Bonney Lake, where I live, and what selling in Tehaleh takes

So the first thing to know is that the HOA rules are real and they get enforced. Tehaleh doesn't allow A-board signs in the neighborhood, and when one goes out, somebody picks it up. I understand why. But Tehaleh is big and built in sub-neighborhoods, and nobody stumbles onto a house out here. Somebody has to tell you where to turn. So I hired teenagers in ice cream parlor outfits to hold "Open House with Ice Cream" signs, one group at the entrance roundabout and one at the turn into our sub-neighborhood. The rule covers placed signs, not people.

Here's the part I got wrong. I thought the dancers would fill the open house, and they didn't, really. What happened instead was that the community Facebook group lit up, with people asking which house it was and whether it was even allowed. In a master-planned community the neighbors are the distribution channel. They're the ones with a sister who's been trying to get in for a year.

Also, price honestly from the start. That summer Tehaleh was saturated, with very few sales, and buyers had no reason to hurry. Most of them have picked the community before they ever call an agent, so they're choosing between a handful of similar homes in one pocket, not between Tehaleh and the rest of Pierce County. I listed at $715,000, cut to $699,999, and it sold at $690,000. The buzz helped. It didn't save us from the reductions, and you should know which one worked.

And when the offer came in, the buyer's agent had left their own compensation out of the contract. That's been happening more since the rules on buyer agent compensation changed. It wasn't my mistake or my client's problem, and I flagged it anyway. Everybody gave a little, and it closed.

My seller bought that house with money she'd inherited from her father, and in the middle of marketing it her mother died. She was starting over in another state, making a decision that size for the first time without a parent to call.

We didn't pause the listing. I carried more of the logistics, brought her only the decisions that actually needed her, and handled the rest. After closing I helped her get out of the house, went back for a few things she'd left, and coordinated her storage. People sell through a death in the family all the time. What matters is having somebody who'll carry the parts you can't right now.