New laws changes in mercer island

Lee, speak with a real estate attorney or the planning department to see what your options are. Keith Jean-Pierre Managing Principal The Dapper Agents Real Estate Operations in ALL 50 States

Lee, since you've told us you're going to sell anyway, I'd think hard before building anything yourself. Two houses on a half acre means a long permitting stretch and a construction loan, with a contractor to ride herd on the whole time, and the money only shows up at the very end. There's usually a middle path. Pay a local land use planner or civil engineer, not the builder hoping for the job, to put in writing what your parcel can hold. Then sell with that study attached. Builders pay more when the guesswork is already done. Call the City of Mercer Island planning department with your address before you spend a dollar. They'll tell you what applies to your property today, and these rules do get revised. I'd also see an estate attorney and a CPA before anything else, since how and when you sell at your age can matter more than the price does. I'm licensed in California, so a Washington agent should handle the local end. Alla Novytska, Realtor®, JohnHart Real Estate, DRE #02254775

Lee, if you are planning to sell anyway, my honest advice as a Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES) is this: do not build the two houses. Sell the land with the entitlement work done instead. You capture most of the upside, you take on almost none of the risk, and you do not spend two or three years of your eighties managing a construction project. Let me explain what changed and why it matters to your half acre. Washington passed HB 1110 in 2023, the middle housing bill, along with HB 1337 on accessory dwelling units. Mercer Island adopted interim development regulations in early 2025 to comply, and those interim rules allow 2 to 4 middle housing units per lot in residential zones, plus up to 2 ADUs per lot. So your instinct that you could put more than one house on the parcel is correct in principle. The piece almost nobody mentions, and the piece that actually makes you money, is unit lot subdivision. Under the state law Mercer Island has to allow a parent lot to be split into individual unit lots so that middle housing units and ADUs can be sold separately. That is the difference between selling one house on a half acre and selling a parcel that a builder can turn into multiple separately deeded homes. Same dirt, very different number. Here is why I would not build it yourself. Building two houses on Mercer Island means design review, permitting, a construction loan, a general contractor, cost overruns, and a timeline that will realistically run two to three years from today before anything sells. You would be carrying that risk personally, and the profit only shows up at the very end. Meanwhile you and your wife are living on the site through it. I have watched people in their eighties take this on because a builder made it sound straightforward, and it is very rarely straightforward. The alternative captures most of the value with almost none of that: Get a feasibility study done. Hire a local land use planner or a civil engineer, not the builder who wants the job, and have them confirm on paper exactly how many units your specific 0.51 acre parcel can carry under the current rules, and whether unit lot subdivision works given your setbacks, trees, slope and access. This costs a few thousand dollars and it is the single highest return money you will spend. Take that study to market. A parcel listed with a written, third party feasibility analysis showing what can legally be built sells for meaningfully more than the same parcel listed as a house, because you have removed the buyer's biggest unknown. Builders pay for certainty. Consider a longer escrow or an option agreement. Builders will sometimes pay a premium for a longer closing while they get permits, and some will let you stay in the house during that period. At your stage, a clean sale with a delayed move can be worth more than a higher price with a hard date. Two important cautions. First, the Mercer Island rules are still interim, not permanent. The City Council held a hearing on June 2, 2026 on renewing them while permanent regulations get developed. So do not rely on anything you read online, including this. Call the City of Mercer Island planning department directly, give them your address, and ask what is allowed on your parcel today and what is expected to change. That call is free and it is the only source that counts. Second, and this is the one I would not skip. Before you sell anything, sit down with a CPA and an estate planning attorney. At over 80, with a long held Mercer Island property, how and when you sell, and whether the property passes through your estate, can change the tax outcome by a very large amount. Washington has its own rules on top of the federal ones. I am a real estate professional, not a CPA or an attorney, and this is genuinely the part where the money is won or lost, more than the sale price itself. Do that before you sign anything with a builder. One last thing. Be a little careful with builders who approach you directly with a plan. The good ones are excellent. But an unrepresented owner over 80 with a half acre in a newly upzoned city is exactly the profile that attracts people who want to tie your land up cheaply. Do not sign a letter of intent, an option, or a listing agreement with anyone until your own planner and your own attorney have read it. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, Seniors Real Estate Specialist, and I work in Los Angeles and the South Bay, so Mercer Island is not my market. If you would like an introduction to a strong Eastside agent who has actually handled middle housing land sales under the new rules, rather than a general residential agent, I am glad to make one. That specific experience matters a lot here. Start with the city planning call and the feasibility study. Everything else follows from those two. Zoltan