McCormick Ranch · Move-Up Buyers
Move-Up Buyers in McCormick Ranch
Outgrowing the house you are in, with the sale and the purchase sequenced so you are never caught between them.
Two different ways to move up here
In most neighborhoods moving up means a bigger house. In McCormick Ranch there are two quite different routes and they suit different people.
Move toward the water, the greenbelt or the fairway. Position is what carries value here, so the step up is frequently the same size of house in a better spot rather than more square footage anywhere.
Or buy a project and finish it. Because condition varies so widely in this community, an original home in a strong position is a genuine opportunity. You buy the lot and the trees, which nobody can build, and do the house to your own taste.
The second route is how a good number of people here end up in a home they could not otherwise have afforded in that position. It is also not for everybody, and I would rather you decide that deliberately than find out during a remodel.
Decide whether you want a renovation
The question I ask before we look at anything: do you actually want to do this work, or do you want it already done?
Both answers are fine. What costs people is landing in the middle, buying a partially updated home and then redoing somebody else's choices, which is the most expensive version of all three options.
If you want it finished, those homes exist here and you pay for the work somebody already did. That premium is real and it is usually worth it if you have no appetite for a project.
If you want to renovate, we look at position first and condition second, because you can change the second one. The trap is falling for a beautifully updated home on an ordinary lot when the money would have gone further on an original home backing onto water.
Two transactions, planned as one
What your current home sells for sets your budget. When it closes sets when you can move. What you can buy decides whether selling first was clever or costly.
I run both sides, so nothing gets handed to another agent when your listing closes and the timing is planned with your real numbers rather than hoped about.
One thing specific to moving within this community: if you are stepping from a traditional single-family home to a lake or greenbelt position, those do not come up constantly. We plan for the possibility that the right one appears at an inconvenient moment, because in a fifty-year-old community the good positions turn over on their own schedule rather than yours.
Buy first or sell first, on three numbers
What your current home genuinely nets after what you owe and what it costs to sell. That number is here.
What you could carry briefly if the two do not line up, and for how long without it hurting.
What an offer that depends on selling yours costs you on the specific kind of home you are targeting. On a traditional single-family home in the middle of the community that is one answer. On a lakefront home that comes up twice a year it is another.
Between those sit options people do not know they have. A rent-back from your buyer, which solves the gap more often than anything else and costs little. A longer close negotiated deliberately. Or, if you are buying a project, the fact that you may not need to move in immediately, which gives you more room than most move-up buyers have.
That last one is genuinely useful here and most people do not think of it. If the next house needs six months of work anyway, the timing problem is a different shape.
What I will tell you before we start
If the position you want turns over twice a year, I will say so at the start rather than let you find out in month five.
If your current home needs work to reach the number your purchase depends on, that conversation happens before we list rather than after two silent weeks.
And if you are buying a project, I will be straight with you about what it is likely to cost and how long it is likely to take, based on what I have watched other people here actually spend rather than on optimism. Renovation budgets in fifty-year-old homes have a way of growing once walls are open.
How we start
Both numbers on one page: what yours is worth, and what the position you want actually costs. Everything else follows.
The sale side runs like this, the buying side like this, and the Arizona mechanics are here.
If this is a move out of a long-held home rather than a step up, that is a different process and it is here.
Call me on (480) 203-6605.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does moving up look like in McCormick Ranch?
Two routes. Move toward the water, a greenbelt or a fairway, which is often the same size of house in a better position, since position carries the value here. Or buy an original home in a strong position and finish it yourself, which is how a number of people end up somewhere they could not otherwise have afforded.
Should I buy a project or something finished?
Either, but decide deliberately. What costs people is landing in the middle: buying a partially updated home and redoing somebody else's choices, which is the most expensive of the three options. If you want it finished, you pay for the work already done and that premium is usually worth it if you have no appetite for a remodel.
Does buying a project change the timing problem?
Yes, and most people do not think of it. If the next house needs six months of work anyway, you may not need to move in immediately, which gives you more room between selling and buying than a typical move-up buyer has.
How often do the best positions come up?
Not often. In a fifty-year-old community the lake, greenbelt and fairway positions turn over on their own schedule rather than yours, so we plan for the right one appearing at an inconvenient moment rather than assuming it will arrive when you are ready.
McCormick Ranch
What move-up buyers looks like in McCormick Ranch
Established central Scottsdale, built around lakes and golf, with mature landscaping and a wide range of home types.
McCormick Ranch was a working cattle and Arabian horse ranch before it was a neighborhood. It sold in 1970 and development started in the early 1970s, which makes it Scottsdale's original master-planned community.
Fifty years on, the thing it has that no newer community can buy is mature landscaping. Full-grown trees, water, and green that has had half a century to establish. A community built last year can copy the floor plans; it cannot copy a forty-year-old tree.
- The homes
- Five genuinely different products under one name: traditional single-family from the 1970s and 1980s on larger lots than a builder would give you now, homes backing onto the lakes or greenbelts, golf-course homes, patio homes and townhomes, and condominiums. More than forty individual neighborhood associations sit inside the community.
- Why people choose it
- People choose it for the mature landscaping and the central position rather than for newness. It is in central Scottsdale rather than north, which changes what is within ten minutes of the door, and the paths through the greenbelts are the amenity residents actually use daily.
- Schools people ask about
- Scottsdale Unified. The district is working through a reorganization at the moment, so confirm the current assignment for a specific address rather than relying on a listing or on last year's boundary.
- Getting around
- Central Scottsdale rather than north, so Old Town, the airport and the rest of the valley are all closer than they are from the communities further up. Hayden, Via Linda and Shea are the routes you will use. The greenbelt paths run for miles and connect the neighborhoods to the parks and the shops on foot.
- Nearby
- McCormick Ranch Golf Club with two eighteen-hole courses, the lakes and greenbelt paths, Comanche, Mountain View and Shoshone parks, and McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, which exists because the McCormick family gave the city a hundred acres in 1967.
- The trade-off
- Against the north Scottsdale communities you are trading newer construction, dramatic terrain and preserve access for fifty years of mature landscaping and a central location. Against DC Ranch or Grayhawk you generally get more established character and a much lower master assessment, and you give up a single resident clubhouse, because the amenities here are spread through the community rather than gathered in one building.
The method
How we do it in McCormick Ranch
Move-Up Buyers: keep exploring
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