Legacy

David Seevers • July 31, 2025

Building wealth a little at a time.

The good news is I know how to make you rich. The bad news is the answer is slowly. -- Prof. Scott Galloway NYU Stern School of Business


I want to tell you a story. In June of 2021 my wife and I bought our current home, a 2080 sq ft, 4-bedroom, 3 bath home in a cute golf course neighborhood. The loan we took out for the home also included several thousand dollars in renovations including new flooring throughout, a full house repaint, updates to the bathrooms and kitchen in the form of granite counters, and a host of other smaller, touches. The total cost of the purchase, including the upgrades, was $235k. Some of you are currently running those numbers and thinking I mistyped that number, or that perhaps it's the home's location that caused the sale price to be depressed. I assure you that I didn't mistype the number, and the home is not in a bad location.


There are two lessons I want to extract from this deal. The easy lesson to convey is that interest rates do not add value to property. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just wrong. A 1900 square-foot, 3 bedroom home selling in a 3% interest market is the same home when the interest rate goes to 7%. Full stop. Interest rates will come down again at some point in the future, and if someone wants to convince you that the home you've been eyeing is now worth $40k more as a matter of that fact, just remember that interest rates will also rise again and that $40k worth of value will vanish. This is not the lesson I really want to share, though. The lesson I really want to share is what happened to the sellers of the home my family bought.


The sellers purchased the home in 2006. The home was new construction, and they bought the home solely for the purposes of using it as an investment property. For 15 years the owners had this residence as part of their financial portfolio, gaining value in the form of equity provided almost exclusively at the hands of tenants. Fast forward to 2021, when my wife and I bought the home, the sellers cashed out happy.


But the value they extracted from the residence over the time that they owned it up until the moment they sold it  took time to develop. Almost 15 years to be precise.


That is how wealth is generated. Slowly.


My 2nd born made his arrival just a couple of weeks ago which is why this newsletter is arriving late. I'd originally been working on a different, main article for this newsletter, and then my son was born, and suddenly, I found my focus drifting towards thoughts of the legacy I'm building. It's funny how the cry of a baby will shift your perspective around the future. Ever since the birth of my first child, my daughter, I've spent far more time thinking about what happens after I'm a much older man. These are thoughts that a younger version of myself could never understand, but more and more I find myself wishing to be one of those old men who plants trees under whose shade I will never sit. Children have that kind of impact.


Legacy takes on many forms with both spiritual and material components. I hope to instill in my children lessons of hard work and sacrifice, remaining humble in victory and resilient in defeat, and of grace and generosity. I hope also that I can provide valuable resources to them so they can be productive members of the communities in which they live. To put a pin in that last point, one of the business gurus I follow recently said, "the real value of wealth lies in how you are able to deploy it to protect others."


Unfortunately, like Professor Galloway says, generating wealth is a long-term project. Yes, I'm aware that there are plenty of influencers across social media who would have you believe otherwise. Just buy their book or purchase their program, and you can gain the insights necessary to turn a profit in a year's time. Someone, I'm sure, is getting rich in those communities, but I don't think it would be me. Most of us it turns out must generate wealth through consistent investments in stable markets.


Real estate has historically been one such market which is why you will often find real estate playing an important part in the financial portfolios of wealthy individuals. Real estate is stable with national, average gains of 7% dating back to 2012*. It's also the only asset I'm aware of where someone else will help you make the yearly investment in the form of rents paid. Add in the value drawn from tax incentives, and you begin to have an asset that rivals the historic, 10% average return of the stock market**. But again I stress, all of this takes time.


And it takes dedication to the path, which in modern times, as it concerns real estate, has not been easy. Anyone remember 2008? Flipping homes received a shot of adrenaline during that real estate market. My dad was appraising property for the state of Florida at the time. He watched an unfinished condo change hands 3 times before it was ready for a resident. That real estate market turned out to be an adult game of hot potato. Many people did make money during that moment, but if you were the one holding the asset when the music stopped, it was bad news.


The previous owners of my home could have used this home to initiate their entry into the "flipping homes" craze. But trying to time markets and getting in on the latest financial trends is more akin to gambling than wealth generation. Just because you get lucky doesn't mean you did something thoughtful. Instead, the thoughtful thing was to hold the home. By developing a long-term view of the home as an asset, they created a financial tool that cash flowed and gained equity. Additionally, the approach they took afforded them an advantage over individuals who were stuck holding over-valued assets.


Time is a strange thing. Future moments can seem so far away. Simultaneously, time can advance so quickly; weren't we just celebrating New Year's? And wealth generation during all of this? Well, it takes a long time and then in a flash the moment arrives, and you're handing to your children something of real value. And all because you didn't get caught up in the hype or anxiety of the moment. You did the thoughtful and methodical thing. You generated wealth a little at a time, over a long time. The way most wealth has always been generated. And when you step back from all of it you realize you built a legacy.

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By David Seevers • May 27, 2020
Once upon a time I enjoyed white-water rafting. For a string of several years I paddled down various rivers in the south and north-east U.S. And to this day I can say that some of the biggest thrills I've enjoyed have come from my time on some truly crazy rivers. I also live in a small town with a fairly robust river community. Water is a big part of the Greater Pensacola area, and I've had the pleasure of many leisurely trips down the placid Blackwater river. Many a peaceful and relaxing day have been had either casually paddling a canoe or drifting down the river in an inner tube. The two are night and day from each other. You'd never paddle white-water without preparation and the help of experts. Meanwhile, the biggest concern you'll ever have on the Blackwater is whether you've brought enough drinks and snacks. The former requires a professional to help you traverse. The later can be done by anyone. Property management is a lot like a combination of white-water rafting and leisurely river trips. You'll find elements of both. And as technology advances and provides landlords greater and greater access to platforms and tools that were perviously only available to property managers and real estate agents, many of the aspects of property management that were previously only possible with the help of a professional have now become easily accessible to any landlord with a computer and an email address. As such, the perception of property management drifts further towards one where managing a rental home is just like an easy trip down the Blackwater. And then you have moments like our current crisis. The world flips upside down, and everything you thought you knew suddenly and dramatically changes, and now you're in the midst of some nasty Class III and IV rapids. The path you take now matters, and what you need is the help of someone who can expertly guide the boat. Obviously, hopefully, the crisis that has been brought to us by Covid-19 won't last forever. Further, we can take comfort in knowing that we're unlikely to experience such nationally impacting events every year. But even on the individual level, disasters strike. What do you do when a tenant doesn't pay rent? What process do you take when your home isn't being cared for properly? How do you handle a situation where the lease has expired but the tenant won't leave? These and various other situations happen all the time. As a landlord, you don't need a property manager to find a tenant for you; Zillow can do that. You don't need a property manager to collect rent; there are ample financial platforms that can allow you to do that electronically. Technology can provide you digital access to your home making regular inspections easier and without the aid of a property manager. So much of the necessary work of owning rentals is becoming easier and easier to achieve. But these things have never, and never will be, the real reason to have an expert in your pocket. The true value of a property manager is the skill they provide in navigating the big moments, the unknowns, and the surprises. The right property manager sees the possible hazards ahead and puts in place the plans and procedures that help you avoid those hazards. And when you're in the thick of the kinds of rapids that can flip your boat, a good property manager will get you through.