Research, research before you buy

Cary Aspinwall
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 26, 2006 05:07 PM

Picture that dream house, with the perfect kitchen and family room, low-maintenance yard and 15-minute commute to work.

A few minor details: there's airport traffic overhead, a freeway in the front yard and a certain "eau de dairy" smell drifts over in the morning.

For Donna and Arturo Valenzuela, none of that matters. They love the house they're renting in Chandler's Rancho Del Ray subdivision so much that they're considering buying it. The proximity to the newly constructed San Tan Freeway and Super Wal-Mart? Convenient, they say. They don't mind the airport noise or the dairy feedlot smell.  

But that's why they rented before buying, Donna Valenzuela said.

The Valenzuelas are doing what the experts advise: arming themselves with important information before entering into escrow.

How? Research, research - and a little more research.

It's the key to preventing the "surprises" that seem to pop up for so many Valley homeowners: the airport they didn't realize was less than a mile away, the freeway they didn't know was coming or the giant crack that opened up in the back yard after a week of heavy rain.

Blame it on a lack of diligence, believing what the neighbors and real estate agents tell them, or a crazed sellers' market where buyers in competition to buy a house don't want to rock the boat by asking, "So what is going to be built across the street?"

Some don't find out the real truth about their neighborhood until the ink has long dried on the sales contract, when it is too late.

If you don't want surprises, don't make an offer on a house or property until you've done your homework, said RL Brown, who provides research for developers and large corporations before they buy and build masterplanned communities and projects.

"There's no such thing as enough due diligence that prospective consumers can do," Brown said.

The Arizona Department of Estate makes disclosure reports for most newer subdivisions available on its online public database at: www.re.state.az.us.

Anyone can look up the reports for a subdivision such as Rancho Del Ray and see that potential buyers are warned about the Chandler Municipal Airport, the San Tan Freeway, an underground jet fuel line running through Pecos Road, and the proximity of dairies and farms, among other things.

"Everybody makes a series of choices, and it goes down to the age old 'buyer beware' at some point," Brown said.

Drive the neighborhood so you'll know if there's railroad tracks or an airport nearby before buying, he said. Research county, municipal and Arizona Department of Transportation maps and Web sites.

Then you won't end up like several hundred homeowners in Ahwatukee, many of whom claimed they knew nothing about the proposed South Mountain Freeway segment coming to their area, or thought it had been shelved, he said.

"You can go to ADOT's Web site and see any road that's ever even been thought about," Brown said.

Worried about whether your dream house is in the homeowner's association from hell? Stephanie Fee, an HOA adviser and assistant vice president at Capital Consultants Management Corp., said it's important to check out an HOA before buying in it.

Make sure the association has adequate reserve funds for maintenance projects, so you won't get hit with special assessments to pick up the tab, she said. Read the rules and design guidelines so you'll be sure to understand what you're getting into, and attend a meeting of the association's board of directors so you can meet who's in charge.

Steve Urie, a Gilbert Town Council member who owns a property management firm and invests in real estate, said he would never purchase land or property without first looking at planning and zoning maps.

"Call the planning office and ask them who's coming to the area, what's likely going to be there," he said.

If a vacant parcel is zoned for a Wal-Mart, and sized for a Wal-Mart or other big box retail, don't be surprised if that's what moves in, he said.

Even diligent research may not have prepared several Pinal County residents for the giant fissure cracks that opened up their properties after heavy rains in spring 2005.

A statewide map of earth fissures has never been created. The Queen Creek and Santan areas were last mapped in 1994.

Outcry from the fissures that opened up on properties in that area last year has prompted the Arizona Association of Realtors and some elected officials to draft a bill to ensure that buyers receive truthful information about land fissures when they purchase property.

In Chandler, recent tests at a 44-year-old Santan Honeywell jet engine facility about two miles south of the city resurrected neighborhood angst over the noise and how much was disclosed to home buyers. In 2003, neighbors filed two lawsuits in Maricopa County Superior Court against builders who failed to include the jet testing in reports.

The lessons? Don't count on sellers, agents or developers to disclose everything, experts say.

Several homeowners in Gilbert's Power Ranch were upset last year when an apartment complex built in their neighborhood turned out to include low-income housing, not the "luxury condominiums" many residents claimed they were told about. Plans to set aside as much as 90 percent of the units at the San Clemente apartment complex for low-income individuals were on the books for at least a year before many of the Power Ranch residents had even purchased their homes.

"You can't always depend on what you're told," Fee said.

Never purchase property without thoroughly understanding how it is zoned and what can and cannot be built on it.

Also, research the disposition of the planning department and communities nearby: do they listen to residents, or cave to developers?

The best weapon is due diligence combined with the buyers' eyes and ears, Brown said.

Donna Valenzuela said her family is happy in Rancho Del Ray, and they feel comfortable buying a house there now.

"You have to find a neighborhood where you feel safe," she said. "And I have really good neighbors."