Preface

• Jurisdiction: Washington

PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Washington Real Property Deskbook! Those familiar with the history of the Deskbook know that it began in 1977 with two volumes covering real estate topics. By the time of the third edition in 1996, it had expanded to eight volumes, with three of those volumes devoted to land use and environmental issues. In an effort to keep this treatise as user friendly as possible while continuing to reflect the increasing complexity of this practice area, the mission behind the fourth edition has been to simplify a bit: to create stand-alone volumes on related topics that can be purchased separately, in order to provide more flexibility for the practitioner. Thus, you are now holding the Real Estate Essentials set, comprising the first two volumes of the fourth edition; forthcoming individual volumes will include additional real estate topics in Volumes 3 and 4 (expected Summer of 2009), and updated and expanded land use and environmental law chapters in Volumes 5, 6, and 7 (expected 2010).

It has been a monumental task to reformulate the Deskbook in this manner, to enlist...