What a First-Time Buyer Should Check Touring Phoenix Homes

Touring a home in Phoenix or Tempe means checking five things the rest of the country barely thinks about: the age and efficiency rating of the air conditioner, the underlayment hiding beneath a tile roof, stucco cracks and where they start, how the lot drains in a monsoon, and whether the parking and garage space you are counting on is legal. Any central air conditioner installed in the Southwest region on or after January 1, 2023 has to meet a minimum of 14.3 SEER2 for a split system and 13.4 SEER2 for a single-package unit under the U.S. Department of Energy's regional standards in 10 CFR Part 430. Everything else on this list is visible from where you are standing, if you know where to look.

A showing is a walkthrough with the listing agent's lockbox open and the clock running. It is not an inspection. You are gathering enough information to decide whether to write an offer at all, and to decide what you want to look at harder once you are under contract.

Here is what I tell first-time buyers to look at, in the order I would walk a house.

The air conditioner is the first thing to look at, and its rating is written on the unit

Start at the condenser. The data plate carries the model number, the manufacture date, and the efficiency rating. Under the U.S. Department of Energy's regional standards effective January 1, 2023, a split-system central air conditioner installed in the Southwest region, which includes Arizona, must meet a minimum of 14.3 SEER2. Single-package units must meet 13.4 SEER2. A unit installed before that date is not illegal and does not need replacing, but you now know which standard it was built to.

Phoenix equipment works harder than equipment almost anywhere else in the country. A typical Phoenix home runs its cooling equipment far more hours per year than a northern home does, and that extended runtime shortens service life compared with the national average. Standard split systems are rated at 95°F outdoor ambient temperature. Phoenix regularly exceeds 110°F, which cuts rated capacity and pushes energy consumption above the AHRI-certified numbers on the label.

What that means at a showing is simple. Walk every room with a thermometer app open if you want, or just use your hand at the registers. A bedroom at the far end of a duct run that is noticeably warmer than the living room in the middle of the afternoon is telling you something about duct design, insulation, or capacity. Ask the age of the system and ask whether a permit was pulled for any replacement. In most Arizona jurisdictions, a direct equipment replacement at the same capacity and location requires a permit and a rough-in or final inspection, and requirements vary by municipality. The City of Phoenix, Scottsdale and Mesa each maintain independent permit portals, so a replacement in one city is not evidence of anything about a home in another.

One more item worth asking about: higher-efficiency equipment may qualify for utility rebates through APS and SRP programs. If the seller replaced the system recently, the paperwork may tell you which tier of equipment went in.

On a tile roof, the tile is not what fails first

Concrete and clay tiles outlast the waterproofing layer underneath them. The underlayment is the component that typically fails first, and the overall lifespan of a tile roof system is determined by underlayment failure rather than tile failure. UV that reaches the tile passes through the joints between tiles and lands on the underlayment beneath. Phoenix averages 299 sunny days a year, and roof surface temperatures here can exceed 160°F.

Tile roofs installed before 2000 typically used 30-pound asphalt-saturated felt as underlayment. That was the builder-grade standard of the era, and it aged out under Arizona sun far sooner than the tile did. So the useful question at a showing is not how old the tile looks. It is what year the home was built and whether the underlayment has ever been replaced.

From the ground and from inside, look for:

• Loose, sliding, cracked or broken tiles, which can result from extreme heat fluctuations, monsoon storm debris, or someone walking the roof improperly
• Felt paper visible in valleys or under displaced tiles
• Debris or granules washing out from beneath the tiles, and granular debris collecting in downspouts
• Cracked or crumbling mortar on ridge tiles
• Brittle felt visible at the eaves
• Ceiling stains inside that appear after storms and then dry out
• A leak the seller mentions has returned to the same room after repairs

Roof age is the strongest single signal. Ask for it and ask whether the underlayment work was done separately.

Flat and low-slope roofs, common on Valley stucco builds, deserve their own look. They pond water during heavy monsoon downpours. Modified-bitumen membranes can look intact and still carry hairline cracks that only leak under hydrostatic pressure. Flashing around AC penetrations, vents, and parapet-to-roof transitions is the most common entry point for storm water.

Stucco cracks tell you different things depending on where they start

Stucco is the most common exterior finish on Phoenix-area homes and one of the fastest to fail here. Intense UV, wide day-to-night temperature swings and sudden monsoon downpours all work against it.

Cracks under 1/16 inch are almost always cosmetic. Cracks radiating diagonally from window or door corners are different: they usually point to foundation movement or framing shift, and they need investigation rather than patching. Arizona's clay-rich soils swell when wet and shrink hard in drought, and that movement pulls at foundations and walls, opening vertical and diagonal cracks.

Other things to run your hand and eye over on the exterior walls:

• Bulging or blistered stucco, or areas that sound hollow or feel soft, which often come from hidden moisture or failed lath attachment
• Chalky residue on your hand after rubbing the wall, an early sign that sunlight has bleached the colorants and weakened the outer cement matrix
• Woodpecker holes, which are common on Phoenix-area homes and give water a direct path behind the surface
• Staining low on the walls from ground splash during monsoon, which looks like fading but is surface contamination
• Missing weep screeds, blocked roof scuppers, or poorly sloped patios, all of which keep water in contact with stucco edges

In subdivisions with stucco perimeter walls, check that the weep screeds are clear and not buried under soil or gravel.

The yard is a drainage system before it is a landscaping choice

Phoenix receives 7 to 10 inches of annual rainfall, concentrated in monsoon events that can deliver 1 to 2 inches per hour. The lot has to move that water away from the house.

Walk the perimeter and verify that grades slope away from the structure in every direction, that downspout extensions discharge away from the foundation, and that the backyard drainage path is clear. Decomposed-granite grading settles over time and often creates a slight bowl against the wall, so look specifically at the strip where the gravel meets the stucco. On flat-roof homes, scuppers replace gutters. A scupper that dumps water at the base of a stucco wall instead of routing it past the foundation creates a slow moisture intrusion point right where the wall meets the slab.

Look at the drip irrigation emitters too. Lines positioned too close to the foundation, which is common in desert landscaping, send slow consistent moisture against the stucco. The guidance is to keep them at least 18 inches from the exterior wall.

After a monsoon season, the ground itself keeps a record. Sediment lines against stucco, garage doors, patios or foundation edges mean water pooled long enough to potentially enter through gaps. Soil erosion, splash marks, overflowing gutters, loose downspouts, clogged drain outlets and low spots near exterior walls are all visible on a ten-minute walk around the house.

Landscaping in Phoenix also comes with rules. Under City of Phoenix Zoning Ordinance Section 507, turf and high water use plants are limited to fifty percent of the planted area or ten percent of the total lot area, whichever is less. Turf is not allowed in the public right-of-way under state law. Applied dust control products such as decomposed granite, river rock and ground cover are to be installed at a minimum of two inches thick in all planted areas, with decomposed granite sized 3/8 inch to 3/4 inch screened material. Protected native plants including saguaros, ironwood and palo verde require permits for removal, which matters if you are touring a lot and already picturing it cleared.

Phoenix also has a Drought Management Plan in its City Code. A Stage 1 Water Alert, which the Water Services Director declared in June 2022, relies on voluntary conservation and intensified public education. Restrictions only become mandatory and enforceable at a Stage 2 Water Warning. Separately, the Phoenix City Council approved the Sustainable Desert Development Policy in a unanimous vote, bringing rezoning stipulations that include regulations on non-functional turf, a requirement to meet EPA WaterSense or similar certification, planting of drought-tolerant and native plants, outdoor irrigation standards and enhanced standards for swimming pools.

Garage and parking questions are municipal code questions in Tempe

If you are touring in Tempe, parking is governed by city code in ways that change what a house is worth to you.

A converted garage is the first thing to ask about. The Tempe Administrative Code as adopted by the City of Tempe requires a building permit before converting a carport or garage to livable area. The site plan for that permit has to show the location of required off-street parking for two cars, or one car if the house is pre-1976, on an approved surface behind the front yard setbacks. A driveway does not constitute a legal parking space unless there is a full 18 feet between the front yard setback limit and the front of the garage. So if a seller tells you the garage was finished into a bedroom, ask whether it was permitted and where the required parking went.

On-street parking in Tempe is also regulated. The city creates residential-only parking blocks under City Code Sections 19-111 and 19-112 when the Traffic Engineer finds a street is significantly impacted by nonresident vehicles, and once the City Council approves a designated area, only vehicles displaying a valid permit issued to an adjacent resident may park there during posted hours. Several neighborhoods near Arizona State University have residential parking permit zones with additional restrictions. Each household within a residential permit parking area is entitled to one free permit for their car each year and one free visitors pass for each property, with additional permits at $5 each per calendar year. A request for more than 3 permits for any address triggers a staff review for occupancy requirements.

A few more Tempe rules worth knowing before you fall in love with a house that has a boat in the side yard. Parking in the same spot for more than 72 consecutive hours may constitute an abandoned vehicle, and vehicles must be currently registered and operable. No person may park a recreational vehicle in excess of twenty-one feet, a trailer, or a boat on any street in the city between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., except for forty-eight hours for loading, unloading and cleaning. Tempe also bans parking a camper, vehicle or trailer in the front or side yard where it is visible from the street, unless it sits on an improved area tied to the driveway, under City Code Section 21-3(b)(4).

Deferred maintenance in the desert shows up as water paths and age

Most of what signals deferred maintenance in a Phoenix or Tempe home is already on the lists above. Pulled together, these are the items I would write down during a showing and bring to your agent before writing an offer:

• Roof age above the point where original underlayment would still be performing, plus any felt visible at eaves or in valleys
• Repeat leaks returning to the same room after repairs
• Diagonal cracks running out of window and door corners
• Hollow-sounding or soft stucco
• Chalky residue coming off the wall on your hand
• Sediment lines and splash marks at the base of walls, garage doors and patios
• Low spots and settled granite holding water against the foundation
• Drip emitters running right along the exterior wall
• An air conditioner with no visible data plate, no known install date, and no permit history

On new construction, timing matters. The builder's one-year warranty on workmanship and materials covers defects identified within that window, including stucco cracks, HVAC performance degradation after a full summer cycle, roof flashing issues and settling cracks, at no cost to the owner. If you are touring a home that is still inside that first year, ask the seller what was reported and what was corrected.

What the Scottsdale market numbers say about your negotiating position

Phoenix and Tempe showing conditions are not broken out in the market data available here, but the nearby Scottsdale figures set a useful reference for how much room a buyer has to raise issues found at a showing.

In the three months ending September 2026, the median sale price in Scottsdale was $889,576, up 9.2% year over year, meaning compared with the same period a year earlier. Homes took 82 days on market, the median time from listing to going under contract, up from 78 days. The average sale-to-list ratio was 96.4%, and 29.8% of homes had price drops.

A market where homes are closing at 96.4% of asking price and nearly three in ten listings have taken a price cut is a market where you negotiate rather than bid up. If you find a tile roof with felt showing at the eaves, or an air conditioner with no documented install date, those are items to price into your offer and to examine during your inspection period rather than reasons to walk away before you have made one.

The Bottom Line

The five things that separate a Phoenix or Tempe showing from a showing anywhere else are the cooling system's age and rating, the underlayment under the tile, where the stucco cracks begin, how water leaves the lot, and whether the garage and parking arrangement complies with city code. Under the U.S. Department of Energy's regional standards effective January 1, 2023, any new split system here must meet 14.3 SEER2 and any single-package unit 13.4 SEER2, so the data plate on the condenser answers a question for you in about ten seconds. With Scottsdale homes closing at 96.4% of asking price and 29.8% of listings taking a price drop in the three months ending September 2026, what you find at a showing is information you can use at the negotiating table.

Send me the address of the next home you plan to tour, and I will walk it with you and tell you which of these items apply to that specific house.

Written by Julie Gonzalez, part of the Kristan Cole Network team.

Sources

Pages read on October 29, 2026.

• Permits (tempe.gov)