Life can be unpredictable. As a homeowner in Arizona, you might suddenly find yourself thinking, “I need to sell my house fast.” Whether it’s a personal upheaval like a job loss or divorce, or the need to sell a high-maintenance property quickly, dealing with a shifting real estate market amid life’s other demands can feel overwhelming.
This guide offers a roadmap to your urgent home-selling needs in Arizona, outlining your two best options: securing a cash offer or enlisting the assistance of a top-tier real estate agent. We’ll delve into the particulars of each path, equipping you with the knowledge you need to make an informed decision about how to sell your house fast.
Sell Your House in Arizona Fast With a Cash Offer
Get an all-cash, no-obligation offer through HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform whenever you’re ready. Receive your offer in 24 hours and close in as few as 10 days. No showings, no repairs, no open houses. Available to sellers throughout Arizona.
Option 1: Sell your Arizona house fast for cash
Selling your Arizona house to a cash buyer allows you to cut through the traditional real estate process, such as inspections, repairs, home prep, and staging, and can significantly accelerate your home sale.
HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform connects you to the largest network of cash buyers in the U.S., including trusted buyers in Arizona. We use the information you provide about your home, along with local neighborhood transaction data, to get you a convenient, no-obligation cash offer in 24 hours. If you accept the offer, you can close in as few as 10 days.
Here are the three steps in the Simple Sale process:
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Who else will buy your Arizona house for cash?
You can also find other cash buyers in Arizona, such as house flippers, iBuyers, and investors, who will buy a house for cash. Here are examples of these businesses, the types of homes they look to purchase, and their process.
- House flippers: House flippers buy homes with good bones in dire need of repair to remodel and resell as turnkey for a maximum profit. Flippers typically make offers well below market value to account for the cost of needed repairs.
- iBuyers: iBuyers use a proprietary algorithm that compares many data sets, including price history, lot acreage, a home’s square footage, tax valuation history, and other data points to determine the home’s automated valuation model (AVM). While historically offering more than flippers, iBuyers typically charge sellers a fee between 5% to 6%.
- Buy-and-hold investors: Buy-and-hold investors buy houses as long-term investments, often converting properties into rental units to build equity.
- Franchising/homebuying companies: These investors will buy your house as-is for cash, and renovate and sell them as turnkey homes for a significant profit. Like flippers, these investors offer sellers below market value.
Cash house buyers in Arizona
Arizona house-buying companies, also known as We Buy Houses companies, typically buy houses in need of repairs. Most of these companies will conduct a walkthrough within 48-72 hours, pay cash, and strive to close the sale in around seven to 10 days. In more urgent cases, some Arizona cash buyers can close in as little as three days.
Here are examples of some of the top house-buying companies in Arizona.
| Company name | Contact | About | Closing costs* |
| The Trusted Home Buyer | thetrustedhomebuyer.com 602-456-4440 | Buys houses throughout central Arizona, primarily in the Phoenix metropolitan area | None |
| Simple Sale (a HomeLight platform) | homelight.com/simple 844-488-8455 | Connects you to the largest network of cash buyers in the U.S., including trusted buyers throughout Arizona | None |
| Doug Hopkins | doughopkins.com 602-567-1505 | Can provide a cash offer on Phoenix properties within 24 hours. Purchases homes of all shapes and sizes. | None |
| We Buy Houses Tucson | webuyhomesintucson.com 520-433-9298 | Buying homes in Tucson since 1995, helping sellers facing bankruptcy, liens, title issues, and major repairs. | None |
| AZ Home Buyer | azhomebuyer.com 480-331-1819 | Over the past 15 years, the company has purchased more than 800 homes in the Phoenix area | |
| Valley Home Buyer | valleyhomebuyer.com 602-830-4580 | Has been purchasing homes in the Phoenix metro area since 1996, offering quick turnarounds | None |
*Service plans can change. Check the company’s website for current fees and costs.
Pros and cons of selling your Arizona house for cash
The experience of selling a house for cash in Arizona can vary from company to company. However, most owners encounter these benefits and drawbacks when selling their home to companies for cash.
Pros
- Fast closing: A cash sale in Arizona is significantly faster than a traditional mortgage-backed home purchase, often allowing you to close in as few as three to 10 days.
- No repairs needed: You can sell your Arizona home as-is, in most cases, with no repairs or renovations.
- No fees or commissions: Many cash buyers will cover closing costs and fees.
- No showings or open houses: You won’t have to stage the home for listing photos or prepare the property for showings or open houses.
- No obligation until you commit: After you receive a no-obligation offer, you can compare it to other offers. You can even consult an Arizona Realtor® for comparisons.
- Step away from a problem: With a fast cash sale, you can often avoid dealing with problem tenants or potential foreclosure.
- No contingencies: Cash buyers can waive contingencies that can make negotiations difficult, namely the financing contingency and appraisal contingency.
- No negotiating: You won’t have to deal with multiple buyers or the pressure of back-and-forth negotiating on price, credits, or repairs.
- Move on with life: If you inherited an Arizona home, are facing divorce, dealing with a death, or having financial challenges, a cash sale can help you move on from the home and possibly resolve some issues faster.
Cons
- Lower sale price: Cash sales typically result in a lower selling price than a traditional sale with the help of a qualified real estate agent.
- Repairs cost may be deducted: If your Arizona home does need major repairs, the cost of those may be deducted from the offer, depending on the cash buyer.
- May be harder to find a buyer: Depending on the condition or location of your home, you may have limited cash buyer options, especially if you have a unique property that will be harder for investors to flip.
- You’ll need to vet companies: It’s important to do research on “we buy houses for cash” companies to make sure they are legitimate and reputable.
- Transparency may be limited: Some cash buyers won’t share their home evaluation process or how they calculated their offer, which is sometimes reduced last minute.
- Hidden fees: As you vet Arizona cash buyers, watch for hidden or unexpected fees. Read your purchase contract carefully before signing.
Option 2: Hire a top Arizona real estate agent
Working with a top agent in Arizona can be a good option for sellers who would like to sell faster than average but who have some time to devote to a traditional sale vs. an instant cash offer. Top agents who know the local area can add value in the following ways:
- Offer expertise in pricing so your home sells fast
- Prioritize repairs and upgrades that increase home value
- Provide staging tips to make your home appeal to more buyers
- Apply various marketing techniques to bring in a larger pool of buyers
- Use local expertise for skillful negotiation
HomeLight data shows that top Arizona agents sell homes faster than most agents, and the top 5% of agents sell homes for up to 10% more than average agents. Working with a top agent can lead to a speedy sale for top dollar to help you move past a divorce, sell a loved one’s estate, or get out of debt.
How fast are homes selling in Arizona?
Local market conditions can determine how quickly or slowly your house sells in Arizona. Currently, like many states across the country, homes are staying on the market longer due to escalating interest rates, but tight inventory and population growth are keeping prices fairly stable in Arizona.
Thomas Krieger is a top Arizona real estate agent with 40 years of experience. He explains that there are different levels of home-selling speeds in Arizona.
“Like most places, there is a shortage of listings out there, but days on market (DOM) is often determined by the price range. In Tucson, homes priced between $200,000 and $300,000 are flying off the market in hours. The ones that are in decent condition in the $300,000 to $500,000 range stay on the market anywhere from a week to 30 days. Properties over $700,000 are on the market from 35 to 65 days.”
It’s important to note that DOM is measured as the time from listing a home to having a signed contract. Arizona sellers making moving plans should also take into account the additional 44 days a mortgage-backed buyer typically needs to close on a purchase loan.
For sellers who are attempting to sell quickly, Krieger says the condition of the home has a big impact, as many buyers are looking for homes that are move-in ready, often referred to as turnkey properties.
“We are not seeing as many investor buyers,” he says, which may be contributing to the move-in ready demand. “The good news is, it is allowing first-time homebuyers to be more successful at purchasing a home since they are not competing with cash investor buyers.”
Arizona real estate conditions and trends
Here is a snapshot of current real estate conditions in Arizona:
| As of September 2024 | |
| Days on market (average time from list to contract) | 72 days* |
| Median home sale price | $440,000 |
| List price vs. sale price | 98.9% |
| Percentage of homes sold for cash | 51.5% |
| Supply of inventory | 4.76 months |
| Number of closed home sales year over year | -3.6% |
| Population growth year over year | +0.89% |
*Does not include the typical 44 days a buyer needs to close on a purchase loan. Data collected from multiple transaction sources.
Krieger says trends in Arizona’s population growth and housing demand — especially in certain price ranges — are attributable in part to migration related to the state’s expanding industrial base.
“We are starting to see migration not just for retirement, but for business,” he explains. “The area between Phoenix and Tucson is now called the battery belt, due to the growth of technology businesses here. Tesla is talking about coming here. Chip makers are building here. There are a lot more high-tech jobs in Arizona.”
In addition, a desalination plant is being proposed that could alleviate long-term concerns about water shortages, another factor that may be encouraging companies to relocate there.
10 strategies to sell a house fast in Arizona
Top-performing Arizona agents have an arsenal of successful strategies that attract buyers and make homes sell faster.
Krieger is very succinct in his advice for selling a house fast in Arizona: “Don’t be greedy. Be wise,” he says. “You want to be the prettiest girl on the block, so you get the cutest boy to ask you to dance. The house must be as ready as possible so the buyer will be willing to offer above asking price.”
Tracy Hosobe, founder of Sell-It-Quick Home Staging in Gilbert, Arizona, offers this advice: “As the prospective homebuyer enters the neighborhood, they may be thinking, ‘I hope that’s not the house!’ if they see a house with an uninviting exterior. That first impression carries into how they react inside the home. It’s just human nature. If you start with a negative feeling right off the bat, you come into the house more critical.”
Here are some expert strategies to sell your home quickly in Arizona:
1. Set your price competitively
An experienced top agent will perform a comparative market analysis (CMA) to help you set the best price to sell a house fast in the Arizona market.
“If you want to sell fast, but also are looking for top dollar, we recommend pricing your house aggressively and letting the buyers walk it up through competition,” Krieger says. “When you know buyers are standing in line, you create a herd mentality. It gets it to sell fast, lots of time with cash.
Krieger provides this example: “When a buyer comes into a home priced at $400,000, and that’s fair value, they may say, ‘$380,000 is my highest offer.’ But when all of a sudden, there are three or four buyers in line for it, that changes things.”
If you’re curious about your home’s current value, try HomeLight’s Home Value Estimator. While it shouldn’t dictate your final pricing strategy, an online home value estimate can give you a ballpark price range. You can get a preliminary estimate in less than two minutes.
2. Consider a pre-listing inspection
Home inspections can often hold up a sale. With a pre-listing inspection, you’ll know repair issues in advance and let the buyer know about issues before they make an offer, which saves time.
“I like pre-listing inspections because we can take care of the hidden things that we are unaware of,” says Krieger. “The more fit the house is for purchase, the more likely someone will bid on it fast.”
If you are trying to sell fast, discovering a major problem after you have an offer can short-circuit a sale, Krieger says. “If you get a bid, and have to fix something, it could make the deal fall through, and the house has to come back on the market,” he says. “Now you have to disclose it, and the property may become stigmatized.”
One issue common in Arizona is the existence of polybutylene pipes, a plastic resin that was used extensively in Arizona construction from 1978 until 1995 when homebuilding was at its peak throughout the sunbelt. Oxidants in public water supplies can cause damage to the pipes and fittings, causing fractures in the system and often sudden failure that can damage the building structure.
3. Showcase your outdoor space
Arizona home shoppers love usable outdoor space. Extending your living space outdoors can be extremely appealing to buyers. Consider how you might transform your outdoor area into an attractive oasis. This might include adding a full furniture set, smoker, and television to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks or the Phoenix Suns play on a pleasant evening outside.
If you do not have an existing outdoor seating area or patio, create an elevated focal point by mounding rocks or boulders, highlighted with a few plants, or add a few attractive chairs and a small table to create an ambiance of outdoor living.
A little investment of time and creativity can go a long way in making the exterior of an Arizona house look alive with possibilities.
4. Use technology to market your home
Enough can’t be said about getting top-quality professional photos and video tours for posting your listing in the most appropriate places. Once those are secured, it’s time to launch the marketing campaign.
“The day before the listing goes live, we market on Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Instagram,” Krieger says. “Sometimes, we have a live event outside the house to create excitement to be there. We knock on doors and invite the neighbors to come to the open house, so the buyers can meet the people who are in the neighborhood and generate excitement about living there.”
5. Paint, pressure wash, and plant
As a professional stager, Hosobe says she always begins by suggesting ways to her client to create attractive curb appeal.
“So many stagers forget about curb appeal, and so do homeowners. Warming up the front of the house sets the tone and the emotional feel that a buyer has as they approach the house,” she says. “If the curb appeal is pleasant, this is automatically going to give them a feeling that they can’t wait to see inside.”
Investing a little time and money in the home exterior, such as pressure washing or painting the home a neutral color, as well as removing foliage that covers the front of the house, can enhance a buyer’s interest.
Here are a few quick tips to spruce up the exterior to make your home look more inviting:
- Clean up the entrance and landscape, making it weed-free and debris-free
- Trim back overgrown or scraggly bushes and plants
- Add a little more foliage if needed, but don’t clutter up the yard with too many plants
- Draw the eye with some colorful plants near the front entrance
6. Make your front entryway inviting
One of Hosobe’s core messages to her clients is to “declutter and depersonalize.” Removing the clutter helps the homebuyer see the house. This includes decluttering the front of the home, as well as cleaning or painting the door, vacuuming away dust and debris, cleaning any entryway features such as pillars or awnings, and washing windows.
“Also, consider warming up the doorway with a subliminal welcome mat or adding flowers to the entrance,” she says. “So much of staging is creating a psychological experience for the homebuyer.”
7. Stage your home to stand out
Staging a home can be the single most important way to make your home stand out from the crowd, especially in a homebuying experience that often begins online with home shoppers viewing countless listings.
Hosobe’s goal from the beginning of any staging project is to repair and neutralize the home.
“We have to appeal to the masses, and we have a few rules of thumb that help us do that,” she says. “Repair any holes in the walls and replace missing closet or cupboard doors. If there are very strong colors on the walls, paint them a neutral color throughout the house. The number one thing that can turn a buyer off is too many different paint colors.”
She encourages her homeowners to remove family pictures, religious artifacts, sport team references, or political affiliation symbols or pictures. “On a subconscious level, these things turn a buyer off, because it is just foreign to them,” she explained. “They may feel they can’t live here because the mojo isn’t right.”
8. Increase light and add fans
Lighting your home effectively is one of the most important and often mentioned factors when preparing your home for sale. Open up the drapes and raise the shades. Light adds warmth to the space and makes your rooms look bigger, Hosobe advises.
But don’t rely entirely on the sun, she adds. “If there are completely outdated light fixtures, it’s important to update them to ensure the space is lit properly.”
Hosobe also encourages sellers to add ceiling fans. “Ceiling fans are a critical feature for Arizona homes and something homebuyers look for. As you update the lighting, you may want to consider updating your fans. It’s a small investment that can influence a buyer who comes through and sees a modern light fixture or fan.”
9. Highlight outdoor amenities
Arizona buyers love outdoor space and outdoor amenities, such as a large backyard, a children’s playground, a hot tub, and a patio. Highlight these as useful living spaces with thoughtful staging as you prepare your home for a quick sale.
10. Take advantage of Arizona market timing
Along with the recommendations above, it can be helpful to know the level of market activity in your Arizona market during different times of the year. HomeLight’s Best Time to Sell Calculator uses housing market data for your city to show you the best and worst months to sell your home. See when the best time is to sell a house if you want to make the most money and which months are best to sell your house fast.
Ready to sell your Arizona home?
As you can see, a top real estate agent in Arizona can help you navigate the many nuances that you might not otherwise discover until you’re swamped in the process. Their organizational efficiencies and marketing expertise can help you sell your Arizona house fast.
Consult With a Top-Performing Arizona Agent
It takes just two minutes to match you with the top-performing real estate agents in your Arizona market. Our data shows that the top 5% of agents in the U.S. sell homes quicker and for as much as 10% more than the average agent.
If you need an even faster sale, HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform provides cash offers for homes in almost any condition in Arizona. If you don’t have the time or the means to prepare your home or move through the traditional listing process, you can skip the repairs and showings and close in as few as 10 days. Complete a short questionnaire and receive a no-obligation cash offer in 24 hours.
Writer Stacy Sare Cohen contributed to this story.
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