we'll speak with former ci sarks director james woolsey, my special guest. >> i'm bob massi. for 35 years, i've been practicing law and living in las vegas, ground zero for the american real-estate crisis. but it wasn't just vegas that was hit hard. lives were destroyed from coast to coast as the economy tanked. now it's a different story. the american dream is back, and nowhere is that more clear than the grand canyon state of arizona. so we headed from the strip to the desert to show you how to explore the new landscape and live the american dream. i'm gonna help real people who are facing some major problems, explain the bold plans that are changing how americans live, and take you behind the gates of properties you have to see to believe. at the end of the show, i'll give you critical tips

you need to know in the massi memo. because information is power. and the property man has got you covered. thanks for joining us. i'm bob massi, the property man. water -- it's not something most of us spend a lot of time thinking about. you may be thinking about it a lot more in the future. and whether you know it or not, well, water will have a big impact on your property and your life. the world economic forum recently declared the biggest threat facing the planet over the next decade to be a global water crisis. the un estimates that by 2030, nearly half the world population will be living in areas of what they call high water stress. >> as we've got more and more population, more and more water use, we're seeing some constraints on some of the water resources. >> here in the united states,

especially in the southwest, battles are already being fought over who gets the water and how. this impacts not just where people live but also how they live. >> going forward, we're gonna see a change in the nature of our communities, how they look, how they're landscaped, how buildings are designed. and we're going to adapt to our water situation. >> california's already more than five years into a drought, and the population of nevada and arizona -- well, they're expected to double between 2000 and 2030. >> water is precious in a desert. it's precious anywhere, but it's particularly precious in a desert. and we were using groundwater, pumping it out of the ground that had accumulated over centuries, at an alarming rate. it was an existential question. are we going to run out of groundwater at some point? and there won't be any growth or economic activity here. we're gonna find an alternative. with groundwater drying up, much of the western united states turned to the nearly 1,500-mile-long colorado river, which flows from the rocky mountains

all the way to mexico. the colorado supplies water for 30 million people. but getting the water to the people in arizona took an astounding level of engineering. >> we have this huge canal system that transports it 336 miles uphill to deliver it to communities, farmers, industries. >> the central arizona project was constructed in the 1970s and '80s. the massive system brings the water to the population centers of phoenix and tucson. >> it cost over $4 billion to build. there was a 300-mile- long excavation, several tunnels bored through mountains, siphons going under rivers. it's an engineering marvel. and you can see it from outer space. >> on average, more than 5 trillion gallons flow through the canal every year. >> what we're looking at behind me here is a map board of the system itself. it's 336 miles long, controlled by two dispatchers that are sitting behind us here. >> we have 15 pumping stations along our 300-plus-mile canal. we have to basically pump the water uphill

and then let it flow by gravity over some period of miles. >> so all these values that you're looking at are in cfs, cubic feet per second. so as you can see here, this pumping plant's doing 2,086. starts at lake havasu, goes all the way down through some mountains, underneath some riverbeds, and then it eventually ends up in tucson. >> from 1985 to 2010, central arizona project generated $1 trillion with a t, a trillion dollars over those 25 years of value for the state of arizona. when our supply becomes more expensive because of scarcity, people need to remember what it's really worth, and not just us personally, when we turn on our tap, but what it's doing for the state that we live in. >> but even the mighty colorado river is struggling. water levels in its two biggest reservoirs, lake mead and lake powell, they've been dropping fast. shortages are coming. so what does that mean for you? >> the cost of water's going up. it's becoming more expensive because there's increasing competition for water, and there's a lot of components that go into the cost of water. for example, it takes a lot of power to move water.

and so if power costs go up, water costs go up. >> water is a valuable commodity. it's undervalued. it's underpriced. the more people come here, as the drought that we've been experiencing continues, it is going to become more expensive. >> arizona's ahead of its neighbors in terms of planning for the future and ensuring that water use is considered when building homes. developers, home builders can't just build wherever. they have to follow certain rules. >> you have to go to the arizona department of water resources and demonstrate that you have sufficient water supplies for 100 years. in order to be able to sell a new house, you have to demonstrate that you've got this water supply. >> they are also stocking up to buffer against future shortages. >> we take some of our colorado river delivered through the central arizona project, and we store it underground through storage ponds. it doesn't evaporate. it's there for the future use. >> homes in america use 27.5 billion gallons of water every day, preparing food, flushing toilets and watering lawns. >> as we see buildings

go up vertically, what we're seeing is less landscaping on a per-resident basis. we're also seeing the opportunity to reuse some of the water internally. we're seeing rooftop gardens. >> there's much more consciousness in terms of individual homes. we have low-flow toilets and shower heads, desert landscaping. >> on a per-person basis, water demand is going down. new construction is more efficient than old construction. people are remodeling their homes. >> regulations were adopted that required golf courses to reduce the amount of grass that they put in when they built a new one. you now see many of these world-class championship facilities out here are a mixture of grass and desert, and they're absolutely stunningly beautiful. >> another thing people are doing is reusing gray water -- the water that comes from the washing machines or showers, not the toilet water and not necessarily kitchen sink water, but kind of that clean wastewater. but what they're doing

is they're directing it to their own property, using it for outdoor watering. >> for any new project today, the assumption is that all of the wastewater that's generated by this new community, all of it will be recycled in one way or another. you're gonna see water becoming more expensive, but you're gonna also see tremendous opportunities to use water more efficiently. >> people here are very confident and optimistic that we will be able to continue our lifestyle, our economic vitality. it may require more talk about low-flow plumbing fixtures and maybe adjusting landscaping. but i think we're in a good place. >> up next, how does the water crisis affect you? there's a lot you can learn from desert landscaping. [ woman vocalizing ] job. daddy's here. hi

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♪ >> welcome back. i'm bob massi, the property man. so we've heard about water becoming more scarce and more expensive. but if you own property,

at some point, you're probably gonna have to deal with landscaping. and that usually takes a lot of water. so how can you make your home beautiful but still do it in a responsible way? mike robison is the owner of sustain scape. >> we focus on plants that'll work in this environment. being that it's a desert, we want plants that will thrive off low water and be beautiful out here. >> when people buy a home or build a home, the landscaping is, like, one of the things that if they're not prepared enough, they regret after if they don't get some advice. >> get a professional. you know, spend a little bit of money to get someone that knows what they're doing. >> better to spend a little more up front than cost a lot of money back then. >> in the long run. yeah. >> we're out here in the desert of arizona. landscaping here is obviously going to be different from other regions. >> some areas would need plants that could thrive off a lot of water.

plants that thrive off a lot of water out here is not good. >> but wherever you are, you really need a landscaper who understands your particular climate and what works there. i grew up in pittsburgh, where any -- everything grows. right? >> right. yeah. but the sonoran desert's very beautiful. you know, at different times of the year, it can be blooming just as pretty as back east. if you do a correct design, you can design in plants that'll bloom throughout the year. >> now, all plants are not interchangeable. some require much more maintenance than others. you want to look for low-maintenance plants that won't need to be replanted or heavily worked on. pay attention to how the front of your property looks. we've all heard the term "curb appeal." just having a well-thought-out front yard can increase the perception and value of your home. >> you can design it to create different experiences as they come into the house, you know, a basic one or a dramatic one. >> but you can't just only pay attention to the front.

>> people should focus on spending the money where they're gonna be getting the most enjoyment out of it. patios off of courtyards or back patios can extend the house. >> here in arizona, the lifestyle is outdoor living. so figure out where you'll be spending your time. there's three patios on this property. and it was designed to be able to utilize the outdoors during the different parts of the day. there's patios on the north, which you would use in the mornings. you know, you work your way around to the south as the sun migrates throughout the property. we put in pots to bring in the color for the area. they're all plumbed and drained, uh, underground. so the water -- >> so underneath here, then... you can't just move this. >> no, you don't wanna move it. it'll break the seal. the xeriscape focuses on low-water plants, drip-irrigation system that applies water to the plant at the source. >> what xeriscape design means is saving water by using the right plants in the right groupings so that they require little to no external water. >> there's pipes underground

that distribute the water throughout the property. >> there's conduit underneath here? >> correct. everything's set up on valves, which regulate the amount of water to each plant. and you wanna group like-water plants. so trees are a group. shrubs are a group. cactus. so you can distribute the correct amount of water to each plant. >> people often get mixed up about xeriscaping. it doesn't mean just getting rid of plants. it's about using water wisely so that you're not wasting it. the xeriscape brings in the elements of the plants, you know, that'll give you the lush look or give you a nice, pretty landscape. >> gray water is something that you're going to be hearing a lot about in the future. why? because there really no reason not to be doing it. >> gray water is just water that's already been so there's -- there's fixtures in your house like your shower, the laundry. that water can be reused to irrigate plants. >> obviously, this is not from your toilets or even your kitchen sink. >> here, we're standing next to a gray water tank.

the water comes out of the house into this tank and then pumps throughout the pipes underground to the landscaping. >> the most important thing -- have a plan. >> hiring the right people is kind of the right step in the direction to get what you want in the end. >> don't just randomly start doing things. it'll end up costing you more money in the future. >> if you don't have a plan to lay everything out, you could be putting trees in places, and you'd be tearing 'em out in a couple years. so then you're wasting money and going back and redoing stuff twice. >> which costs you more money. >> costs you more money in the end. >> up next, living inside a shipping container, well, it might not sound like your idea of luxury. but wait until i show you what life is like inside these tiny homes. [ woman vocalizing ] [vo] when it comes to investing,

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♪ >> welcome back. i'm bob massi, the property man. shipping containers. they're just big boxes used to move stuff across the globe. so living inside one might not exactly be what you think of as luxury. but that could be changing. this is the front living room. >> and the idea is it's a one-bedroom space. but it's really wide open, similar to a hotel room where there's no door separating the back bedroom and the front living room. >> this is containers on grand, 16 steel former shipping containers that now form eight 740-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments. it's the brainchild of brian stark and wes james, architects and builders who saw these formerly discarded containers as an opportunity. >> because of the trade deficit in the united states, there's a lot of product

that comes into the u.s. from overseas. but we export very little. >> typically, shipping containers are produced in china. when they land here, 9 out of 10 times, they don't leave our shore. so we have a shipping container sitting in ports along the shoreline. >> the 16 containers have now become a sustainable-housing project on what was once the kool kar used-car lot in downtown phoenix. each of these 9,500-pound steel crates once traveled the high seas and were wasting away in california before they were salvaged. >> these containers are meant to hold 40,000 to 50,000 pounds each, be stacked 11 high and sent across the ocean. and they're incredibly over-structured for what we're using them for. we did everything we possibly could so that, when people were driving by, that it literally looked like a stack of shipping containers. we were also very keen to have the aesthetic, the blue containers that you see here. >> and what kind of work did you have to do to them? >> we actually did minimal cuts. we left most of the container intact. once we had all the underground and footings in place, we had them shipped here. and then we used a crane

to actually erect it. these aren't temporary structures. >> these are fixed to the ground. >> yeah. we built this using the ibc, which is the international building code. we actually erected this entire complex structurally in just about four hours. >> then came the plumbing, the wiring, insulation and finishing touches. >> we have a container stacked up against a conventionally built masonry core. that houses most of our mechanical plumbing and electrical infrastructure. within the core are all the bathrooms and the kitchens, leaving the containers to really be just the pure space. we really wanted an open, clean, modern interior space that contrasted against the, you know, the rough exterior. >> the bedroom, you can see, is a decent size. it's roughly 16 by 12, which is a good-sized bedroom. we have a queen bed here and then the bathroom in through this door. this is a small work space. when you have only 740 square feet, every space is important to use. and so this gives us kind of a desk and work space there. one of the things inside that we've left is the flooring.

shipping containers come with an inch-and-a-half plywood. and so you see a lot of the remnants from when they were used, when forklifts came in and dragged stuff out. >> it tells the story of the container. we didn't wanna sand it down. so we ended up putting many, many layers of epoxy on the floor to also keep the character of the shipping container. >> how well is it insulated? we actually are thicker, using closed-cell insulated foam, than we need to be to make sure we cut down on the radiant heat coming through the metal skin. >> yeah, because we're down in the scottsdale-phoenix area. obviously gets pretty hot here in the summer. now, is there air conditioning in here? >> oh, absolutely. this is a fully functioning apartment. >> the apartments, they rent for about $1,000 per month and are already quite popular. >> people seek these out because they are so novel. i think people that are interested in recycling or repurposing or even modern architecture are interested in what we've done here. >> i was kind of just looking at a bunch of just boring old cookie-cutter townhomes, apartments, houses for rent. i stumbled upon this on zillow and decided it would just -- it was too cool of an opportunity to pass up

and decided to take a chance. and so far, so good. >> we face the containers facing each other so there's a sense of communal interior space to encourage people to come outside, essentially. so far, it's been a lot of fun. i mean, everybody wants to come over and see my place. i mean, i've probably given 20 home tours. >> containers on grand is located just outside of roosevelt row, part of downtown phoenix billed as a creative, walkable arts district. >> we have a really wide spectrum of people that have contacted us interested in containers, everywhere from people wanting to put bomb shelters in their backyard to people wanting to do really luxurious modern homes. >> could you take a couple containers and sort of cut a hole in 'em and make it, like, a two- or three-bedroom? >> just -- it's just money. >> yeah. >> it's always about money, guys. >> it's just money. >> up next, time to dig into the viewer mailbag and answer some of your questions. [ woman vocalizing ] are allergies holding you back? break through your allergies. try new flonase sensimist allergy relief

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my mother-in-law has had a stroke. she has cancer, a broken back, and has not been able to live in the house for two years. first of all, i'm so sorry for your mother-in-law's problems. besides the illness, she has to deal with this. it's not fair. the law, however, is on her side, tim. and she has grounds to sue the builder for breach of contract, breach of warranty, construction defect. you gotta get a good lawyer that specializes in that area. now, like many states, it does recognize these principles of law. so when you see a competent lawyer, he or she will explain what your rights are. important to understand there is a 10-year statute of limitations, meaning that you have that period of time to actually bring an action. but you have to prove that the workmanship fell below a certain standard. and it surely sounds like that happened in this case. now, here's the problem. nothing -- nothing in litigation happens quickly.

but most of the contracts that we sign when we buy a home has certain clauses in it. for example, it may have a mediation clause. it may have an arbitration clause. and what does that allow you to do? it allows you to get into litigation early on to try to resolve the problem. you also have to get, as i stated early -- earlier, a competent lawyer to handle this. the other problem we're dealing with, as i said, nothing happens quickly in litigation. find a competent lawyer. have them answer the questions. and so far as selling it, i don't think you're gonna be able to do it, my friend, because you'd have to sell it as is. and who's gonna buy that property? that's all the time we have for today. be sure to send me your property stories, questions or pictures of your property bloopers. send them to propertyman@foxnews.com. and don't forget to check us on facebook and twitter. there's also plenty more information

and videos on our website, foxnews.com/propertyman. i'll see you next week. [ woman vocalizing ] one town wants helmets on the soccer field. >> i'm calling it a spiritual awakening. >> is it a spiritual awakening to sell boys vacuum cleaners. >> if that's what speaks to them. >> how strict should you be? >> your daughters were not allowed to have a sleepover, be in a school play, complain about not being in the play. >> hold yourself to a higher standard. >> how do we