Nothing But Green Out Your Windows: Selling a Green Belt Home in South Tacoma

The details South Tacoma (Pierce County) | Attached single family home in an HOA community, 1,497 square feet, with a shared roof and water through the association | I represented the co-sellers | Previously listed in 2023 and didn't sell | Relisted January 2026 around $400,000 | Multiple price reductions, one buyer lost, then back under contract | Sold at $365,000, closed August 2026

The takeaway: My seller's line about this house is better than anything I could write: to have a home in technically Tacoma with essentially a green belt all around and see nothing but green out your windows is a very rare thing. My job was to get a buyer to understand that, in a market that was not in the mood.

This one was hard, and I'm going to say so

Some listings are easy. This one wasn't.

It had been on the market once before, in 2023, and didn't sell. My sellers came back to me in January 2026 ready to try again, with a tenant still in place whose lease ran into spring.

What followed was five months of prep, a tenant who moved out early (helpfully), roof research, HOA negotiation, a handyman, an electrician, and a roofer, before I ever put it live. Then it went pending. Then I lost that buyer in July. Then price cuts, new marketing, new showings, a verbal agreement a couple weeks later, and a closing in August.

It went up around $400,000. It sold at $365,000.

I'm putting that number right here at the top instead of burying it, because you should know what you're reading. This is not a story about me getting a seller more than they expected. It's a story about a difficult property in a slow stretch that had already failed to sell once, and about what it took to get it closed at all the second time.

They aren't all easy, and some of the hard ones are really, really hard.

The green belt is the whole product

Here's what's rare about this property: it's inside the City of Tacoma, and it's surrounded by green belt. You look out the windows and you see trees. Not a fence, not a neighbor's siding, not a parking strip. Trees.

That is genuinely uncommon in Tacoma at this price point, and it is exactly the kind of thing that photographs badly and shows beautifully. Which is a marketing problem, not a property problem.

So I shot it myself. I shoot my own listing videos, which means I'm the one standing in the living room deciding which window tells the story, instead of a photographer on a forty-minute schedule who's shooting six houses that day. I added a Matterport scan and drone footage, because the green belt only reads from above and from inside. A flat photo of a window doesn't do it.

The shared roof, which was not my sellers' fault and was absolutely their problem

The association had a shared-roof leak, and there was real disagreement among the neighbors about how the cost should be split.

An unresolved roof dispute in an HOA is a deal killer. Not because buyers hate roofs, but because a buyer cannot price an unknown future assessment. Faced with an open question like that, buyers either walk or discount hard.

So I didn't wait for it to resolve on its own. I researched it, tracked it, and pushed it until the association settled it at a meeting in May. Cleared to move forward, with no surprise expense landing on whoever bought the house.

That's three months of work that produced exactly zero visible marketing output and without which this house probably doesn't sell at all.

The square footage didn't match, so I measured it myself

The property had been represented at one square footage. The county had it meaningfully lower.

That gap is a problem in both directions. Advertise the high number and you're exposed, to the appraiser and to the buyer's attorney if it ever comes to that. Advertise the county number without checking and you may be giving away real value that actually exists in the house.

So rather than pick one and hope, I measured it and scanned it.

It's 1,497 square feet. The county was right and the higher number was not.

Which means my own measurement took square footage off my seller's listing. That's the uncomfortable version of this job. A smaller house is a lower price, and I'm the one who went and proved it. But a number you can't defend is worth less than a smaller number you can, because the one that falls apart falls apart at the appraisal, three weeks in, with everybody's moving plans already made.

So the listing cited a measured figure with a scan behind it. If a buyer or an appraiser wanted to question it, there was an answer.

And I caught the inspection form error

The inspection report came back with plumbing fixtures marked not applicable.

They were applicable. Somebody checked the wrong box.

That sounds trivial. It isn't. An inspection report is the document a buyer renegotiates from, and a line marked "NA" on a system that was never actually inspected is an open question that gets priced against the seller later, or worse, becomes somebody's problem after closing.

I flagged it, got it corrected, and then negotiated a contractor credit on what the inspection legitimately did find, which kept the deal together instead of sending my sellers into a repair project they didn't need.

For the record, the cooperating agent on the other side thanked me for being a good agent on this one, which I appreciated, because it was not a comfortable transaction for anybody.

What I did that another agent wouldn't have

1. I solved the HOA roof dispute before listing. Most agents would have disclosed it and let buyers discount it. I pushed the association to a resolution so there was nothing to discount.
2. I measured the house myself rather than picking the convenient number, and the number came back lower. Measured and documented beats optimistic and indefensible, even when the honest figure costs my own seller money.
3. I shot the video, the scan, and the drone footage myself, because the green belt is the product and it only reads from the right angles.
4. I read the inspection report line by line and caught a system marked not applicable that was very much applicable.
5. I relisted a house that had already failed to sell once, and I prepped it for five months before going live instead of relisting it into the same conditions and hoping.
6. I stayed through the price cuts and a lost buyer. The second half of this listing was unglamorous and that's when most listings get abandoned.

What I'd tell you about buying or selling in an HOA in Pierce County

Shared building elements are shared problems. Roof, siding, water, and road maintenance that run through the association mean your sale can be held up by a dispute you aren't a party to. Find out where things stand before you list, not during inspection.

Ask who holds the resale certificate. It isn't always the management company you're paying dues to. Finding that out in week one saves a week later.

Dues are not just a number. Ask what they include. When water, roads, and property management are inside the dues, the comparison to a non-HOA home is not apples to apples.

And verify square footage before you advertise it. Listings, county records, and tape measures disagree more often than you'd like.

Questions I get

Why does a green belt lot matter? Privacy and views that can't be built out from under you, inside city limits. It's scarce, and scarce things hold value. Confirm who owns and controls the green belt, though, because "wooded today" and "protected forever" are different things.

My house didn't sell last time. Can it sell now? Often yes, and usually not by just relisting it. This one needed five months of repairs, an HOA resolution, a corrected square footage, and new marketing before it went back up. It also needed a price that matched what the market was actually willing to do, which is why it went up around $400,000 and sold at $365,000.

What if the inspection report has an error in it? Say so and get it corrected. A wrong box on an inspection report follows the house, and whichever side notices it second is the side that pays for it.

What if my square footage is wrong in my favor? Then it's still wrong. Get it measured. An inflated figure doesn't survive an appraisal, and finding that out at week three of a pending sale is far more expensive than finding it out before you list.

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Selling a home with a complication, an HOA, or a listing that already failed once? Those are the ones I'm good at. Let's have a conversation.

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