Arizona Seller Disclosure (SPDS) 2026: What You Have to Tell Buyers

The SPDS is the document sellers spend the least time on and regret the most. It arrives in a stack of paperwork, it looks like a formality, and it takes about forty minutes to complete properly. Sellers who rush it are the ones who get a certified letter eight months after closing. The good news is that the rules are more forgiving than most people assume, as long as you understand what the form is actually asking you to certify.

What the SPDS actually is

The SPDS is a questionnaire you fill out about your own house, published by the Arizona Association of REALTORS, and it becomes part of the purchase contract. It is not a warranty and it is not an inspection report. It is your written account of what you know.

In a standard resale here, the seller delivers the SPDS to the buyer within five days of contract acceptance, and the buyer then uses the inspection period to investigate what you wrote. Most sellers skim it, answer quickly, and move on. That is the mistake. If anything goes wrong after closing, this is the single most scrutinized piece of paper in the file.

There are other disclosures layered on top depending on the property, including the affidavit of disclosure required for certain unincorporated county parcels, lead based paint for homes built before 1978, and HOA transfer documentation. Your listing agent should tell you which ones attach to your specific address rather than leaving you to guess.

What you have to disclose

You must disclose any material fact you actually know that would affect a reasonable buyer's decision or the value of the property, even if the form does not ask the question in those exact words.

In practice that covers past and present roof leaks, plumbing and sewer problems, foundation movement, termite history and treatment, prior flooding or drainage issues, unpermitted work, litigation involving the property, HOA disputes and special assessments, easements, well and septic details, and any repair you made to correct a problem. Arizona courts have been clear for decades that a seller who knows about a defect cannot stay quiet simply because the buyer failed to ask precisely the right question.

The standard is knowledge, not certainty. If you had the slab looked at twice and got two different opinions, you disclose that you had it looked at twice and got two different opinions. Writing "unknown" about something you do know is where sellers get into real trouble.

What you do not have to disclose

State law specifically relieves you of a few disclosures, and sellers volunteer them anyway more often than you would expect.

You are not required to disclose that a death occurred on the property, including a homicide or a suicide. You are not required to disclose that a previous occupant had a disease that is not transmitted through the dwelling. You are also not obligated to research or report sex offender residency nearby, and there is a standard advisory that points buyers to the public database instead.

You are also not required to go looking for problems. There is no duty to hire an inspector, open a wall, or reconstruct the history of a home you bought fifteen years ago. Your obligation runs to what you know, not to what you might have discovered if you had gone hunting.

Selling as is does not cancel the duty

An as is sale means you are not agreeing to make repairs. It does not mean you can withhold what you know, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding among sellers in the Valley.

Sellers planning an as is sale sometimes treat the phrase as a shield. It is not one. You can decline every repair request in the inspection response and still carry liability if you concealed a known sewer problem on the disclosure. If anything, an as is seller should complete the SPDS more carefully than a seller offering repairs, because the paper trail is the entire defense.

If you are weighing whether to fix something before listing or disclose it and price accordingly, that is a genuine strategic call with real numbers attached. Our guide to what to fix before selling and what to skip works through which repairs actually return the money in this market.

Estimate what you would walk away with

The answers that create lawsuits

Nearly every post closing disclosure claim we hear about traces back to one of four moves, and all four are avoidable in about twenty minutes of care.

The first is answering no when the truthful answer is yes, and here is what I did about it. A repaired leak that gets disclosed is a non event. A repaired leak that gets denied is fraud. The second is leaving questions blank, which reads as evasion and hands a buyer's attorney an easy opening. The third is letting someone else complete the form, including your agent or your adult child, because it is your knowledge the document certifies and nobody else can certify it for you. The fourth is failing to update anything that changes between contract and closing. If the air conditioning quits during escrow, that is new material information and it goes in writing.

How a buyer responds to what you disclose runs through the inspection process, and the mechanics are worth understanding before you are sitting in the middle of it. Our breakdown of the Arizona inspection period and the BINSR covers what a buyer can and cannot do with your disclosures once they have them.

Where sellers without an agent get hurt

Sellers running their own transaction carry the identical legal duty with none of the process support, and the national data suggests very few people are still choosing that path.

The National Association of REALTORS 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers put for sale by owner transactions at 5% of sales, an all time low, with a record 91% of sellers using an agent. That same report shows FSBO homes selling at a median of $360,000 against $425,000 for agent assisted sales. Those are national figures and the mix of homes behind them differs, so do not read it as a clean $65,000 penalty. The direction is consistent though, and disclosure is one of the places where handling it alone gets expensive quietly rather than loudly.

Buyers around Phoenix and Scottsdale have room to be careful right now, which raises the stakes on what you write. Redfin Data Center shows a 55 day median time on market in Phoenix as of July 2026, with homes closing at 97.8% of list price. A buyer with leverage and an unhurried clock reads a disclosure closely. If you want to see how comparable homes are being presented before you write yours, Homes.com is a straightforward place to look, and Arizona Luxury Property Search is the better view for higher end inventory.

Honest caveats

We are a mortgage company, not a law firm and not a brokerage. None of this is legal advice, and disclosure disputes turn hard on specific facts. If you think you have a real problem, talk to a licensed Arizona real estate attorney rather than a blog post.

Forms and statutes change, so confirm the current version of the SPDS with your agent instead of a copy you saved in 2019. Not every agent handles disclosure with the same discipline, and a strong social media presence and careful transactional work are different things. We cannot promise you any particular outcome on price or timeline. If you want the full sequence rather than this one document, our step by step guide to selling a house here lays it out, and if you are buying on the other side of this sale, our loan programs page covers the financing.

Frequently asked questions

What is the SPDS in Arizona?

The Seller Property Disclosure Statement is a questionnaire published by the Arizona Association of REALTORS that a seller completes about their own property. It becomes part of the purchase contract and is typically delivered to the buyer within five days of contract acceptance. It is a record of what the seller knows, not an inspection report and not a warranty.

What do sellers legally have to disclose in Arizona?

Known material facts that would affect a reasonable buyer's decision or the value of the property. That includes roof leaks, plumbing and sewer issues, foundation movement, termite history, prior flooding or drainage problems, unpermitted work, easements, litigation, and HOA assessments or disputes. Repairs you made to correct a problem should be disclosed along with the problem itself.

Do I have to disclose a death that happened in the house?

No. State law does not require a seller to disclose that a death occurred on the property, including a homicide or a suicide, or that a prior occupant had a disease not transmitted through the dwelling. Many sellers choose to share it anyway, but that is a choice rather than a legal requirement.

Does selling as is remove my disclosure obligation?

No. An as is sale means you are not agreeing to make repairs. It does not let you withhold known material facts. You can decline every repair request and still face liability if you concealed something you knew about, so as is sellers should complete the SPDS more carefully rather than less.

Do I have to investigate my home before filling out the SPDS?

No. There is no duty to hire an inspector, open a wall, or research the history of the property. Your obligation runs to what you actually know. Writing unknown about something you do know is the problem, not declining to go find information you never had.

What happens if something breaks after I complete the SPDS?

Disclose it in writing before closing. New material information that comes up between contract and closing, such as an air conditioning failure during escrow, has to be communicated to the buyer. Failing to update the disclosure is one of the most common sources of post closing disputes.