THRIVING IN A

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myself out there. I would try. So at this stage of my life, I was like, okay, tomorrow is promised to no one. I'm sure. Try everything I can to help people to make my life better, happier and less pain and better cognitive skills to be a resource to more. Right. I wasn't a resource with a chemo brain, so I applied to Harvard. They took me and I've been in the master's program for three years. I have one more year and my chemo brain is completely gone.

Kim: If you're doing everything for a nonprofit, how do you pay for the roof over your head? And I know for you, it's not just money. It's not just about being financially rewarded although that is a part of it. What is your monetization model around your speaking and your coaching or anything along those lines?

So I think the best way for me to describe it is I felt at a certain point that I had value and that value should be monetized because whether it was modelling and getting a paycheck from the modelling or getting a paycheck from speaking and not giving all of my speaking gigs away for free, which I did in the beginning because I needed content.

But I think it goes back to self-esteem. I'm worthy of a paycheck. I'm worthy of being compensated for what I do. And so whether it's speaking or whether it's being on a nonprofit or whether it's modelling or my book or my book becoming a film or whatever it is, I'm setting myself up for success, financial success, most importantly, for emotional success. That's number one. But that doesn't have to exclude financial success. We shouldn't be compensated for our hard work. And that's a self-esteem issue, I think.

I think that the biggest struggle women have is that imposter syndrome. I see that repeatedly. Credibility, confidence and relevancy are the biggest challenges they face and it's really easy to get sidelined by those that you've grown up with or have been around in your life. And they still view you as the nine-year-old that threw up on your cousin's payday game. They don't view you as the 49-year-old who's crushing it. Right on. You know, you've got one person in your life that goes I one. Kim: Can you share with us the time of your life that without resiliency you would not be sitting here having this conversation?

So many things. I think the breast cancer diagnosis on top of my arm was my breaking point. I was almost buried in despair. I just didn't know how to move forward. I now was a thriving mother-wife model self-proclaimed athlete who became a sickly woman needing constant care and attention, whose husband didn't want to change the model that they had made right she's an independent girl. She's just like a really strong, tough girl. I was not the strong, tough girl when I was diagnosed with cancer. I was depleted after this whole arm situation. And after this man bullied me, I felt so low about myself. And the physical pain and the emotional pain were burying me. And I had a lot of friends show up for me. And I had a lot of people say to me, I will not forsake you. But man, without faith and faith in God and without shifting my measure, from society's accolades to saying to God, I'm just going to surrender and you're in charge, I would have never made it. And that was the best shift in my life.

There was like there was so much despair. And, you know, the suicide thoughts that engulfed me. And those are kind of normal thoughts when everything that you believed was your value is taken away and I didn't know if I was going to be a mother anymore. I didn't know if my kids were going to be raised by somebody else. I didn't know if I was going to make it through chemotherapy. I didn't know if I was going to make decisions with healthy self-esteem because I'd made disastrous decisions from low self-esteem. I didn't know how I was going to ask my friends and family to help me after they'd just helped me for a year with my arm. All my pride and my ego were teetering, my decision-making, right? And I was afraid of asking for help. That's insecurity. And when I started to have more compassion for myself and I started to let go and surrender, then I was able to ask for help. The help that I needed but that's letting go of pride, of ego. And I can say this with certainty, in the 40 years that I lived before this trauma I accomplished things. But from 40 till now, never in a million years would I have ever imagined that I could have accomplished anything in those beginning

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days. I have accomplished more in my life since my cancer diagnosis. Diagnosis does not have to paralyze you. They can be just step ladders to your ultimate success and your ultimate dreams coming true. And that has been apparent in my life. But it's hard work and it's great. It's great and it's determination and there and resiliency and courage. Those things can wane in your life. But if you have people around you that are lifting you and encouraging you your resiliency will never stop.

Kim: Tell me a little bit about your book. And what's the correlation between it and a movie?

My book, Walk Beside Me is a fictional depiction of my life. When I was going through breast cancer, I was gifted a lot of very important self-help books, but I could not find a book, a fictional novel on The Good, The Bad, the Ugly about going through this kind of tragedy. And I thought that it was important for people to read it because I needed it. And so I decided that I would write it myself and the book is also really important because it talks about the power of women coming together versus women negating each other. This constant comparison and judgment in our society are not healthy. And so I talk in my book about the women that showed me forward and said to me, When we're done with caring for you, then we're going to send you out to the world and you're going to care for other people. And I took that very seriously, and they modelled that beautifully for me. So there are a lot of examples of that in the book, and there are a lot of great takeaways for people. How to show your friends love going through illness, difficulty or divorce, whatever it may be. And so that's the reason I wrote my book and my book in 2018 was picked up to be made into a screenplay, and it's subsequently being made into a film. So a guy named Ziad Hamzah is an Oscar award-winning screenplay writer, and he wrote the screenplay for my book, and it does mirror my book. Oftentimes books are made into films and they don't always resemble the book. This screenplay looks like my book, and so it's a beautiful story of women. Like I said, caring for each other. It's a movie about breast cancer, which I think is important because there are too many people being touched by breast cancer. And so it's slated to be in production later this year.

Kim: Can you leave us with a quote, an inspirational quote? Something that on your dark days helped you.

Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.

Connect with Christine Website: christinehandy.com Instagram: @christinehandy1 Facebook: @ChristineHandyAuthor

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THRIVING IN A CHANGING MARKET

Kimberly Caruso-Fast has been working as a real estate agent for over 10 years now, and during that time she's learned a lot about the industry and the everchanging real estate market.

As a top realtor in Phoenix, Arizona, Kimberly gives her insights about the changing economy, real estate investors, expansion and solar power.

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Kim: So top 1% realtors in Arizona. So first, tell us exactly where you're at and what's the market you're working at?

I've been a realtor for about ten years in the Greater Phoenix area. I work all of Maricopa County. I'm from Los Angeles, so I'm used to working far and wide. Many realtors just kind of work in their neighbourhood and that's their niche. I work in Phoenix. I'm an expert in every neighbourhood. I've been working, as I said, for about ten years. A few years ago, I took on a licensed realtor assistant, and with her, we've been able to do about 15 million in sales per year. And boots on the ground. As you said, I'm out there and anything I work on, I touch from start to finish. My licensed assistant is my backup. She does my transaction coordinating. She's able to get into properties if I'm not available. And together we get it done.

Kim: We know that real estate itself right now is like I jokingly said the other day, I think I could sell my doghouse in the backyard for triple digits. When we look at this, what are some of the strategies? Are you working with many buyers?

I typically work with buyers. Nothing I love more than a listing. So easy to put that sign out there and get it sold. The hardest part about being a listing agent is saying no to the 25 people who put in over-asking bids. I work with lots of buyers. I've had to change my entire marketing plan. I always worked with entry-level buyers. That was my passion. It was my wheelhouse. My kids are in their early twenties. I moved to Arizona eight years ago from Southern California. So friends that I grew up with in California, all of their children want to buy homes, but they can't buy homes in California. So they started moving to Arizona as my kids graduated college, I found a nice little niche, and started encouraging young kids, don't buy a car when they graduate college, but to buy a house with down payment assistance. We can get you into a house for less money than you can get into an apartment. So that was my wheelhouse. I did a lot of small-dollar volume transactions every year. Very rewarding. Unfortunately, our market has changed and some parts of our market went up 32%. November, November night, 20, 20 to November. 20, 21 housing prices went up, up to 32%. So entry-level buyers, there's not a lot for them anymore. So last year, I kind of struggled and looked around at the craziness in our market and realized survival of the fittest is being adaptable. So I had to kind of reformulate what I was doing. As much as I love the entry-level buyer, there's just not enough there to sustain my business. So I started looking at, you know what is selling in our market because prices have gone up so high. Who's buying we have a lot of out-of-state money and we have a lot of investors. So I've kind of restarted and I'm now marketing more towards the buyer. And a lot of investor buyers.

Kim: I know that in our market here in Calgary, where we're seeing people who say there are investors, but they're not really investors, so the deals aren't going through and such. How do you do that? Who is a real honest-to-goodness investor?

Investors have changed. You know, it's interesting. I don't know if it started with COVID, but people have reassessed money and what they've done with money and people seem to have a little bit more free income these days. So what I would consider an investor is somebody who owns their own home, whether they're in state or out of state, and then they have investment properties, usually anywhere between one and ten properties. I have a few investors who are just getting into the investing market. I try to provide them with the pros, the cons, and a bit of a prospectus on what to expect and what your return on investment is going to be. So this is where my marketing has had to change. I have to put together all of this data now, but also I need to vet my investor, of course, and no offer goes in ever without proof of funds and then decent earnest money and a decent amount of earnest money and typically waiving any repairs and inspection. So there are only a few days to do an inspection and I have yet to have an investor back out of anything. Investors are so grateful when they finally secure a property, they're happy to take it. Our rents have gone up significantly. Our market here in Phenix has

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OUR MARKET HERE IN PHOENIX STILL SEEMS TO BE THRIVING. AS THE REST OF THE NATION IS HURT AND REELING FROM HIGH PRICES, THEY'RE ESCAPING TO ARIZONA.

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gone up far higher than the rest of the nation. So this is an excellent place to be investing right now. So there's no shortage of investors. There's just a shortage of properties that we can get them into.

Kim: I'm originally from Wichita, Kansas, and my brother-in-law owns 19 properties there. And they've seen in the last six months which to go up 25% year over a year So needless to say, with 90 properties, He's been in this for a long time and he's a professional investor and a professional landlord. So it is absolutely a great space. With the United States having such strong welcoming immigration policies, where do you see the real estate going? A lot of people go, when is this going to stop? What are your thoughts on that?

I focus on Arizona's real estate and we are a bit of an anomaly. We don't follow the national trends typically. I belong to a group where we look at Mike Orr's database and its real-time data. It's the oldest and largest database of real estate transactions in the nation. And Arizona is, as I said, an anomaly. We don't follow the typical trends, although I think things are changing for us. And that is thanks to COVID. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but we've seen so much of Silicon Valley move to Arizona. People are working remotely now. My four clients right now are from Seattle. Again, people are working remotely. They're not quite ready to retire. A really interesting dynamic group that's not quite ready to retire, but I can work remotely, so I'm going to move to Arizona and that's who's buying right now. That seems to be my new wheelhouse. So, you know, we were a state that was driven by tourism back in the day. So when, you know, things like Nine-Eleven happened, this economy crumbled. But we're no longer driven by tourism. I think we are the new and what, three the second largest tech community we have, Taiwan Semiconductor is just a couple of miles down the road here, building one of the largest chip manufacturing plants in the world. So our dynamics are changing. And I believe that because our median incomes are going up, I think we have a very healthy economy here in Phoenix. And regardless of what happens with the rest of the nation, we're watching the inflation right now in the rest. I mean, everyone is suffering right now with inflation, but our market here in Phoenix still seems to be thriving. And I think we will continue as the rest of the nation is hurt and reeling from high prices, they're escaping to Arizona, which still is affordable. We're one of the most affordable markets in the nation. So I think for now we're in good shape.

Kim: Boise, Idaho is one of the most elevated pricing in North America in the last 12 months. And that is all you had already mentioned about the market in Seattle which is all due to the influx from San Francisco Portland and Seattle. One of the things they're hearing is that the locals are getting priced out of the market. They can no longer afford to live there, and now they're pushing outward. What are some of your thoughts around that and how do you help, especially from the listing side, you get a call and somebody like I can't afford my taxes anymore because my taxes have gone up three times or, you know, I'm not making the money I need to make an or to live now in this neighbourhood. What are some of the ways that you help the locals navigate and still feel connected to the city that they've lived in and supported and loved?

Expansion is the big thing here in Phoenix. I live on the west side of Phoenix. People who grew up here would turn their noses up at the west side. It was all orange groves back 25 years ago. I came from Los Angeles. I thought it was beautiful, so I decided to settle here. People don't even realize I had a client that grew up in the Chandler area last weekend, and I met her at an investment property in the West Valley and she is in her mid-fifties and early sixties. And she was shocked that people lived out here and were so taken back and so impressed at how beautiful the homes were and the area that has been in her backyard for years. People don't realize the expansion in Phoenix. So where are we expanding? East Valley expanded maybe ten years ago. I'm really big on expansion in the West Valley and the Northwest Valley. I've kind of speculated on that, and I've bought my investment properties and done very well on them. And that's where I tend to put my investor clients and also my neighbours whose children need to buy or neighbours who just need a different house. But as you said, they're priced out of our market or they just want to take some equity

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out of their home. And, you know, downsize, which usually means more square footage in one story, by the way. But so I'm finding you know, through my background is marketing. I went to USC. I have a degree in marketing, so I read a lot. Phoenix Business Journal is my go-to I get alerts on my phone all day long about who bought land and what they're doing with it. So between the businesses that are buying the land and developing jobs and the builders who are mowing down those mountains and putting up new homes, there are still opportunities to buy in Phoenix that you talked about in the $400,000 market. I know our dollars are a little different, but that's a market that you know, I used to get people into homes for $180,000 and that wasn't that long ago.

Kim: The very first home I sold in this market was $137,000. That same house today is about four 50 in Calgary. I used to call myself the Queen of the $89,000 condo. It no longer exists. It's about a $400,000 condo now.

There is a new build going out west. Some of the communities have prices in the mid 300 thousand, but they've got waitlists of 300 people for those homes. They're not doing a lottery. The systems are kind of weird. It's hard to get in but now and then I'll find a friendly community. So opening day in the new community is where you want to get in. You're going to get entry-level prices for that community. They will continue to go up every time there's, you know, a release of ten homes over the year. So by the time your new build is done in a year, you'll have $100,000 equity in that house before you even sign the papers. So that's where I'm taking my clients. But it is a matter of educating them as to the beauty and the value of the Northwest Valley people. It's a little stigmatized. People don't understand what's going on out here but everything's new and it's shiny and it's great and it's less traffic.

I think that our younger generations are less about name brand, a more about value, and they also do their research. They will know that if it's good value and it's a safe community it is worth putting their money there. It's funny because I am seeing chefs away I always joke that I'm not. I'm more like a bowling bag. It's bright, it's colourful, it's fun, you know, and I have never been able to understand and I've always been to survey knows very clearly. I have always been a mid-market agent and I've always worked predominantly as a listing agent in singlefamily homes. And I think part of the reason I never truly transitioned to the luxury market is that I am pulling back and I'm cool with that. But I think our next generation is looking at what is useful, what is safe, what is, you know, affordable. They're not they're not as swayed by you must have this because of this name brand, they're going, this couch is good enough. I don't need a chancing company couch. I don't need it. Ethan Allen couch. This one's good enough. So on that note, I'm going to do a little game because I've got this whole thing around modular homes and carry gated communities that are financial bridge communities, but more so for the like 45 and over. Okay. So if you were to be in your market if somebody came and said, I have money, we're going to develop a modular kind of RV type of thing because we have this whole thing happening with no nomadic lifestyle. Right? What would that look like? How would you design it for the people in your community, the people, you know, that thing that is somewhat fascinated by that? If the money was not an issue and you could design a cost-effective modular nomadic style community to fit the 50 plus that wants to travel and move and own what would it look like?

Interestingly, you brought that up because this is such a big topic right now. First off, I have a girlfriend who's an investor. She's a neighbour here in the community. And she developed a modular home community in the Costa Grand area, which is east of Pheonix going towards Tucson. The homes were sold before she finished the community. So there is a huge demand simply because it's affordable housing and the nomadic lifestyle is huge. Everybody here has big mobile homes and they're buying land in places where everybody can park them and they can go on vacation. I'm not quite on board yet with this kitchen. I like my creature comforts, so but I have a feeling it's in my future, you know, it's I think it's in all of our future. Here in Phoenix, as I said, housing still affordable land is pretty cheap. People are taking plots of land and they're developing them

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more into multifamily, maybe four and eight plex, as opposed to the modular home community.

It's something that we're where we talk to a lot of people. We're looking at all the different building products and concepts and everything because the United States is quoted to be 4.8 million homes short for servicing affordable housing. So on to one.

Kim: I know that they do it in Pheonix, where they do an energy reading. With the cost of living and with inflation hitting, I believe that this is something we're going to see because I believe I believe Arizona is at the forefront of this. And it does affect your mortgage rate and what you qualify for and such like that. Can you share a little bit about that for me?

Electric costs have gone up 30% in the last year. I was looking into solar and opted not to do solar. The payback just wasn't there. And we have a huge electric bill and we don't have a pool and I can't quite figure out why it's so big, but it's just huge. But because our prices have gone up so significantly in the last year, the return is there now for solar. So it's something we're just starting to look into. Solar is huge here in Phoenix some leases are predatory. You find them in a lot of retirement communities. When people go to sell a home, the leases are in and the homeowner is at a complete disadvantage. They're paying more for the lease and the electricity than they would be without solar. But what we can do now, as realtors, as listing agents, is renegotiate those leases for the buyers. So it's not making deals fall apart any longer. So solar is huge. New homes are going to have the high energy rating that you're referring to. That's another reason that I pushed for new homes simply because everything from your appliances, you know, through your windows and the insulation, everything is the highest rating possible for energy efficiency. And in Arizona, with the heat, that's huge. That's important. It's good for the environment. And it's good all the way around. So we are a state that's very proactive with energy conservation, but we are seeing a big, huge push for solar here in Phoenix.

Kim: We have communities that are being built here in Calgary. And when you talk about energy bills, ours have doubled here in Canada. And the reality is Calgary, where I'm where I live, we sit on one of the largest natural gas pools globally. And our delivery, it's for us, it's all the taxes that go into the delivery of energy. And so we have some communities being built in that 45 minutes out of core that is wired and the roofs are all solar.

Tesla is doing the solar roof and I'm fascinated by it.

Kim: Elon is crazy. He's such a forward thinker and visionary. To think that at 16 years of age he decided to leave South Africa, go to Canada, go to school out East and then go to the United States like he's done all this on his folks. So anybody out there who says they're afraid to branch out or do something on their own is you know think about it. Some of the greatest minds out there work on their own. And do it from a very early age. I'm going to look up more information on this because we're starting to see that here in Calgary because like I said, it's -16 today. Oh, I've got a heating pad on my floor that I put my feet on. So my toes don't get cold, so I'll swap this weather.

I may have to sell you a house here in Arizona!

Kim: As you know, I always like to have inspirational quotes that we can share.

So Herman Cain is who this quote is by, but I believe it goes back to Einstein, and it's been said by many people with different variations of it, but it's about success. It says success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. You are doing it when you're if you're doing what you are, what you love, you'll be successful. It's just that simple. You have to love what you're doing.

Kim: Stats show that 62% of all residential real estate agents are women. Ladies, we have to support each other and celebrate each other.

Watch the interview now! youtube.com/c/KimTalks

Connect with Kimberly Instagram: @kimberlycarusorealtor Twitter: @kimberlycaruso2 Tik Tok: homes_of_phoenix