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Two paths. Don’t mix them up.

Floating homes and houseboats are a totally different buy/sell process from a traditional house — financing, inspections, moorage, insurance, and who needs to be at the table. Path A is Lake Union Living. Path B is land homes (residential, luxury, condo, waterfront lots).

Path A Floating homes & houseboats Separate process start-to-finish. Moorage, FOWR classification, floating property lending, surveys, dock rules. Start in Lake Union Living Path B Traditional land homes Houses, luxury, condos, waterfront lots — the familiar land-title path and tools below. Browse land-home resources

Deep floating hub: Lake Union Living.

Houseboats & Floating Homes Not a traditional house deal. Separate process start-to-finish. See the resources Waterfront & View Homes Docks, bulkheads, tidelands, and what a sightline is really worth. See the resources Luxury Homes & Gated Enclaves Quiet sales, gated communities, and low-turnover enclave strategy. See the resources Condos & Townhomes Ownership types, HOA health, resale certificates — decoded. See the resources Single-Family Homes Craftsman-era diligence, septic & wells, and neighborhood strategy. See the resources Financing & Closing (land homes) Land-home defaults — not the floating track. See the resources Tools & Calculators (land homes) For traditional land-home deals. Floating? Start in Lake Union Living. See the resources

Path A — Lake Union Living

Floating homes & houseboats — a totally different process

Houseboats and floating homes do not follow the traditional land-house checklist. Moorage ownership or lease, floating-on-water residence vs floating-home classification, floating-property surveys and lending, different insurance, shoreline and dock rules, and liveaboard permission all sit at the table. Start in Lake Union Living — then use the comparison guide and sold docks below.

How buying differs

  • Moorage ownership or lease comes first
  • FOWR vs floating-home classification
  • Floating property lending & surveys
  • Dock rules and liveaboard permission

How selling differs

  • Buyers need the right lender product
  • Moorage transferability is the deal
  • Insurance and survey readiness matter
  • Pricing comps are water-specific

Go to Lake Union Living · Compare floating vs land

Floating homes moored on the Ship Canal at W Ewing Place in Seattle, listed by Special Agents Realty
Ship Canal moorage at W Ewing Place — the kind of property this section exists to explain.

Real floating-home sales to learn from

Waterfront & View Homes

Buying or selling a waterfront or view home

Waterfront and view property is where due diligence earns its keep: dock and bulkhead permits, shoreline rules, tideland deeds, and pricing views against genuinely comparable sales. Our hyper-local area pages carry the specifics, water by water.

Real view-home sales to learn from

Luxury Homes & Gated Enclaves

Buying or selling in luxury markets & gated enclaves

In Broadmoor, the Eastside gold coast, and Seattle's estate neighborhoods, much of what sells never spends a day on the open market. These resources cover how discreet buying and selling actually works when inventory is measured in single digits.

Real luxury sales to learn from

Condos & Townhomes

Buying or selling a condo or townhome

Condominium, townhouse, co-op, PUD — the words get used interchangeably and they absolutely are not. These guides decode the ownership structures, and the sold condos and townhomes below show the diligence applied in the real world.

Real condo & townhome sales to learn from

Single-Family Homes

Buying or selling a single-family home

From Ballard craftsmans to Eastside ramblers, single-family homes carry era-specific questions — foundations and sewer scopes on century-old stock, septic systems and wells outside city utilities. Start with the guides, then go local with the area pages.

Real single-family sales to learn from

Financing & Closing — land-home defaults

The money side for traditional land homes

FICO scores, conventional lenders, down payments, loan types, escrow, and closing costs for houses, condos, and land-based waterfront. Floating or houseboat? Don’t use this track — start in Lake Union Living or jump to the floating section.

For buyers — financing the purchase

For sellers — pricing & weighing offers

Seller tools to go with the reading: request a free pricing opinion , work the prep & staging checklist , and estimate your net proceeds .

Tools & Calculators — land-home defaults

Interactive tools for traditional land-home deals

Calculators, checklists, timelines, and prep tools for land-title purchases and sales. Floating or houseboat? Start in Lake Union Living instead — these tools are not a substitute for the floating process.

Calculators

Educational estimates with your own numbers — never a quote or a loan offer.

Financing calculator The monthly payment — price, down payment, your quoted rate, plus taxes, insurance, and moorage. Closing costs estimator The wire — down payment plus lender fees, title & escrow, prepaid interest, and inspections. Net proceeds calculator The walk-away number — payoff, commission, Washington's graduated excise tax, and closing costs.

Checklists

Tickable and printable; your progress saves in this browser. Each carries the floating-home section no other brokerage checklist has.

Home inspection & walkthrough Every system, exterior to attic — plus the float, moorage, and shore-power checks. Seller prep & staging Paperwork to photo day — with dock appeal and float-paperwork prep for floating-home sellers. Closing-day documents How a Washington closing works, the wire-fraud rule, and the documents list for both sides. Moving & utilities Six weeks out to the first week after — address changes, utility switchovers, dock-move logistics.

Seller prep studio

Getting the home camera-ready — and keeping it that way while you still live in it.

Staging: before & after The same room drawn twice — cluttered and staged. Six rooms, including the floating-home deck & dock. Selling while living in it The deep declutter pass plus the 20-minute showing-day reset — with honest answers on storage, kids, and pets.

Timelines & wayfinding

Where you are in the deal, and which resource fits your exact situation.

The buying timeline Budget to keys, stage by stage — action items tickable, pitfalls flagged, tools linked in place. The selling timeline Decision to recording — pricing, prep, the buyer's inspection, escrow, and the proceeds wire. Find your guide Pick a home type and a journey — the matching guides, case studies, and area pages appear. Home systems diagram Tap through the cutaway — what each system costs to replace, how long it lasts, what inspectors check. House and floating-home views.

Pairs with the checklists: why hire licensed trade professionals — what the roofer, plumber, electrician, and marine surveyor each see that a general inspection can’t.

Lost in the vocabulary? There’s a glossary for that.

Earnest money to REET, DTI to portfolio loans — plus the full floating-home vocabulary: moorage, freeboard, dive reports, FOWR. Every term in plain English, every definition deep-linkable.

Open the glossary

Next steps

Ready to move on your home type?

Three doors — browse Linda’s current listings, request a free human pricing opinion, or start with a no-pressure consultation.

Browse current listings Curated Special Agents Realty properties — on the water and on land — with real case context. Request a private tour or pricing opinion Tour a listing with Linda, or get a free human pricing opinion — never an algorithm guess. Book a free consultation Thirty minutes with Linda M. Bagley — your questions, zero obligation.

Looking for the chronological feed instead — client words, press features, and every post as it publishes? Read the blog. Or skip the reading entirely and call (206) 419-0065.

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Talk it through

Not sure which home type is yours yet?

That's a normal place to start. A free thirty-minute consultation with Linda M. Bagley sorts out what fits how you want to live — on the water or on land — before you read another guide.

Talk to Linda (206) 419-0065

Life Is Better When You Own It™