Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Arizona

Re: making a will legal

Most states have a "self-proving affidavit" statute which allows a will to probated' (found to be valid by a judge) and involves the notarization of the two witnesses' and the testator's signatures plus some specific language in the statute.

However, there are many possible ways to screw up the will-signing so that someone later could challenge it. There are many, many technicalities involved with the order of the signatures, who sees / watches who does what, what is actually said by the parties!, etc., so this is usually best done by a lawyer and not a do-it-yourselfer. But it can be done.

Let's say the will is very short and governs very little property and the heirs are clear and without contraversy (in which case I would almost question the need for a will -- the laws of intestacy are pretty good, too! -- but, on second thought, wills are better) -- then you could avoid using a lawyer and if the testator's penmanship is very legible and as good as it's ever been, have the testator write the whole thing out by hand.