Welcome Home with Monique

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. I

Monique Buchanan 0:40
you. Well, hello, Las Vegas. It is Monique Bucha and the host of the welcome home with Monique show, and I have another great show for you guys today. Now you guys know I always say that real estate is not just about finding a house. It's about finding a home and building community. And sometimes you come across clients who become more than just clients, they become your friends. So that's who I have on today. I'm excited to introduce to you guys, Cheryl and Lou Brewster. They're not only esteemed doctors, they're also world travelers who have made their mark right here in one of Las Vegas neighborhoods, and we have one of their properties, honey. You heard me not, not there only one of their properties in that neighborhood. And I told him, I said, Hey, guys, who can share the experiences of this community better than the sellers, right the people that actually lived there. So that's why we're gonna have Cheryl and Lou who reside in Spanish trails, yes, here in the Las Vegas Valley, and I'll say one more time, one of their properties, yes. And they're gonna go ahead and share with you guys what it's like living in that community, why they chose that community, and they, you know, in fact, let me just be quiet and let them tell you their stories. First of all, what brought Well, hello, hi, Lou. How are you?

Luther Brewster 2:09
How are you doing? Thank you for inviting us out. Really appreciate it absolutely.

Monique Buchanan 2:13
And you guys have been listening to me for years. So you guys know I'm a hot mess, but a good one. Yes,

Cheryl Brewster 2:19
for sure. And hello, Miss Cheryl. How are you? Monique, I'm wonderful. Thank you so much for having us. So

Monique Buchanan 2:25
let me just share this. Cheryl actually is the first one that reached out to me years ago, and she said, you know, Mo, I've been listening to your show, and you sound like I could probably trust you. Yes, I started crazy, but you know, I feel like I could probably trust you. And that's when we started to purchase the homes. They trusted me. I was so honored and humbled. You guys were moving from New York. I believe right now we were actually moving from Miami. Oh, Miami, that's right, during COVID. Good times, yes, remember those times? Yes. So I'll let you guys jump on into it. What brought you to Vegas?

Cheryl Brewster 2:58
So I guess the first thing would be our jobs. So we are both working for Rosemond University, and we are in the process of starting a med school, and we have our inaugural class that begins on July 21 and so we have accomplished what we set out to do by starting a med school in the area, which, you know, I don't know if your listeners know, but Nevada is considered medically underserved. There is a shortage of primary care physicians of all healthcare professionals, but in particular, family physicians as well as specialty so we are trying to do our part to increase the number of active physicians in this community, because we all need healthcare

Monique Buchanan 3:39
Absolutely. And you guys, before we got on air, me and Cheryl were talking. A lot of my listeners know that my father has moved in with me since I lost my mother during COVID, and I struggle, I thought. And she's like, Monique, that's not normal. Because I'm like, Oh, I thought it was normal to wait two and three months for a doctor's appointment.

Luther Brewster 3:56
No, sadly, it's not. And I echo everything no Cheryl said, but I would, I would probably add a couple other things, because it wasn't just about starting a medical school and addressing the shortage, it was also trying to create a complimentary medical school to the one that we already have here throughout the state. And you know, one of the things you know, we're, we're looking to do, is to provide, like, in any great economy, options, right? Because options afford something for a little something for everyone. And so, as you mentioned, like, you know your dad, right? So we operate a unique medical school, from the standpoint of, we require all of our medical students to do home visits as a core part of their training hands on, yeah. And so from the from the the moment that they arrive, they are assigned to two households that have medical needs, and then they are required to work with those two households throughout their four years of training. And the hope is is that they'll work to improve the. Social and the health outcomes of those families that they've been assigned to. And so what this is really about is I want you to imagine a medical school that is constantly giving back to the community through its service while it is training your future doctors. So you know, sadly, Nevada doesn't have a lot of individuals who apply to medical school, and that's usually the crop that will stay more likely in your community after they finish and so on. The magnificent work that my wife Cheryl does related to cultivating the talent here locally is part and parcel of trying to change that phenomenon, but the other element is is getting them from day one to understand and appreciate the value of giving back to their community. Yeah. And so, you know, it's a lot more motivated, motivating and inspirational to help your community when you've already been doing it for four years and you feel connected to them and feel a part of them. And so, so that was the other element to what we do. And so it's ironic that you know that we're on the show, welcome home and and really, at the end of the day, our medical school is rooted in helping people thrive in their homes. I love that's at the set the core of what we do that's

Monique Buchanan 6:15
amazing. And I think that would, you know, help get rid of the whole feeling like your cattle when you go to say,

Becky Coins 6:21
I think that makes a big difference, a personal touch, somebody in the medical community, like

Monique Buchanan 6:25
you said, if I've already been going to people's my patients homes, and I'm meeting their families when I go into their home, right? You have a bond there. But

Cheryl Brewster 6:33
you kind of sort of mentioned it a little bit, right? We can't just treat your father. We have to also think about his home environment. We have to think about all the people in that unit, right? He doesn't exist in a bubble, right? And so everything has to center around him, but also that family unit, right? And then you have a person that has dementia, is like, we have to be able to assess, are there stairs, are there things that could put him into so it's, it's more of a holistic approach to healthcare, rather than just treating the individual. That individual goes home to somebody, hopefully, right? And they go home to a family, and that family has to also live in that same environment and manage whatever's going on with the health of that individual, right,

Monique Buchanan 7:14
right? And let me tell you, I'm blessed. I'm thankful that God has given me an opportunity to do this for my father, right? But it's a lie. It's a lot definitely not being a caretaker. So it's nice to know that there's, you know, doctors that are, you guys are, are getting out there that have that heart, you know, and that have that experience already for going out there. So, and I know that the show, you know, we're gonna get into our listing, but this is just so intriguing to me, like this touches home base for me, right? If there's, if there's people listening right now, and they only have ever heard of unlvs program, right? You guys have Roseman University. Is there? How about cost? Is there some a little bit around the same or how

Cheryl Brewster 7:58
medical school is expensive anywhere, hands down, anywhere, and so you have to take that into account. However, I will always tell a medical student this, and they have never proven me wrong. I've never met a medical student that has not been able to pay off their student debt. That's good, and there are many programs that allow them to work in their home communities, because most kids are coming that are living in Nevada come from what is a medically underserved community that will help them repay their loans. Oh, that's good. So when you work in either a rural area or an urban area that is considered medically underserved, you can get almost 50% of your loans repaid by serving five years. So imagine a kid that grew up here goes to med school here, any any university, med school, and they go off, they do their residency, and they come back and they're like, I'm gonna come back and serve my community. Spend five years here working in your home community, Doctor as a physician, get 50% of your loan, 50%

Monique Buchanan 9:00
crazy. And I bet there's a bunch of listeners out there that did not know that. Thank you, Cheryl, so if you guys have kids or anybody you know that are kind of shying away from it, we need them. Yeah, we definitely. She just dropped a nugget. Miss Brewster honey from Roseman University. I

Becky Coins 9:17
can imagine that deters a lot of people from thinking about going that route, because you just keep hearing that never ending stories of, oh my gosh, my Yeah, my student loans, my student yet, and then

Monique Buchanan 9:27
as real estate agents, we have to turn it just makes me so sad to see kids or people do the right thing, go down the right path, and then I have to turn them away right and tell them because of their student debt. So that's huge. Cheryl, thank you so much for for trapping that nugget. I know we got a little off talking about it. Off

Becky Coins 9:42
topic. We like to learn things on this

Cheryl Brewster 9:45
show, many university for medical, you know, like she said, any university, but your hands on, we are and you're, you know, say, Hey, stay in your community. We are trying to grow our own. Yes, I love right home, grown and. When you don't have a lot of students that are interested in this, you have to create ways and spaces for them to engage, and that's what we do. And then we want to keep them going in that path, in that journey into a medical school. Not everyone wants to be a doctor. I get that, but we have options. We have pharmacy, we have dental medicine, we have nursing. We have so many options that kids can go into, and that's part of educating them about choice, where he said options. When kids don't know their options, they only think, Oh, I have to be a doctor and that's it. But we have options. Very everyone has

Monique Buchanan 10:31
options. I love it. I love it, and thanks for sharing some of those. Yeah. So, okay, so, okay. So Rosemond University brought you guys here. They did. Why don't you guys even know about spend I'm not even going to take credit for that. They called me and I had already picked out Spanish trails. So okay,

Luther Brewster 10:48
so this, this one is kind of kind of interesting. So when we were initially looking around, a colleague of ours told us about this area, Spanish trails and but he made it seem like it was like extremely unachievable, right?

Cheryl Brewster 11:07
Like, if you have a goal, this is your

Luther Brewster 11:12
goal. Hey, in fairness. In fairness. You know, life is about financial decisions and setting yourself up in a position to understand your own reality, as opposed to the one that may be imposed by somebody else that you meet, right? And so there's nothing, not knocking that individual, but that individual was speaking from their own financial, financial reality, right? So, so we, we knew we wanted a community that was going to be safe, because we both travel, and we wanted to make sure that, and you have your son, and we, and we have a 16 year old son, and we wanted to make sure that everyone was safe. We also wanted to have a community that was walkable, because we are, you know, originally New Yorkers, and so we like to be able to walk and walk around in the community, etc. And then we wanted to be close to the activity, right? We travel a lot, so we wanted to be near the airport. We have a number of visitors come to town, and we all know where they end up staying. So we didn't want to have to trek for, you know, 40 miles to be able to go see, see individuals and come to visit right, family. And then we wanted to be close to a work, right? And so what we found was, was that Spanish trails was so centrally located every single box. I mean, it is unbelievably safe. It is, I mean, it is one of the few guard gated 24 hour guard gated communities that exist still in the valley.

Monique Buchanan 12:35
And let me jump in and say, and and they have roving patrol as well, and 24 hours a day, 24 hours a day, and they have surveillance, so it's actually known to be one of the safest. And they do home

Cheryl Brewster 12:47
checks. They do home now, submit a form, and you're like, I'm gone from A to B, and they'll come and do daily checks on your house to check all the doors. They'll check the doors to see if they're locked. They'll send you an email if they find something, if your alarm goes I

Monique Buchanan 13:03
mean, what is that worth to

Luther Brewster 13:04
you? Well, no, and you're connected your your alarm system is connected to the front gate, to the three gates. There's three gates. So you're connected to the guard posts in the three areas. There's only one area that visitors and, well, I should say, service, people, maintenance, etc, can come through. So it's very Yeah, so it's very secure from that standpoint of knowing who's in and who's out. No

one drops in. Nobody drops

Monique Buchanan 13:28
there's no popping, popping by. You guys aren't diving on the carpet telling each other be quiet. Nobody's

Cheryl Brewster 13:35
knocking on my door. They have to be in the complex. They have to be let in. They call me and they tell I got a call 1131 night, talking about, oh, you have a delivery. I didn't answer the phone because I was asleep. He's like, wake up. The phone is ringing. I was like, not this time of

Luther Brewster 13:55
night. And so, you know, we came from Miami, where HOA fees were very high, right? But honestly, if I'm being honest, your HOA fee was really tied to elevators and the servicing of elevators, yeah, that was really what you were paying for. You got no bang for your Bucha. We were paying twice that amount or more in HOA fee. So you come here and you hear, you know, the rate that we were paying here, and it just didn't seem as daunting. But then you add to it, it is the most green and lush areas. Oh yeah. I mean, oh my goodness. I mean, at times, I'm trying to do the math in my head of how they are able to keep the place so green and ducks and water everywhere.

Monique Buchanan 14:45
So let me jump in and say that that's one that community Spanish trails, is one of the very few communities left in Las Vegas that is like that, because it was established, you know, back. So now the trees are 20 plus years. They're huge. They're huge. They're providing so much. Shade. When you drive through there, you see, you know, like you said, the water features ducks. So when you're taking a jog or a walk, I mean, you see it all. It's an it's an oasis. Oh, let me stop and give a shout out real quick. This is Monique Bucha, and we are talking to the booster because we can. So we are talking about the new listing that the Brewster's have that I am representing, and that is in the Spanish hills, Spanish heels, community trails, trails. I keep saying heels. You know why? Because the name of their street is Mission Hills. Yes, you guys can check that property out. It is 7217 Mission Hills. It is a two bedroom, two bath. We're talking over 1700 square feet, to be exact, 1758 they have a, is it a 10? How would you explain that that area

Luther Brewster 15:47
sitting room,

Cheryl Brewster 15:48
that's what he calls it. A sitting we're talking

Monique Buchanan 15:50
18 or higher. You know, ceilings with Windows, I could see that being like a, well, you have it plantation shadows, yeah, you have it really set up really nicely, almost like a like a library, almost Right, right? But the home is, like I said, it's completely remodeled, which is unusual in that community. Not a lot of homes have been completely remodeled and updated, but this one has All right, so also, you've got so many amenities. So that's what we're doing here on the show. If you're interested, we're going to get more into the property, 72 7217 Mission Hills, and we're talking about the Spanish trails community, very few properties come up for sale, especially town homes community, especially under $500,000 town homes. This is under $500,000 is giving you access to a multi million dollar community? Yes, yes. So let's jump back into it, sorry. And then my number is 702984 3700 This is Monique Buchanan, 702984 3700 I am representing them with this listing. You can check it out on my website. Welcome home with monique.com or you can jump on any platform that you so choose. 7217 mission heels, two bedroom, two bath, over 1700 square feet. The first open house will be Saturday, the 24th from noon to 4pm and I will tell you that morning as well. All right, let's get back into it. So we were talking about just, you know, just the landscaping of that community, right? We haven't talked about how you're jogging past $5 million homes. That is true.

Cheryl Brewster 17:20
The king of Bernard, the governor, yes, there you go. We got some rock stars that live in the area. A lot of athletes, lot of athletes. Yeah,

Monique Buchanan 17:30
when I hear that, I hear a lot of networking opportunities.

Cheryl Brewster 17:33
Absolutely. Well, absolutely. Mr. Dr rooster, here club,

Monique Buchanan 17:39
Country Club.

Luther Brewster 17:40
They have a country club. And, you know, depending on your golf game, you can join as or if you just like to eat and network like I do, they have, you have a social you have a social membership, but you'll never be lonely at the country club. For hungry, yeah, you know. And I mean, just to, just to give you, you know, some other elements about it, you know, we have a wine cabinet there. So you can, you can have your own wine cabinet. So we, you know, you have your your champagne or whatever, in there already, there waiting for exactly no cork fee. You just go and bring it over to the to the bar entertain guests. There. They have two dining areas and then one formal so you can rent out a dining area if you want to. But also, and the whole country club has been renovated as of the last couple of years. So you're talking about a brand new place. It was renovated by the same company that owns Canyon gate, and so it's designed under that same theme. So if you've been to Canyon gate, then you'll, you'll see a lot of common amenities now at that Country Club. But then beyond that, there's, you know, this mixture of, sort of the natives of Las Vegas. So, you know, you go to some of these other places, and you find yourself in a mixture. You find yourself around individuals who are transient, yes, but Spanish trails has, for whatever reason, every Yes, really has a commitment to having residents who are from the area and they and it is very apparent and very present. Well,

Monique Buchanan 19:14
it's very well established. It really is, it really

Luther Brewster 19:17
is. It really, really is, and it's, it's also cool that they're there. Each home is, you know, is so different. You know, you different the architectural.

Monique Buchanan 19:27
Architecture, absolutely cookie cutter at all

Luther Brewster 19:31
you have on what is it? 17 different No, well, 17 different communities inside of within the community, right? And you have some that are double gated, and some of them are just in the centralized main gate, right? But each one of them is just distinct in its own way. And so as you're walking through the community, you're going through, and you're seeing all these different types of homes, so it doesn't feel like you're in a, like a, you know, a cookie cutter type of community. You really do feel like you're walking. Walking through a city of sorts, right where? Because you see so many different things.

Monique Buchanan 20:04
And I will let me jump in and say this, I don't know another community. You can get in there for under 500,000 with this town home. I don't know another and I've been doing this, what 1010, plus years. I don't know another community as such, yeah, and that's why I think it's very rare that anything comes up, yeah, anything comes up for sale in there, it's swiped up quickly, especially

Luther Brewster 20:23
the townhomes, because we're one of the few last town home community communities on a golf course. So you know, whoever can fact check me on this, but there's very, very few town home, single floor homes on a golf course I've never, yeah, and so, so that's, you know, that's another distinction of Spanish trails. It was very well planned towards the future. And and then add to it, you know, like where we're located, where this unit is located, is the mixture between being proximate to the golf course, but not on the golf course, right? But at the same time, you benefit from the comment the common green space on the back end of you. Yeah, we've grown out some shrubs to give you privacy so you can still be, still have that common area, but, but have some privacy. Have some shade around your house.

Monique Buchanan 21:16
Wrap around. It's the wraparound right out, and you step right outside of that from the primary now, you guys, you guys decided to do a little something different, because you guys bought a house in there, and then you also bought this townhouse that we're talking about, 7217 Mission Hills is the address. You can check it out on my website. Welcome home with Monique com. Or you can jump on any platform you so choose. Now this is a very, very, very rare, rare occasion that we have a property in a multi million dollar community where you are rubbing shoulders with these folks that are running the city, right, pretty much, some of them the country, yes,

Cheryl Brewster 21:57
right. And if you have dogs, if you have pets of any sort. Why did you say that? Because I didn't realize, I didn't realize how much grass we had till we got a dog. Like, I was just like, Oh, here's the grass. It's nice. It's lovely. But once we got a dog, I was like, oh, we can't get rid of this grass. It's wonderful. No, you're right. Dog loves it. He'll just sit in the grass and just roll around in the grass. So it is, and it's a very dog and animal friendly community. Everybody, everybody walks their dogs. Everybody is friendly with know each other, like walking below our dogs, more our dog more than they know Jackson. They come running up to the dog, and he just sits and lets it so it's a very open community. They your neighbors actually speak to you, yes, but that's not

no, no. It's not right. So

they, they, they check, they look out for you. And so it's like, and they watch you grow like they one lady came, and she's like, oh my goodness, your son, he's so tall, you know, when he moved he was he was short, now he's tall. And I was like, so they've seen my son grow up. They've seen us get a dog. They've seen us. It's a tight knit community, it really is. And they, they will knock on the door and, you know, they'll say, oh, you know, if you're ever interested in selling, I have a friend that is dying to get in here, because it's hard to get in there, so hard to get into this community, yeah. And so they are constantly like, Well, my best friend wants, uh, can you if you let me know, you know, so with that kind of thing, no. And as long as you stay engaged, he's asked, like, do you want? Not? Nope, I'm never leaving. I know that I'm never leaving. I was like, we can find a bigger house in some work. But it's not the same, because I'm not leaving, right? This community, like Spanish trails, I'm stuck. That's it. And how

Monique Buchanan 23:44
much of that see what I mean. And when you talk about HOAs, how much does that work to you?

Cheryl Brewster 23:47
Everything I know that's everything when I when I So, one of the things that he didn't mention is, if there's a problem with your roof, they will replace it. They replace it automatically every

Monique Buchanan 24:00
time. Oh, I am so sorry. Yeah,

Luther Brewster 24:02
the roof is covered. Yeah, the roof is covered in

Cheryl Brewster 24:04
the HOA. And so it's if, when I moved they had just replaced my roof.

Monique Buchanan 24:08
Well, then we're gonna, we're gonna go ahead and that. I mean that right there is worth 1000s, 1000s and 1000s of dollars, just knowing that the HOA is gonna replace your roof, that is not normal. They normally don't replace roofs. And it's the tile one, and it's the Spanish tiles,

Luther Brewster 24:22
tiles, when we first when, when we first moved into this unit, we had tiles that had fallen down. And my neighbor told me, hey, yeah, you need to tell the HOA that so they can come and replace it. And so we rented in this complex before we bought and the home that we rented in, they changed that whole roof. So this is not a fluke. This isn't something like we haven't seen with our own eyes. We have experienced this

Monique Buchanan 24:50
twice. Let me tell you guys that's listening out there, honey, because I did not put that on the listing, and that will be going on the listing. But let's talk about what you guys decided to do with your. Property, and we only got a couple minutes. I wish we had more time,

Luther Brewster 25:02
right? So I listed it on furnace finders, and we were able to lease the unit for 3500 a month. And through furnace finders just really took that tool, which only charges you a one time fee, and then you basically keep 100% of the rent that you collect, so you don't have to pay out, like some of the other platforms, 3% for Airbnb, but, but I did the work, right? So, you know, they give you leads, and I would follow up with leads. And what I would do is, they gave you leads, yeah, they give you leads of people who are interested in your property, and sometimes they are exact match, and sometimes they're not. And so what I would do is, is I had already put together, like, a little portfolio about the unit, and I would reach out to as many people on that list as possible. And then the first, the first one that that hit was just so happened to be somebody International, and from Taiwan. And so I was like, hey, well, you know, if you come, I know what it's like to travel overseas, and so, so I'll have some food ready for you when you first show up. I'll make sure that you know you don't have to worry about that first day. And use valuable travel time working on things that you you know are not, not associated with you having a good time, right? And so that just kind of took off. And then I, you know, we had a group from Alaska and and even right now, as we sell, I just got an offer. Just to tell you how, how like rapid fire it is. I got an offer for January already, of next year. Oh, wow. So, so there is an opportunity with this unit beyond just the the purchase and, and it can be lucrative, and especially when you start thinking about all of these diverse markets that are already traveling to Las Vegas, who are now not just seeing Las Vegas as a place for casinos and gambling, who are looking for that outdoor experience, who are looking for the golf the golf course, getaway and things like that, be able to have them Come to a central Yeah, a central place that's safe, very safe. And so, granted, I had to rent it at a minimum of 30 days. But that was never a problem for

Monique Buchanan 27:10
us. You told me, typically they wanted it for three and four months. Yeah, we had three or four months. Easy, easy, no problem. You guys are near the Durango casino, the new Durango casino, the airport. You're near the strip during your later stadium, you're here.

Luther Brewster 27:21
Nothing is three

minutes from the home, from the hospital, three minutes from big hospital. Yeah, Spring Valley hospitals right there, exactly. And so even with all the building that's happening around us, there's nothing like what Spanish Trails is and that. And people recognize that. People want that sort of couture look to where they live and stay. But most important, I have to always tell people this is that if you're that person who's in your 40s and 50s, and you're looking at the home that you're about to make a 2030, year investment in, you have to be thinking about, Do I need a home that's going to have me climbing two for two and three flights of stairs? And so if you can, so you can grow into this home in a way whereby you don't have to worry about, oh, I'm gonna have to make yet another purchase after this happens. And so that's the all those other things that you need to begin to think about also, is, is, how long are you gonna be able to stay there? Yeah,

Monique Buchanan 28:15
right, absolutely. And that's a real thing, right there. You know, I get a lot of my clients, I have to sell their property because they did buy it, and it is a two story, and now they can't do the stairs. But besides that, you guys, that address, again, is 7217 Mission Hills, and that is in the Spanish trails community here in Las Vegas. Like you said, guard gated, 24/7 you've got the patrol 24/7 you said, when you go out of town, you tell them, and they come check on your checks, peace of mind, tennis,

Luther Brewster 28:42
tennis courts, weight room,

Cheryl Brewster 28:44
pickleball,

Monique Buchanan 28:47
four pools. Four pools, Country Club, restaurant that you can order from, yep, and now you have to leave the guard gated community. So anyway, 7217 Mission Hills. And did I mention it's under $500,000 so there you go, guys, that open house is going to be Saturday, May 24 from 12 to 4pm if it lasts until then. 7217 Mission Hills, Brewster's. I just love you guys. Appreciate your guys' support. All these years, you've always had my back. Yes, I appreciate you guys for coming on and just sharing your experience and living in that community. Cheryl, you said you're never leaving, never okay. Well, there you go. Lou,

Cheryl Brewster 29:30
there you go. We might move to another house right within the community. I could see that I'm never leaving, but

Monique Buchanan 29:35
you're never leaving. Okay, I got you, and I don't blame you, all right? Well, until we hear from you, Have a blessed weekend. Thank you for listening. Please remember all terms discussed are simply an estimate. My license number is S 1788 46 my phone number, if you'd like to contact me, is 702-984-3700, you can also find me on YouTube.