The Seattle Home Buying Quiz: 12 Questions Before You Offer

Before you write an offer on a Seattle home, you should be able to pass this quiz. Not because trivia wins houses — but because every question below maps to a moment in the process where buyers lose real money by guessing.

How to take it: read each question, commit to an answer out loud (no skimming ahead), then read the answer and explanation that follow. Scoring guide at the end. No grade inflation — this market doesn’t offer any either.

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Question 1

In Washington, who sets the commission rate that real estate agents charge?

A) The state Department of Licensing B) The MLS C) The local Realtor association D) Nobody — every fee is negotiable

Answer: D. No law, MLS rule, or association sets rates — price-fixing them would violate antitrust law. Every agent (and brokerage) sets and negotiates its own fees, which is why they vary so widely across Greater Seattle, and why comparing them before hiring is worth real money. That comparison gap is the entire reason Manaky Homes exists.

Question 2

What happens to your earnest money if you back out of a purchase for a reason NOT covered by a contingency in your contract?

Answer: you can lose it to the seller. Earnest money is your performance deposit; contingencies (inspection, financing, title) are the legal exits that let you walk away with it. Leave through a door that isn’t in the contract and the seller typically has a claim on the deposit — which in Seattle is often a five-figure sum. Know your exits before you need them: how earnest money works in Washington.

Question 3

A listing says “offers reviewed Tuesday, 5pm.” What is this, and what does it usually signal?

Answer: an offer review date — and it signals the seller expects (or hopes for) multiple offers. Instead of responding to offers as they arrive, the seller collects them all and compares them at once, which converts buyer interest into head-to-head competition. It often pairs with a deliberately attractive list price. It also means you should treat the list price as an opening bid, not a forecast of the sale price.

Question 4

What does an escalation clause do?

Answer: it automatically raises your offer above competing offers, in set increments, up to a cap you choose. It’s a tool for multiple-offer situations: you offer X, and if a competing bona fide offer beats you, your price escalates past it until your ceiling. The cap is the whole game — set it at your true walk-away number in daylight, never during the adrenaline of offer night. Full mechanics here: escalation clauses in Seattle.

Question 5

What is Form 17?

Answer: Washington’s seller disclosure statement — the form where sellers answer questions about the property’s condition: water intrusion, structural issues, sewer problems, and more. Read the actual checkboxes, and pay special attention to “don’t know” answers from long-time owners. Most residential sellers must provide it, and buyers typically have a short window after receiving it to rescind. Details: Form 17 explained.

Question 6

In Seattle, who is responsible for the side sewer — the pipe running from the house to the city sewer main?

Answer: the homeowner — for the entire run, even the part under the street. This surprises nearly everyone. A collapsed or root-invaded side sewer is invisible on a tour, common under older homes with mature trees, and expensive to repair. It’s why a sewer scope before you offer is some of the best diligence money in this city.

Question 7

True or false: you need a 20% down payment to buy a home.

Answer: false. Twenty percent avoids private mortgage insurance (PMI); it’s not an entry requirement. Conventional programs exist well below that, FHA lower still, VA at zero down for eligible buyers — and PMI itself is removable once your equity grows. The real constraint is the monthly payment you can carry. (How PMI works and when it goes away.)

Question 8

Since the 2024 NAR settlement, how is your buyer’s agent paid?

Answer: according to the buyer agency agreement you sign — which is now required before touring, and fully negotiable. The settlement decoupled buyer-agent compensation from the listing side: offers of payment can no longer ride along in the MLS, so your agreement states the fee, and whether it’s paid by you, by seller concession, or some mix is negotiated in the deal. Translation: you are the customer now, so shop like one.

Question 9

A home’s status changes from “active” to “pending.” Is it gone?

Answer: not necessarily. Pending deals die — financing falls apart, inspections surprise, buyers walk. Washington practice recognizes backup offers: you can negotiate into backup position so that if the first deal fails, yours activates without the home ever returning to market. Asking costs nothing. (And learn the difference between pending and contingent while you’re at it.)

Question 10

What’s the difference between being pre-qualified and pre-approved (technically: pre-underwritten) for a mortgage?

Answer: evidence. Pre-qualification is an estimate based on what you tell a lender; a robust pre-approval means the lender has actually verified your income, assets, and credit. In a competitive Seattle offer stack, a strong pre-approval from a lender who answers the phone is a certainty signal sellers genuinely price in — and a flimsy pre-qual letter is nearly decorative.

Question 11

Your offer of $950,000 wins, but the appraisal comes in at $920,000. What happens?

Answer: the lender lends against the appraised value, so a gap opens — and someone has to cover it. Your options: bring extra cash to close, renegotiate the price with the seller, split the difference, or — if you kept a financing/appraisal contingency — walk away with your earnest money. Buyers who waived those protections must bridge the gap or forfeit the deposit. This is exactly why “just waive everything” is a strategy with a price tag.

Question 12

Which of these is part of closing on a home in Washington?

A) A courtroom closing with a judge B) An attorney-table closing like the East Coast C) An escrow closing, with title insurance and a deed of trust D) A handshake and a notarized napkin

Answer: C. Washington uses escrow closings: a neutral escrow agent collects documents and money from both sides and records the transfer, your lender’s loan is secured by a deed of trust (not a traditional mortgage instrument), and a title company insures your ownership against defects. If “deed of trust” is fuzzy, fix that before closing day: what a deed of trust is.

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Scoring

Count your correct answers honestly — partial credit only if your wrong answer was wrong for an interesting reason.

• 11–12: Offer-ready. You understand the machine. Your remaining homework is local: comps, neighborhoods, and choosing representation on purpose.
• 8–10: One tour from ready. Solid foundation, a few gaps — re-read the explanations you missed, because each one is a real-money moment.
• 4–7: Pause before you LoveIt™ a listing. You’re exactly the buyer this market is hardest on. Spend a weekend with our first-time buyer reading before you spend a year of savings.
• 0–3: Good news — you took the quiz before the plunge. Everything above is learnable in a couple of evenings, and you just found the syllabus.

The thirteenth question

Here’s the one we left off, because almost nobody can answer it: what do the agents you’re considering actually charge, and how do their fees compare? Most buyers still can’t see that information anywhere — which is the gap Manaky Homes was built to close. Licensed Greater Seattle agents publish their fees on our free marketplace, side by side, and consumers pay nothing to compare. Join the waitlist and make question thirteen the easiest one on the test.