About Austin Hellickson

When you are buying, I want the shoreline and wastewater questions asked in the first days of a conversation about a house, before you have paid for inspections. When you are selling, I want the answers and documents gathered before the first showing, so a buyer’s inspector does not find the questions for you.

That means making calls: Cascade Water Alliance about the reservoir, the City of Bonney Lake or Pierce County (depending on the address) about shoreline permits, and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department about septic records. We can make those calls together, so you hear the answers firsthand.

I do not quote lake levels or permit rules. They belong to the agencies that set them, and they change. When you ask me something that only Cascade or the county can answer, I will say so and help you get the answer from them.

The same goes for anything that needs an engineer or an attorney. My job is to know which of them you need and when, and to make sure the question gets asked in time to matter.

Waterfront is compared with waterfront, and lake view with lake view. When we talk about what a home might sell for, or what an offer should be, I will show you the sales I looked at and explain why each one does or does not fit. You make the decision. If you disagree with a comparison, say so. That is the reason to lay them out. I explain how a lender’s appraiser approaches the same question in how Lake Tapps waterfront homes are appraised.

It usually starts with a phone call and a drive. If you are selling, I come out to the house and we walk down to the water together, then look back from the end of the dock the way a buyer will. Then I tell you what I would photograph first and what I would fix before listing, and we talk about what the lake calendar means for your timing.

If you are buying, we talk about how you actually want to use the lake before we look at a single listing. Someone who wants a ski boat on a lift needs a different stretch of shore than someone who wants a quiet morning with coffee and a kayak. Once we know that, the search gets shorter and the questions get sharper. If you are new to the area, the neighborhoods around Lake Tapps and whether Lake Tapps is a good place to live are good places to start.

Managing Broker is a Washington real estate license level that allows a broker to supervise other brokers. I hold that license with LPT Realty and work from the Sumner office on Fryar Avenue.

I am also part of Homexa®, a network of 300+ agents across 25 states. If you are leaving the lake for another state, or selling a home somewhere else to move here, ask me whether Homexa has an agent in that market.