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Camelot’s remodel division surges in pandemic

BY DAVID M. BROWN Progress Contributor

About five years ago, third-generation Scottsdale homebuilder Cammie Hancock Beckert led an extensive renovation of a McCormick Ranch home built in the 1970s by her family’s Camelot Homes. Founded by her grandparents, JW and Maggie Hancock, more than a half-century ago, the company has built thousands of Valley homes, including $3–$5 million customs in luxury golf communities such as Grayhawk, Desert Mountain and Silverleaf, all in north Scottsdale. “The home had never had been updated; everything was original,” said Beckert, who lives in Silverleaf with her family.“A friend of a friend asked if we would be interested in remodeling the home. She liked the idea that we were the original builder and was familiar with our current work. “We took the house down to the studs, rearranged spaces, took down a wall to open up the kitchen, added on in a few places and completely updated the interior finishes,” she added. “The before/after photos were

Third-generation Scottsdale homebuilder Cammie Hancock Beckert led an extensive renovation of a McCormick Ranch home built in the 1970s by her family’s Camelot Homes.

(Courtesy Camelot Homes) seeCAMELOT page 30

Scottsdale homeowners Valerie and David Blanco were delighted with the work that Camelot Homes’ remodeling division did with their McCormick Ranch hosue. “You helped us get our home to where it is. It feels brand new, and we love the design and interior finishes,” Valerie said. (Courtesy Camelot Homes)

2 help unravel divorce's complexities

BY ALEX GALLAGHER Progress Staff Writer

Divorce can oftentimes be one of the worst experiences of a lifetime – and something that Amy Bloomberg Corben and Sheri Heitner-Anderson are all too familiar with.

Corben and Heitner-Anderson had always maintained a good friendship through working at non-profit events and having children that attended the same preschool. But their divorces brought them closer together and gave them the idea for un◆tied – a consulting firm that aids people through the bureaucratic and overwhelming process of breaking up. “There’s a lot of different ways to get divorced – like filing for legal separation or meeting with a mediator to create a parthat no divorce is the same.”

Corben explained, “One of the things that resonated with me was that I was finding it hard to function with the experience and the reason for our divorce.

“I was running a business and my home, taking care of my children, dealing with letting my loved ones know what was happening and to be provided a list from my attorney while constantly contacting the attorney started to add up.”

Corben began doing research to see if there were any resources available that guided someone through the daunting process of divorce. She could not find anything. “I couldn’t find anything that was of a resource to me,” Corben said. “There was nothing out there to hold my hand and guide me through one of the worst times of my life.” Corben saw a need for a business that offered individuals guidance and held their hands through a challenging time. “I had thought of doing something just like this but when Amy suggested it, she pushed me to make a decision,” HeitnerAnderson said. With the business model in mind, the two began reaching out to family law attorneys to decipher ways that they could aid couples who were divorcing and the lawyers representing them. “Before we formalized our decision to

Sheri Heitner-Anderson, left, and Amy Bloomberg Corben started un◆tied to help people who are going through divorce. (David Minton/Progress Staff Photographer)

dramatic and something I was proud to be a part of.” Owners Valerie and David Blanco were enthusiastic. “You helped us get our home to where it is. It feels brand new, and we love the design and interior finishes,” Valerie told Beckert. Their redo was perfectly timed. During a management retreat, Camelot Homes had discussed the possibility of adding a division that would offer $350,000plus remodels of its homes and those built by others. In 2019, company completed another renovation in Grayhawk. “So our team said, ‘Let’s get serious about this,’ and we began marketing our Custom & Remodel Division to previous Camelot owners in Grayhawk.” Then in 2020, the pandemic changed homebuilding. Beckert and others thought the Arizona real estate industry, including new-builds and re-builds, would collapse. “Well, I said, ‘There goes that,’” she recalled with a smile. “But it ended up just the opposite. “The pandemic intensified the need for this service.” People felt imprisoned in four walls and couldn’t escape, even by traveling. “I think just having to sit in our homes during the pandemic caused a lot of people to focus on aspects of their homes that had been bothering them, but they hadn’t made a priority to fix,” she said. ”We can do that tomorrow.” Since then, clients of the remodeling division have been requesting open floorplans, removing walls and interior-finish makeovers. Other common requests are adding casitas, or separate living quarters, for visiting family and friends; updated workout rooms and offices; dedicated homework spaces; teen rooms; and wine walls or other type of wine storage, she explained. “A lot of these existing homes might have an open kitchen, but that could be accompanied by a more formal dining room that goes mostly unused, so this space could be repurposed,” she said. “Or, they want to update their bathroom’s once-popular ornate fixtures and curving ‘snail’ style showers with a sleeker, symmetrical modern look that brings an open, airy feel to even the most intimate of spaces.” “With 60 percent of homeowners now saying that having outdoor space is more valuable than indoor square footage, many want seamless connections between indoor and outdoor spaces. Our clients love that they can open up the living room to the outside with the flip of switch thanks to roll away pocket walls or quickly change an open space into a private home office that keeps the kids, and their noise, out,” said Beckert, who expects the division to triple its business in the next few years. New technology has helped her team. This includes 3D cameras that accurately measure a client’s living spaces and HGTVstyle renderings provide them with a virtual walk-through of their planned space or allow them to explore different layouts, finishes and fixtures. Her clients vary from younger professionals wanting to expand their homes to empty nesters, whose space needs have changed. Many requests come from existing Camelot homeowners who love the location and quality of their aging homes and want to update them to fit their changing lifestyles. About half request space additions, depending on their lot sizes. Often, people who have visited the company’s models ask if the company can build one of the designs on their property, which the company can do through its Custom division. Or they ask if the company can replicate one of the model home kitchens in their existing homes or provide indooroutdoor living space. John and Sandra Moses liked their Camelot Home in the Firenze neighborhood at Grayhawk but needed more space for entertaining; they were considering moving. Then, they visited Camelot’s luxury White Horse models in Scottsdale. “We loved the open floorplan and en-

CORRECTION

A story in last Sunday’s Scottsdale Progress gave the wrong website for Scottsdale attorney Tricia Schafer. It is vitality.law.

seeCAMELOT page 31

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create this company, we met with some well-known family law attorneys to find out how we could help them and what made their job more difficult,” HeitnerAnderson said. The biggest needs they identified: “organization and timeline and having access to additional experts.” Corben and Heitner-Anderson compiled a referral list with 30 different categories of professions such as family law attorneys, mediators, business attorneys, CPA’s, forensic accountants and financial experts. They also produced a plan for assessing clients before creating a proposal to move forward with. The client begins with a consultation and questionnaire followed by a two-hour intake session to find out the length of the marriage, what assets they had and what is at stake. From there, Heitner-Anderson and Corben will help guide the way through untying the knot. “We’re going to help clients become better organized and prepared for when they do meet with their attorneys,” Corben said. “There’s many documents like financial statements, copies of tax returns, credit card statements and statements up to their will and trust.” Not only can these documents be a nightmare to track down, but they also can be a hassle to download and view. “We will go to our clients and sit down to aid in downloading documents and be someone that makes things a little bit easier,” said Heitner-Anderson. The duo will also aid individuals in the process of selecting an attorney, which is often the most important part of the process. “I think it is important when selecting an attorney that you know how you want to proceed,” Heitner-Anderson said. “There’s probably no one else who knows your soon to be ex-spouse’s personality and behavior better than you do and it’s hard when you rely on an attorney to just go after it.” The two are also there to aid in the not so pretty situations. “The more that couples have and the longer the marriage lasts creates a huge complexity, so there’s a lot to untie,” said Heitner-Anderson. “When it comes to dividing money, that’s when things are not so pretty and not so fun.” Because of this, the two feel that their business serves as a lifeline for those going through this hardship. “When you have someone that can help lead the way, everyday gets less and less scary,” said Heitner-Anderson Above all, the two want to aid in educating individuals in the ways that they can get through these dark times. “I think a lot of people don’t really know what they don’t know,” said Heitner-Anderson. “We say that we wish we would’ve had someone like us that we could call and talk through things that would not be an absorbent cost.” In addition to saving client’s money, the two hope to provide much-needed company to their clients. “I want people to know that they’re not alone and we want our clients to feel comfortable with us knowing that we have their best interests at heart,” said Corben. “Life is not over because you’re getting divorced.”

Information: untiedaz.com

CAMELOT from page 30

gaged Camelot’s remodel division to help in reconfiguring our space and updating our interior finishes,” Sandra said. “We recently hosted a large dinner party, and everyone loved our new and improved home. We are thrilled with the finished product.” Beckert is very much at home with her professional role. From youth, her grandmother Maggi and mother, Julie, taught her the value of the woman’s viewpoint in home building, she explained. After graduating from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in communications, she worked at NBC affiliate KPNX, The Meyers Group and Nathan and Associates. About 15 years ago, she returned to the family business, first as a sales associate, then marketing manager and today managing director of the Custom & Remodel Division. For years, people have been regularly calling the company regarding renovations. “But the answer was always, ‘Sorry, we don’t do custom or remodels,’” she said. “We always knew the demand was there, but we just had to figure out how to offer the same design quality, craftsmanship and attention to detail before we were willing to put the Camelot name on it.”

Information: camelothomes.com/ custom-remodeling.

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