What Should I Prepare Before Listing a Condo in Scottsdale?

Before you list a condo in Scottsdale, the work is mostly paperwork: the resale disclosure package Arizona law requires under A.R.S. § 33-1260, your own written disclosure of material and adverse facts about the unit, and a clear picture of any special assessment, because a project remains ineligible until critical repairs have been completed. Across Scottsdale, the median sale price was $889,576 in the three months ending September 2026, up 9.2% year over year, with 82 days on market, the median time from listing to contract, and a 96.4% sale-to-list ratio, the share of asking price a home sells for. Price drops were reported on 29.8% of homes citywide in that same period.

A condo sale in Arizona has a second layer that a house does not. You disclose what you know about the unit, and the association discloses what its records show about the building, the budget, the rules, and the money held in reserve. Getting both sets of documents assembled before you go live is the preparation.

The association documents a buyer and a lender will ask for

A.R.S. § 33-1260 spells out what goes into the condominium resale disclosure. The statute requires a copy of the current recorded declaration and final plat, or an electronic copy of the final plat if available, and a copy of the current bylaws and current rules of the association. It requires a copy of the current operating budget and a copy of the most recent reserve study, if any. It requires a copy of the association's most recent income and expenses financial statement for all operating and reserve accounts, as applicable.

Insurance is its own line in the statute. A.R.S. § 33-1260 requires a statement as to whether a portion of the unit is covered by insurance maintained by the association, plus copies of all insurance certificates identifying the coverage limits and deductibles the association maintains under A.R.S. § 33-1253.

The statute also requires the amount and purpose of any title transfer fee or similar fee authorized in the declaration, a statement as to whether the condominium is under declarant control and the approximate percentage of units on the recorded plat currently owned by the declarant, and disclosure of any outstanding and unresolved violation of the association's condominium documents cited against the unit.

In practice the package assembled by an association also includes minutes from the last three board meetings, the latest audit or review, pending lawsuits, and insurance certificates. The purchaser must receive a statement of the total amount of money held by the association as reserves. Arizona does not require condominium associations to conduct reserve studies at all. Associations adopt budgets that include reserves under A.R.S. § 33-1242, and § 33-1260 requires the most recent reserve study only if one exists.

Pull these yourself before you list. If your association has never commissioned a reserve study, you want to know that while you still have time to prepare an answer, not after a buyer's lender asks.

How the resale disclosure gets ordered and how fast it has to arrive

Under the current § 33-1260, for condominiums with fewer than fifty units the unit owner electronically transmits or delivers the required information to the purchaser or the purchaser's designated agent within ten days after acceptance of the purchaser's offer to purchase. The statute permits delivery in either paper or electronic format, to either the purchaser or the purchaser's authorized agent.

The deadline has teeth. If the request is made by a lienholder, escrow agent, unit owner, or a person designated by a unit owner under A.R.S. § 33-1256, failure to provide the information within the time allowed extinguishes any lien for unpaid assessments then due against that unit.

Fees are regulated. An Arizona association may charge a disclosure fee to compensate it for the cost of preparing the statement furnished under § 33-1260 for condominiums and § 33-1806 for planned communities, and those sections cap the resale disclosure fee at an aggregate amount set by statute. The association may charge a rush fee if rush services are required within 72 hours of the request. Under § 33-1260 the fees are collected no earlier than the close of escrow and may be charged only once to a unit owner for that transaction. An association that charges a fee not authorized by the section is subject to a civil penalty.

Two details worth knowing before you order. For purposes of § 33-1260, "unit owner" means the seller of the condominium unit title, and the definition excludes a licensed real estate salesperson or broker acting as such and excludes a trustee selling in a trustee's sale. And all information provided under subsection A is based on good faith reliance on association records, without the need for independent investigation or validation. The association reports what its books say. It does not go looking.

HB 2397 amends the resale disclosure requirements for both condominiums and planned communities. It expands the information provided to purchasers, authorizes electronic transmission, changes the triggering event to acceptance of a purchaser's offer, and adds board meeting minutes, financial statements, declarant control information, and outstanding violation notices to the required list. For a seller, that means your association will be assembling more governance and financial records than it once did, which is a reason to request the package early.

What you personally have to disclose in Arizona, and the condo items to add

Before selling residential property in Arizona, a seller is required by law, a combination of state statutes and court cases, to tell the prospective buyer certain things about the property's physical condition. Under Arizona law a seller must disclose any material and adverse fact relating to the condition of the property that a reasonable buyer would want to know. A formal disclosure statement is not required by statute in Arizona.

The form almost everyone uses is the Residential Seller's Property Disclosure Statement, drafted by the Arizona Association of Realtors. The Arizona Association of Realtors Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract requires the seller to deliver a completed Residential Seller's Property Disclosure Statement to the buyer within three days after contract acceptance. Condominium disclosure information is among the specific items an Arizona seller needs to disclose.

There are limits on what you are obligated to say. Under A.R.S. § 32-2156, a seller is not required to disclose that the property was the site of a natural death, suicide, homicide, or other felony, or was owned or occupied by a person with HIV/AIDS or another disease not known to be transmitted through common occupancy of real estate.

A purchaser or seller damaged by the failure of the unit owner or the association to disclose the information required by subsection A of § 33-1260 may pursue all remedies at law or in equity, including recovery of reasonable attorney fees. That exposure runs in both directions, which is why I want a seller's own disclosure completed carefully and the association's statement in hand before we list.

Two condo-specific items belong on your list because the statute puts them on the association's list. Section 33-1260 requires disclosure of the amount of the common expense assessment for the unit and any unpaid common expense assessment, special assessment, or other assessment, fee or charge currently due and payable from the selling unit owner. And if the statement is furnished by the association, it must state whether association records reflect any alterations or improvements to the unit that violate the declaration. The association is not obligated to provide information regarding alterations or improvements that occurred more than six years before the proposed sale.

One note on geography. An Affidavit of Disclosure is required for properties in unincorporated county areas in Arizona. Scottsdale is an incorporated city.

Why a pending special assessment is a financing question, not just a cost question

A special assessment on your building changes who can buy your unit. A project remains ineligible until critical repairs have been completed, and as of August 2026, loans with application dates on or after August 3, 2026 are subject to the updated review requirements.

Fannie Mae updated its project standards policies to address projects in need of critical repairs and projects that have material deficiencies, such as significant deferred maintenance, or special assessments. The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac project review requirements define critical repairs, material deficiencies, and significant deferred maintenance, identify routine repairs that are not considered critical, and set requirements for projects with pending or approved special assessments. Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-03 was issued March 18, 2026, in coordination with the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Freddie Mac, and changes condo project review standards, reserve funding requirements, and property insurance rules.

It is acceptable for an association to impose a special assessment or obtain a loan to fund repairs. If the special assessment is related to safety, soundness, structural integrity, or habitability, all related repairs must be fully completed. Underwriters use the official board resolution for an assessment, detailing its exact purpose, total approved cost, and collection timeline, to determine whether the assessment is tied to critical repairs or significant deferred maintenance. If a structural or mechanical inspection was completed within three years of the lender's project review date, the lender must obtain and review the inspection report, and if it shows unaddressed critical repairs the project is ineligible until the repairs are completed and documented.

Fannie Mae Form 1076 is the Condominium Project Questionnaire used in a standard conventional project review. Fannie Mae's August 2026 guidance states that the GSE Condo Questionnaire and its associated addendum are optional forms.

FHA has its own gates. Under HUD's rule, FHA borrowers can obtain Single Unit Approval on non-FHA-approved condominium properties that have at least five units, a limited concentration of FHA-insured units, at least 50 percent owner-occupancy, and a maximum of 35 percent commercial space. The FHA owner-occupancy requirement is 50 percent, and for properties over 12 months old with less than 10 percent of units in arrears, HUD may approve an owner-occupancy level as low as 35 percent. The maximum FHA insurance concentration is no more than 50 percent of units. A lender requesting FHA Single Unit Approval submits questionnaire Form HUD-9991 to the condominium's association or management company, which a representative must complete before the lender submits it to FHA. FHA condominium project approval must be recertified every three years.

If your building has a pending assessment or a lapsed approval, find that out before you go to market. It determines which buyers can write an offer on your unit, and that is a conversation to have while you still control the timeline.

Where your repair responsibility ends and the association's begins

Arizona condominiums are governed by the Arizona Condominium Act in Title 33, Chapter 9 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, which sets default repair, insurance, and resale disclosure rules. The declaration can change the split of repair responsibility between the owner and the association. Read your declaration before you spend money on anything that touches a building element, because the default is not always the rule that applies to your unit.

Insurance follows the same pattern. Under the Arizona Condominium Act the association's policy includes units but need not cover owner improvements or personal property, and the association's policy is primary when an owner has other insurance on the same property. That distinction matters for anything a prior owner added to the unit.

Before you make a change, check whether the association's records show a problem with a change someone already made. The association's resale statement reports whether its records reflect any alterations or improvements to the unit that violate the declaration, and any outstanding, unresolved violation of the condominium documents cited against the unit must be disclosed in the resale packet. An unresolved violation notice is cheaper to clear before listing than to explain during escrow.

The statutes govern what must be disclosed about alterations and who repairs what. There is no set list of pre-listing improvements, and no figures are published on which updates return what in a Scottsdale condominium.

What the Scottsdale market figures say about preparation time

Scottsdale's median sale price was $889,576 in the three months ending September 2026, up 9.2% year over year, with the market-time figure increasing to 82 days on market from 78 days. The average sale-to-list ratio was 96.4%, and 29.8% of homes had price drops in that period.

At 82 days on market citywide and a resale disclosure that must be transmitted within ten days after acceptance of the purchaser's offer under A.R.S. § 33-1260, there is no reason to wait for a contract before requesting your association package. Order it early, read the budget and the most recent reserve study if one exists, and resolve any cited violation before a buyer's lender reads about it.

The Bottom Line

Listing a condo in Scottsdale is a documents exercise first. A.R.S. § 33-1260 tells you what the association must produce, the Arizona Association of Realtors disclosure form tells you what you must produce, and the August 2026 project review requirements and the FHA rules tell you what could narrow the pool of buyers whose financing will clear. With Scottsdale at 82 days on market and a 96.4% sale-to-list ratio in the three months ending September 2026, the sellers who are ready with paperwork are the ones who are not negotiating from behind. If you own a condo in Scottsdale, Biltmore, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, Peoria, Goodyear, Cave Creek, or Carefree and want a pre-listing review of your association documents and disclosure obligations, reach out and we will walk through them with you.

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

Sources

Pages read on October 30, 2026.

• 33-1260 (azleg.gov)
• Fannie Mae: Media
• National Association of Realtors: FHA Condominium Rule Assessment