McCormick Ranch · Selling Your Home
Selling Your Home in McCormick Ranch
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.
Condition is the whole conversation here
In most neighborhoods the first question is what the house is. In McCormick Ranch the first question is what has been done to it.
These homes went up largely through the 1970s and 1980s, which means that on any given street you can find one that is essentially original, one that has been sensibly updated over the years, and one that has been taken back to the studs and rebuilt into something contemporary behind the same roofline.
All three will appear in a search as McCormick Ranch. They are not the same purchase and they are nowhere near the same number.
So if your home has been beautifully done, my job is making sure it is not priced against the one down the street that has not been touched in thirty years. And if yours has not been touched, my job is telling you that plainly and pricing it for what it is, because a buyer walking through works it out in about four minutes and resents being asked to pay as though they had not.
What is my McCormick Ranch home worth?
What you are actually selling, and it is probably the trees
Sellers here consistently undersell the one thing they own that nobody can build.
This community was planted in the early 1970s. Fifty years on, that means full-grown trees, water and green that has had half a century to establish. A community finished last year can copy your floor plan. It cannot copy a forty-year-old tree, and buyers who have spent a weekend looking at new-build streets with saplings in gravel feel the difference immediately.
If you back onto a lake or a greenbelt, that is not a bullet point at the end of the listing. It is very likely the reason your home sells and the reason it sells for what it does, and the photography gets built around it.
Same for the position. Central Scottsdale rather than north changes what is within ten minutes of the front door, and for a buyer weighing you against something further up that is a real argument worth making properly.
Five products under one name
Before we price anything I need to be clear which of five things you actually own, because they have different buyers.
Traditional single-family, most of the Ranch, on lots generally larger than a builder would hand you today.
Lake or greenbelt homes, where the position does most of the pricing work.
Golf-course homes, looking at the two eighteen-hole courses without anybody needing to join a private club.
Patio homes and townhomes, a substantial part of the community and regularly overlooked by people who think McCormick Ranch means one kind of house.
Condominiums, the lowest-maintenance way into this part of Scottsdale.
A buyer looking for the fourth is not weighing it against the first, whatever the search results put side by side. Working out which handful of homes yours genuinely competes with is most of the job.
The dues, and why they help you
This is a selling point most listings here throw away, and it is worth using.
Every property is part of the McCormick Ranch master association, and that assessment is a couple of hundred dollars a year. Not a month. For a master-planned community of this size that is remarkably little, and a buyer who has just come from looking at somewhere with a four-figure annual master assessment notices.
The catch is that plenty of homes carry a second one. Most of the patio home, townhome and condominium neighborhoods have their own association on top, covering a pool, common landscaping, private streets, exterior and roof maintenance, or insurance on shared structures, and what they include varies a great deal.
So I pull the current figures for your specific address and put the real total in the listing with what it buys. Volunteering it reads as confidence. Leaving a buyer to find the second association during escrow reads as something you hoped they would miss, and it costs you a renegotiation.
What to do before it goes on
Landscaping first, and here more than anywhere. The mature planting is your best asset and tired planting undercuts it before anybody reaches the door. If a tree needs attention, that is money well spent.
Paint where the sun has taken it. A deep clean including the windows, particularly if you look at water or green.
On renovation, I will give you a straighter answer here than in most neighborhoods, because condition is the pricing conversation. If your home is essentially original, a partial update rarely pays. A buyer who wants to renovate wants to make their own choices, and a half-finished job means they are budgeting to undo yours. Either do it properly or price it as the opportunity it is, which in this community is a genuinely attractive proposition to the right person.
What I would not do is a mid-range kitchen in a house that will sell to somebody planning a full remodel. That is money that does not come back.
How we start
With a real number, built from homes in your actual product category and your actual condition band rather than an average of the Ranch. That is here and it costs you nothing.
Then the plan for what is worth doing first. The mechanics of a listing are set out here.
If you are buying as well, we plan both sides together. If you have been in the house since the 1980s and this is a bigger decision than a transaction, the Legacy Method is built for exactly that.
Call me on (480) 203-6605.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do similar McCormick Ranch homes sell for such different prices?
Condition, mostly. These went up largely through the 1970s and 1980s, so on one street you can find a home that is essentially original, one sensibly updated, and one taken back to the studs and rebuilt. All three show up in a search as McCormick Ranch and they are nowhere near the same number.
Should I renovate before selling?
Either properly or not at all. A partial update rarely pays here, because a buyer who wants to renovate wants their own choices and a half-finished job means budgeting to undo yours. A realistically priced original home is a genuinely attractive proposition to the right person in this community. What does not come back is a mid-range kitchen in a house that will sell to somebody planning a full remodel.
What is the HOA here?
The master assessment is a couple of hundred dollars a year, not a month, which for a community of this size is remarkably little and worth putting in the listing. The catch is that most patio home, townhome and condominium neighborhoods carry a second association on top, and what it covers varies. I pull the real total for your address and state it up front.
Does backing onto a lake or greenbelt matter?
A great deal, and it is usually the reason a home sells for what it does rather than a bullet point at the end of the listing. Fifty years of mature landscaping is the thing no newer community can copy, and buyers who have spent a weekend looking at new streets with saplings in gravel feel the difference straight away.
McCormick Ranch
What selling your home 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
Selling Your Home: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Jen Keene?