Arizona’s home-buying process runs through the same broad steps as most states — offer, inspection, financing, title, closing — but a few pieces work differently than they do in most of the country, and one consideration (water) comes up here in a way it simply doesn’t in wetter states. This walks through where Arizona’s process diverges, and what RefPages’ own directories cover if you want to dig into a specific county.
Arizona closings run through escrow, not an attorney
Arizona doesn’t require a real estate attorney at closing. Instead, a licensed escrow agent — almost always the escrow division of a title company — handles the transaction: holding earnest money and closing funds in a neutral account, coordinating the title search and insurance, preparing settlement documents, and closing the file once every condition in the contract is satisfied. This is the standard, default path for the overwhelming majority of Arizona residential sales.
The tradeoff is that escrow officers are legally required to stay neutral — they can’t advise you on whether to accept an offer, negotiate a repair request, or interpret a contract clause. For a routine purchase that’s rarely an issue; for anything with real ambiguity (an estate sale, an unclear boundary, a dispute over contract terms) it’s worth bringing in an attorney even though the state doesn’t require one.
The title search and Arizona’s county offices
A title search gets run against the county’s recorded records before closing to confirm the seller holds clear title. Arizona’s structure here is fairly conventional: a County Assessor values property and a County Recorder records deeds and other real-property documents, in every county. RefPages’ County Records directory links directly to your specific county’s Assessor and Recorder search tools.
No transfer tax, of any kind
Arizona is one of roughly a dozen states with no real estate transfer tax — not at the state level, and not at the county or city level either, since Proposition 100 (2008) specifically bars any new tax or fee on a real property transfer. You’ll still see the county’s flat recording fee at closing, but there’s no percentage-of-sale-price tax to plan around the way there is in most states.
Disclosure: no mandated form, but a real duty to disclose known defects
Arizona doesn’t have a statute requiring a specific disclosure form the way California or Alaska do. What it does have is a general legal duty: a seller has to disclose known material facts that affect the property’s value and aren’t reasonably discoverable on inspection. In practice, nearly every Arizona sale uses the Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement (SPDS), a standardized industry form the Arizona Association of Realtors developed, even though using that exact form isn’t itself required by law — what’s required is that the material information get disclosed one way or another. The Arizona Department of Real Estate also publishes a Buyer Advisory that walks through what is and isn’t a seller’s legal obligation, worth a read regardless of whether you’re working with an agent.
Water: the consideration that’s genuinely different here
This is Arizona’s version of the state-specific risk section, and it’s a real one. Large parts of Arizona sit outside any municipal water utility, and water availability isn’t automatic the way it is in most of the country:
- Inside an Active Management Area (the state’s most water-stressed regions, including metro Phoenix and Tucson), a new subdivision generally needs a Certificate of Assured Water Supply from the Arizona Department of Water Resources — a determination that water is physically, legally, and continuously available for 100 years before lots can be sold.
- Outside those areas, water adequacy determinations are the developer’s responsibility to disclose rather than a hard requirement, and a lot of rural and unsubdivided land was never required to prove long-term water availability at all.
- Separately, under A.R.S. § 33-422, a seller of certain unsubdivided land parcels in unincorporated county areas has to give the buyer a written Affidavit of Disclosure at least seven days before closing, covering the water source, utilities, legal access, and other basic facts — and the buyer gets a 5-day right to rescind after receiving it.
If you’re buying anything outside a municipal water system — a well, a shared water company, or unclear service — confirm the water source and its documented reliability directly rather than assuming it’s been verified for you.
Permits and follow-up work
If an inspection turns up something needing a permit — additions, electrical, septic work common on rural Arizona parcels — RefPages’ Building Permit Departments directory links to the relevant city or county permitting office.