Ahwatukee Custom Estates · Trading Up
Trading Up into Ahwatukee Custom Estates
Moving into more house, with the buy-and-sell sequencing worked out before you list.
The step up here is land, not square footage
Most move-up buyers picture a bigger version of the house they already have. Trading up in Ahwatukee Custom Estates is usually a different move from that.
What you are stepping into is a one-off house on a larger lot, with no sub-association layered on top. What you are stepping away from, if you are coming out of a tract or master-planned community, is predictability: the floor plan you can compare, the neighbor's house that tells you what yours is worth, the second rulebook that also protected you from your neighbor.
That is a genuinely good trade for some people and a poor one for others, and it deserves to be a decision rather than a discovery.
What you get from me is both transactions run as one plan. Your equity and financing looked at properly before anything is listed, so the sequencing question is answered with numbers. A listing prepared rather than rushed, because a rushed sale discounts your old house and that discount comes out of the new one.
Questions about your move? I'm glad to help.
Why move-up buyers and sellers use Savvy Realty Group
A trade-up is two jobs, and most agents are noticeably better at one of them. I am Amy Richardson, Savvy Realty Group at HomeSmart, and I run both sides of these regularly, which is the only way the dates actually line up.
Over my career it is more than 80 transaction sides and over $52 million in volume, across buying and selling, most of it inside Ahwatukee and the Southeast Valley.
The other half of it is that I spent twelve years in my family's financial advisory practice before real estate, and six years before that as a project manager at Wells Fargo. That sounds unrelated until you are at a kitchen table deciding whether to carry two mortgages for six weeks.
Buying into a custom community adds a wrinkle worth naming: the house you are buying has no twin, so the offer cannot be reasoned from a per-square-foot figure. I show you the homes I compared against and the adjustments I made, and you are allowed to disagree with me.
Your sale gets the same preparation as any listing I take: a walkthrough before anything is photographed, a complimentary staging consultation, professional photography and an educational video with full drone footage. What the home needs beyond that is decided together. See how I handle move-up moves generally, or send me your numbers.
Two transactions, one calendar
Run separately, a sale and a purchase fight each other. Run together, every date is chosen deliberately. The buying half is at how I help you buy and the selling half at the six-step listing process.
- Numbers first. I map your equity, your carrying capacity and what your current home is realistically worth. You talk to a lender about what you can hold and for how long.
- The sequencing call. Selling first gives you certainty and a stronger offer, and risks a gap with money and nowhere to live. Buying first removes that and risks carrying two properties. I lay both out against your position. You choose.
- Prepare the sale properly. The walkthrough, the trades, the staging consultation and the photography all happen before you are under time pressure. That step is here, and it protects your next down payment.
- Search with patience built in. Because every home here is different, the right house may not be listed the week you are ready. I would rather build that into the plan than have you settle because a closing date arrived.
- Write the purchase with the right structure. Contingent offer, rent-back, extended close: which is credible depends on the specific seller, and I will tell you honestly how yours is likely to be received.
- Both closings, one coordinator. My transaction coordinator tracks both sets of dates so nothing depends on you remembering an appraisal deadline during a move.
Where else the step up could land
Custom Estates is one answer to trading up inside Ahwatukee, and it is worth knowing the others before you commit, because they are genuinely different propositions at similar effort.
Mountain Park Ranch spans condominiums and townhomes through to estate parcels inside one master community, so a step up there can mean the same streets and the same neighbors. Your dues and restrictions depend on which of its nine sub-associations a home sits in.
Foothills Club West gives you the Foothills setting with a master-planned structure and a clubhouse behind it, and each of its named neighborhoods carries its own tract declarations on top of the master rules. Two documents, not one.
And Upper Canyon is the new-construction answer: a warranty and current layouts instead of mature landscaping and a larger lot.
You already know the trade Ahwatukee makes, which is quiet and mountain-side separation instead of density and nightlife. Most move-up buyers here decided that years ago, which makes this a simpler conversation than a relocation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I sell first or buy first?
It depends on your equity, your financing options and how much uncertainty you can live with for a few weeks. I will not hand you a rule of thumb, because the two answers carry genuinely different risks and which suits you is a numbers question we can work out at a kitchen table.
How do I know what to offer on a one-off house?
Comparable sales in a custom community need judgment rather than arithmetic, because no two homes are alike. I bring you the homes I reasoned from and the adjustments I made for lot, condition and finish, so you can push back on any of them before you write.
Can I make an offer contingent on selling my current home?
You can, and its strength depends entirely on the specific seller and what else is in front of them. I will tell you honestly how a contingent offer is likely to be received on a given property rather than letting you find out by losing the house.
What if the right house is not listed when I am ready?
In a custom community that is a real possibility, because there is no next identical unit coming. We plan for it rather than react to it, which usually means keeping the sale timing flexible and being honest about what you would and would not settle for.
Ahwatukee Custom Estates
What trading up looks like in Ahwatukee Custom Estates
Custom homes on larger lots, in a sub-association of the Ahwatukee Board of Management.
One of the Ahwatukee communities I work most often.
- The homes
- Custom-built homes rather than tract product, on larger lots than most of Ahwatukee. Ahwatukee Custom Estates is a sub-association of the Ahwatukee Board of Management, the master association for the original Ahwatukee, so two sets of documents apply.
- Why people choose it
- Buyers who want a one-off house and land rather than a builder's floor plan, and are willing to trade newness for space and individuality.
- Getting around
- Inside the Warner Elliot Loop, with the South Mountain preserve to the west and no through road. About five minutes to the I-10 in either direction, with IKEA and Costco across the freeway at Elliot.
- The trade-off
- Custom means every house is different, so condition and finish vary far more here than in a tract community. That cuts both ways and it is why walking these homes matters more than reading the listing.
Ahwatukee Custom Estates
The associations in Ahwatukee Custom Estates
More than one association applies here, which changes both the rules and the dues. Each one links to its own site so you can read the documents rather than take my word for it.
- Sub-association
- Ahwatukee Custom Estates 556 homes across the subdivisions marked ACE on the Board of Management's map, each with its own recorded CC&Rs. Managed by Cornerstone Properties. 602-433-0331.
- Master association
- Ahwatukee Board of Management The master association for the original Ahwatukee: 5,073 lots across 56 subdivisions, with its own annual assessment. 480-893-3502.
Dues and rules change, and which documents apply can depend on the parcel. Confirm both against the association before you write an offer.
The method
How we do it in Ahwatukee Custom Estates
Trading Up: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Savvy Realty Group?