Ten things I verify before I tell a client it's OK to close. Written by a working consultant who reads soil reports for a living.
Most land-buying checklists on the internet were written in Texas or Tennessee. They work fine for mature subdivisions in Scottsdale. They miss the 80% of Arizona that matters for the kind of buyer Grove House works with — people looking at raw parcels in Yavapai, Mohave, Coconino, Gila, or high-desert Maricopa County.
Arizona is different in four ways that shape every due-diligence item on this page:
azwater.gov), groundwater in Active Management Areas, and the patchwork of exempt wells outside AMAs each follow different rules. A parcel in an AMA has tighter constraints than one outside; a parcel that uses an exempt well may have no right to a larger well later.With that context, here's the checklist.
Title insurance tells you the title record is clean as of policy date. It doesn't tell you whether the prior owner has defaulted on a promissory note secured by the parcel, whether there's a lis pendens filed in the county recorder that the title company missed, or whether an unreleased deed of trust from a 1998 owner is still clouding marketability. Pull the chain of title yourself — county recorder sites (Maricopa: recorder.maricopa.gov; Yavapai: yavapaiaz.gov/recorder) let you search by parcel APN. Look for deeds of trust, lis pendens, mechanic's liens, and easement recordings. Your title company runs this but you should look too.
This is the single most common way Arizona land buyers get surprised. Questions to answer: Does the parcel have surface-water rights registered with AZ DWR? Is it inside an Active Management Area (Phoenix, Pinal, Prescott, Tucson, Santa Cruz are the five AMAs)? Does it have an existing well, and if so, is the well permitted or exempt? What's the registered pumping capacity? If the seller claims a well produces X gallons per minute, is there a well driller's report on file at DWR? An exempt well (<35 GPM) cannot legally be upgraded to a higher capacity without a new permit in an AMA. If the parcel relies on hauled water, confirm the access road supports a 4,000-gallon water truck.
If you plan to build, your septic system depends on soil percolation. If you plan to garden or establish food forest, your topsoil depth and drainage matter. If you plan to run livestock, your forage load per acre is soil-driven. A basic soil test costs $30–$75 through a local co-op or extension office. A percolation test (often required for septic permit) costs $300–$800 from a licensed contractor. Caliche (calcium carbonate hardpan) is common in Verde Valley and northwest Maricopa County and can be 1–6 feet below surface — it dramatically changes what you can dig, plant, or drain.
Pull FEMA flood zone designation at msc.fema.gov. A parcel in Zone A or AE requires flood insurance for financed loans. A parcel in a 1-in-500-year zone may be uninsurable for standard mortgages. For fire: check the 10-year fire history in the area via the National Interagency Fire Center (nifc.gov) or the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. Forest-interface parcels in Gila, Coconino, and eastern Yavapai counties have elevated risk and insurance implications.
Pull the zoning designation from the county planning department. Understand: what's the minimum lot size for a residence? Are livestock allowed? Short-term rentals? Secondary dwelling? Commercial use? Setbacks from property line and road? Accessory-building size limits? Don't rely on what the real-estate listing says — pull the zoning ordinance yourself. Maricopa, Yavapai, and Mohave all publish zoning online.
For rural Arizona parcels: electric line distance to nearest transformer (cost is ~$15–$30/foot after the first 200 feet free from the co-op in most service areas); cellular and internet coverage (use the FCC broadband map); septic-system requirement vs. existing sewer; and propane-delivery access for the road. A 0.5-mile driveway from the nearest power pole can add $50,000 to the parcel's effective cost. Build this into your offer calculation.
Even rural Arizona parcels can have recorded CC&Rs (covenants, conditions, restrictions) from decades-old subdivision filings that are still enforceable. Read every recorded document in the chain of title. Look for: agricultural-use restrictions, building-type restrictions, minimum-square-footage requirements, commercial-use prohibitions, architectural-review requirements, and RV-parking rules. Most surprise comes not from active HOAs but from defunct ones whose CC&Rs still technically govern.
Arizona has 11 active Superfund sites and many more brownfields. Check the EPA Envirofacts database (enviro.epa.gov) for the parcel's zip code. For parcels with any historical industrial or mining use (especially in Pinal, Yavapai, Gila), consider a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment ($2,500–$5,000) before closing. Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (azdeq.gov) also publishes databases of leaking underground storage tanks and voluntary remediation sites.
Rural Arizona parcels often front on unmaintained or privately-maintained roads. Questions: is the access road a public county-maintained road, a private road with a recorded maintenance agreement, or a handshake-maintenance arrangement with neighbors? Who plows snow (at elevation)? Who grades after monsoons? A parcel reached by a washed-out road is a parcel you can't insure, mortgage, or emergency-service. Confirm road maintenance in writing before closing.
Pull the parcel's tax history from the county treasurer. Confirm: current-year property taxes assessed and current; no tax lien certificates outstanding; no pending tax sale. In Arizona, tax liens are auctioned annually when taxes go delinquent for more than a year, and the lien holder can eventually foreclose. A tax lien won't usually show in the title search because it's not a recorded deed — check the treasurer's office separately.
Trusting the listing's "water included" language. Real-estate listings routinely say "well on property" without clarifying permit status, production rate, or whether the well physically works. Verify at AZ DWR directly.
Assuming "off-grid" means "no permits needed." Every Arizona county requires permits for permanent structures regardless of grid connection. Septic systems require permits even on parcels nowhere near utility lines.
Missing the road-access contingency. Buyers close on parcels reached by unpaved roads, then discover winter snow or summer monsoon flooding makes the road impassable 6 weeks a year. Drive the road in shoulder seasons before closing.
Ignoring neighbors. Talk to adjacent property owners before you buy. They know things about the parcel — water table history, neighbor disputes, wildlife — that no public record captures.
Skipping the boundary walk. Even with a recent survey, walk the property line. Fence-line squatters, unrecorded encroachments, and stray improvements on neighbor land happen more often than title insurance would suggest.
You can run this whole checklist yourself. Every database and county record referenced is public. The work is: about 20-40 hours per parcel for a thorough pass, depending on how many unknowns surface. If the parcel has a complex history, expect longer.
Reasons to hire:
Reasons to DIY: small parcel, mature subdivision, low price point, you enjoy the research.
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The checks that save buyers $50K before they sign — septic, perc, access, water rights, zoning, easements. The same checklist I run on every Scout's Report.
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Scout Intro — $30. A focused 30-minute call on one specific parcel you're considering. I pull the obvious records in advance and we spend the call walking through what's solid, what's unknown, and what to investigate further.
Scout Report — $300. A written due-diligence package covering this full 10-item checklist for your parcel, with flagged unknowns, recommended next steps, and document references. Hand it to your lender, attorney, or use it as your closing checklist. Turnaround: 5-7 business days.
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A thorough due diligence pass on raw Arizona land takes two to four weeks if you have every record in hand. Water-rights research alone can take one to three weeks depending on county and whether the parcel draws from Central Arizona Project surface water, adjudicated groundwater, or an unregulated exempt well.
You don't need one to close, but you need to know what you have before you close. Arizona water rights are complex: surface rights, groundwater rights, Active Management Area restrictions, and exempt-well status all affect what you can legally do on the parcel. An unpermitted well that served the prior owner may not transfer or may require retrofitting.
A Scout Intro is a focused 30-minute consult on one parcel you're considering. A Scout Report is a full written due-diligence package covering title risks, water, soil, access, zoning, and flagged unknowns — something you can hand to an attorney or lender.
Yes, for a parcel with clean title in a mature subdivision. For raw rural land, especially in Yavapai or Mohave counties, the county records and assessor data are fragmented and the water-rights picture often requires cross-referencing AZ Department of Water Resources databases. Most buyers at least hire a title company; some hire a land consultant for the investigation work.
Title insurance covers recorded defects as of the policy date. It does not cover environmental contamination, unrecorded easements, boundary disputes that haven't been surveyed, or water-rights issues that sit outside the title record. Raw-land buyers typically need more investigation than a standard title policy reveals.
Significantly. Maricopa County has the most developed zoning and permitting framework. Yavapai, Mohave, and Coconino counties have larger unincorporated areas with minimal direct zoning and rely on parcel-by-parcel building permits. Gila County has additional forest-interface fire restrictions. Always pull the parcel's specific county rules; don't assume Arizona-wide standards.