The plateau above Sumner Bonney Lake, Washington 98391

Where the hill levels out.

Bonney Lake and the country around Lake Tapps, written up by Austin Hellickson, Managing Broker with LPT Realty, from an office at the foot of SR 410 in Sumner.

Neighborhood street of two-story craftsman-style homes with gabled roofs and stone-clad porch columns, young maple trees turning orange along the sidewalk, and cars parked in driveways and at the curb — Young maples on a newer plateau street

Dirt trail through a forest of tall firs, lined with sword ferns, running beside a shallow rocky creek crossed by moss-covered fallen logs — Ferns along a creek on the plateau

The plateau, briefly

Bonney Lake sits on a plateau several hundred feet above Sumner and the Puyallup Valley. Most of what’s particular about buying and selling here follows from that.

Drive east out of Sumner on SR 410 and the road starts to climb. At the top you’re on the plateau. Subdivisions from the last few decades fill in around older ramblers on bigger lots, and the grocery stores and gas stations line the highway. Through the trees to the north is Lake Tapps, the reservoir that wraps around that side of town.

People mostly move up here for newer houses and for the lake. The housing runs newer than in the old downtowns of Sumner and Puyallup below. Allan Yorke Park has a swimming beach and a city boat launch on Lake Tapps. On a clear day Mount Rainier sits at the end of more streets than you’d expect.

The trade-offs are consistent too. Most people commute, and nearly all of them start down the same hill. A subdivision from the 1990s and one finished last year can have very different covenants and dues. Homes near the lake raise a question inland homes never do: what “lake access” means on that particular street. And a Bonney Lake mailing address can sit inside city limits or out in unincorporated Pierce County, which changes who issues your permits.

All of it can be pinned down for a specific address before you sign anything. The two pieces below are about how.

Buying on the plateau starts with the map.

City line, school boundary, covenants, lake rights. Settle them for one address before anyone falls for a kitchen.

Two homes a quarter mile apart on the plateau can sit in different school districts, or on opposite sides of the city line. One may have an HOA that bans RV parking in the driveway, and the other no HOA at all. I sort out those facts with buyers first, while the choice is still easy to make.

Then we look hard at the house itself: the roof and the crawlspace, how water moves around the foundation in a February storm, the builder’s warranty on the newer places, and the septic records on the older and rural ones.

If the listing mentions lake access, we read the documents that define it. A deeded right and a community beach the association can vote on are different things to own.

Read the buyer’s guide

Open dining room and kitchen with tall wood-framed windows looking out on evergreens and water, a long wood dining table with black leather chairs on a jute rug, and a gray stone island with woven counter stools — The kitchen can wait until the map is settled

Still lake at early morning with fog drifting over the water, a shoreline of tall evergreens, and a row of private wooden docks with swim ladders — Docks on a quiet cove

“Two houses a quarter mile apart can answer to different school districts.”

On buying in Bonney Lake

Selling here means answering the new house down the street.

Plateau buyers often tour your home and a builder’s on the same Saturday. Get ready for that comparison, and price for it.

Wood deck at dusk with four Adirondack chairs around a round stone fire pit, string lights overhead, a cable railing, and tall evergreens framing a view of water and distant hills — A back deck at dusk, the photograph buyers remember

Close view of craftsman-style houses with stone-clad porch columns, gabled roofs, and a young maple in the parking strip — Porches, paint, and gutters come first

A builder can always win on newness. Your house can win on the lot, the trees, the finished yard, and the price, if it shows well. That is why clean gutters, a moss-free roof, and walls repainted in quiet colors do more on the plateau than a new backsplash.

Pricing starts from recent sales of houses like yours: lake compared with lake, subdivision with subdivision, acreage with acreage. You see the sales I chose and why, and the price is your decision.

The listing then puts the school district, the kind of lake access, the HOA dues, and the age of the roof where nobody has to hunt for them.

Read the seller’s guide

“Many of your showings will happen on a gray day. Make the house bright on one.”

On preparing a plateau home

Up the Hill A column by Austin Hellickson

What I read before the first showing

Austin Hellickson
Managing Broker, LPT Realty
Sumner, Washington

My office is at 1230 Fryar Ave in Sumner, near the bottom of the SR 410 hill. Most plateau streets are a short drive up from my desk, so a second look at a house, with a roofer or a dock contractor along, fits into an ordinary afternoon.

Much of the work happens before anyone tours. I read the parcel map to see which side of the city line a house falls on, and the district’s boundary lookup, because school lines here don’t follow the city’s. I read the covenants for the rules on parking and sheds. On the lake, I read the deed and the association papers that say what access means on that particular street.

Sellers get the same reading in reverse. I walk the house on a gray afternoon with the lights on, the way many buyers will first see it, and write down what an inspector is likely to flag. Then we decide together what’s worth fixing and what to leave alone.

I wrote this site so you could have those conversations before we meet. When you want to talk about a particular house, or your own, call me at 206.940.0942, or write below. I’ll tell you what I’d check first.

Austin Hellickson

Letters

A house you’re curious about, a street you can’t decide on, a move that’s still a year off. Write a few lines and Austin will write back.