Are you considering a move to Anthem, Arizona? Looking at Anthem, Arizona homes online?
Congratulations! This is an exciting, and maybe even a little bit scary, time for you. Especially if you are moving from out of state.
We might be totally biased but we absolutely love working, living and playing in Anthem. Our hope is that you love it as much as we do, and that starts with making your home purchase as smooth as possible.
Anthem, Arizona Homes: Our Journey Here
Aside from our own home purchases in Anthem, we’ve been helping buyers, just like you in their journey to call Anthem home for years. Needless to say, over the years we’ve learned what works, what doesn’t, and how to get our clients into the homes they love. So, today, we decided it was time that we share our best tips for buying a home in Anthem with you.
If this is your first time here, welcome! If you’ve been here before, thank you so much for spending your time with me. My name is Lindsay and I‘m a proud Anthem resident and your local REALTOR® with the Wise Move AZ Team at Realty ONE Group. On this blog and on our YouTube channel we have a lot of fun talking about all things Anthem and real estate every single Thursday, and we absolutely love having you along for the ride.
If you’ve been following our blog and YouTube channel for a while you know that we absolutely love Anthem and we have a whole catalog of videos designed to help people moving into and out of our fabulous community. If this is your first time here, I encourage you to check out our Anthem playlist. This video is just one of many that can have you heading into the moving process with confidence. I’ll link to that playlist in the cards, so that you can check it out.
Pro Tips for Buying Anthem, Arizona Homes
You might be thinking ‘isn’t buying in Anthem, just like buying anywhere else in the Phoenix metro area’? While the process may be very similar there are some distinct differences you should consider, and there are things we want to bring to your attention.
#1 Build your Team
The first step to setting yourself up for success is building a kick-butt team of professionals who will keep your best interest front and center, the whole time. When you’re moving you have enough going on and you can’t do it all. Your team will consist of your REALTOR®, your lender (unless you’re paying cash), your inspectors, and your title and escrow company.
The goal is to build a team that you can trust. After all, a home is one of the biggest purchases we make, period.
Look Local First
My best advice when it comes to assembling your team is to find local experts. You deserve an agent who knows Anthem inside and out, and is in the community every day. Anthem has some quirky things about it when it comes to buying that agents who don’t regularly work here may not know about. You deserve a lender who knows all of the deadlines, forms, loan programs, and steps, without you even asking. You deserve an inspector who has so much experience with Anthem homes, that they know exactly what to look for.
We would love to be considered when you decide to start assembling your team, and we would be more than happy to share our list of lenders and inspectors with you, to help make the search a little easier. If you want more information about what it’s like to work with us, send us an email at Team@WiseMoveAZ.com and we can find a time to chat.
#2: Choose your Areas
Alright, now that you’ve got an awesome team together, it’s time to narrow down where you want to live. Although Anthem isn’t huge, it still has several different areas, each with their own unique features that make them special places to call home. If you’re open to living anywhere in Anthem, that’s great, but for many people they’re usually drawn to a particular area based on their lifestyle and wants in a home.
I actually did a whole video breaking down all of the different areas within Anthem. I’ll link to it here, so that you can check it out.
The different areas within Anthem include:
- Anthem Country Club
- Anthem Parkside East
- Anthem Parkside West
- The Landings
- The Village
- Paseo
- Circle Mountain Ranch
- Arroyo Grande
Given the limited inventory in Anthem, the more open you can keep your options, the better. I think it’s really important to drive around all of the different areas, so that you can get a feel for them. One of our favorite things to do with our buyers is to tour them around all of the amenities, and possibly even stop off at some of the local businesses, to really get a feel for life in Anthem.
If you would like more information about the HOA Fees in each of these different areas, click here to download your free guide.
#3: Don’t Get Too Hung Up on Specific Locations
Sometimes when we’re talking to clients who are considering a move from out of state they’ll say ‘we want to be close to the Community Center’, or ‘we would really like to live on this street’. This type of thinking can really limit your options. I always like to dig a little deeper into those requests with my clients so that I can get to the core of what they’re really looking for.
Anthem isn’t very big; it’s less than 10 square miles. So, truth be told, everything is pretty close to the community center, and in the summer it’s so hot that you’re going to drive almost everywhere anyways.
When it comes to specific streets, I always like to tour clients around in person so that they can see that because Anthem is a Master-Planned Community there’s a lot of uniformity. In most cases the streets within a certain area all have a very similar look and feel.
In my opinion, it’s best to just narrow your search down to a certain area, like Anthem Parkside for example, rather than further narrowing it down by particular streets. If we’re waiting for a home to come up for sale on a particular street, you may be waiting longer than you’d like.
Don’t get too hung up on a specific location too early in your search.
#4: Don’t Fixate on Floor Plans
One of the nice things about Anthem being a relatively new Master-Planned Community is that we can often find you a copy of the builder’s floor plan. This is particularly helpful if you’re shopping for your Anthem home from afar. That being said, I want to caution you not to get too hung up on specific floor plans. It’s great to know if you like a certain floor plan, or even to have a handful of floor plans that would work for you. If you get too focused on a particular floor plan, you may miss out on some really great homes that would otherwise work perfectly for your family.
The other thing to know about floor plans is that there are a lot of them! Some floor plans are very similar but will have a different name. In some cases this is because Del Webb made slight modifications to a plan as the community was being built out. Also, while there may be some similar floor plans in Anthem Country Club to those in Anthem Parkside, they’re not exactly the same. For example, if you fall in love with a particular floor plan in Anthem Parkside, but want to live in Anthem Country Club, know that it won’t be possible to find that exact layout inside the Country Club.
Common vs Rare Floor Plans
Additionally, not all floor plans were built in equal numbers. This means that some floor plans are very common, while others are very rare with only a handful being built.
Anyways, this a long way to say it’s worth looking at floor plans but I really encourage you to keep an open mind when it comes to exploring different layouts.
#5: Get Comfortable with your Wants versus Needs
Okay, this is probably true anywhere you’re buying a house, but with the limited inventory in Anthem it becomes even more important. Before you get too far in your search sit down and think about what you want in your future home versus what you need in your future home. The needs are your “non-negotiables”, and the wants are the things that are nice to have.
Think about things like size, number of levels, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, whether you want a pool, or how many garage spaces you need.
Pool vs No Pool
Oftentimes we find that pool versus no pool is the hardest decision. If you find yourself struggling with this one you may want to click and watch this video where we share the top things you need to consider when deciding on whether or not to have a pool.
Communicate your needs and wants to your agent, so that they can start narrowing down properties that may be a good fit. Your agent, as long as they’re familiar with Anthem, will also be able to tell you if you are looking for something that doesn’t exist.
#6: Be Ready to Act Quickly
I’ve mentioned a couple of times already that we have an inventory shortage in Anthem. It won’t always be this way because real estate ebbs and flows, but for now, there isn’t as much supply as we would like.
Unfortunately for buyers this means that you need be ready to act quickly if a home you love comes on the market.
How do you do that?
- Have your Team on Standby: Make sure that you have your team ready to go including your REALTOR® and Lender. If you wait until you see a house you love on Zillow to start reaching out, it could be too late.
- Have a Game Plan: For example, for our clients who are shopping from out of state we’re able to do virtual tours of properties that hit the market, and because we live in Anthem we can get them done really quickly. Work with your REALTOR® to decide what the plan will be when a home you’re interested in hits the market.
- Have a Pre-Qualification Letter Ready: In Arizona we’re required to provide a pre-qualification letter with any offer to purchase. Lenders need a little bit of time and information from you in order to put this together, so don’t wait until the last second. If you’re paying cash, you’ll need to have proof of funds available at the time of offering.
- Do your Research: I strongly recommend that you read through the Buyer Advisory before you even start looking at homes in Arizona. This document is a wealth of information when it comes to things you should look out for and research when buying a home. We have a whole video dedicated to the Buyer Advisory, so I encourage you to check that out by clicking here.
Together all of these things will put you in a good spot to move quickly when the right house hits the market.
#7: Be Patient
We always joke that listings seem to come in waves in Anthem. We’ll go for stretches were very little is hitting the market, and then we will go through equal stretches where there is a flood of new inventory. Be patient. The right house will come up at the right time.
#8: Know your Timeline
Know your timeline and watch the market accordingly. If you’re a year out from moving I recommend that we send you weekly updates on listings. Once you’re actually ready to move we can increase that to daily updates or even instant updates. The reason I say this is because you can drive yourself crazy. Seeing how quickly some houses go and how long others sit can create an emotional roller coaster. That can be exhausting when you’re not ready to move. It’s good to keep an eye on the market until you’re ready, but don’t inundate yourself.
#9: Don’t See Too Many Homes in One Day
Once you’re ready to start looking at homes in person, don’t see too many in one day. We joke that they all start to look the same if you see too many. But seriously, because Anthem is a Master-Planned Community, and most of the homes were built by Del Webb, they do have a very similar look and feel. We want you to be able to remember each home clearly, so it’s usually better to spread it out over a couple of days rather than trying to cram 14 houses into one afternoon.
#10: Get to Know the Community
If you’re planning to move to Anthem take the time to fall in love with the community while you’re here. If you spend the morning touring homes, take the afternoon to sit in the park, grab dinner at one of our AMAZING local restaurants, and get to know the neighbors.
So, there you have it! I hope this has empowered you to make your move to Anthem with confidence. If you would like to download a copy of the HOA fee guide for Anthem, click here. If you’d like to learn more about working with us, send us an email at Team@WiseMoveAZ.com.
Additional Resources
Lastly, if you want to learn more about all of the different areas in Anthem click to watch this video, or if you will be starting your home search from afar, click to watch this video where we share our best tips for virtual house hunting.
Enjoy those and I’ll see YOU next Thursday!
