Grayhawk · Selling Your Home
Selling Your Home in Grayhawk
A marketing plan built to get your home noticed, three pricing strategies to choose between, and weekly reporting so you always know what is working.
Your home is competing with fewer houses than you think
When you start thinking about selling, the natural thing is to look at what other homes in Grayhawk have gone for. The trouble is that nearly 3,800 homes carry the name, and yours is not competing with most of them.
The Park and The Retreat are separate markets. A buyer who has decided they want a staffed gate and private streets is not cross-shopping a non-gated single-family home in The Park, whatever the square footage says. And neither of those buyers is looking at a condominium.
So the first job is establishing which of the three markets you are actually in, and then finding the handful of genuinely comparable sales inside it. That is a much smaller set than a Grayhawk-wide search returns, and it is the only set that tells you anything.
What is my Grayhawk home worth?
Put the assessments in front of a buyer early
This is the specific piece of advice I would give a Grayhawk seller that I would not give anywhere else.
Assessments here come in up to four layers: the master that everyone pays, the Retreat Village assessment for homes behind the gate, a monthly sub-association for the condominium and townhome communities, and a neighborhood assessment where a neighborhood has its own pool or courts.
A buyer who finds out about the third and fourth of those during escrow feels ambushed, and an ambushed buyer renegotiates or walks. A buyer who is told the total in the first conversation, with what each layer buys, treats it as a fact about the home rather than a surprise.
So I get the current figures before we list, put the total in the listing, and describe what it covers. Counterintuitively, this makes a higher number easier to accept, because a staffed gate, private streets and street sweeping are things a buyer can see they are getting.
The public golf is a selling point and most listings waste it
Both Grayhawk courses are open to the public. Raptor is a Tom Fazio design and Talon came from David Graham with Gary Panks, so this is not a municipal compromise.
That matters to a particular buyer more than almost anything else about the community, and it is frequently left as a line item in a list of amenities.
The person it matters to is a golfer who has been looking at neighborhoods where the course sits behind a private club with an initiation fee and monthly dues attached. For them, being able to play a Fazio course without joining anything changes the running cost of living there by a meaningful amount every year.
If your home looks at a fairway, or sits a few minutes from the clubhouse, that deserves to be said properly rather than buried.
What moves the price inside each market
Once we are in the right market, the usual things apply and a couple of Grayhawk-specific ones.
Golf frontage, and which hole. Not all fairway positions are equal. Some are quiet and some are in the firing line, and buyers who play know the difference immediately.
Which gate, if any. A condominium community with a code at its own gate and a home behind the staffed Retreat entry are different propositions, and the second carries a cost the first does not.
What the back yard faces. Greenbelt, a pocket park, open desert, the course, or another house. The master assessment maintains a good deal of landscaped common area, and backing onto it is worth real money.
Condition and era. Grayhawk built out over a long period, so two homes of similar size can be a decade apart in finishes and systems.
Before it goes on
Landscaping first, as everywhere here, because the desert setting is part of what people are buying.
Paint where the sun has taken it. A deep clean including the windows, which matters more when the outlook is part of the sale.
What I would usually talk you out of: a large renovation immediately before listing. The return is rarely there, and in a community with this much inventory a buyer comparing five homes will pick on position and price before they pick on a new kitchen.
I list Wednesday or Thursday, deliberately, so the maximum number of people see it fresh on the days they can actually get there. The aim is several showings compressed together, because that is what produces more than one offer.
How we start
With a real number built from the right market rather than a Grayhawk average. That is here, and it costs you nothing.
Then the plan: the current assessment figures, what is worth doing first, and how the listing gets in front of the specific buyer your side of Grayhawk suits. The mechanics of a listing are here.
If you are buying as well, and plenty of Grayhawk sellers are moving within the community, we plan both sides together. If your home sits at the top of the Grayhawk market, the marketing changes.
Call me on (480) 203-6605.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my Grayhawk home competing with all 3,800?
No, and assuming so prices it wrong. The Park and The Retreat are separate markets, and the condominium communities are a third. A buyer who wants a staffed gate is not cross-shopping a non-gated home in The Park whatever the square footage says. The comparable set is much smaller than a Grayhawk-wide search returns.
Should I disclose the HOA assessments up front?
Yes, and it helps you rather than hurting you. Assessments here come in up to four layers, and a buyer who discovers the third and fourth during escrow feels ambushed and renegotiates. A buyer told the total in the first conversation, with what each layer buys, treats it as a fact about the home. A staffed gate and private streets are things people can see they are paying for.
Does the public golf help me sell?
To the right buyer, a great deal, and most listings waste it. Both courses are open to anyone, so a golfer can play a Tom Fazio design without an initiation fee and monthly club dues. Someone comparing Grayhawk against neighborhoods where the course sits behind a private club is comparing a real difference in annual cost.
What should I do before listing?
Landscaping first, because the desert setting is part of what people are buying. Then paint where the sun has taken it and a deep clean including the windows. I would usually talk you out of a large renovation immediately before listing, because in a community with this much inventory buyers choose on position and price before they choose on a new kitchen.
Grayhawk
What selling your home looks like in Grayhawk
North Scottsdale golf community with a mix of single-family homes, patio homes and condominiums.
Grayhawk sits in north Scottsdale, north of the 101 between Scottsdale Road and Pima, with nearly 3,800 homes running from condominiums through single-family to golf-course property.
It is really two neighborhoods rather than one. The Park has no guard gate at its entrance; The Retreat is guard-gated around the Raptor and Talon courses. Almost everything that matters here follows from which side a home sits on.
- The homes
- Nearly 3,800, across condominiums, townhomes, single-family homes and golf-course property. Eight condominium and townhome communities, each gated in its own right. The Park holds the non-gated single-family neighborhoods; The Retreat holds the guard-gated ones, several of which are gated again inside.
- Why people choose it
- The public golf draws a lot of people, since both courses are open to anyone and a golfer can play without committing to a private club. Others come for the choice between two kinds of gate, or for the position, with Kierland and Scottsdale Quarter a short drive south.
- Schools people ask about
- Paradise Valley Unified, not Scottsdale Unified, which surprises people who assume every north Scottsdale community shares a district. Grayhawk Elementary is inside the community on Grayhawk Drive. Confirm the current boundary for a specific address rather than assuming, since boundaries move.
- Getting around
- The Loop 101 runs along the south edge, so the airport, Old Town and the rest of the valley are straightforward. Scottsdale Road and Pima are the north-south routes. Hayden Peak Crossing and Grayhawk Plaza cover everyday errands without leaving the area.
- Nearby
- Grayhawk Golf Club with its 40,000 square foot clubhouse, two City of Scottsdale public parks inside the community, Hayden Peak Crossing anchored by a Fry's, and Kierland Commons, Scottsdale Quarter and Market Street at DC Ranch all a short drive.
- The trade-off
- Against DC Ranch, Grayhawk gives you public golf with no membership required and generally more house for the money, while DC Ranch gives you more dramatic terrain, a walkable center at Market Street and a higher ceiling at the top. Against McDowell Mountain Ranch you are trading some of the preserve proximity for better shopping and freeway position.
The method
How we do it in Grayhawk
Selling Your Home: keep exploring
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