The takeaway: I knew these buyers for about four years before they bought anything. Four years of a future client is four years of no commission. In the meantime, I hired them.

The four years

The connection is about as human as it gets. One of them is the sister of an ex-boyfriend of mine. That's it. That's the origin story.

They were building a junk removal business, and they were on my list as future clients the entire time. The standing plan was that when they were able to buy, they'd buy through me.

And in the meantime, I hired them. I used their business repeatedly over those years to clear out listings.

So for four years, the money ran one direction. From me, to them. On a transaction that might never have happened at all.

I'm not telling you that to sound noble. I'm telling you because "talk to an agent before you're ready" is advice every agent gives and almost none of them can show you what it looks like. This is what it looks like. It looks like four years of nothing, and then it looks like a house.

What finally changed was two things: their finances got stable, and the right house came up.

Self-employed, which is always the hard version

Both of them are business owners. On whether that makes financing harder, my answer in the interview was two words: it always is.

I won't make a claim about the specific snag on this file, because I don't remember it and I'd rather say that than invent it. But the general point stands and it's worth writing down: self-employed buyers carry a documentation burden that W-2 buyers never see. Two years of returns, profit and loss statements, add-backs, averaging, explanations for every deposit that doesn't look like the others.

It is one of the most common reasons perfectly capable people put off buying a house for years. Not because they can't afford it. Because the paperwork is demoralizing and nobody warned them.

What made it the right house

Worth capturing precisely, because these were their criteria, not mine and not the market's:

Good bones, but dated. They wanted something solid they could update over time, not something already finished to somebody else's taste.
Room for a teenager.
Parking for work equipment. They run a junk removal business. The trucks and gear have to live somewhere, and almost no listing ever gets evaluated on that.
The right area.
The right price.

That third one is the one I want to flag, because it's the kind of thing that gets a buyer into a house they have to leave in two years. If your business lives in your driveway, the driveway, the setbacks, the HOA rules, and the local zoning are not minor details. They're the deal.

Seven days, multiple offers, and a $5,000 difference

Two of the offers came in very similar. Here's how mine won, and it wasn't by being the big number.

Extra $5,000 over list. Not twenty. Five. On a $580,000 house, that's less than one percent.

No closing cost request. Clean, straightforward, nothing for the seller to absorb.

And I'd talked to the listing agent. In my own words: sometimes just talking to the listing agent and being thorough with communication and contracts is enough to tip them over to encourage their seller to select your offer. Especially when it's close.

That's the part that isn't a trick. When two offers are nearly identical, the listing agent is going to recommend one of them to their seller, and that recommendation gets made by a human being who has either heard from you or hasn't. Being the agent who called, who knew what the seller actually wanted out of the deal, and who wrote a contract that didn't need three corrections, is worth more than most buyers realize.

They closed that fall at $585,000.

What I did that another agent wouldn't have

I stayed in a relationship with no transaction in it for four years. Not a drip campaign. Not a quarterly market update email. Actual contact, and I paid them for work the whole time.
I found out what the seller wanted before I wrote. The offer was built around the answer, not around a generic strategy.
I won on structure instead of price. $5,000 and no closing cost request, against an offer that was otherwise a match. The money saved stayed with my clients.
I evaluated houses on their actual life. Equipment parking is not a standard search filter. It was a hard requirement here, and screening for it up front is why they didn't waste weekends on houses that could never have worked.

Almost a year later

In fall 2025, close to a year after closing, one of them emailed me because he'd lost the paperwork for his home warranty and two appliances were acting up.

My reply: yup, let me find the document for you. Hang tight.

I pulled the invoice with the policy number on it and sent it over within the hour.

And I still hire them for my listings. The relationship that started four years before the transaction didn't end at it, and it still runs both directions.

Questions I get

Can I buy a house if I'm self-employed? Yes, and it's harder, and the difficulty is paperwork rather than qualification. Start the lender conversation earlier than a W-2 buyer would, because the document list is longer and some of it takes time to produce.

How do I win a multiple offer situation without being the highest bid? Clean terms, no closing cost request, fast inspection turnaround, and an agent who has actually spoken to the listing agent and knows what the seller needs. This one was decided by $5,000 and a phone call.

What should I check if my work vehicles and equipment come with me? Zoning, HOA covenants, driveway width and depth, setbacks, gate access, and whether the neighbors' parking already fills the street. Check before you write, not during inspection.

How early should I talk to an agent? Earlier than you think. These clients talked to me four years out. Nothing bad happens if you're early. Plenty of bad things happen if you're late.

Thinking about buying on South Hill or anywhere in Puyallup, even if it's years out? Let's have a conversation. I'm patient, and I mean that literally.

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

Rebecca Pitts is a licensed real estate broker in Washington State, affiliated with eXp Realty LLC. License #107351. eXp Realty LLC is a licensed Washington real estate firm. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Four Years, No Commission, and a $5,000 Win on South Hill