Selling a Washington Rental in 2026: Notice Rules and Timelines

Updated September 2026 with FLYP's current project figures.

The short answer

If you own a tenant-occupied single-family rental in Washington and you decide to sell, the statute most owners end up using is RCW 59.18.650. Under subsection (2)(e), a tenancy can end because the owner elects to sell a single-family residence, and the landlord has to give at least 90 days' advance written notice of the date possession ends. The same subsection defines what "elects to sell" means: the owner makes reasonable attempts to sell within 30 days after the tenant vacates, at minimum listing at a reasonable price with a realty agency or on the multiple listing service.

So the real timeline is not 90 days. It is 90 days of notice, then a move-out, then a listing that the statute expects to happen promptly. If you also want to paint, replace flooring and fix the things ten years of tenants wore out, that work has to be planned around the notice, not bolted on afterward.

This is general information, not legal advice. Before you send any notice, have a Washington landlord-tenant attorney read your lease and your facts.

What HB 1217 actually limits

House Bill 1217 was signed on May 7, 2025 and its rent provisions took effect immediately. It limits annual rent increases, caps how far month-to-month pricing can sit above a fixed term, and lengthened the statewide rent increase notice period from 60 days to 90 days, per Stoel Rives' summary of the law. The basics, in plain language:

• No rent increase during the first year of a tenancy, whether the tenancy is month-to-month or a fixed term, per the same summary.
• After the first year, increases are capped at 7% plus CPI, or 10%, whichever is less, in any 12-month period.
• The Department of Commerce publishes the maximum allowable increase each year, shortly after the mid-July release of June data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Commerce set it at 9.683% for January 1 through December 31, 2026.
• Manufactured and mobile home lots sit under a lower cap of 5%.
• A landlord may not charge more than a 5% difference in rent depending on whether the lease is month-to-month or a longer fixed term.
• Exemptions are listed in RCW 59.18.710 and include new construction for 12 years after the first certificate of occupancy, public housing, certain nonprofit and tax credit housing, and several owner-occupied situations.
• The Attorney General's Office enforces the rent stabilization law, and has published know-your-rights material for tenants in a dozen languages.

Nothing in HB 1217 caps what you can sell a house for. What it changes is the hold side of the decision. If your rent is meaningfully below market after years of not raising it, the law does not let you close that gap in one jump. For a small landlord with a tired house, a below-market rent and no cash for capital work, that is the year the spreadsheet stops working.

The 90-day owner-elects-to-sell notice, step by step

Read the statute yourself, then read it with counsel. Here is the shape of it:

1. You decide to sell. Not "maybe sell." The notice is built on the assumption that a listing follows.
2. You serve at least 90 days' advance written notice stating the date the tenant's possession ends.
3. The tenant vacates on or before that date.
4. Within 30 days after the tenant vacates, you make reasonable attempts to sell, at minimum a listing at a reasonable price with an agency or on the MLS.

RCW 59.18.650 also builds in a bad-faith test. There is a rebuttable presumption the owner did not act in good faith if, within 30 days after the tenant vacated, the owner does not list the dwelling for sale at a reasonable price with a realty agency or advertise it at a reasonable price on the MLS. The same presumption applies if, within 90 days after the tenant vacated or the property was listed, whichever is later, the owner withdraws the unit from the market, rents it to someone other than the former tenant, or otherwise indicates no intent to sell.

Three practical notes:

• The subsection is written around a single-family residence. If you own a condo unit, do not assume this path reads the same way for you. Ask an attorney which cause actually applies.
• A fixed-term lease that has not expired is its own analysis. How the notice interacts with a lease still running is a lawyer question, not a blog question.
• Your city may add rules. Several Puget Sound cities have their own just cause, notice and relocation ordinances layered on top of state law. Check your municipal code before you count days.

Tenant-occupied or vacant and renovated

Washington law also sets the entry rules. Under RCW 59.18.150, a landlord must give at least two days' written notice of intent to enter, and at least one day's notice to show the unit to a prospective purchaser, entering only at reasonable times. Your property manager or attorney can confirm how that applies to your situation.

In practice, the friction matters as much as the rule. A home that can only be seen Tuesdays at 5 p.m. sees a fraction of the buyers a vacant home sees.

Selling occupied is not wrong. It is faster, it avoids displacing someone, and there are buyers who want a performing rental with a tenant in place. It just tends to pull you toward the investor pool, and investor pricing is built on the buyer taking the repair work and the risk.

What a decade of tenants does to a house

None of this is a knock on tenants. It is normal wear that nobody with a rental cash flow ever quite gets around to:

• Carpet at end of life and vinyl or laminate with water damage at the dishwasher and toilets
• Wall paint that has been touched up in patches rather than repainted
• Original cabinets with failing hinges, worn laminate counters and a mismatched appliance set
• Tub surrounds with failed caulk, bath fans that do not vent properly, dated vanities
• Puget Sound specialties: moss on the roof, clogged gutters, soft deck boards, exterior paint that gave up on the south elevation, crawlspace moisture and torn vapor barrier
• A water heater or furnace in its final years

Retail buyers do not price these line by line. They price the feeling of "everything needs work," then their inspector gives them a written list to negotiate with. Lenders and appraisers can also require certain health and safety repairs before closing, so ask the buyer's lender early when condition is a question.

Renovating between move-out and listing when you have equity but no cash

This is the gap FLYP was built for. A pay-at-closing renovation is planned, funded and managed by FLYP, with the construction performed by Green State Restoration, LLC, a licensed and insured Washington general contractor. You pay nothing upfront, nothing during the work and no monthly payments. Repayment happens out of closing.

The terms, stated plainly:

• What gets repaid at closing is the fixed contract price on the signed estimate, plus Washington sales tax, plus any change orders you signed, plus the county recording fee.
• No interest during the renovation and none for six months after the work is finished. If the home has not closed by then, the balance accrues 1.5% per month. Paying it off early stops the interest.
• Ten months after the work is finished, the balance is due directly, whether or not the home has sold.
• The balance is secured by a deed of trust recorded against the property, signed before an independent notary before work starts, and released within ten business days of payoff.
• The price is fixed, every scope change is a signed change order before the work happens, and workmanship carries a one-year written warranty.

The risk, and what our own files show

You can lose money or equity. The market can move, a renovated home can still sell for less than projected, and interest can accrue if the sale drags.

FLYP requires a minimum 1.30x coverage ratio before taking a project: projected net proceeds, meaning the projected after-renovation value less selling costs and less the balance of every senior lien, divided by the maximum amount that could ever become payable to FLYP, must be at least 1.30. That is an underwriting safety margin, not a return and not a promise about the sale. The plain-language contract summary is at how the process works.

Here is what our own files show, as of September 2026. Across the 12 homes with a projected after-renovation value in our underwriting, the projected lift over as-is value has a median of 27%, in a range from 1% to 89%, and the projected dollars added have a median of $190,000, in a range from $10,000 to $500,000. Those are projections made during underwriting on a small sample, not sale results, and no FLYP home has sold yet.

The scheduling wrinkle for landlords

The elects-to-sell path expects a listing within 30 days after the tenant vacates. A meaningful renovation usually takes longer than that. Before you serve any notice, walk the sequence past your attorney: which cause you are using, when the unit goes vacant, when the work starts and ends, and when the home hits the market. Get that order right on paper first, then start the clock.

Hypothetical example, with round numbers and no real property behind it: notice served June 15, possession ends September 15, scope finalized during the notice period so demolition starts September 16, work runs eight weeks, listing photos and MLS launch in mid-November. That plan lives or dies on decisions made in June, not September. More on the sale side is at selling a rental property.

Taxes: the conversation to have with your CPA, not with us

We do not give tax advice, and this is exactly where a landlord needs a professional. Bring these to a CPA before you sign anything:

• Depreciation you claimed over the rental years is treated differently from the rest of the gain. The IRS says unrecaptured section 1250 gain from selling section 1250 real property is taxed at a maximum 25% rate.
• A 1031 exchange runs on deadlines that start the day you transfer. The IRS instructions require the replacement property to be identified within 45 days and received within 180 days, or by your return's due date including extensions, whichever is earlier, and a deferred exchange normally runs through a qualified intermediary.
• Washington charges a real estate excise tax on the sale, at graduated state rates plus a local rate. Ask your escrow officer for the figure that applies to your property and price.
• Whether your spending is a repair or an improvement changes the tax treatment. IRS Publication 527 says an expense must be capitalized when it betters, restores or adapts the property, and tells landlords to separate the two and keep records.

When selling as-is to an investor is the better answer

Sometimes it is. Consider an as-is sale when:

• You do not want to displace a long-term tenant, full stop.
• Equity is thin, or the home has structural, foundation or systems problems large enough that a cosmetic renovation will not change the buyer's mind.
• Title is clouded, or an estate or dispute means nobody can commit to a construction timeline.
• You value speed and certainty over top dollar and are clear-eyed that an as-is offer usually prices below what a renovated, market-listed home would bring, because the buyer is taking the work and the risk.

FLYP can help arrange an as-is cash offer, and the terms depend on the property. Start at sell as-is and read how we compare to cash buyers so you can see what you are trading away.

The bottom line

Selling a Washington rental is a sequencing problem before it is a pricing problem. The 90-day notice, the 30-day listing expectation after the tenant vacates and the length of any renovation all have to be laid out on one calendar, with an attorney reading it, before you serve anything.

If you are deciding whether to re-rent or sell, the useful first step is a number: what the house is worth as-is, what it is projected to be worth renovated, and what the scope would actually cost. Get started and we will walk the property and put that in writing. Then take it to your attorney and your CPA before you serve a single notice.