Keomalu’s original purchase — which she sold this year for close to a 100-percent profit — cost $115,000. She bought her 4 bedroom for $479,000, and she is even considering using some of the proceeds from her sale towards the purchase of an investment rental property.

While Keomalu’s may not seem to fit the typical demographic of a real estate wheeler-dealer, she has been able to exploit the current boom in the market and make her life and the lives of her three children — ages 12 to 19 — better. And she’s not alone.

In fact, many of Smith’s clients have successfully taken equity from an existing piece of real estate to purchase another home or townhome. She estimates 18 clients in as many months (which represents nearly 50 percent of her total transactions) have purchased an investment property — folks who never really thought of themselves as investors, but took advantage of the market and the circumstances. Another 25 percent used their equity or proceeds to buy a bigger home.

“I could tell you lots of stories,” Smith says, “about how my clients have upgraded their lives. And it’s because the prices went up so high, and the tremendous equity that people have built, that has enabled them to afford buying bigger and bigger homes.”