In this interview, Linda Fulgenzi recounts her experience buying a downtown Tucson home through agents Tony Ray Baker and Darrin (Darren) Baker. She describes how a quick, on‑the‑spot meeting led to a fast tour of the emerging West Side district, where the agents shared insider knowledge of upcoming developments and vacant lots. Linda decided to purchase a property that wasn’t even listed yet, trusting the agents to negotiate a price later. After closing, the agents suggested using the home as an Airbnb/VRBO short‑term rental. With the agents’ referrals to housekeepers and payment‑app workflows, she generated thousands of dollars in weekly rental income, attracting festival‑goers, business travelers, and executives from nearby Hexagon Mining. The agents also provided thoughtful post‑closing support, sending tax‑time documentation to simplify her paperwork. Impressed by their professionalism and genuine care, Linda, a financial advisor, says she has no hesitation referring friends and clients to Tony and Darrin, praising their reliability, community connections, and the overall positive experience.
Chapters
So do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself? It's Linda, correct?
Linda, yes. Full Gen Z.
Okay, perfect. Yeah, so, Linda, uh, oh, if I can freaking talk today. Um, Linda, so how was your purchase with Tony and Darren? How, like, what was the things? Easy, easy, easy.
So easy, unbelievable. I mean, I called Tony blind. He never met me, I never met him. I'd been referred to him by 3 or 4 people who, some of them didn't even know him, but they knew of him. And they knew he was the guy to— for anything downtown, uh, certain kinds of properties, especially this whole downtown barrio area and the new developments and the gentrification. They knew all of it. And I called him and he said, well, when do you want to meet? And I said, you know, I have 30 minutes right now. Yeah, like 30 minutes. And he says Okay, how far away are you? I'm on Congress. I said, so am I, I'm right near your office. So literally, I jumped in his car, parked my car, and he took me on this fast tour, 'cos I knew I wanted to be in the downtown area and I wanted to be where it was all happening on the west side of ITAM.
Yeah.
And so he showed me everything, and this is before, I mean, most of the things that are built here, and this, I've only owned this house a year and a half, most of the things built out there, you know, Caterpillar's headquarters, there's apartment buildings, so on and so forth. There's tons of stuff. The annex, they weren't here.
Yeah.
I mean, they were just big, big empty lots. And he's like, this is going here, that's going here. And he says, and this is what's happening here. And he knew people who had moved in and he knew who was doing what house. And we went by this house and it was a mess because it had just been taken over by somebody that was going to redo it and turn it. And I was like, what's that? He said, well, we're going to be listing that. It's not listed yet. We have so much to— he's got so much to do. It's, you know, maybe a couple months away, maybe a month at best, but probably more like a couple months. We went and looked at some other places, and I said, let's go back to that other house. I loved the proximity. Yeah, you know, I'm a block from the mercado. I'm 565 steps literally to the streetcar. You know, I can hop on the streetcar and go see something at U of A. It's fabulous. And then if I want to, I just Uber on the way home if I don't want to get on the streetcar late at night. But I'm not— actually, I've gotten very accustomed to being around, walking around at night, and I actually recognize people I see now, and it's just such a lovely community. Okay. And so it was just so easy. Well, I bought the house. It wasn't even for sale yet. I just, I said, I'm gonna buy it. He says, Linda, we don't have a price. I said, well, that doesn't matter. We'll buy it anyway. I said, we'll figure that out later. And so, and then I wanted to weigh in on a few things and stuff. And then he said, you know, since you're not always here, and I do have another house because I don't actually live here full-time. I kind of call this my downtown crash pad. Yeah, I mean, in my phone, that's the—
that's the address of what it says.
Yeah, yeah, crash pad. So he said, why don't you try doing like Airbnb or VRBO? So I looked into some of them and I thought, okay, I'll test the waters. VRBO, oh my God, it was so easy. And then he gave me a couple of names of housekeepers and that worked out really well. And everybody just is on the phone, you pay them with Zelle or one of the apps, and so you never even have to show up. And I was able to bring in literally thousands every week through the season, which is pre-Christmas.
Okay.
And then we have all those festivals up to the jam show. We have Jazz Festival, we have, you know, Tucson Desert Song Festival, which I'm on the board, very proud to be. And, you know, all the things happening, and people are kind of rodeo, and just one right after another, and then the racetrack. And I had, what I ended up with was either family people coming to see their family who lives here, or they were business people.
Yeah.
Hexagon Mining found me because they opened up right down the street.
Okay.
And so they've been putting some of their executives in here when they come into town from Australia and various places. So it's been fantastic. The easiest thing I ever, ever did.
Yeah.
And then the coup de grâce was after The year went by and I'm gathering my stuff for taxes and I'm thinking, oh, I gotta tell my accountant that I bought this house and blah blah blah blah and all this other stuff. I'm gonna have to look for the papers that you always put in a safe place but you can never find them.
Yep, I know exactly what you mean.
Closing documents. And I go to the post office to pick up my mail and I see this nice envelope from Tony Ray Baker and Darrin Baker. And I open it up, I was like, I wonder what this is, maybe they're inviting me to something. And I open it up and bingo, they said, we know tax time gets hectic. It was brilliant. And I texted him and I said, that was absolutely brilliant.
Yeah, he's a brilliant guy.
Yeah, very much so, very much so.
He does some stuff that's so like, where you're just like, where did you even like come up with that, Tony? Like, and it's just like, it's the most useful stuff too.
So useful. None of it is, you know, like just bogus stuff, like just like things you— it's really the real deal. It's stuff that you find like, why doesn't everybody do this?
Exactly.
Yeah, I've owned and purchased many houses, California, Hawaii, Tucson, Nevada.
Yeah.
First time I ever had an experience like this.
That's amazing.
And the first time I ever really became like very, very good friends and felt very comfortable. As a financial advisor, I always want to find people who I know in my heart of hearts my clients are going to be taken care of, because God forbid I, you know, refer somebody, one of my clients who I've been with for so long, worked so hard, you know, to maintain that relationship and build it, and refer them to somebody and it goes bad.
Yeah.
So it's wonderful. I have no qualms whatsoever about it, and I refer everybody to them.
Okay.
Yeah. Well, thank you much.
I really appreciate it. Um, and do you have any last words or anything that you want to say to Tony Ray Baker?
Uh, just that I'm loving the, the whole deal and the parties and the friends and all the people that I get introduced to. He's great.
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. And we love Darren. Hey, we love Darren too. Yeah.
