One of the most common complaints I hear from people doing projects in Kitsap is permit timing. It’s slow. It’s unpredictable. You submit, you wait, you get a correction letter, you resubmit, you wait again. The state heard that complaint — and passed SB 5290 to do something about it. Here’s what changed, what it…
Mason County doesn’t have a single dramatic headline change the way Pierce County’s June 2025 overhaul does. What it has is something that can be just as dangerous: quiet, cumulative tweaks that move quietly through the code and alter what’s allowed on rural parcels without generating much notice. Mason County’s code is now codified through…
Pierce County adopted a broad development code package in June 2025 — Ordinance O2025-516S — to implement its 2024 comprehensive plan. This isn’t a minor tweak. It touches impact fees, zoning, design standards, middle-housing categories, rural and urban designations, and a revised Zoning Atlas. If you own property in unincorporated Pierce County, or you’re underwriting…
Kitsap County adopted its updated Comprehensive Plan and zoning code changes on December 2, 2024. Those changes went into effect April 1, 2025. If you own property in unincorporated Kitsap — or you’re buying land here — April 1, 2025 is the line in the sand. Plans and assumptions made before that date may not…
Here’s what I know: the rules around what you can build, how many units you can add, and how much parking you have to provide have been changing fast in Washington — and a lot of property owners and investors in Kitsap are still operating on yesterday’s assumptions. The Legislature has been pushing pro-housing bills…
The mortgage payment gets all the attention — and it deserves some, because it’s the biggest monthly number. But after watching enough buyers go through closing and into ownership, the pattern I see most often isn’t people surprised by their mortgage. It’s people surprised by everything that sits around it. The closing costs they didn’t…
Most real estate advice assumes a neat story: traditional buyer, traditional seller, clean timeline, predictable financing. In Kitsap, a lot of people don’t live in that story. They’re navigating a divorce. Settling an estate with three opinions on what to do with mom’s house. Moving here for remote work and hoping the ferry schedule cooperates….
Here’s what I know after watching a lot of transactions: most failed deals in Kitsap don’t come out of nowhere. They die in a few very predictable places — financing, inspection, appraisal, title, and plain old life getting in the way. The ones that catch people off guard usually could have been forecast from the…
Most Kitsap land and waterfront regrets sound the same: “We thought we could build more than that,” “We didn’t realize the well was going to be a problem,” or “We had no idea the shoreline rules were that strict.” The loss isn’t just money — it’s years. Years of permitting fights, engineering reports, and legal…
Here’s what I know: most real estate “disasters” in Kitsap County aren’t bad luck. They’re the same handful of mistakes, showing up over and over again — around land use, wells and septics, rushing a contract, and miscalibrating expectations on price. I’ve watched them blow up deals, and if I’m being honest, I’ve made a…