Well, welcome back to another episode of Housing for Good, where we talk about the intersection of real estate and community involvement. And we have with us today Alexis with Realty Executives Arizona Territory. Right? Yes. Hi. Hi. Welcome. Thank you. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. I’m glad to be here. All right. So I understand that we’re not the first to inquire about you, but we did have aspirations before this fabulous article came out in Biz Tucson. Tucson. Gets you, you’re all like famous now. It’s a great way to start the new year. Thank you. So I was reading that and I’m like, I told Lisa, we have to get Alexis on the show. And then I’m reading this like, damn it, the secret’s out. So they named you top, like a, like an up and coming someone to watch, what was the exact title? Yeah. So Biz Tucson does an article every year and they do, they call it next gen leaders, rising stars to watch. So I was 20, one of 20 on that list. And it’s actually kind of surreal. I was looking at

the list and I’m on a list with some really amazing, inspiring, successful people. So it almost feels like I think it’s called imposter syndrome, where you’re like, wait, I don’t belong on this list. But it’s really, really cool to be recognized. Well, I think the article does a good job of capturing kind of the same things that we like to talk about, which is you’re a successful real estate agent. You’ve been doing this for a while, but you’ve also really invested a lot of time in our community, especially with El Rio. Yeah, so I’ve been in real estate for 10 years. It’ll be 11 years, actually, this coming May. And I’ve been volunteering with the El Rio Vecinos for seven years. So the way that I kind of compare that to is high school. And I think it’s crazy, you’re in high school for four years, and that’s very significant in your life. And then I go, wait, I’ve been in the vecinos for seven years, almost twice, like a double high school term. Or something, you might have moved on to college.

Yeah, I guess I have like a PhD in the vecinos now. Well, tell me a little bit more about the vecinos and what they do with El Rio. So the vecinos is a young professionals group. It’s 40 members under the age of 40, between 25 to 40. We throw a big block party every year to raise funds for the health center. So for 10 years, we raised funds for the children’s dental program. And then last year, we switched to a different program for for teens. and this year we’re raising funds for cancer research for patients at El Rio. The block party is April 6th. Tickets are $100. It’s a really, really fun time. There’s all local restaurants, partners and vendors, so you buy a ticket, you get to sample a ton of food, drink nice cocktails, and then have a lot of fun. And there’s always a theme every year, right? Yes. What’s the theme for 2024? for? London Collie. So it could be anything from like Elton John to the Spice Girls to Harry Potter. We had a photo shoot to advertise our event and I’ll show you

a picture of it. But you’ll see on there what you can dress as like the Queen of England. You could be a Spice Girl. You could be Ted Lasso was on there. So it’s just really open to like anything like costume or like elegance. It’s going to be a lot of fun. And then how did you get started with this? I mean, did someone invite you in or was this group you knew about? Yeah, so when I got into real estate, I was a member of Tucson Young Professionals, which was a lot of fun at the time. It was a lot of networking. I got to grow my network that way, meet a lot of people. And I had a friend who was a member of the vecinos and she told me about the group. It was a little more, it was different than Tucson Young Professionals was at the time. It was, the vecinos has an agenda, business meeting, just very professional. And And to be honest with you, when I joined, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was just kind of like checking things out and figuring out what it was. I knew the party was

something that they did, and that’s kind of why I joined. But at the same time, I wanted to give back. So quickly, I just went through my first year. And the following year, I was asked to chair the Block Party. So it was kind of one of those things where you just get thrown into something. You’re voluntold to do a big task. And again, I think just looking back at my, my life and my career, it feels like I thought that in order to be successful or to have a big impact, you had to, you know, look a certain way or come from a certain background and I just throw myself into things whenever the opportunity comes. So that’s awesome. Yeah. That’s awesome. So that this is the lesson, right? If you join a group, don’t do a good job because the next year you’ll be in charge of something. Yeah. So don’t do that. But how do you, I mean, you got involved with two senior professionals fairly quickly after getting into real estate then? Yeah. So when I got into real estate, six months, five months after

I graduated college, my degree was in sociology. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my career. So at the time I was friends with another successful agent in Tucson and we used to work out together. So she said, Hey, you should think about joining me in real estate. You can join my team as my assistant transaction coordinator. And it took a, you know, a couple of months of conversation with her. And after I just, again, decided to, you know, I was fresh out of college, I know that real estate is really hard, you earn commission, it’s not like a traditional job. So I kind of worked something out with her to where I felt comfortable diving into it. And, and I knew that getting into real estate, I had to build a network. I was 25 years old. So at the time, I, my friends weren’t really in a position to buy a house. So I knew I had to just put myself out there and start making connections, meeting people, making friends, so that I would be able to build up a client base. Wow, so that’s

kind of a leap then, I mean, to make that decision at that age. Was this something you thought, I’ll just see how it goes, or did you think after kind of exploring it, like, I really do want to make this a career? I think I knew I wanted to make it a career. I didn’t, to go, to explain it a little bit better, I knew that whatever I decided to do with my life, if I wanted to be successful. I wanted to do something fun, something that’s a job or a career where you’re building yourself up, but also helping other people. And I didn’t really know what that was. So I kind of feel like real estate was something that just I was at the right place at the right time. I knew the right person. But I also knew that it was going to be a lot of work. And I talked to my dad about it before I made the switch from my other job into real estate. And he said, well, you might just do this part time. You know, it’s not a safe job. And it was a perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect. That advice, like, I’m

super excited for you. But, you know, like, well, I hang on to that steady job for a while. But it’s really real estate is so cool. I think, you know, every every year, every client, every day is different. It’s just a matter of learning how to structure yourself often be consistent and be motivated because it’s not, you know, you don’t really have somebody telling you, you need to be in your office from nine to five. So I really enjoy the flexibility in terms of, you know, sometimes you might work late for showings or on the weekends. And whenever I do have those weeks where you’re working later or on the weekends more than usual, then I’m able to take a weekday off if I need to. So I think it’s just a matter of kind of figuring out how to make things work for you and for your clients and being able to take care of yourself. So you’re also taking care of your business. I think that’s always the thing when I when I’m talking to the producers, the people that are part of this show, where

they’re doing so much in our community, it’s it’s that sentiment, which is figuring out how to take care of yourself, because someone like yourself and a lot of people that I know and myself personally can be giving to the point where you don’t take care of yourself and then all of a sudden you don’t have anything to give. So I think that’s a very important aspect to take away from all these conversations. Absolutely. I think I kind of learned the hard way. So when I was younger, getting into Tucson Young Professionals and then the vecinos and real estate, and then when you’re in real estate, there is a happy hour every day of the week. You know, you can go network and have fun. And when I was earlier in my career and younger in my mid 20s, I was able to do that a lot without getting burnt out. And then as I got older and my, my business started growing and I realized, Hey, I can’t really go out to a few minutes of downtime every now and then you just, you realize you appreciate the downtime

more too. And do you see, like, is there a connection between your real estate and the facinos? Is there, I mean, are you able to, do you do more with facinos because you have the flexibility within real estate or how do those kind of tie together or do they? They do actually. So when I joined the Vecinos, I didn’t, you know, obviously as a real estate agent or as a lender, networking is huge, but I didn’t really join the Vecinos to necessarily get business out of it. It was just to do something like an extracurricular activity, do something with my time and get to know the community. So what I really appreciate from the Vecinos is that we operate under El Rio Foundation. So, it’s a board that’s very, very professional and I’ve learned so much about event planning, about communicating with other professionals and running a meeting through an agenda and time blocking. So, I feel like that has really translated into my work and has made me a better leader in real estate and able to take care

of my clients a little bit better. So as I’ve grown with the vecinos that I also I met friends that I wouldn’t know otherwise and then you start becoming friends with those people and they start referring their parents to your their families you know sometimes I help them out and that’s really cool to be able you know I served as president last year and because of you know having that flexibility within real estate I was able to make a lot of appearances during the work day on the weekends and sort of break down my day where I’m working on the CNOs tasks and then be able to hand off some of my real estate work to Diana, my team member. So that’s really nice. It’s really nice to have her because she’s she knows how to handle a transaction. So then I was able to focus on the CNOs and do a really good job and then still take care of my clients. I think that’s another common thread through these interviews is that people that are involved within these community organizations are doing this.

These activities are not doing it to generate business. Ultimately, it’s led to business. But they got in because it was something that excited them, that they wanted to give back. And again, I think I see people get into organizations with the intent of getting business out of it. And that doesn’t always seem to work out as well. So I really appreciate that perspective, too, that you go in with the right reasons. And, you know, if it happens, it happens. But even if you don’t get business, you’re still very rewarded by the work you’re doing. Absolutely. Every year after a block party, we have a video, a recap video that rolls out about a month after the party. And every year I’m in tears after I see the party. You know, I you work so hard to to throw this big party and you’re really excited. And then the day comes and I to this day haven’t been able to really enjoy the party in the sense where like I’m tasting the food. I’m kind of hosting. So you’re out there saying hi to people, making

sure the sponsors get recognized. making sure you’re just saying hi to everybody, that everyone’s having a good time. Um, and then last year when I was president, I had to speak, I get really nervous with public speaking. So the whole time I was just thinking about, Oh my gosh, I have to go on the stage, speak in a microphone. So I didn’t really, and I do enjoy it, but it goes by in a flash. Um, so it’s really cool to work that hard and, and go through all those emotions during the party and then see it after, like, oh, my gosh, that looked amazing. Everybody had a great time. And not only did everybody have a good time, but this is making a huge impact for Tucson. We’re raising six figures for the community. And then you realize this was totally worth it, like those hours, the relationships, the work ethic that you see from everybody else. There’s so many people in our group who are, we have a couple of real estate people, lenders, dentists, and oral surgeon, attorneys. So you’re working

with a lot of people who are super motivated, professional, smart. And again, it gives me that feeling like, how am I president when I’m in front of this group of so many smart people? But well, and it would use the party, the word party a few times. But I think it’s important what you just touched on, which is the impact. Because in the time you’ve been with us, seen as you’ve raised almost a million dollars, I mean. Yeah. So over eight hundred and fifty thousand this year. Yeah, it’s really cool this year. Our goal is to hit a million. So hopefully with our sponsorships and our ticket sales, we’ll, we’ll reach that goal. Super exciting. That is outstanding. So when you read the article of this in Biz Tucson and you start to get imposter syndrome, I want you to take a moment and listen to yourself on this video and then realize all the things you are doing within our community and realize it’s not an imposter syndrome. It’s just an accurate reflection. You are an up and coming trend center

and you are someone to watch. So listen to your own words. You’re doing a really nice job and you’re doing it in a way that a lot of people at any age don’t embrace. But to do it at 35 is just fantastic. So thanks for what you do in this community.

Thank you. Running a celebrity bartending. We had a big event and we lost one of our celebrity bartenders and she jumped in at the last minute and raised tons of money. She’s amazing. She got us like that. We needed somebody and she was there for us and she jumped in. She helped us raise tons of money just by being there and dropping out. Thanks.

Yeah, I actually found out that day that the person wasn’t able to make it. I think she was sick. So I told Anne, hey, I think I’m going to take the day to go find a costume. You handle business. And I went to Dillard’s, got a dress, it was a Hollywood glam theme. And they put on a red lipstick and yeah, it was super fun. And that reminds me, I actually got approached last year for that YPN celebrity bartending that you do. In October, I was asked to to be a bartender and I was out of town. So I wasn’t able to or actually it was I think it was the Beyonce concert. No, we had gotten tickets for a month before. Yeah, you get a Beyonce. We were with Beyonce calls. You got to go, right? I mean, if you went to there’s like, what’s in Egypt here? Yeah, I was like, can we switch the D for the bartending? And if this is the first time watching Housing for Good video, the voice you’re hearing in the background is our producer, Lisa, who oversees all of this wonderful operations. You can check out

more on our website. It’s housing for good dot com. We also put the audio portion up on Spotify, so you can find that over on our on Spotify and add that to your playlist. I think it’s under our team name, the mortgage guidance group. But we have that up there in case you want to listen to this as you’re out walking around. But Alexis Chavez, with 10 years of experience with the community involvement, successful real estate business is built out of team is just one of those people that are doing the right things. And we really appreciate having you in our community. Thank you. Thanks for having me.