Buying before you sell: Arizona’s home sale contingency

The honest order

Most move-up buyers want to buy first and sell second, because it feels safer to have the new house in hand. The paperwork pushes the other way. The AAR Loan Status Update and the Pre-Qualification Form both ask the lender to state whether you are relying on the sale of a property to qualify. If the answer is yes, the seller of the home you want will know it before they sign, and your offer has to account for it. So the real question is not “buy first or sell first.” It is “how far along does my sale need to be before my offer on the next house is one a seller will take.” The answer in Arizona is written into one form.

The one form that ties the two deals together

The Buyer Contingency Addendum makes your purchase contingent on your current home selling, and it comes in two versions on the same page.

Section 1 is for buyers who already have an accepted offer on their home. You attach that accepted contract, and you write in the date your sale must close. If your sale does not close by that date, you have three days to waive the contingency in writing or your purchase is deemed cancelled and the earnest money goes back to you.

Section 2 is for buyers who do not have an offer on their home yet. You write in a date by which you must accept an offer on your house. Miss it, and you have three days to waive or the purchase cancels with your deposit returned. Once you do accept an offer, you deliver those documents to the seller within three days (unless we agree on a different number), and this is where the seller gets a vote.

The seller’s three days, and the bump

Under Section 2, once the seller receives your accepted-offer paperwork, they have three days to look at that deal and cancel your purchase if they do not like it. If they do not cancel, your purchase becomes contingent on your sale closing by a second date you wrote in.

There is also a built-in bump. If the seller receives a backup offer before you have delivered your accepted-offer documents, the seller can notify you, and you then have three days (unless we agreed on more) to waive the contingency in writing or the contract is deemed cancelled. A lot of agents call that a kick-out clause. The Arizona form calls it a Back-Up Contract notice, and it is why a Section 2 offer is stronger the closer your own home is to being under contract.

Missing a date is not the same as missing a notice. Miss a date and the deal is deemed cancelled with your deposit returned. Miss a notice you were required to deliver and the seller can send a cure notice, and after three days that becomes a breach, which is where earnest money changes hands. I keep both on the calendar for that reason.

Waiving takes proof

If the seller bumps you, or your sale slips, waiving the contingency is not a matter of saying “we’ll make it work.” The form’s Contingency Waiver Provision requires either written documentation from your lender that you can close by the closing date without selling, or, for a cash purchase, evidence of the funds. Waiving this contingency leaves every other one in place; the inspection, appraisal and loan contingencies stay. And if your own sale falls apart after acceptance, you have three days to tell the seller, with evidence, and choose: cancel with your deposit back, or waive with the lender’s letter and proceed.

Lining up the two closings

Close of escrow in Arizona is the moment the deed records at the county, not the moment you sign. That matters when your sale funds your purchase, because the money from the first recording has to land before the second one can happen. The Section 1 closing date you write for your sale needs daylight ahead of your purchase closing date, and both need to sit ahead of the “three full days before closing” loan deadline on the purchase.

Two other levers help. First, possession: the contract puts possession at closing unless the parties write in something else, and pre- or post-possession arrangements are flagged on the form as something to review with a lawyer. Used carefully, a short post-possession on your sale or an early possession on your purchase can erase the gap. Second, the seller of the home you are buying can accept backup offers all the way to closing, so the tighter and cleaner your contingency dates, the less attractive a backup looks to them.

Give yourself realistic time. In mid-September, the typical detached home in Gilbert that sold took about 65 days to find its buyer, while in Mesa it was about 47 (Cromford Report / ARMLS, data 9/15/26, analysis mine). Your sale date on the contingency form should reflect where your house actually is, not where you hope it is.

What the seller of the next house sees

Everything. The seller sees “relying on sale of a property” on your pre-qualification form, sees your accepted-offer documents once you deliver them, and can ask you in writing for a status update on your sale at any time. So price your current home to the closings from day one, because a home that sits is not just a slow sale; it is a purchase contract that dies on a date you wrote in yourself. If the next home’s seller wants to be careful, the form even lets them write in exactly which documents from your sale they want to see.

If you are the one being bumped

One more angle. If you find the right house and it is already under contract with a contingent buyer, ask to be the backup. The resale contract lets sellers accept backup offers until closing, and the Additional Clause Addendum has a backup clause where you can cancel any time before the seller notifies you the first deal died. If it dies, that notice date becomes your acceptance date and your clocks start fresh. Contingent deals fall through for ordinary reasons, and the backup buyer with clean paper is who gets the call.

What I will do

I am an Associate Broker with Keller Williams Integrity First Realty in Gilbert, with more than 500 closed transactions, and a former brokerage owner and Designated Broker. On a move-up, I run both contracts on one written critical date list, price your sale off the closings so the contingency dates hold, write the purchase so the seller’s three-day review is a formality, and keep the waiver paperwork ready before anyone needs it.

Want to talk through your timeline, or start with what your current home is worth? Text or call (602) 610-3172, or email ryan@ryanharju.com.