What Stays With the House When You Sell in Arizona 2026: Fixtures vs Personal Property

This is the argument nobody plans for. The house is under contract, the move is three weeks out, and someone asks whether the dining room chandelier is going with you. Sellers assume the answer is obvious and it almost never is, because the contract they signed already answered it, and most people read Section 1g once, quickly, while signing eleven other pages. The good news is the standard form is unusually specific. This is not a judgment call about what feels like part of the house. There is a list.

The rule, and why the list beats your instinct

Attached stays, loose goes. That is the whole test in five words, and the contract states it plainly: for purposes of the agreement, fixtures means property attached or affixed to the premises. What trips sellers up is that the form does not stop at the principle. Section 1g of the Arizona REALTORS Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract, August 2024 revision, then spells out a long itemized list, and it includes things most people would never classify as part of the house.

It also says something easy to miss: the means to operate those fixtures convey too, with remote controls given as the example. So the garage door opener stays and so do both remotes, and the ceiling fan stays with its remote. Digging through a packed moving box for a remote on closing day is a very common last minute errand.

What the contract says already conveys

More than you think. Here is the part of the itemized list that actually causes arguments, straight from the form.

• Light fixtures, including the chandelier you installed yourself
• Draperies and other window coverings, including the blinds and shutters
• Floor coverings that are affixed, and fireplace equipment that is affixed
• A free standing range or oven, which surprises people who group it with appliances
• Garage door openers and remotes, light timers that are affixed, towel and drapery rods
• Wall mounted TV brackets and hardware, while the TVs themselves are excluded
• Water softeners, water purification systems, central vacuum with hose and attachments
• In ground pool and spa equipment and covers, including cleaning systems
• Security and fire systems and alarms, affixed solar and other affixed power systems
• Storage sheds, outdoor fountains and lighting, shutters and awnings, water misting systems
• Outdoor landscaping, which the form defines to include shrubbery, trees, and unpotted plants
• Smart home devices, with access to them required to be transferred, naming the video doorbell and the automated thermostat
• Flush mounted speakers, the mailbox, storm windows and doors, window and door screens, sun shades

Three deserve a flag. The TV bracket stays while the TV goes, so plan on leaving the hardware. Unpotted plants stay, so the citrus tree in the ground conveys and the same tree in a pot does not, which is exactly the detail that becomes a phone call during the final walkthrough. And smart home access is worth handling early, because handing over a thermostat means removing it from your account, not just leaving it on the wall.

The misting system line matters more here than almost anywhere else in the country. Patio misters are common on Phoenix area homes, they are plumbed in, and they convey.

The four items that are not automatic

Refrigerator, washer, dryer, and an above ground spa or hot tub. The contract treats these as personal property, not fixtures, and they are included only if the box is checked and a description is filled in. Nothing about them conveying is automatic, which cuts both ways.

If you intend to take the refrigerator, say so before the listing goes live so it never appears in the photos as an implied inclusion. If you intend to leave it as a sweetener in a slower market, get it written into the contract instead of promising it in a text message. The form also notes that included personal property transfers with no monetary value and free of liens, which is why a financed appliance cannot simply be thrown in.

Estimate what you would walk away with

Leased equipment and the three day notice

Leased items are not included in the sale, and the contract puts a clock on telling the buyer about them. Section 1g states that leased items shall not be included and that the seller delivers notice of all leased items within three days after contract acceptance. The buyer then has until the end of the inspection period, or five days after receiving your notice, whichever is later, to disapprove any of them.

In practice that means solar. Leased panels and power purchase agreements are the single most common version of this conversation in the Valley, and they are their own negotiation about transfer, credit qualification, and whether the buyer assumes the payment at all. If that is your situation, read how leased and financed solar actually gets handled before you list, not after an offer arrives. The same notice rule catches leased water softeners, leased propane tanks, security system contracts, and the occasional leased pool cleaning system.

Miss the notice window and you have handed a buyer a clean reason to renegotiate during inspections, which is the worst time to be discovering paperwork. With month of supply at 4.45 months in the October 2026 ARMLS STAT report and the median sale price flat year over year at 450,000 dollars, buyers have enough alternatives to use any excuse to ask for something.

How to keep something you actually want

Replace it before the photos, or exclude it in writing in the listing. Those are the only two clean options, and the first one is better.

If the chandelier is a family piece, swap it for a builder grade fixture before the photographer comes. Nobody misses what they never saw. The failure mode is leaving it in the photos, letting a buyer get attached, then carving it out of an accepted offer, which turns a 300 dollar fixture into a concession argument. Excluding an item in the listing and the contract works too, it just costs some goodwill and sometimes real money.

One more thing to handle early. If you replace a fixture after the photos are taken, update the photos. A buyer who tours with the old images in hand has a reasonable complaint, and that complaint lands in your seller disclosure obligations rather than in a friendly conversation.

Where this gets argued anyway

The list does not settle everything. Affixed is a judgment call at the edges: a bookshelf screwed to a wall, a mounted basketball hoop, a bolted down safe, an outdoor kitchen that is partly modular. Reasonable people disagree, and the form cannot anticipate every house. The written description in the contract beats the general rule every time, so anything genuinely ambiguous belongs in writing before anyone signs.

The other honest caveat is that this is contract reading, not legal advice, and the form gets revised. Check the revision date on what you are signing, read Section 1g yourself, and run anything unusual past a real estate attorney or your title officer. If your offer has other moving parts, which it usually does, our guide on handling multiple offers covers how these small items get traded. The full sequence from prep to closing is in the step by step guide to selling a house, and if your next purchase is part of this move, our loan programs are where that starts.

Frequently asked questions

Does the refrigerator stay when you sell a house in Arizona?

Only if the contract says so. The standard purchase contract treats the refrigerator, washer, dryer, and an above ground spa as personal property rather than fixtures, so they convey only when the box is checked and a description is filled in. Decide before the listing goes live, and keep the listing photos consistent with the decision so a buyer never assumes an appliance is included.

Do light fixtures and chandeliers have to stay?

Yes. Light fixtures are named in the contract as fixtures that convey, and a chandelier you bought and installed yourself is still a light fixture. The clean way to keep one is to replace it with a standard fixture before the listing photos are taken. Excluding it later, after a buyer has seen it, usually costs more in negotiation than the fixture is worth.

Do blinds and window coverings convey with the house?

Yes. Draperies and other window coverings are specifically named in the contract, which covers blinds, shades, and shutters. The same section includes towel, curtain, and drapery rods, so the hardware stays even if you take the fabric panels you intended to exclude in writing.

What happens to leased solar panels when I sell?

Leased items are excluded from the sale, and you are required to deliver notice of all leased items within three days after contract acceptance. The buyer can disapprove them within the inspection period or five days after receiving notice, whichever is later. Leased solar then becomes its own negotiation over transferring the agreement, so handle it before listing rather than during inspections.

Does a wall mounted TV stay with the house?

The bracket stays and the television goes. The contract names wall mounted TV brackets and hardware as conveying and explicitly excludes the TVs themselves. Plan on leaving the mount on the wall, and if you want to take the bracket too, exclude it in writing before you have an accepted offer.

Do trees and plants in the yard stay?

Trees, shrubbery, and unpotted plants stay, because the contract defines outdoor landscaping to include them. Anything in a pot is personal property and goes with you. If a specific in ground plant matters to you, move it into a pot well before the listing photos, not during the final walkthrough.