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Northern Arizona Life & Luxury Homes – Part 3

[00:00:00] Welcome back, part three of the Kirsten and Judith interview. Um, you know, we, we, we are just very real and in this part we're gonna talk about the churches. We have a lot of churches. We're gonna talk about what a luxury home or a million dollar home is here. And then we also talk about, just more about the relationships and community and living in small town USA in the Verde Valley.

so, uh, yeah, we've kind of gone all over, but it's, it's, it's part of what makes living here awesome is because people like Kirsten who've lived there their whole life are very welcoming to people like myself who just moved here. And you, you, you know it, okay, how do I say this? And this is not about Yavapai title, and we love, and I love Yavapai title, but.[00:01:00]

A lot of people struggle when they move to new areas. Yeah. Because I lived my whole life, 50 plus years basically, and had this in in Minnesota and had all the same people in my life. Right. Most of that time. Right. And. When you leave and you leave your family, you leave your cousins. Your support. Your support, all that.

Yeah. All that support. And you come to another place, and especially, I know rural towns have a bad reputation, and I'm telling you some towns it's true, but not here, is that the Verde Valley and the Prescott Quad cities are very welcoming of new people. Yeah. You never, they don't, they don't like. I don't know how, uh, it's not cliquey like that.

It's not like, oh, you're, you're, no, we weren't gonna talk to you. No, here, we're not gonna talk to you now. No. People have different attitudes that have lived here their whole life about different cities up here. I can't do anything [00:02:00] about that. I have no opinion about any of 'em. I love them all. Yeah. And, uh, but it was really nice.

To be welcomed. And I've, you know, it, it's a little harder to develop friendships when you work from home. Oh gosh, yeah. And you're mobile and you're all over the place, because you don't have a core that you go to work every day and you interact with the same people every day and you build that connection.

So it's a lot more work to stay connected. When you're a realtor, because number one, I don't have an office to go to. I've never really had an office to go to. No. I did a little bit, but it's kind of one of those things that I've had to work. You've actually done it better at connecting you. You've done it better than most.

Oh, well thank you. Appreciate that. You're welcome. So I try, I try. Well, you were interested, you were curious. Oh, I am. I'm the world's most curious person. You and you wanted to know, and so you put yourself out there, which, which makes a huge difference. You do have to put yourself out there. You do. You do have to put yourself out there.

You have to [00:03:00] seek people. You have to go to things. Yeah. Talk to people. Follow, check it up. Reach out. You know, oh, oh, and there's something coming up. What? I don't wanna forget to mention in, in Prescott does, it's the, anchor days. No. What is it? The music, the December music. Oh, Acker days.

Oh, that acre. What acre? There's no boats. Sorry. Whatcha talking about? I couldn't, no, that won't be till Christmas though. That's uh, no, but that's coming up in December. Yeah, December. So fifth or 12th, I think it is. Yeah. And that is the most awesome event put on in Prescott. And I'm telling you, people come from all Yeah.

Over. Oh yeah. People come up from Phoenix, people come over from the Verde Valley. Oh yeah. Because it's a night of music. Now explain it. Do you know? Explain it? Yes, I do explain it because I've done it. I've been there once. Otherwise I've been in Mexico. Sorry. Oh, that's true. So, it's, and, and jump in if I'm wrong, but they're all, a lot of the stores and a couple of the churches [00:04:00] open up their doors and they have local musicians Yes.

Performing in their place. And then the store or the shop or the church have refreshments. Free refreshments for us. And so you make your way around town. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And the first time we did it, I think we clocked three miles. It was a lot of walking. It's a lot of walking. But it was so fun and so great to hear all the different musicians and everything's decorated for Christmas.

Prescott takes Christmas to another level, I'm telling you. Well, and here's the thing, if you've never been, you should come check it out. but at least look at. Prescott Courthouse Square. Oh yeah, Google that. Because what she's talking about is it goes all the way around the courthouse square and then it starts branching off on some of these streets.

And so you literally could be walking Miles, miles, but it's like hot, hot cider. Hot cocoa cookies. Great music. Yeah. I mean, it was just, it's just a fun night. Festive. [00:05:00] It's very festive. Yeah. And very family friendly. And I will say that's the other thing that I really love about living up here. Again, both sides, Verde Valley and the Quad City side.

Yeah. Is everything, not everything, but I would say 80% of the activities that are done are very family friendly. Yeah. And they don't start at like 10 o'clock at night. No. No. Because you know how we all roll up the carpet seat like five o'clock and go to bed. I'm just kidding. No. Well, the truth, that one starts at like five o'clock, but it was so funny.

So years and years ago when I was in high school here, which is back in the eighties, a few days ago. Oh, thank you. It would be Sunday at five o'clock. Everything would shut down. Because that was it. You were done, you went home to spend time with your family. Exactly. Yeah. And, and it kind of still does that, that is one of the things, there's a lot of it that I really, again, I like that, because it's very, I kind of old fashioned old school.

Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. But I like that because it's more family focused. Faith huge is very important. I'm not gonna say [00:06:00] religion, but we do have a lot of churches. Of pretty much every denomination there is a s synagogue. That's what it is in, for Jewish people. Yes. that practice Judaism in Sedona.

But there are Baptist church baptism, Catholic church, Lutheran churches, non-denominational churches. Pentecostals, yep. You name it. There's Jehovah Witnesses. There's latter Day Saints. Yep. There's everything. So it's a very faith. I think very faith based community, both sides. And I think that's part of what also makes it kind of wholesome and family oriented.

Yeah. So there you go. I did not know we were gonna talk about that. This will be cut out later. No. Well because they know me. Um, okay. So did we, do you wanna mention anything else about Yavapai title? I mean, you do do the classes, so I do wanna, sorry, we're circling back. So let's talk about classes. Okay, so this year we started offering [00:07:00] classes to our local agents, and what we tried to do was create classes that we thought would.

I don't mean to move that so you can't read it, but we'll post it. and so what we have is not only do we have agents are required to do so many renewal hours a year to renew their license. So we offer like three or four of those a year, a month I should say. And then we offer a social media workshop class that we do for free.

And then we have, that was awesome. A lunch and learn class that we're doing also. And that changes. So last year we've done Canva. We are gonna do another ai, this one, because that sold out. It was packed. And then we did, agent panels because in a small community, you know, you do have some people that do really well in their business and some people that want to do better and they just dunno how.

And so we believe in giving back to our community and we believe in sharing that knowledge. And we have wonderful agents who are willing to do that for us. I've never been invited. No, I'm just kidding. Like you're on the outside. Yeah. I like if you're here totally would. But yeah, I know. But no, it's [00:08:00] awesome.

So we usually have it full a month of everything going on, and then we also offer the Luxury Home tour. Yes, you do. And I have not done that. Again, part of it is, some of this I haven't done because. Time. Time. And I'm on the other side of the mountain and it literally does take me an hour to come over here or so.

Yeah. And that's a long day and that's a long day for me. You sign up for ce I see for ce I do. I do. I come over for CE 'cause that's three hours. I need my CE and the fees are. Almost nothing. Well, we do have some that are just Yeah. And some canned goods. $10. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that's the other thing that, you do as a title agency Yep.

Is you support us in our education. Technology learning. Marketing. Marketing. Right. CEU classes. Yeah. Just, and, and getting us into, like you said, the luxury home tour. Yeah. Let's talk about that. What's a luxury home tour? Okay. So it's kind of, we all want one, those. So it's kind of funny. [00:09:00] So, we've been doing the Luxury Home tour probably about 10 years in Prescott, and we tour Prescott or Williamson Valley.

We bounce it one month from the other. We always tour the third Thursday of the month. The house must be a million or above. There is a certification, I guess, for luxury agents. Oh yeah, there is. There is. But their, their price point is like 750. Yeah, I had it. Yeah. And it's just, I probably still do it.

It just, it was like, okay, our price point's a little higher over here, kinda like your Sedona market. It's gonna be a little higher. Mm-hmm. So we choose it to a million. We look at, anywhere from five to seven homes a month. The House has can only be on tour once a year. Oh yeah. We have about 15 to 25 agents that come and it takes about three or four hours to do.

Really? Yeah. So what do they do when they get to the house? So we carpool from Yavapai title here at the Junction office, which is on Girly Street, and we will drive to the first home. We tour the house, we request, because what we find that agents need is the feedback. [00:10:00] Sometimes it's hard to have a conversation with your seller that they need to either fix or replace something or they need to lower their price or they need to rethink their strategy.

And so what we found is that if we can give you guys honest feedback from the agents there, something that they can physically take in their hand to their seller to sit down with that, that makes that conversation a little easier. And so we required that those agents that are on tour to give us feedback before they leave the house.

Ah, okay. Okay. Well that's fair. It's kinda like we're holding them hostage until they give it. That makes sense. Because you're gonna forget otherwise you're gonna forget and, and if you turn five or six homes, you forget which house you were in and what it looks like. Exactly. Because that's a lot at one time.

And some of these houses are huge. They're like 4,000 square feet. Yeah. 5,000 square feet. That's a lot of house. So they agents seem to love that. We liked it so much. We started one in Prescott Valley. Ah, that price point's only 850, and we're doing that every other month now. Okay. And we'll see.

We're trying to build it up. Yeah. You have to come over just for, you know, just to experience that a couple times because I, I love, you [00:11:00] know, looking at luxury homes and I've sold quite a few. Yeah. But now that, again, I'm on the other side, I'm not. Yeah. You know, but again, I do have, and, and again, why Prescott to Cottonwood?

That's another one of my videos to look at is that I started over here. You did? In Prescott, in the Quad cities. Yeah. So I have a lot of former clients Correct. That are, you know, I stay in touch with and that we, they use me again. They're gonna Well, you're good about that. You're really good about staying in Con I contact with them.

I try. You are. No, you are. You are. I try so, I could do better. I'm trying. Oh, stop. I have a plan. Y'all are gonna see me all the time. No, I'm just kidding. But. Because they're here and I stay in touch. They still use me to list their homes. Okay. They refer me to their family and friends, their neighbors, coworkers, and they use me to buy other homes.

Right. And so I, of course I'm not gonna, you know, quit doing that. Yeah. And, and le let them down. But, so that's why I'm still over here. I [00:12:00] love the Prescott side. I do. But here's what it's really, it's like a 45 minute, hour drive. It's not a huge deal. It's a big, huge deal at at all. And the thing is going from my house, because I'm literally seven minutes from Jerome, I timed it.

Wow. I know. I'm almost in Clarkdale. So where I live, the street that one runs on one side of my subdivision, yeah. Is the street that runs between Clarkdale and Cottonwood. So half of our subdivision's almost in Clarkdale Clarkdale if we cross the street. So we are almost in Clarkdale. So for me it is faster to go up over Jerome and it's so beautiful.

It's such a gorgeous drive. I don't mind it. I just don't wanna do it at night. 'cause I don't wanna hit no bears or nothing else. And, and I have this vision. Of my breaks giving out and doing a Thelma and Louise off the edge of the road. Well, yeah, it's a little steep and windy. So yeah, she's very, she's very switch backy, I think.

I think everybody who drives it kind of thinks that. Yeah. I have those moments where I'm like, I probably should slow down. [00:13:00] Right. You know? Yeah, I know. So I have to have good breaks. Right. But, um, yeah, so we digress again, but that's why I would like to come over and do the luxury tour because I, you should, I do have buyers over here still.

I do have people that are looking, our last one will be November. 20th, I think it is. Okay. You see the 19th, the t, Thursday? I probably, because I have closings. Okay. Potentially two on that day. No, no, that's good for you. Yay. Good for you. Yeah, I don't, uh, then we'll go dark in December and we'll start up again in January.

Ah, okay. Cool. Cool. Well, that'll be, that'll be good. Yeah. It'll be a good start for me for December. It's for, it's very eye opening, especially if in, because you have some over in that area that are mm-hmm. Really nice homes. Mm-hmm. Um. I'm always curious to find out what people consider million dollar homes, and I will tell you that as an agent.

I have become very critical. Oh, right. Of what should be. Right. A million dollar home. Well, we're not, and you have to take it into, into we're not Phoenix, we're not [00:14:00] Scottsdale, we're not New York, we're not hills, we're not California. We're, and so ours is a lot different and, and over here, I'm not sure about you guys.

We have a lot of like Williamson Valley where it's rural with horses. Exactly. And all of that starts to add up in your price. Right. And how they get to the price of a million dollars or more. Yeah. It's not the house. No. Now in Sedona, you're looking at usually million dollar plus homes. And those homes, some of them are massive, more than 4,000 square feet.

It's crazy. We, I mean we have Sedona sort of is, Beautiful. It's sort of, it's, it's beautiful. It's, but I'm just saying it's a, it's all by its little self. You can't really, it's a separate entity. Yeah. Thank you. It's a separate entity. You can't compare it No. To normal. I You can't compare it to Cottonwood or anything.

Cotton, cottonwood, it's apples and oranges. It's, it's very much, yeah. Luxury homes beautiful. Gorgeous. But again. I still look at some of those and go, [00:15:00] nah, I don't think so. What's interesting, you start looking at the finishes and everything. Yes. And you're like, really? Yeah. You need to fix that. You know that a million dollar house should not have crappy carpet.

Right, right. Or needs to be stretched. Or outdated light fixtures. Yes. No, sorry. No. So anyway, this has been just so fun. Totally. I feel bad for your editors. I clip it all together. I'm sorry. No, no. He'll just run it because he knows. He knows he knows how I am. Okay. And And he's good with it. And part of

this is not just about Yavapai title, but about relationships. And relationships are very important in this business. Oh yeah. And. Longevity of her life. Staying in touch. Now again, I moved to the other side of the mountain. I don't get to see Kirsten like I used to. We used to have coffee together often. Gosh, it was like once a month or once every other month. Oh my.

Yeah. Yeah. And we would have coffee like at one of the local little places. Oh, I love the place she found. I know. I love that place. And she's got three now. I know. [00:16:00] She is the, she's got the food truck now. She's at the library. She's at the library. This girl was like, I'm gonna do this. She's doing good.

She's doing good. Sorry. I, I'm, yeah, we, we love to support our local businesses. Have her on. Oh my God, that is a fabulous idea. Because she, oh, she, oh, I don't know if you'll be able to understand her, though. She talks really fast and she, she's Hispanic, so English is not her first language. You could do it bilingual.

That's true. She could do 'em both. Well, you're learning Spanish. I am. Oh yeah. I be like,

no more. No more. No more. Sorry. Um, so yeah, it's, it's really about relationships. It is ultimately bottom line, this video is about relationships and that that's but isn't life about relationships. Exactly. Thank you so much. Thank you so much and, and moving here. Yes. It takes effort to connect with people.

It takes work. You gotta leave your [00:17:00] house. Yeah, house. But it's worth it. And it's worth it. I mean, I, I will continue to create videos and things showing you all of the awesome things to do. And some of them will be over here because again, it's 45 minutes. And a funny thing is, and I feel sad when I hear people say this.

So when I lived in Dewey here in the Quad Cities, my neighbor had never been to Cottonwood. Are you serious? And she lived here for like 20 years. I'm like you. She never went anywhere. Like she just came to Prescott Valley and went home. You gotta go to Cottonwood. I'm like, you gotta go to Camp Verde. You gotta go to Clarkdale.

Yes. And then I was in Sedona one time and I was talking to a shopkeeper. And she's like, oh, I haven't been over to pre, because at that time I still lived over, well, I haven't been over there in like years, decades. I'm like, don't be that person. Don't be that person. No. Go and enjoy the communities because there is so freaking much to do.

Hiking. Well, and they're [00:18:00] driving. They're all, they're all different. Exactly. That's what I like. They're not to say they're not, they're all very, very different. We, you go in the metropolitan areas and they're all cookie cutter. Yeah. Just one boom, boom, boom. Yeah. And it's like, no, that's the nice thing. We are just different.

It, it's ever Exactly. It's continuous. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. And I mean, again, do we, you think what the heck's in Dewey? I did a video. About eight different restaurants within three miles of the Prescott Country Club. Really? Eight places to get food. Yep. I don't think I've eaten at all. Eight of them. Well, one of our farm, I have to watch you video.

You'll have to watch my video. I have to watch your video. Yes. That's, it's like a checklist. That's a challenge. It's like there's eight places and I made sure I went to every one of them, and there used to be one more, but I, I think they, oh, there used to be two more, but they aren't there anymore. Oh, I was disappointed.

But yeah, it's like, well, where do we go to eat? Hello. No, they've got really good steakhouse out there. Yes. Yeah. Yes. That's, um, lefties. Lefties, yes. Yeah. Yes. That's packed. That'll be a packed. Like Right. It's pretty soon now. Now I gotta make sure that [00:19:00] the baked potatoes are done in the prime rib. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Alright, my dear. Well, thank you so much for being here and stay tuned. There will be so much more coming in regards to. Living here. Living in the Prescott Valley, living in the Verde Valley. How close Prescott is that you don't have to like contain yourself to the Verde Valley? You know there are some awesome activities on both sides of the Mingus Mountain range.

If you live in Camp Verde, it's so easy to just jump on 17. You zip on up and it's from the Verde Valley, maybe 40 minutes. Yeah, I think it's about 40 minutes. If you live in Clarkdale or Cottonwood, you can just jump over the mountain and that's again, 40, 45 minutes. So, you know, enjoy both sides of the mountain.

They both have awesome things to, uh, do, offer and offer. Thank you. Couldn't think of the word. And maybe you'll see my friend. So yes, because friendships and relationships are what make these towns. [00:20:00] Not just the seasons. It's people. It's what I just, she said it, it's just what makes it town. It's, it's, it's just people.

It's people love it here and they love the people. And I look on Facebook and I see Facebook posts and every little town has its own little Facebook pages. And just talking to people that have moved here and they're like, oh, people are so friendly. They're so welcoming. Yeah. And I think that that's part of also what makes people wanna live here.

The weather's great. People are great. Yeah. The cost of living here is not horrific. Um. Check it out. Yeah, check it out. So thank you my dear. Thank you.