Bidding war for luxury home in Pierce County: Lake Tapps among priciest sales for 2021
While the anticipation and anxiety feels exactly the same, a bidding war among people seeking a luxury property with millions of dollars at their disposal is very different than the sale of an average home.
It’s “a lot of conversations with wealth management teams. It’s a lot of conversations with financial advisors,” said Bryce Lee, part of the real estate team with John L. Scott Real Estate who oversaw the recent sale of a $6.25 million luxury home in the Snag Island community of Lake Tapps.
The home in the 21000 block of Snag Island Drive East appears to be the top-priced sale of a residence not set for redevelopment so far this year, based on a review of county sales data.
“We had to go through many hoops and many different layers of approval between buyers and sellers, you know, confirming or getting those proof of funds. You have the funds to purchase probably 15 of these homes, but you know, we have to talk to your financial advisor to make sure this is a sound and safe move for your next investment,” Lee said.
“A lot of people are moving in purchasing single family homes or an investment property and then people are also purchasing homes for their own personal use,” he added.
The home received multiple offers, according to Lee and his mother, Kimber, who also oversaw the transaction.
“We had this home on the market for five days, and we had multiple offers out of the gate,” said Bryce Lee.
“I would say the medium range, the average you know, between $400,000 to 800,000, they usually have multiple offers in five days,” said Kimber Lee. “I was really shocked with the luxury market listing of $6 million in our area that we had just the same amount of activity. We had just the same revolving door.
As for the potential buyers, “We had some that were out of state, some people that were traveling over some people that actually flew in from California. We had a couple flying in from Idaho. And then we also had buyers that were local on the lake themselves wanting to upgrade and move upscale to a different lot.”
The agents did not identify the local buyer, whom public county real estate records listed with the same Lake Tapps address as the property.
Pierce County has seen a rise in luxury home sales as inventory has tightened across the board and the luxury price ceiling moving higher. What once was considered the county’s luxury market at $1-$2 million earlier this year is now $3 million and beyond.
Consider that in 2014, “homes priced at or above $500,000 were considered the beginning point for high-end homes,” Dick Beeson, manager of Re/Max Northwest Realtors, told The News Tribune in 2019, when the price of “starter” luxury homes in the county had increased to $750,000.
There is nothing “starter” about the recent sale, which closed at the end of November and was recorded in the county records Dec. 1.
“It is an estate,” said Kimber Lee. “Definitely truly one of a kind. This is something that you would see in Medina and on Lake Washington. You can’t build this home again.”
“This home has 1,370 feet of waterfront all the way around,” said Bryce Lee, compared with an average of 70-75 feet for homes in that area.
Each of the five bedrooms has waterfront views, as does pretty much every room in the house. The house has 6.25 bathrooms, and more than 10,000 square feet of living area, a sports court, in-ground pool and garage that can accommodate at least seven cars.
“It took about an hour and a half to show that house; it is so huge,” Kimber Lee said. “I spent two weeks staging that property, buying the right pieces to feature it properly.”
According to Bryce Lee, the first owner of the home built the shell of the structure in 1999. The second owner then completed the home, with imported chandeliers from France, marble imported from Spain.
“There’s just a lot of different features that resemble European themes throughout,” he said.
“There’s travertine floors throughout this home, it cannot be rebuilt again,” he added.
While all the unique features might have landed it at the top of home sales for the year, at least two other residential property transactions in the county have commanded even higher prices — but for redevelopment purposes.
According to information from the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Information Portal, a parcel that did include a residential structure in the 4100 block of 90th Avenue East in Edgewood sold in March to Prologis for $16 million with plans for future industrial redevelopment.
Vacant land at in the 12600 block of 90th Avenue East in Puyallup sold in November to Century Communities of Washington for $7.1 million.
Kimber Lee noted it was hard to let the Snag Island home go, even with the sale complete.
“I feel like an emotional attachment to it because we put so much into it, to learn so much about it. This is not just a regular estate,” Kimber Lee said. “This is a family home that’s passed down through generations, a legacy property.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
