Pre-listing checklist for East Valley sellers

Why the order matters

Most sellers start with paint and end with paperwork. In Arizona that is backwards. The listing contract lists ten disclosures a seller may owe, and several of them shape what you fix, what you leave, and what the buyer believes about your home before they ever walk in. Start with what you know about the house, then decide what to change, then show it. The reason is simple. Every Arizona resale sells in its present physical condition, and the buyer’s leverage comes from what they discover after you have accepted an offer and started packing. A surprise found in escrow gets priced by the buyer’s contractor, on the buyer’s deadline. The same fact disclosed and handled before listing is just part of the price. Here is the list in the order I would work it.

1. The seller disclosure, first

The Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement (the SPDS) is nine pages of questions about roof age and leaks, termites, plumbing pipe type, wiring, the pool, sewer or septic, flooding, water damage and mold. Fill it out before we list, not three days after an offer, which is when the resale contract says a buyer gets it.

1. Pull your records: roof, AC service, termite treatment, water heater, pool equipment, permits.
2. Answer every question from your own knowledge. If you do not know, say so on the explanation lines. Do not guess.
3. Answer the past-tense questions too. The form asks about past leaks, past infestations and past water damage, not only current ones.
4. List work done in the past year with the contractor’s name and license number. The form has a table for it.

The advisory attached to the form is titled “When in Doubt, Disclose,” and it says the duty to disclose known material facts exists even if nobody asks. If your home was built before 1978, add the lead-based paint disclosure to this step. If you have solar, find out now whether it is owned, leased or financed, because a leased or financed system needs its own addendum.

2 and 3. HOA documents, then fixtures

If you are in an HOA, the AAR HOA addendum has you complete page 1 at listing: the association, the management company, dues, any special assessment, and the fees due at closing, including transfer and capital improvement fees. It goes up with the listing or to buyers who ask before they write an offer. Call the management company this week and get the numbers in writing. Under 50 units, the addendum has you deliver the full HOA package within ten days of acceptance, so start gathering it now. At 50 units or more, the association delivers it after escrow notifies them. Either way, the addendum says the seller pays the disclosure fees.

The listing contract says anything attached conveys: ceiling fans, window coverings, light fixtures, garage openers and their remotes, smart home devices with access transferred, wall-mounted TV brackets (not the TVs), misting systems, shade screens. Owned solar, pool equipment, security systems and water softeners convey too. The refrigerator, washer and dryer stay only if checked. Walk the house with a notepad. If the dining room chandelier is your grandmother’s, take it down and replace it before photos. A fixture in the listing photos that you exclude later is an argument. And list anything leased, like a water softener or an alarm system, because leased items do not come with the house.

4. Repairs worth doing

The buyer gets an inspection period (ten days unless we agree otherwise) to hand you a single written list. So fix what an inspector finds in the first ten minutes: roof tiles, a serviced AC with a receipt, leaks under sinks, missing GFCI outlets, the pool gate latch, the garage door that does not reverse. Skip remodels. Two cautions from the forms. The SPDS explains that a license is required unless a job is under $1,000, casual or minor, and needs no permit, and that listing within a year of owner-done work is treated as work done for sale. And whatever you fix, you still disclose the past problem. My guide on what to fix and what to skip goes item by item.

5 and 6. Photos, then showing access

Photos come after repairs, never before. The listing contract has you choose whether I may use photos and video, cautions you to protect items in view, and notes that once images are online nobody controls who sees them. So put away prescriptions, mail, family photos, jewelry and anything with your address or a name on it. Then clean, declutter to half, turn on every light, open the blinds and make the front door the best photo in the set. Book the photographer after the handyman is gone and the landscaping is refreshed.

The listing contract says you give access at reasonable times on reasonable notice, and lockbox use is a checkbox you control. It also says brokers are not insurers against loss, and it advises you to post notice if you have cameras or recording devices, since visitors may not know they are being recorded. Before we go live:

1. Decide lockbox or appointment-only.
2. Set showing windows you can live with for a month.
3. Lock up valuables and medications.
4. Post a notice if cameras record inside.
5. Plan for pets: out of the house or crated, every time.

A home that is hard to see is a home that sits. The market here pays for easy access: across the metro, homes that sold closed at 97.51 percent of list price (Cromford Report / ARMLS, data 9/15/26, analysis mine). That number only counts the homes buyers got into.

7. The paperwork file

Put one folder together, paper or digital, before the sign goes up:

1. The completed SPDS, plus lead-based paint form if pre-1978.
2. HOA page 1 and the management company’s contact.
3. Your five-year insurance claims history. The listing contract has you provide it within five days of acceptance, or for your ownership period if shorter. Request it from your insurer now; it can take a while to arrive.
4. Solar lease or loan documents, if any.
5. Repair invoices, permits and warranties.
6. A copy of any lease, if the home is rented.

Last item: the title. If the owner on the deed is a trust, an estate or someone other than you, tell me before we list, because the listing contract has you warrant that you have the legal capacity to sell and can deliver marketable title. Questions about who can sign go to your attorney.

What I do for you

I walk the house with you and turn this list into dates. I go through the SPDS with you question by question, so nothing is guessed and nothing is left blank. I pull the HOA numbers, write the fixtures list, and schedule photos only after the repairs are done. I’m 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, the license that answers for every contract in an office. A clean file before listing is how a seller avoids renegotiating in escrow.

Want this checklist with dates for your address? Text or call (602) 610-3172, or email ryan@ryanharju.com.