The Flip I Told My Client to Walk Away From, and the North Tacoma House She Got Instead

The details Tacoma (Pierce County) | The purchase that closed: Bridgeview Park, North Tacoma, single family, 3 bed, 1.75 bath, about 1,350 square feet, split entry, early 1980s, Narrows Bridge view | I represented the buyer on the purchase and the seller on the resale | Bought around $500,000 in mid-2021 on a list price in the mid $470s | Resold around $565,000 in fall 2023, full price, eight days | Gain of roughly $65,000 in about two years

The takeaway: My client had started to get a bad feeling about the flip she was under contract on. She hadn't said it out loud yet. My job was to confirm it out loud, even though confirming it meant no closing and no commission for me.

She already knew

That's the part of this story I think about most.

My buyer was under contract on a flip in Tacoma. Fresh finishes, move-in ready, the whole thing. And somewhere in the first week she'd started to feel like something was off, which is a feeling plenty of buyers have and almost nobody acts on, because acting on it feels like being difficult.

Then the inspection came back.

What the inspection showed, and what I couldn't verify

The inspection came back with a long list. Shortcuts in a lot of places, most of them cosmetic or cheap to fix. One of them wasn't.

What I'd been told about the sewer line was that the work was done, that it was permitted, and that it ran the full length from the main to the house.

What the scope showed was a line that stopped at the sidewalk, and roots past that point thick enough that the camera couldn't get through them.

I asked for the permit. Not a description of the permit, the permit. I didn't get a document I could reconcile with what I'd been told.

Here is the part most buyers in Washington don't know, and the reason this one mattered so much: in Washington, the homeowner is responsible for the sewer line from the main to the house. Not the city. Not the utility. You.

So what sat in front of my buyer was a potentially five-figure repair on a house that presented as finished, and no documentation I could use to rule it out.

That's the honest shape of it. I'm not going to tell you what anybody else knew or meant to do, because I don't know that and it isn't my place to guess. What I can tell you is what I asked for, what I got, and what I could not confirm. And the more of that list I worked through, the less of it I could confirm.

I told her to walk

Not "here are your options." Not "let's see what the seller will do." I told her that I couldn't verify the thing that mattered most, that the risk landed on her and not on anybody else, and that in my judgment this was not a house to buy. She should walk away from it.

Her reaction, and I'm quoting myself here because it's the line that stuck with me: she was relieved that I was feeling the same way that she had started to become.

That's the whole story, honestly. She'd sensed it. What she needed was someone with the expertise to confirm it and the willingness to say so out loud.

I want to be plain about what saying it out loud cost. Telling a client to terminate means no closing, no commission, and starting the search over from zero. The incentive structure of this job points the other direction, hard. If you've ever wondered whether your agent's advice is actually advice, that's the moment it shows.

Then I fought for her earnest money

Terminating a contract and getting your deposit back are two different events, and the second one didn't happen on its own.

So we went to interpleader, which is the process where the money goes to a neutral third party and gets sorted out rather than sitting in limbo while two sides argue. It resolved in about a week, and she got every dollar back.

I'm including that because "just walk away" is easy advice to give and expensive advice to follow if your agent isn't willing to do the ugly part afterward. Walking away is only actually free if somebody chases the deposit.

Then I found her a better house

Bridgeview Park, North Tacoma. Split entry, a little over 1,350 square feet, and a Narrows Bridge view out the windows.

Two days on market, so of course there was competition. I wrote an escalation clause, which lets your offer climb automatically against other bids up to a ceiling you set, so you don't have to guess high and you don't lose by a thousand dollars. We won it at around $500,000 against a list price in the mid $470s.

She closed in mid-2021.

And then the math

Two years later she decided to move into philanthropic work, and I listed the house for her. It sold in fall 2023 for around $565,000, full price, eight days on market.

That's roughly $65,000 in about two years, on a house she only ended up in because her agent talked her out of a different one.

She left me a five-star review about integrity and ethics. I'd rather have that than the commission I passed on, but I'd be lying if I said that was obvious at the time.

What I did that another agent wouldn't have

1. I said the quiet part out loud. She was already uneasy. An agent who wanted the closing could have reassured her, negotiated a small credit, and gotten paid. I told her to terminate.
2. I knew whose problem the sewer line was. From the main to the house, it's the homeowner's responsibility in Washington. That responsibility wasn't accounted for anywhere in what I'd been given, and the exposure pointed entirely at my buyer.
3. I didn't accept "permitted and complete" as an answer. I ordered the scope, read what the camera actually showed, asked for the permit itself, and kept asking until I was satisfied I wasn't going to be able to confirm it.
4. I took the earnest money fight instead of handing her a problem. Interpleader, about a week, full recovery.
5. I wrote an escalation clause instead of guessing. Two days on market with competition, and she paid roughly $25,000 over list on purpose rather than $40,000 over out of fear.

Three things worth knowing if you're buying in Tacoma

Who pays for the sewer line from the main to the house? In Washington, you do, as the homeowner. Get a sewer scope. Ask for the permit, not a description of the permit.

A sewer scope has a specific failure mode. When the camera can't get through, that is information, not an inconvenience. Don't let anyone tell you the line is fine when nobody has actually seen the length of it.

New finishes tell you nothing about what's behind them. A flip is a house somebody bought to resell for more than they put into it. Plenty of them are done well. The ones that aren't tend to be beautiful exactly where you can see.

Questions I get

What happens to my earnest money if the seller won't release it? It can go to interpleader, where a neutral party holds it and the dispute gets resolved. This one took about a week. It's not fun, but it's not a loss either.

How does an escalation clause work? Your offer automatically rises in set increments above competing offers, up to a maximum you choose. You win at the smallest amount that beats the next bid instead of overshooting.

Is it normal for an agent to tell me not to buy a house? It should be more normal than it is. Ask any agent you interview to tell you about a deal they talked a client out of. If they don't have one, that's your answer.

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Buying in Tacoma and want somebody who will tell you the unprofitable truth? Let's have a conversation.

Becca Pitts | eXp Realty LLC | Licensed in Washington since 2010