For thirty years, California wasn’t just the place where I held my professional license—it was the core of my identity. My story with the Golden State began in the summer of 1995 when I moved to Southern California right before my senior year of high school. As a competitive indoor and beach volleyball player, my entire existence revolved around the sand. From the time I was 4 years old until I turned 40, I trained, competed, and played on almost every iconic beach court stretching down the California coastline. It was the quintessential “California Dream” lifestyle, and that athlete’s mindset, drive, and grit shaped who I am down to the core.
Elite athletics teach you an unshakeable lesson: if you want to win, you have to outwork the competition, anticipate structural shifts before they happen, and execute your game plan with absolute precision. When I transitioned away from professional sports and into the luxury real estate sector twenty-one years ago, I channeled that exact same competitive grit into building my business.
I cut my teeth in Northern California’s ultra-competitive Bay Area luxury real estate market. Five years later, I brought that deep foundation back home to Southern California, scaling a multi-million dollar luxury real estate practice. Over more than two decades, I routinely advised discerning clients and managed a premier book of business with average home prices ranging from $4.5M to $8M+ across Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes, Orange County, and the Bay Area’s most exclusive enclaves.
I didn’t just sell real estate; I was deeply embedded in the economic, professional, and social ecosystem of California’s top 1%. I knew exactly what my clients expected: premier locations, absolute privacy, high-end construction, flawless craftsmanship, and aesthetic perfection. I understood why they willingly paid the premium to live there…because that’s why I lived there myself.
But in early 2025, after three decades of calling California home, my husband and I reached our personal breaking point after the fires in L.A. The math simply stopped making sense.
When the Traditional Calculation Unravels of “Why We Should Stay in California”
For a very long time, high earners, founders, and creators collectively agreed to a baseline compromise. We accepted California’s sky-high taxes, aggressive regulatory frameworks, and bureaucratic hurdles as a standard “price of admission” for the weather, the L.A. / Southern California lifestyle, and the beach.
But over the last several years, that calculation for the reasons to stay in California systematically broke down.
The primary catalyst for our exit was the compounding tax environment, but the peripheral factors are what ultimately pushed us over the edge. We watched as systemic political mismanagement of the state led to visible urban decay, skyrocketing property crime, homelessness, and an unprecedented homeowners insurance crisis that left luxury homeowners exposed and frustrated. On top of that, the visceral, exhausting stress of the January 2025 wildfires brought the structural vulnerability of Southern California into sharp, undeniable focus.
We found ourselves looking at our annual balance sheet and realizing a sobering truth: we were surrendering the nation’s highest marginal tax bracket to underwrite an environment marked by shifting infrastructure, crime, and sky-high taxation without an obvious, valuable return on our dollars.
My husband and I refused to let our hard-earned wealth, personal freedom, and autonomy be held hostage by the bad policies of a mismanaged state.
We meticulously evaluated every major tax-haven destination in the country, tracking the pros and cons of Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Yet, nothing aligned or quite seemed like the right fit until we visited Summerlin, Las Vegas.
What we found in Summerlin wasn’t a compromise at all to the Southern California lifestyle we loved. In the end, it ended up being a massive step up for our lifestyle, our safety, and our peace of mind. It gave us our personal freedom back, allowed us to let go of the L.A. stress, and drastically upgraded our day-to-day quality of life—while making perfect financial sense.
Bringing 21+ Years of Southern California Luxury Standards to the Desert
When we packed up our lives and moved our home base to Summerlin in 2025, I willingly chose to bring over two decades of high-end California real estate expertise right along with me to establish my business in Summerlin, Las Vegas.
I chose to align my practice with IS Luxury because I demanded a real estate firm that completely matched the architectural sophistication, elite international marketing, and flawless transactional precision that my ultra-high-net-worth clients expect.
I don’t evaluate Summerlin, Henderson, or greater Las Vegas real estate through the eyes of a traditional local agent. I measure this inventory through the rigid, sophisticated lens of Bel Air, Brentwood, Manhattan Beach, and Newport Beach. I know the exact caliber of home you are accustomed to, I know what excellence looks like, and I know exactly how to secure it for you here in a community that actually protects your lifestyle, your capital, and your family.
The Reality of Modern Luxury in Summerlin and Henderson
Many of my peers in L.A. and Manhattan Beach still harbor outdated assumptions about what it means to live in Summerlin or Henderson. They picture the bright lights and nightlife of the Las Vegas Strip and assume the entire region lacks the refinement of Southern California. That misconception is exactly why the local luxury inventory remains a massive opportunity for those in-the-know.
The custom, exclusive, high-end neighborhoods of Summerlin and Henderson are entirely separate ecosystems from the tourism corridors of Las Vegas. Summerlin features clean, wide avenues, expansive guard-gated neighborhoods like The Ridges, Summit Club, and Country Club Hills, and top-tier amenities that rival any luxury enclave in the country.
Out here, your dollar unlocks massive spatial value, more land, and an upgraded, high-end lifestyle. You can acquire a world-class, architectural contemporary estate with unobstructed mountain or city views, custom wellness spaces, smart-home automation, and massive spatial scale—all nestled within a highly secure environment that values personal privacy and safety above all else.
Furthermore, you gain access to a sophisticated community of like-minded founders, executives, and high performers who have made the exact same strategic move. You aren’t leaving your network behind; you are entering a highly concentrated hub of optimized wealth and entrepreneurial drive.
Defining the Lane: A Clear Note on Freedom and Leverage
When navigating a high-stakes relocation, clarity and transparency are everything. To be absolutely clear: I am an expert Luxury Real Estate Advisor and Relocation Strategist. I am not a CPA, a tax attorney, or a financial planner.
Legally and cleanly decoupling your financial footprint from the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB)—especially with the looming threat of the proposed 2027 wealth and exit taxes—is a serious legal undertaking. It requires a flawless, comprehensive strategy executed by elite tax professionals who specialize in residency audits and asset protection.
My role is to be your strategic partner on the ground here in Summerlin & Henderson. Finding the right physical property is a massive, critical piece of the wealth-preservation equation. To successfully withstand a residency audit, your relocation cannot just exist on paper; it must be backed up by your actual lifestyle footprint.
I specialize in aligning your physical real estate acquisition with your tax-neutral goals, ensuring that your property structure, your guard-gated security, your layout, your proximity to private airports, and your overall lifestyle transition match your legal strategy perfectly. Your tax team handles the legal strategy; my job is to find the physical property that makes it a reality and brings the whole plan together perfectly.
Reclaiming Your Peace of Mind Without Compromising Your Lifestyle
The truth that every frustrated California founder, executive, or entrepreneur needs to hear is this: you do not have to choose between protecting your capital and enjoying an elite standard of living. You don’t have to watch your hard-earned wealth be eroded by an aggressive state government while navigating the daily friction of rising crime and soaring taxes.
Moving to Summerlin is the ultimate framework for lifestyle and financial leverage. With a short 45-minute flight connecting Las Vegas to Los Angeles, your lifestyle remains completely intact. You can check in on your California business operations, visit family, or meet with your Beverly Hills doctor or legacy network whenever necessary, all while maintaining your permanent home base in a zero-state-income-tax sanctuary.
As someone who spent thirty years running on California’s sand and twenty-one years transacting at the highest levels of its real estate market, I understand exactly what you stand to lose if you stay—and exactly what you stand to gain if you execute a strategic move. My competitive spirit and determination to win haven’t changed, and I use that drive to protect the lifestyles, investments, and personal freedom of the top 1% of Southern California High Performers.
When you are ready to stop compromising, protect your hard-earned wealth, and regain your peace of mind without sacrificing your lifestyle, let’s connect directly. Together, we can map out your transition and review the premier on- and off-market custom luxury homes currently available in Summerlin and Henderson. Let’s execute the playbook perfectly.
Let’s Connect:
Reach out to me directly on my California cell at 310-487-8422. I would love to meet you, learn exactly what you’re looking for, and show you how I can help you execute this move “to the T” so you can make the transition easy and enjoyable.
© 2026 JAIMI GREGORY FREEMAN LLC
EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.
NV LIC #: S.0205780 / IS LUXURY LLC NV LIC #: BS.0046822
2130 PARK CENTRE DR SUITE 120 LAS VEGAS, NV 89135
310-487-8422
