The inspection period & the BINSR
The Arizona purchase contract gives a buyer ten days to learn everything the listing did not say, and one form — the BINSR — to act on what they find. It is the highest-leverage window in the transaction, it runs on strict clocks, and most of the money that moves after acceptance moves here. This guide explains how the window actually works under the February 2026 Arizona REALTORS® Residential Resale Purchase Contract, and where deals break inside it.
Ten days, and everything inside them.
The inspection period defaults to ten calendar days, beginning the day after contract acceptance. Weekends count. The number is negotiable when the offer is written — and the offer is where it should be negotiated, not after the clock has started.
The window is wider than a home inspection. It is the contract's due diligence period: the physical work — general inspection, roof, HVAC, pool, sewer line, wood-destroying insects — and the non-physical work that gets skipped more often. Insurance availability and claims history, square footage, flood exposure, schools, noise, remodel permits, and the disclosure documents all belong inside the same ten days.
One rule shapes everything: all desired inspections must be completed before the buyer's notice is delivered, and every disapproved item goes into a single notice. There is no second BINSR. A buyer who sends the notice with the sewer scope still pending has spent the contingency without finishing the diligence it exists to protect.
Three doors, one signature, no take-backs.
At the end of the inspection period the buyer makes one election on the BINSR, and the contract holds them to it. The election cannot be changed once the notice is delivered.
Premises accepted
Proceed as-isThe buyer closes without corrections. The contingency is spent. Saying nothing reaches the same result — a buyer who lets the period lapse without notice has elected to proceed.
Premises rejected
Immediate cancellationThe contract cancels and the earnest money releases to the buyer — when the notice lists the items disapproved. A cancellation that names nothing still cancels, but it invites a cure notice and puts the deposit in dispute.
Correct or address
The BINSR routeThe buyer itemizes the problems and hands the seller the pen for five days — repairs, a credit, a price adjustment, or a refusal. Choosing this door surrenders the right to cancel immediately.
The disapproval right runs at the buyer's sole discretion, but Arizona law reads a duty of good faith into it. It is a diligence tool, not a free-look option — and it is exercised in writing, with reasons.
The seller's five days.
A seller served with a BINSR has five days and three honest options: agree in writing to correct the items, decline, or counter — different terms, a credit at closing, a price adjustment — on the form or an attached addendum. Silence is not a fourth option. Under the contract, no response within the window is deemed a refusal to correct anything.
Agreed repairs carry their own obligations: workmanlike quality, a licensed contractor where Arizona law requires one, and paid receipts delivered to the buyer three days before close of escrow. A seller who agrees casually and performs late has converted a repair item into a breach exposure.
The buyer's final five days.
If the seller declines some or all of the items — by writing or by silence — the buyer gets one last window: five days from delivery of the response, or from the expiration of the response period, to cancel and recover the earnest money. After that, the contract proceeds without the corrections the seller refused.
The default outcome is closing. Doing nothing in this window is an election to proceed, and the deals that end in disputes are usually the ones where a buyer treated this clock as a suggestion. It is the least forgiving five days in the contract.
Defaults under the AAR Residential Resale Purchase Contract (Feb 2026). Days are calendar days. Every clock above is negotiable in the offer — none of them is negotiable after it starts running, except by a written agreement signed by both parties.
Five failure patterns.
The mechanics are simple. The failures are predictable — they repeat because the clocks keep running while people negotiate, hope, or wait. These are the patterns the process is built to avoid.
- 01The silent seller.No response feels like limbo; the contract calls it refusal. The buyer's final five days start on their own, whether or not anyone announces it. Miss them, and the silence has bought the house as-is.
- 02The bare cancellation.Rejecting the premises without listing the items still cancels the contract — and hands the seller a cure-notice path to the earnest money. Three listed items are cheap insurance for a five-figure deposit.
- 03“In lieu of repairs.”The phrase invites a dispute the day the repair bids come in above the credit. A credit should be written clean — a number, at close of escrow — and cleared with the lender first, because loan programs cap what a buyer can receive.
- 04The verbal extension.“Take the weekend, we'll sort it out” extends nothing. Only a written agreement signed by both parties moves these clocks. Negotiation warmth is not a contract term.
- 05The maximal BINSR.Every item on the list is an item the buyer has agreed to close over if the seller says yes to all of it. The BINSR is a binding ask, not a wish list — it should carry exactly what the buyer is prepared to be satisfied by, and nothing decorative.
Removing the weapon.
For a seller, the BINSR is where an unprepared listing gets repriced. The discipline that protects equity happens before the sign goes up and in the five days after the notice arrives — not at the closing table.
- 01Pre-inspection.Find it before the buyer's inspector does. Fix it or price it in and disclose it. Surprises are what convert an inspection period into a repricing event.
- 02Respond in writing, on time.Deemed refusal by silence hands the buyer a clean exit — with the earnest money — that the seller may never have intended to offer.
- 03Counter with structure.A clean credit or price adjustment on an addendum often beats rushed contractor work, and it keeps the closing date intact. Any restructured response goes to the lender and escrow company — modified terms are not a private arrangement.
- 04Receipts, early.Agreed repairs mean workmanlike quality, licensed trades where the law requires them, and paid receipts in the buyer's hands three days before close. Late performance is a breach exposure, not a courtesy issue.
Asked at the kitchen table.
How long is the inspection period in Arizona?
Ten calendar days by default under the Arizona REALTORS® Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract, beginning the day after contract acceptance. The number is negotiable in the offer itself, and weekends count.
What is a BINSR?
The Buyer's Inspection Notice and Seller's Response — the Arizona REALTORS® form a buyer uses at the end of the inspection period to accept the premises, cancel the contract, or itemize disapproved items and give the seller an opportunity to correct or address them.
What happens if the seller doesn't respond to a BINSR?
Under the contract, seller silence for five days is deemed a refusal to correct any of the items. The buyer then has five days to cancel and recover the earnest money — or the transaction proceeds without the corrections.
Does the buyer get the earnest money back after canceling during the inspection period?
Yes, when the cancellation is delivered before the period expires and specifies the items disapproved. A cancellation that names nothing still cancels the contract, but it opens the door to a seller cure notice and puts the earnest money in dispute.
Can a seller refuse a BINSR?
Yes. A seller can agree to correct the items, decline some or all of them, or counter with an alternative — a credit or a price adjustment on an addendum. Silence within the five-day response window counts as a refusal. Refusal is not the end of the deal: it returns the decision to the buyer, who has five days to cancel with the earnest money or proceed without the corrections.
Is the BINSR required?
No. A buyer can accept the premises, cancel with a signed notice listing the items disapproved, or waive inspections entirely — the form includes an acknowledgment for that. But any disapproval must be delivered as a signed written notice within the inspection period, and the BINSR is the standard Arizona REALTORS® instrument for it. What is never optional is the clock.
Does buying a home as-is change the inspection period?
Generally no. Under the standard contract, even paired with an as-is addendum, the buyer keeps the inspection period and the right to cancel during it. What changes is the expectation of corrections — an as-is seller is signaling that the answer to a repair request is no, not that the buyer loses the right to look and to walk away.
What this page is — and is not.
This guide describes, in general terms, how the inspection period and buyer-disapproval provisions of the Arizona REALTORS® Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract operate. It is educational content — not legal advice, and not a substitute for reading the contract or for the advice of an Arizona attorney on a specific transaction or dispute. Derek Deardorff is a licensed Arizona real estate salesperson, not an attorney. The contract form itself is copyrighted by the Arizona REALTORS®; this page explains it and does not reproduce it.
Reviewed July 2026 · Anchored to the AAR Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract, February 2026 revision. This page is versioned to the current form and re-reviewed when the form changes.
The BINSR is where preparation pays. If a purchase or sale is ahead of you, walk through the timeline before the offer is written — not on day nine.
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