The method
How We Sell a Home
The method behind every listing: equity first, then presentation, impact and campaign. Real ARMLS numbers, Arizona contracts, and no guesswork about the move.
The order matters more than the checklist
Most listing conversations start with a price. That is the wrong end of the problem, because a price is an output. It comes out of what your home nets, what your next one costs, what your financing will carry and how long each side of the move actually takes. Start with the number and you are guessing at everything upstream of it.
So the method runs in a fixed order, and the order is the method. Equity first, because the whole move has to add up before anything goes on the market. Then presentation, because the house has one chance to be seen properly. Then impact, because the first week a home is live is the week it gets the most attention it will ever get. Then campaign, because a sign in the yard is distribution, not marketing.
Four steps. Each one has a job, and each one has a point where you get real information and can change your mind cheaply. That is deliberate. The expensive version of selling a house is finding out in week seven what you could have known in week one.
Everything below describes how a sale runs in Arizona, on the Arizona Association of Realtors contract, closing through a title and escrow company. It is a description of how the work is done, not legal, tax or lending advice.
Start with the equity conversation
Equity: work out whether the whole move adds up
This is the step almost nobody runs first, and it is the one that decides whether the rest of it works. If you are selling a home you still live in, you are running two transactions, not one. The house has to sell, the next one has to be available, and the gap between those two dates is where the stress lives.
What happens here:
- A real net sheet. Not the sale price. What is actually left after the payoff, the title and escrow fees, the taxes and prorations, the repairs you agree to and everything else that comes out before you see a dollar.
- A comparative market analysis built from your city's sales. Recent comparable sales, what is competing with you right now, and what failed to sell and why. Chandler, Gilbert and Scottsdale are three different markets on price, supply and time, and a Valley-wide average is not a useful number for any of them.
- The financing conversation on the next house, before you list this one. A lender, early, not at the end. What you can carry, on what terms, and whether you can carry both for a period.
- The sequencing decision. Sell first and bridge the gap, often with a rent-back from your own buyer. Buy first, which needs the financing to carry both. Or coordinate the two with matched dates and contingencies. Each has a real cost and a real risk, and which one fits is a function of your numbers rather than your preference.
That is the Home-First Move-Up Plan, and it produces something specific: a written picture of what the move costs you, in what order, with which risks. If the answer is that the move does not work yet, you find that out here, before a sign goes in the yard and before anyone has your address on a portal.
If your number is too high, this is where I say so. Before we list, rather than after two price reductions.
How We Sell a Home
Presentation: fix what pays, skip what does not
The instinct before listing is to fix everything. That is usually the wrong call, because most of it does not come back in the sale price and all of it comes out of your time. The job here is to separate the work that changes what a buyer offers from the work that only changes how you feel about the house.
We walk the house together before anything is scheduled, and you get a straight answer on each item: this pays, this does not, this one is not optional because an inspector will find it anyway and it will come back as a repair request with less leverage on your side.
Disclosure belongs in this step too, not at the end. The Seller Property Disclosure Statement is where what you know about the house gets written down. Being thorough here is not a legal formality, it is a negotiating position. A defect disclosed up front is a condition of the sale. The same defect found during the inspection period is a renegotiation.
Then the marketing assets get made, and this is where the budget actually goes:
- Professional photography, on a day the light works for the house rather than the day the calendar was free.
- Video where the home earns it. Not every home does, and shooting one that does not is money spent to look busy.
- Copy written for the buyer this specific house suits, rather than a list of adjectives that would fit any house on the street.
- A page built for the address, so the listing has a home of its own rather than living only inside a portal.
Nothing goes live until all of it is ready. A listing that appears on the market with three phone photographs and a promise of better ones spends its best week apologizing for itself.
Impact: the first week is the whole game
A home gets more attention in its first seven days on the market than in any seven days that follow. Every buyer already searching your price band and your area sees it at once, and the saved-search alerts all fire on the same morning. That audience does not come back a second time.
Which is why the asking price is set for that week rather than for a negotiation you are imagining. Here is the number that makes the case, from ARMLS, pulled 2026-10-01 with data through September 2026: across the market, homes sold at about 97.9% of their asking price and about 94.8% of their original asking price. The distance between those two figures is what a price correction costs, and it is roughly three points of the sale price. On a $600,000 home that is around $18,000, paid for starting too high.
It is not the same in every city either, which is why the analysis is built per city. In Chandler, homes sold at 98.4% of asking and 96.0% of original asking. In Gilbert, 97.7% and 94.8%. A wider gap is a market telling you it punishes optimism harder.
During that week:
- Showings are scheduled to concentrate rather than to trickle, so the house is seen by people who know other people are seeing it.
- Every piece of feedback gets collected and reported to you, including the feedback you would rather not have.
- Traffic, saves and showing requests get measured against what the price implied they should be, so week two is a decision based on evidence instead of nerves.
You will know how it went by the end of it, and you will know it from me rather than by chasing me for it.
Campaign: what happens when week one was not enough
Sometimes the first week produces an offer. Often it does not, and the difference between a listing that recovers and one that sits is entirely what happens next. Putting a home on the market and waiting is not a marketing plan. It is a sign and a hope.
The established teams in the East Valley compete on production volume and reputation, and most of them are not evolving their marketing. That gap is real, and your listing is where it pays off.
What the campaign actually consists of:
- Targeted digital promotion to the people most likely to buy this specific house, rather than a boosted post shown to nobody in particular.
- Video and social distribution on the platforms where buyers in this market actually look, cut for the platform rather than uploaded the same way four times.
- A weekly report to you, with what ran, what it produced and what I think it means. If the numbers say the price is wrong, the report says the price is wrong.
- Price strategy on a schedule, not on a panic. When a reduction is right, it is taken early enough and large enough to reach a new set of buyers. A drip of small reductions signals a seller who will keep reducing, and buyers wait for the next one.
Demand across the metro softened through 2026, with pending sales down about 35% year over year in August (ARMLS, pulled 2026-10-01). In that kind of market the campaign is not a nice extra. It is the difference between finding the buyer who exists and waiting for one who does not.
From accepted offer to keys
An accepted offer is the start of the deadlines, not the end of them. In Arizona this runs on the Arizona Association of Realtors resale contract and closes through a title and escrow company. There is no attorney at a settlement table and no single signing room. Here is the shape of it:
- Earnest money to escrow. Commonly around 1% of the purchase price, negotiated rather than fixed, and deposited with the title and escrow company. It is not held by me and it is not held by the brokerage.
- The inspection period. Ten days from contract acceptance. The buyer inspects, and anything they want addressed comes back on the Buyer's Inspection Notice and Seller Response, the BINSR. You respond on that form. This is the single most common place a deal moves, and it is why the disclosure work in the presentation step matters.
- Appraisal and loan. The lender orders an appraisal. If it comes in under contract price, that is a conversation with real options rather than an automatic collapse, and we have it with the numbers in front of us.
- Title and escrow work. The title company clears title, prepares the settlement statement and coordinates the signing. You sign your side separately from the buyer.
- Close of escrow. Recording, then funding, then keys.
Transaction coordination runs through Transactly, so the deadlines and the paperwork sit with someone whose entire job is deadlines and paperwork, while I stay on strategy, negotiation and you. You get told what is happening with your own sale without chasing anyone for it.
What this is and is not
This describes how I generally work a sale in Arizona. It is not legal, tax or lending advice, and it is not a promise about your particular house. Contracts vary, deals vary, and your situation may call for something different from what is written here.
I do not guarantee a sale price, a timeline, a value or an outcome, and you should be careful with anyone who does. Commission is agreed between us in writing before we start and is not set by any rule, rate or custom. I am happy to walk through exactly what is included so you can judge the value rather than only the number.
I work in English, Spanish and French, which means your contract gets walked through in the language you actually think in, by me, rather than by a third party added to the middle of your deal.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the inspection period in Arizona?
Ten days from contract acceptance on the standard Arizona Association of Realtors resale contract. The buyer inspects during that window, and anything they want addressed comes back on the Buyer's Inspection Notice and Seller Response, the BINSR, which you respond to. The length is negotiable in the contract, but ten days is the default it starts from.
Do I need an attorney to sell my house in Arizona?
Not for a standard resale. Arizona closes through a title and escrow company rather than at an attorney settlement table, and you sign your side separately from the buyer. If your situation involves a trust, an estate, a divorce decree or a title problem, that is a question for an attorney, and I will say so rather than work around it.
Should I fix everything before I list?
No, and trying to is usually a waste of your time and money. Some repairs change what a buyer offers, most do not, and a few are not optional because an inspector will find them anyway and they come back as a repair request with less leverage on your side. We walk the house together and you get a straight answer on each item.
What happens if my house does not sell in the first week?
That is common and it is what the campaign step exists for. You get a weekly report on what ran, what it produced and what I think it means, and price strategy runs on a schedule rather than on a panic. When a reduction is right it is taken early enough and large enough to reach a new set of buyers, because a drip of small reductions just teaches buyers to wait for the next one.
What do you charge to list my home?
Commission is agreed between us in writing before we start, and it is not set by any rule, rate or custom. I would rather walk you through exactly what is included and what it covers so you can judge the value rather than only the number.
Keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Your Home Comes First?