Scottsdale · Downsizing
Downsizing in Scottsdale
Selling the long-time family home and finding the next one, handled by the same agent, in that order.
You have three real options here, not one
Most cities give somebody downsizing a single answer, usually a smaller version of what they already had. Scottsdale gives you three that are genuinely different from each other, and the common mistake is not comparing them because nobody laid them out.
An Old Town condominium. You walk to dinner, a gallery and groceries without moving the car. In this valley that is rare, and for somebody who has spent thirty years driving everywhere it is a bigger change in daily life than the square footage is.
A single-level home in central Scottsdale. Smaller house, established landscaping, and in much of it the Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt within walking distance. You keep a house and a garden and lose the acreage and the stairs.
Somewhere lock-and-leave. An association that handles the outside entirely, which matters most if you intend to travel or spend summers elsewhere.
Those are three different lives. Worth trying all three on before narrowing.
Talk to me about downsizing
Ask the stairs question properly
People ask it as one question and it is four, with different answers in the same house.
How many steps from where a car actually stops to the front door. How many from the garage, which is often a worse number. Whether the primary bedroom, the laundry and the kitchen all sit on the same floor as each other. And in a condominium, what happens on the day the elevator is out.
A home listed as single level can still have six steps up from the driveway. A two-story home can have everything you use daily on the entry floor. The label carries very little information. I walk it and give you the actual numbers before you spend a Saturday.
The part of the decision nobody frames for you
Downsizing inside Scottsdale is usually also a decision about which Scottsdale, and people make it by accident.
If you are leaving a house north of the 101, moving to a smaller house two miles away keeps the drive to everything exactly as it is. That is fine if the drive was never the issue. If part of what you want is to stop spending forty minutes a day in the car, moving south or central does more for you than losing a thousand square feet will.
I raise this with everyone, because the number of people who downsize within their own ten square miles and then say six months later that nothing much changed is not small.
Which end to do first
Selling the current house and buying the next one are two transactions and the order is what makes people anxious.
Selling first gives you a real number and a strong position when you write an offer, and removes the risk of carrying two properties. The cost is that you may need somewhere to be in between.
Buying first is more comfortable and more expensive, and depends entirely on what your lender will let you carry.
There is no universally right answer, only the right one for your finances and your tolerance for the uncomfortable middle. Because I handle both ends, the two timelines get built against each other from the start rather than being run by two people who never speak.
The contents, which is the part that stalls people
Twenty or thirty years in one house produces more than anybody plans for, and this is where moves stop for months.
I connect sellers with a senior move company that walks the house room by room before it goes on the market and makes a plan for what stays, what comes to the next place, what is sold and what is donated. You pay the mover directly. I am not marking it up and I take nothing from it.
Doing this before the photographer arrives rather than after you are under contract is the single biggest thing that keeps the move from becoming stressful. A house with less in it photographs better, and a family that has already made these decisions is not making them against a closing date.
How the whole thing runs
We start with what the current house is worth, because every other decision depends on that number.
Then we look at the three options above properly, and I am straight with you about what each one actually costs to run, including association dues, which vary enormously across this city.
Then we sequence the two transactions, and I go and see the next place with you rather than sending you listings.
You can call me on (480) 203-6605 whenever you want to talk it through. Plenty of people call a year or two before they do anything, and that is a good time to call.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are my options if I want to downsize but stay in Scottsdale?
Three genuinely different ones. An Old Town condominium where you walk to dinner and groceries without moving the car. A single-level home in central Scottsdale with established landscaping and often the greenbelt within walking distance. Or somewhere lock-and-leave where an association handles the outside entirely, which matters most if you travel.
What should I ask about stairs?
Four things, not one. Steps from where a car actually stops to the front door. Steps from the garage, often a worse number. Whether the primary bedroom, laundry and kitchen are on the same floor. And in a condominium, what happens the day the elevator is out. A home listed as single level can still have six steps up from the driveway.
Should I stay in the same part of Scottsdale?
Worth deciding deliberately rather than by default. If you are leaving a house north of the 101 and move two miles away, the drive to everything stays exactly as it is. If part of what you want is to stop spending forty minutes a day in the car, moving south or central does more for you than losing a thousand square feet.
Do I sell first or buy first?
Selling first gives you a real number and a strong offer position and removes the risk of carrying two properties, but you may need somewhere to be in between. Buying first is more comfortable and more expensive and depends on what your lender will let you carry. We work out which fits at the start, not in the week it becomes urgent.
Scottsdale
What downsizing looks like in Scottsdale
From established central neighborhoods to north Scottsdale luxury, with prices and character that shift block to block.
Scottsdale runs thirty-one miles north to south across 184.5 square miles, with about 243,000 people in it, and the ground climbs from roughly 1,150 feet at the south end to nearly 4,900 feet in the McDowells. A city that long, rising that far, does not stay one thing along its length.
So when somebody tells me they want Scottsdale, that is the beginning of the conversation rather than the end of it. The south end is a walkable grid of post-war homes on generous lots. The north end is Sonoran Desert with houses in it. In between sits fifty years of master planning, one decade at a time.
- The homes
- Close to every era the valley has built. Mid-century ranch homes in the south, many original and many taken back to the studs. Master-planned communities through the center from the 1970s and 1980s, McCormick Ranch, Gainey Ranch and Scottsdale Ranch among them. Then the 1990s and 2000s communities north of Shea, and custom homes in the foothills above them. Old Town carries the condominium stock. As a rough rule the building gets newer and the lots get more expensive as you move north, and neither of those is the same as better.
- Why people choose it
- The real decision here is not whether Scottsdale but which part of it. People choosing the south end are usually buying position and an older house on a bigger lot. People choosing the north end are usually buying newness, a gate, and the desert at the end of the street. Both are Scottsdale and they are almost nothing alike day to day.
- Schools people ask about
- Scottsdale Unified covers much of the city, but not all of it. Paradise Valley Unified serves parts of the west and north, and Cave Creek Unified reaches some of the far north. District lines do not follow neighborhood names or even city limits here, so confirm the assignment for a specific address rather than relying on a listing.
- Getting around
- Scottsdale Road runs the length of the city and the Loop 101 wraps the north and west sides. From the south end, Sky Harbor, Tempe and Arizona State are all close. From the far north end they are a genuine drive. The Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt runs eleven miles through the middle of the city with more than twenty-four underpasses and bridge crossings, so much of it can be walked or ridden without stopping at a major road.
- Nearby
- The McDowell Sonoran Preserve, more than 30,500 acres with over 230 miles of trails, which is why roughly a third of the city's land is permanently protected. Old Town, which the city counts as nine separate districts inside just over a square mile. Scottsdale Fashion Square, the largest mall in Arizona with more than two hundred retailers. And the Arizona Canal path at the Waterfront, which continues for close to seventy miles across the valley.
- The trade-off
- The whole trade runs north to south. Go south and you get an older house, a larger lot, a lower price and a short run to Old Town, Tempe and the airport, with no gate and no golf course. Go north and you get newer construction, preserve access and dark skies, and you drive further for everything. Two million dollars near Kierland and two million in Troon buy completely different days, and a search result will line them up as though the floor plan were the difference.
The method
How we do it in Scottsdale
Downsizing: keep exploring
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