Scottsdale · Second Homes
Resort and Second Homes in Scottsdale
Buying a second home in Scottsdale, from someone who holds the Resort and Second-Home Property Specialist designation.
The choice is not north or south, it is what you do when you land
Everybody buying a second home here has pictured the good months. Nobody needs help imagining a February morning in Scottsdale.
The useful question is what the first evening looks like after a flight. In an Old Town condominium you drop the bags and walk to dinner. In a house north of the 101 you drop the bags and get back in a car. Both are perfectly good answers and they suit different people completely.
I hold the RSPS designation, which is the resort and second-home certification, and most of what it is genuinely useful for is the unglamorous side of this rather than the pleasant side.
Talk to me about a second home
What each option is like the eight months you are gone
A condominium. The association handles the outside entirely, so the empty-season list is short. What you are buying instead is a set of rules and a shared building, and the questions that matter are what the dues cover, what the reserves look like, and whether the association restricts rentals.
A north Scottsdale house. More space and more privacy, and a longer list while you are away. Landscape irrigation needs somebody actually looking at it, because a controller that fails in June is discovered in October by which point the planting is gone. A pool needs service. Monsoon drainage matters on a desert lot.
A central Scottsdale home. Sits between the two, and the mature landscaping that makes those neighborhoods attractive is the same landscaping that needs watering while you are in another state.
I will tell you which properties are easy to leave and which will need real management, because some of the most appealing houses here are firmly in the second group.
The absent-owner list, stated plainly
For anything that is not a full-service condominium, this is what actually needs arranging before you fly home the first time.
Somebody with a key who physically walks the property monthly. Not a camera. A person who will notice a smell, a stain on a ceiling or a dead tree.
Irrigation checked at the start of summer rather than assumed. Pool service with someone reporting back. A pest contract, which matters more on a desert lot than people expect.
And a call to your insurer, because many policies change terms once a property is unoccupied for an extended period, and that is worth confirming rather than discovering after a claim.
If renting it out is part of the plan
Decide this before you buy, because the answer changes which properties make sense.
Short-term rental rules in Arizona are set at state level and cities are limited in what they may impose, but registration and local requirements still apply and they do change. Separately, an association can restrict rentals regardless of what the city allows, and plenty in Scottsdale do, including minimum lease terms that rule out short stays entirely.
So the order is: decide whether renting matters, let me confirm the association's actual governing documents and the current city requirements for that specific address, then shortlist. Doing it the other way round is how people end up owning something that cannot do the thing they bought it for.
I will point you to the current rules rather than paraphrase them from memory, because this is an area where being roughly right is worse than useless.
What people actually use here
In Old Town you are inside a square mile the city counts as nine districts, with more than a hundred galleries in the Arts District, the Thursday evening ArtWalk, and Scottsdale Fashion Square on the same corner holding more than two hundred retailers.
The Arizona Canal path at the Waterfront runs for close to seventy miles across the valley, and each autumn Canal Convergence puts large light installations along the water.
North of the 101 the draw is the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, more than 30,500 acres with over 230 miles of trails reached from Gateway, Lost Dog Wash, Tom's Thumb, Brown's Ranch and several more.
Which of those two lists you read with more interest usually answers where you should be looking.
Buying this from somewhere else
Most second-home buyers here are not in Arizona when they decide, and that works fine when the process is built for it.
I walk properties with a camera and give you my own read, including the empty-season problems a listing will never mention. I confirm association rules, rental restrictions and what the property will need while you are gone, before you get attached to it.
If a particular house is going to be more work than you want, I will say so. A second home that becomes a chore is a bad purchase at any price.
Call me on (480) 203-6605.
Frequently Asked Questions
Old Town condominium or a north Scottsdale house?
Ask what the first evening after a flight looks like. In an Old Town condominium you drop the bags and walk to dinner. North of the 101 you drop the bags and get back in a car. The condominium also has a far shorter empty-season list, because the association handles the outside entirely.
What does a Scottsdale house need while I am away?
Somebody with a key walking it monthly, not a camera, because a person notices a smell or a stain on a ceiling. Irrigation checked at the start of summer rather than assumed, since a controller that fails in June is found in October when the planting is gone. Pool service with someone reporting back, and a pest contract.
Can I rent out a second home in Scottsdale?
Decide before you buy, because it changes which properties work. Short-term rental rules in Arizona are set at state level and cities are limited in what they can impose, but registration and local requirements apply and change. Separately, associations can restrict rentals regardless, and plenty here do, including minimum lease terms that rule out short stays.
Does my insurance change if the home sits empty?
Often, yes. Many policies change terms once a property is unoccupied for an extended period. That is worth a call to your insurer before the first time you leave rather than discovering it after a claim.
Scottsdale
What second homes 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.
Second Homes: keep exploring
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