The smallest homes for sale in Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater, WA
You may be considering downsizing but some may consider living in a home less than 1,000 square feet a little extreme.
In Tune with your Real Estate Needs
Here is the West Olympia WA current real estate market update as of April 2014 (area 444 on the map below). West Olympians love their part of town! There is The Evergreen State College and South Puget Sound Community College, Capitol Medical Center and the shopping mall to name a few amenities. West Olympia offers some residents with desirable inlet water views, …
Here is the East Olympia current real estate market update as of January 2014 (area 449 on the map below). East Olympians enjoy a variety of home choices – from the gated golf community of Indian Summer to larger parcels suitable for horses to a mix of both worlds! Residents enjoy biking and walking on the Chehalis-Western …
Indian Summer residents in Olympia WA to get automated water meters next week. During the second week of February 2014, Indian Summer residents served by the City of Olympia for their water will get a water meter make-over! The current system of manually reading water meters will now be updated to an Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system where …
Ramblers (one-story homes) for sale in Olympia WA Why do homebuyers like ramblers in Olympia WA? Find the current ramblers for sale in Olympia WA. First, just to clarify, a rambler is a one-story home. In other parts of the county a single story home is often referred to as a ranch-style home. But whatever …
You may be considering downsizing but some may consider living in a home less than 1,000 square feet a little extreme.
I just got back from visiting the Christmas Forest in Olympia WA 2013 at the Red Lion Hotel. Here are a few photos from this year’s trees and wreaths. Also time is running out to see the forest. Click here to get more information about this year’s Christmas Forest in Olympia WA. Guess which tree …
As of this writing, we haven’t even hit Halloween yet, however I am so excited for the 2013 Christmas Forest in Olympia WA at the Red Lion Hotel! Each year, the decorated Christmas trees get better and better, and I can’t wait to see all the new ideas!
What: Display of Christmas trees and wreaths
Where: Red Lion Hotel, 2300 Evergreen Park Drive, Olympia WA
When: Wednesday, December 4th through Sunday, December 8th, 2013 (see times below)
Tickets: $6 for Adults, $1 for Children under 12
More information: Call the Foundation at (360) 493-7981 or visit www.provforest.org.
How many homes does the average home buyer look at? This number certainly varies between how much time a buyer has to find a home and also how many homes are currently on the market. On average, most home seekers look at about 8 homes.
Updated March 1, 2022
I get this question frequently from buyers wanting to know if they can raise horses, goats, chickens, and other animals on their property in Olympia, Washington and the surrounding cities in Thurston County.
Here is my step-by-step guide to determining if these animals are allowed on your next property.
Many neighborhoods in and around the Olympia area have covenants, conditions, and restrictions also known as CC&Rs that regulate the use of the property. This is the first place I check to see what kind of animals are allowed. Unfortunately, many CC&Rs that I read have a paragraph like this:
“No animals, livestock or poultry of any kind shall be raised, bred or kept on any lot except that dogs, cats, birds or other customary house pets may be kept provided that they are not maintained for any commercial purpose.”
If the property has enforced CC&Rs and you see this paragraph, you won’t be able to raise chickens on your property. Some neighborhoods have CC&Rs that are not enforced and that can be trickier to determine. If there is a homeowner association (HOA), then most likely the CC&Rs are enforced but if there isn’t an HOA, that doesn’t automatically mean you can disregard CC&Rs. I would pose this question to the seller but even then, we still may not get the right answer.
I’ll need to help you with this as most neighborhoods do not have their own website with the CC&Rs posted publicly. I can get the CC&Rs from the title report and if I don’t have that available, then the title company.
If there are no CC&Rs, then my next step is to research the property’s permitting jurisdiction.
My next step is to determine the jurisdiction for permitting; is it city or county? To find this out, I go to my favorite site that is accessible to the public, http://www.geodata.org.
Start with Look Up Your Property and then select Option 2 – Property Information Report.
Once you click on the Property Information Report link and enter the address of the property, it will pull up this page below. You’ll want to scroll down to the Permitting section and look for the Zoning and the Jurisdiction.
If the property’s permitting jurisdiction is COUNTY as in the example above, look at the Jurisdiction of Influence. In this example, it says LACUGA, which is the abbreviation for the Lacey Urban Growth Area. OLYUGA is Olympia Urban Grown Area and TUMUGA is the Tumwater Urban Growth area.
If the Jurisdiction of Influence is also COUNTY, I do not find any codes prohibiting farm animals (but you may also want to check the zoning and check if there are any restrictions based on the zoning of the property and/or if there are any critical areas. Certain activities that could cause environmental harm in these critical areas would not be allowed.). Here are the ordinances: Thurston County Code of Ordinances.
Chickens
From the Thurston County Code of Ordinances for the Tumwater Urban Growth Area:
Horses
Not allowed on lots less than two acres in size.
Miniature Goats
Please click on the link for the Tumwater Urban Growth Area above for more detailed information and information on other animals such as rabbits, potbelly pigs, and beekeeping.
Chickens
From the Thurston County Code of Ordinances for the Lacey Urban Growth Area:
Horses
Not allowed on lots less than 1 acre.
Miniature Goats
From the Thurston County Code of Ordinances for the Olympia Urban Growth Area:
Chickens
Horses
Not allowed on lots less than 1 acre.
Miniature Goats
If the property is located within a city’s limit (the permitting jurisdiction is a city), you can visit that city’s website to find the rules.
Here are the larger city’s websites regarding animals.
City of Olympia: http://olympiawa.gov/city-services/neighborhood-programs/urban-agriculture
City of Lacey: hhttps://lacey.municipal.codes/LMC/16.21
City of Tumwater: https://www.codepublishing.com/WA/Tumwater/#!/Tumwater06/Tumwater0608.html#6.08
As of the date of this post, here is a summary of the rules for properties in the city limits and in the urban growth areas for chickens. As you can see, the rules are very similar:
This is just a start to finding out the permitted uses for a property. This is also good information to learn much more about your property, the intended uses, and any restrictions that may affect your enjoyment of the property.
I encourage all my clients to begin their research here but I also strongly recommend my clients follow up with their respective municipalities for clarification.
If you are looking to purchase property in Olympia, WA and the surrounding areas of Thurston County where you can raise horses, goats and chickens, call me today to help you find your perfect homestead for you and your animals!
If you are a weekend open house warrior and go to several open houses in one day, you may grow tired of the routine at every house – take off your shoes, take a flyer and then get asked the same questions. As a weekend open house warrior agent, I hope to shed some light on why open house agents do what they do.