“I was completely addicted to Zillow,” said Hayley Sayre, who with her wife, Anna, bought a home in Tacoma last fall. The couple, both teachers, said a walk around each neighborhood where they made an offer gave them a sense of how they would like living there.

Go farther, and consider condos: Look as far from your ideal destination as you’re willing to go. Keep an eye out for homes that have been lingering on the market. But, with construction costs soaring, be careful not to fall for a fixer-upper that will be a money pit. Each week, take a night off from scouring listings to avoid burnout, suggested Cryer, who recently closed on a three-bedroom house in Parkland, south of Tacoma.

If you’re not set on a single-family house, add condos and townhomes to your search.

As buyers look for more space indoors and outdoors, the condo market is less bruising. Across King County, including in Seattle, condo prices are climbing more slowly than single-family home prices. (The condo market is hotter on the Eastside and in South King County.) In Seattle, it would take nearly two months to sell through all the inventory at current demand, compared to a little over two weeks for single-family homes.

“If you don’t need that single-family home,” said Redfin agent Shoshana Godwin, “don’t compete for it.”

So you love that house

You’ve found a house where you can picture yourself making waffles and playing with your future labradoodle puppy. Great!

Now don’t get attached.

Many buyers lose their first offer, if not several. You need to be committed enough to offer hundreds of thousands of dollars for the place, but ready to let go if you lose. Several buyers said they reminded themselves there would “always be another house.”

Prepare to bid: When you’re ready to start bidding, the dollar amount isn’t the only factor that will make your offer stand out. You’ll have to decide whether to waive various protections known as contingencies.

In theory, buyers can make their offers contingent on a variety of factors to safeguard their purchase. You can await an inspection, financing from a bank or an appraiser confirming the home is worth the price. But in a sellers’ market like this, the race is on to drop those protections to make your offer more attractive to the seller.

Know a few of your key contingencies:

Early release of earnest money: Remember, earnest money is that upfront deposit you bring to show the seller you’re serious. Making that money nonrefundable and releasing some early to the seller means if the deal falls through, you’ll lose the cash.

Inspection contingency and pre-inspections: Gone are the days you can count on having your offer accepted and then doing an inspection to find any potential issues with the house. Many buyers are now waiving this contingency, instead either paying for a “pre-inspection” before they put the offer in, accepting an inspection paid for by the seller, or skipping the inspection altogether.

Skipping your own inspection “is kind of the nuclear option,” said Dylan Chalk, of Orca Inspection Services, who’s been working as a home inspector for nearly two decades. But if you’re going to do it and the seller offers their inspection, look for pictures, videos and plenty of specific detail about the house, Chalk suggests. A good inspection should feel like “an owner’s manual for the house,” he said.

Appraisal contingency: Once you’ve been approved for a mortgage, your bank still wants to check out the price it will be covering for the house.

Usually, this contingency would protect you if the appraiser finds the house is worth less than you offered. However, buyers increasingly face pressure to agree to pay any difference between the appraised value and their offer. If you plan to do this, you’ll need to be prepared with money to cover any difference between what the bank will lend you and the cost of the house. With no idea what that difference might be, this is a high risk.

Financing contingency: Waiving this means if your loan falls through, you could lose your earnest money. You could also potentially be required to buy the house anyway or face a lawsuit, though brokers say legal action is rare since typically the seller can quickly find another buyer.

The bad news is that while waiving these protections offered an edge in the past, they’re well-known strategies now. A small snapshot: Among Seattle-area Redfin offers in March, nearly eight in 10 waived the financing contingency, six waived the inspection contingency and fewer than one in ten waived the appraisal contingency.

No one hack will guarantee you get the house you love. Buyers need “luck, money and resilience,” said Seattle-based Compass broker Jennica Lynn.

When James and Emily Johnson, the Tacoma buyers, sat down with their agent, Chambers-Gordon, they couldn’t believe some of the advice she offered, like doing pre-inspections and making their best possible offer right away.

“We were real hesitant to listen in the beginning. She was telling us things that sounded so out in left field,” Emily Johnson said.

But after losing out on an offer and struggling to find other homes, the couple decided to follow the agent’s advice and eventually got the home. “We tried to learn from our mistakes,” said Emily.

From pending to closed

You’re so close! But it’s not over yet. After you’ve secured a house, the closing process will bring another round of paperwork and, according to recent buyers, more anxiety.

If you did include the contingency in your offer, now is the time to inspect the home. You’ll also get the lender’s appraisal and go through the final steps with your bank. Expect to answer a flood of requests for documents as an underwriter reviews your loan for final approval.

Closing can bring a laundry list of costs depending on your situation, like insurance premiums, prepaid interest for the start of your mortgage, and various fees.

The key: Be prepared. Get an itemized list of these costs before making an offer, if you can, said Washington Trust loan officer Liz King. “You shouldn’t be surprised.”