I received a call today from an individual who is looking to retire near Phoenix. They really want to live outside of the city but aren’t really sure where. While discussing why I could not suggest a particular area for them, I found that they had used our fancy new IDX home search to locate properties that interested them in Buckeye, New River, Cave Creek, Fountain Hills, Queen Creek, Maricopa, and Arizona City. They wanted to set up an appointment to see *all* of these homes.

If you’re not familiar with the Phoenix area you are probably thinking “and your point is”?

If you are familiar with Phoenix you are probably thinking that this individual is crazy for even suggesting such a thing.

Actually calls like this are not uncommon. Often individuals who are looking to move to the Phoenix area do not have a true concept of just how big we are. Our multiple listing service (MLS) covers all of Maricopa County and most of Pinal County (over 10,000 square miles). It would be practically impossible for any one agent to be an expert in all of these places. It’s also not very time efficient or cost effective for a Realtor to try to show in all these locations. New River is about 94 miles from Arizona City and Buckeye is about 75 miles from Queen Creek.

If your job location or being near friends or family isn’t a concern – you may have some trouble trying to narrow down an area of interest. I highly recommend getting to know the area(s) *before* you get serious about a particular home. A lot of my clients will tell you that I like to say, “If you don’t like the location you’ll never be happy with your investment”.

I highly recommend taking a day or two to visit the areas that interest you. Don’t just drive through them. Have breakfast. Walk in the park. Sit at a café and people watch. You are the best judge of what you like and where you will be happy. Trust yourself. Once you connect with an area you will find it much easier to locate a property you really like. And odds are we have a great agent in our office that can help you in that area – if we don’t – we know a lot of great agents we can recommend.