How to Fill Out the Arizona BINSR Form: Elections, Deadlines, Repairs

To fill out the Arizona BINSR form, enter the transaction details from your purchase contract, choose one of three elections (approve as-is, cancel, or request corrections), and if you’re requesting corrections, list every disapproved item with specific references to your inspection report before delivering the notice to the seller within the ten-day inspection period. The Buyer’s Inspection Notice and Seller’s Response is published by the Arizona Association of REALTORS and works alongside the Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract.¹ Your agent supplies the form through the AAR’s licensed forms library; if you don’t have an agent, request a copy from the escrow or title company handling the deal.

What to Have in Hand Before You Start

The BINSR is a summary of decisions you’ve already made based on documents and inspections. Assemble those first.

The Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement is due from the seller within three days of contract acceptance.² Read it carefully. It tells you what the seller already knows about the roof, plumbing, HVAC, past water damage, and pest history, and it shows you where an inspector should look harder. Items the seller marks “Unknown” deserve a closer look, because that answer means the seller isn’t vouching for the condition.

A professional home inspection is the foundation of the notice. In Arizona, a general inspection on a typical single-family home runs roughly $380 to $520 depending on square footage and scope. Add specialized inspections where the property warrants them — sewer scope, termite, pool. Get all of them done before you complete the BINSR, because the contract requires every disapproved item to appear in a single notice.³ You cannot deliver one BINSR now and follow it with another after the sewer scope comes back.

If the home was built before 1978, federal law requires the seller to disclose known lead-based paint hazards and give you the EPA pamphlet “Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home” before the contract is signed.⁴ The BINSR contains an acknowledgment for these disclosures, so confirm you received them before signing.

Filling In the Header

The top of the form asks for the property address, the date of the purchase contract, and the buyer’s and seller’s names. Copy these exactly as they read on the executed contract. A misspelled name or wrong date creates friction with escrow and can cast doubt on whether the notice was properly delivered.

Choosing Your Election

The core of the form is a single choice among three options.

Approve the property as-is. You accept the condition and move forward without asking for anything. Check the box and sign.
Disapprove and immediately cancel. The inspection revealed problems you won’t accept, and you want out. Even so, you must list the specific items you disapprove of. Skipping that step can expose you to a cure notice from the seller and put your earnest money at risk.³
Disapprove and give the seller a chance to correct. You itemize what you want fixed and open the negotiation. This is the most common path.

The choice is final once the notice is delivered. If you elect to give the seller a chance to correct, you’ve waived your right to cancel immediately based on those same items.³

Writing Repair Requests That Actually Work

If you chose the third option, the wording of your list is what determines the outcome. “Fix the plumbing” invites arguments about what was done and whether it was enough. Specific requests get better results and are far easier to verify at the walk-through.

Tie every item to the inspection report. Instead of “repair the roof,” write something like “repair the damaged flashing around the plumbing vent on the south-facing roof slope, as identified on page 12 of the inspection report dated [date].” That gives the seller’s contractor a clear scope and gives you a clear standard to check.

A few practical guidelines:

Lead with safety and structural issues. Sellers are more likely to agree to fix a cracked foundation, faulty wiring, or an active roof leak than to repaint a bedroom or swap out dated fixtures. FHA and VA lenders may actually require certain safety repairs before financing can close.
Be realistic. Asking the seller to replace a whole HVAC system because the filter was dirty signals reaching, and the seller may reject the whole list.
Put every item in one notice. The contract requires all disapproved items in a single BINSR.⁵
Skip the cosmetic items. A squeaky hinge listed next to a foundation crack makes the whole list easier to dismiss.

The Deadlines That Govern the Form

Ten Days to Deliver the BINSR

The default AAR contract gives the buyer ten days from contract acceptance to deliver the completed BINSR to the seller or the seller’s agent.⁵ Parties can negotiate a different number in the offer, but ten is the printed default. The clock starts the day the contract is accepted, not the day inspections happen, so book inspectors early. Delivery usually runs through the transaction management platform your agent uses.

Five Days for the Seller’s Response

Once you deliver the BINSR, the seller has five days to complete their section and choose one of three responses: agree to correct everything, agree to correct some items and specify which, or refuse to correct anything.⁵ Silence counts as a refusal. A seller who ignores the notice hasn’t bought more time; they’ve refused everything.

Five Days for Your Final Decision

If the seller agrees to fix everything, the negotiation is over. If the seller refuses some or all repairs, you have five days — counted from delivery of the seller’s response or from the expiration of the seller’s five-day window, whichever comes first — to either cancel the contract and get your earnest money back, or accept the property without the refused corrections.⁵

Doing nothing during those five days locks you into closing without the refused corrections. This is the single most consequential deadline in the process. Set a calendar reminder the moment the seller’s response arrives.

Credits and Price Reductions Don’t Belong on the BINSR

Sellers sometimes prefer a closing credit or price reduction to coordinating repairs. The 2022 revision to the BINSR made explicit that monetary adjustments do not belong on the notice itself — they require a separate addendum to the purchase contract.⁶ The addendum wording can be simple, such as “Seller to credit Buyer $5,000 in closing costs” or “Purchase Price reduced to $X.”

One catch that surprises buyers: any credit or price change must be submitted to the buyer’s lender, and the lender can limit or restrict total contractual credits.⁶ Conventional, FHA, and VA loans each cap seller concessions at different percentages of the purchase price. Confirm the number with your loan officer before agreeing to it.

Mistakes That Cost Buyers the Most

The BINSR is procedural enough that small errors have outsized consequences.

Missing the ten-day inspection deadline. If you don’t deliver the notice before the inspection period expires, you lose your right to disapprove items.
Failing to list disapproved items when canceling. Even when walking away, the contract requires you to specify what you disapprove of. Skipping this can trigger a cure notice and put earnest money at risk.³
Putting credits or price changes on the BINSR. Those need their own addendum.⁶
Sending a second notice with items you forgot the first time. The contract doesn’t support it.
Letting the five-day final election period lapse after a seller refusal. Silence obligates you to close without the refused corrections.

1
Arizona Association of REALTORS. Residential Resale Transaction Forms
2
Arizona Association of REALTORS. Residential Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement
3
Arizona Association of REALTORS. A Contract Series – Part 7B
4
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Real Estate Disclosures about Potential Lead Hazards
5
Arizona Association of REALTORS. Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract
6
Arizona Association of REALTORS. Revised Purchase Contract and BINSR