5 Tips to Sell Your Home Fast in Scottsdale During the Market Heatwave

If you need to sell your house fast in Scottsdale, you’ve timed the market right. Scottsdale’s median sale price has jumped from $418,000 in May of 2016 to $715,000 in May of 2021 — a whopping 71% sale price increase in just five years!

Penned “a desert version of Miami’s South Beach” by the New York Times, Scottsdale attracts homebuyers seeking low-cost living, year-round sunny weather, and larger lots for lower prices than in neighboring California.

While the real estate market in Scottsdale is on your side, you still need a strategy to pull off a quick home sale without compromising on price. We’ll help you out with these five expert-backed tips to sell your Scottsdale house fast.

1. Showcase your outdoor spaces

Since Scottsdale offers 330 sunny days per year, most homebuyers place a beautiful outdoor living space on their “must-haves” list. Give your home an extra edge in the market by emphasizing your home’s outdoor areas.

• Stage a covered patio with an outdoor dining table or sofa set.
• Maintain a clean pool and turn water features on for listing photos, showings, and open houses.
• Include photos of your built-in barbecue or outdoor kitchen in the listing, so buyers can imagine themselves throwing a steak on the grill.
• Add a fire pit or build one DIY-style to entice buyers. In HomeLight’s recent Top Agent Insights Report, 76.8% of real estate agents rank a firepit with seating as homebuyers’ most desired backyard upgrade.

2. Price your house accurately with help from a top real estate agent

Scottsdale has experienced a significant median price increase from $517,200 in December of 2019 to $689,500 in May of 2021 (a remarkable 33% increase). This fast-moving market presents a challenge for pricing homes, especially if you’re in one of Scottsdale’s fastest-appreciating neighborhoods. Price your home too low, and you leave money on the table. Price your home too high, and you could run into appraisal issues that jeopardize the sale.

Your best bet for pinpointing the perfect listing point is to partner with one of Scottsdale’s top real estate agents. Your agent will conduct a rock-solid Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), comparing your home’s features to similar, recently sold properties to home in on a listing price. They can also reach out to real estate agents behind sales in escrow to gauge if prices in your market are on an upward trend or not.

But don’t just hire any real estate agent. Scottsdale’s top real estate agents move homes 1.4x faster than the average agent. Those same agents win their clients 4.8% more money on their homes on average.

To find top agents near you, plug your home details into HomeLight’s Agent Finder. We’ll match you with the three best agents for your needs based on transaction data, such as transaction volume, list to sale price, days on market, and average client reviews.

3. Enhance curb appeal with plants native to Scottsdale

Use Scottsdale’s native plants to create irresistible curb appeal cohesive with the city’s desert landscape. Buyers love native landscaping since it’s low-maintenance and requires little watering (think low water bills!).

Curate a selection of Arizona’s 51+ species of cactus that thrive in the extreme desert temperatures. Popular choices include the Saguaro Cactus, Purple Prickly Pear, and Easter cactus.

Pair the cacti with desert greenery like Bougainvilleas, Yuccas, and Blue Palo Verde Trees. Top real estate agent Lauren Rosin — who sells homes 11% faster than the average agent in Scottsdale — shares that the Blue Palo Verde Tree is a favorite among local buyers.

“Palo Verde is one of the most popular trees. They’re green trees, and their whole trunks are green, but in the springtime, they get these yellow flowers. And when the wind blows, it’s like raining gold.”

4. Swap the Tuscany look for a light, contemporary design

If you have a Tuscan interior circa the early 2000s, Rosin recommends updating the look to improve the odds of a fast sale.

“In Scottsdale, what people want is that modern, more open concept, brighter, lighter, sometimes different colors, whereas the Tuscany [style] is very dark,” Rosin comments.

Here are a few tips for updating your Tuscan interior:

• Paint the walls a crisp white: Paint your gold or brown Tuscan walls a shade of white for a clean, modern look.
• Remove rustic iron fixtures: Swap out ornate iron and bronze fixtures for simple, contemporary or industrial designs.
• Replace bulky furniture: Remove heavy wood and leather furniture pieces that weigh down the room. Stage primary living areas (living room, dining room, and family room) and the owner’s suite with Desert Modern or Coastal Modern furniture to lighten the look.

5. Sell your house fast to snowbirds during Scottsdale’s winter

HomeLight’s Best Time to Sell Calculator uses comprehensive real estate transaction data to analyze when Scottsdale homes sell the quickest for the most money. According to our data, homes sold in November sell nine days faster than the yearly average.

Rosin agrees that it’s a wise move to sell your home in the late fall or early winter: “I think December is a great month to sell your home, especially if you’re doing the 55+ communities. The 55+ communities sell really well from about October to March because the snowbirds are here — they leave for the summer.”

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