please keep in mind it is better to disclose than not to disclose. Most problems arise when sellers knowingly omit something that should have been noted on the disclosure. It’s expected that you may not know the answer to every question being asked, in which case you can simply check the “don’t know” box for that specific question.
Again, this is a general outline for completing your Seller Disclosure Statement so if you get stuck just reach out and we’ll help !
