Putting down roots in Arizona

While my heart has been in Arizona for several years now, my family and I hadn’t yet put down roots. I am happy to share that after months of searching formally (and years of casually perusing), we purchased our first Arizona home in the Tramonto area of North Phoenix. Though it’s a little farther than we were hoping for (approx. 25-35 minutes from the office, depending on traffic), we were thrilled to have found a home to call our very own again that could accommodate the needs and the vast majority of the wants of our family.

We closed in late November (on my mom’s birthday and just before mine), had some contractors come in to complete a couple projects first, and moved in mid-December. A week later than we’d originally planned (thanks to contractor delays), we spent our first night in the home, the same night as our WWS Holiday Open House. While the house was indeed move-in ready, there were a few items on our to-do list we felt would be easier on all of us to get done while the house was unoccupied vs. having to navigate around them during the process.

Prior to moving to Arizona, we were long-time homeowners and had purchased, renovated, and eventually sold three homes previously. Once we decided to make the move across country with young children, to a city we’d only visited twice, during the early stages of a pandemic, no less, the initial obvious choice was to rent. We wanted to be close to the office and to find a neighborhood that suited our family well. That meant we needed time to explore the city and various neighborhoods in and around it. So our plan was to rent a home the first couple of years and do just that.

When we first moved to Scottsdale, we settled into a lovely home in the Kierland area with a large back yard, a pool, and a beautiful garden (bonus – the property had 10 different low-maintenance fruit and vegetable producing flora + an automatic irrigation system). It was absolutely perfect for our transition from the lush greenery found in Florida to the desert landscape of Arizona! And we became smitten with the neighborhood. But while we were busy falling in-love with the Kierland area, and all that it had to offer, surrounding home prices continued to rise, followed by interest rates in 2022 at an unsustainable and unprecedented pace. Somewhat settled and quite comfortable in the area we were in, we made the prudent choice to be patient and continue leasing a home until we found something we loved within the price range we desired, and ideally, in a more favorable market environment for real estate buyers.

Interested in exploring but not pressed to purchase, similar to our approach to goal planning, we made a detailed, prioritized list of our needs, wants, and wishes. We set up alerts for homes with our desired specifications (with reasonable flexibility) on a few real estate apps and over the course of two more years, we viewed hundreds of homes online, toured dozens of open houses, and surveyed countless neighborhoods in and around the Scottsdale/Phoenix area. But nothing jumped out. Then, this past August, a home located only seven minutes from where we were living, popped up in our search that we simply had to see in person. Within 24 hours, we secured a realtor (a preexisting relationship we hadn’t yet formalized) and financing, and toured the home… While it met our needs and some of our wants, for a variety of reasons, it wasn’t the one.

Now having gone through the effort of formalizing our realtor agreement, we figured we might as well get more serious about our search… And given what we’d seen to date paired with what we were hearing from our agent, friends, colleagues, clients, and even our neighbors, it was worth expanding our search radius to 30 minutes from the office… In doing so, several more intriguing options appeared. We toured a few more homes but nothing moved us to making an offer until we saw this one. We liked what we saw online and toured it the next day… in person, we loved it! The neighborhood is lovely; the layout and bones of the house are perfect for our needs; it is north/south facing for energy efficiency and great sunrise/sunset views; it exceeds our square footage and bed/bathroom requirements; it has a great back yard with a pool and palm trees (bonus water slide + playhouse for the kiddos), it has great schools nearby (even though for now, we opted to keep the kids in their current schools which are conveniently close to the office), and so much more! Yet, there’s still room to add a few more custom features that will serve and delight our family and guests for years to come. And despite all the sometimes-stressful decisions that go into turning a house into the home we envision, we’re excited to put our stamp on it and see it all come together.

And to share even more about just how hectic this move and holiday season was for us… within ten days of moving in, we had six family members (seven if you count the dog) from Florida come to visit and stay with us for 5+ days. And including a few friends, we hosted a total of 17 for Christmas dinner.

• Was everything unpacked and exactly in its place? Absolutely not, but it felt like home!
• Was everyone comfortable… i.e., enough space, furniture/beds, food, TVs, games/entertainment, etc.? Definitely!
• Did we love on each other, celebrate each other and the reason for the season? Of course we did!
• Did we lose our minds having guests come to stay so soon after the move and would we do it all over again? Perhaps we lost a few marbles along the way, but we’d still do it again, in a heartbeat!

The warmth, love, joy, and laughter we shared and memories we made were just what we needed to christen the home and embrace the longevity of our move to the west coast. And we received warm welcomes from several of our neighbors who brought us home made cookies, candles and even offered to lend a hand or a few tools if we needed anything as we were getting settled.

To wrap up a few lessons I was reminded of during and shortly after our Arizona home buying process…

• Your team of professional partners matters. Choose wisely!
• Personal referrals from those you trust and/or your broader network are often hidden treasures.
• Do your homework and don’t be afraid to ask for what you want but be prepared to offer information to support your request.
• Compromise within reason and with character; you may surprise yourself with what you can accomplish with a little give and take.
• And patience and perseverance pays off!

And lastly, to mirror the sentiments I shared in my very first Finer Things write-up four years ago in February 2021, “most of all, I AM GRATEFUL. I am grateful for the many blessings bestowed upon my family and me. I am grateful that we are all happy, healthy, and together. I am grateful for my children who are adjusting nicely and find joy in each other and the simple things. I am grateful for the opportunity to pursue my dream career” in a place we can finally call OUR HOME!

~Solitaire Dasher-Smiley, February 2025