How I Help You Buy

Most people think buying a home starts with looking at houses. It starts about three steps earlier, and the people who skip those steps are the ones who lose the house they wanted.

There are four stages: getting ready, working out what your budget actually buys here, narrowing down to the homes worth seeing in person, and then the contract, which is where most of the real work happens and where you should hear from me most.

Arizona has its own way of doing this, and it is not how it works in the state you may have moved from. There is no attorney at the closing table here. Escrow and title companies handle it. The inspection period has a specific length and specific rights attached. Your earnest money is refundable right up until a particular moment, and then it is not.

Here is all of it, in order.

This is the conversation that saves people months, and it is the one most agents skip because it is uncomfortable.

Before you fall in love with something, I will tell you what your number buys in the areas you are considering. Not what you wish it bought. What it buys, in that neighborhood, this month.

Sometimes the answer is that your budget works exactly where you hoped. Sometimes it is that the same money buys considerably more two neighborhoods over, and we should go look there before you decide. Occasionally it is that what you want does not exist at that price, and you have a choice to make between the location, the size and the condition. One of those three usually has to give.

Hearing that in week one is irritating. Discovering it in month four, after losing three offers, is worse. I would rather be the agent who told you early.

We also talk about the costs nobody mentions until they arrive: what closing costs run, what an HOA charges and what it covers, what a pool or a roof at a certain age is likely to cost you, and what the property taxes actually are rather than what the listing says.

This is the stage with real deadlines and real money, so here is exactly how it runs in Arizona.

The offer. Price is one part of it. Timing, contingencies, the close date and how the offer is structured often matter more, particularly against competition. We write it together and I explain what each piece does before you sign.

Earnest money. Typically 1 to 3 percent of the purchase price. It is held by the escrow company, not by me and not by the seller. It is credited to you at closing; it is not an extra cost.

The inspection period. The contract has a built-in ten-day inspection period, and that length can be negotiated. Inside it you have inspections done, you negotiate repairs, and you can walk away. Your HOA documents and the seller disclosures usually arrive and get reviewed inside this same window rather than adding time on the end.

When your money becomes genuinely at risk. Not at signing. Your earnest money stays recoverable until all of these have happened: the inspection period has run out including any repair negotiation, the appraisal has come in at or above the purchase price, your loan has final approval, and you have had your proper review window for the HOA documents and disclosures without objecting. Once all of that is behind you, the earnest money is on the line.

Even then there are exceptions. If the seller breaches the contract, or the home is significantly damaged before closing, you may still be entitled to it back. Those situations are unusual and they are fact-specific.

Closing. No attorney, no settlement table. Escrow and title handle it. You sign, the lender funds, it records, and the house is yours.

This describes how I generally work with buyers in Arizona. It is not legal, tax or lending advice, and the contract you sign governs over anything written here. Timelines and terms are negotiable and vary with the transaction.