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$1,190,000: Feeling Like a Million Dollars
Walk through the door of the contemporary Southwestern home in the Yavapino Estates near the Chapel of the Holy Cross and the main selling point is staring you right in the face: Incredible views of the Crimson Cliffs, Schnebly Hill and Uptown from the living room, office/den and large redwood deck. The walk-in closets, art niches, 12-foot ceilings, skylights, slab granite countertops, two fireplaces, eight-foot-tall alder wood doors, and size of the lot don’t hurt either.
“It’s rare to find a house so close to town on nearly an acre,” says Amy Brown of High Valley Real Estate. “People love the views and that there are no stairs – it’s a ranch-style floor plan that’s great for families and those looking for a vacation home.”
The home was custom-built in 2004; the owners put the house on the market in June. Amy says the house shows three to four times a week and, at $1.2 million, most likely will be on the market six to nine months (she estimates the home would have sold for less than $1 million three years ago). She says it’s rare to show a house in that range to someone already living in Sedona but it’s not out of the norm to show it to a family.
“In the past five years I’ve seen quite a few more people buying homes in Sedona as primary residences rather than second homes and it’s certainly possible a family might move in, especially since, depending on where they come from, $1.2 million could be seen as inexpensive,” she says.
Amy says jobs tend not to be an issue for buyers at this price, who are often self-employed or retired, sometimes at a young age. They typically ask about crime (legally, Amy has to tell them to contact the local police department for statistics but she can say crime is minimal), community involvement, and schools. Amy, who has school-aged children, tells parents they have many options, public and private. She calls Sedona a great place to raise children because, “you are basically always five minutes away.”
Amy says Sedona’s low property taxes appeal to buyers. She’s seen her share of “impulse buyers,” who leave a more expensive area and buy a red rock home with cash. “We are probably not talking about first-time buyers in this price range – usually they have bought and sold at least once, and they understand their financing options.”
$2,899,000: Creekside Park, Waterfall Included
You’d expect a $3 million home to be stunning. And in the case of the estate on East Wing Dr. in the Cup of Gold area off Lower Red Rock Loop Rd., you’d be right. “You have views of Cathedral Rock, the Seven Sisters and Schnebly Hill from the house but walk down the stairs in the backyard and you are right at the creek,” says Ed Hanley of Coldwell Banker First Affiliate. “Usually when you are on the creek, you don’t have red rock views because you are down so low.” The property includes a grassy park with a natural red rock waterfall at the edge of 125 feet of Oak Creek.
The modern, gated home was designed by New Zealand architect Kristijan Sigurdsson and built by Phil W. Morris Co. in 1995 and 1996 as a vacation home for the owners. Ed says the owners only used it a few weekends each year in Sedona.
Examples of its custom features include a copper roof, “fiddle back” maple cabinets, a 100-bottle wine refrigerator, Koehler hardware, a steam room shower and double Jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom, an office and gym, a round great room with three-sided gas fireplace, outdoor barbecue area, rooftop observation deck, and a 50-ft. heated negative edge swimming pool. The estate also includes a Metrol security system with exterior cameras, infrared detectors, audio sensors, glass sensors and panic room.
