About
David Segerdahl
Private Mountain Property Advisory · Vail Valley
"Sixteen years inside Vail real estate — from the original capital raise for the Solaris project to the private sales I'm closing today."
The long version
My path from Milwaukee to Minturn, and the practice I built along the way.
I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and moved west in 2003 to study International Business at the University of Denver, where I met my wife. I spent the next several years in Denver working in finance before making the move to Vail. My first significant project here was the capital raise for what became Solaris Residences, an $80+M raise that began in 2010 and funded part of the project at the heart of Vail Village.
When construction was completed in 2013, we moved to Vail. I founded Elevation Resort Management (ERM) to serve as a fiduciary, driving rental sales for our company's limited partners and building ownership. During those years, both of our children were born at Vail Valley Medical Center, and we bought a home in Minturn. Since its inception, ERM has booked more than $45M in gross rental sales, and we continue to help renters looking to spend time in the valley.
Real estate is one of two businesses I built over the last decade in the Valley. The other was hospitality. For more than ten years I was an owner and operator with Elevation Vail Partners, the restaurant group behind Fall Line Kitchen, Crespelle, White Bison, and Pendulum. We've since sold the restaurants, but the years spent running them shaped and grew me profoundly. A decade of feeding the guests coming to Vail and the locals who live here has changed the way I approach everything. Most of the strongest relationships I have in Vail came from conversations on Bridge Street in front of our restaurants, or on a chair lift.
As the 19 units our company owned sold over the last 10 years, ERM evolved as well. Rentals are now structured as wholesale arrangements with the Four Seasons Private Residences, Solaris, the Sonnenalp, One Willow Bridge, and The Sebastian, along with privately rented homes and condos in Vail Village. We place a small number of families directly into these buildings each season, and many of those families become the families I help acquire homes from.
The renter-to-buyer pipeline that started informally has become the practice itself. $31M+ closed in private acquisitions so far in 2026 alone. The work is narrower than what most luxury agents offer: a small number of families, longer conversations, the patience for multi-year decisions. Most of my clients are American, Mexican, and Latin American families thinking about generational ownership in the Valley.
Solaris sales facilitated
ERM bookings managed
2026 private sales closed
The numbers above span sixteen years inside one of the country's most concentrated luxury markets, a span that started with the building's original capital raise and continues with the private sales I close today. The figures aren't ranked or compared because rankings reward volume and what I do is the opposite. I take fewer clients, work longer with each, and turn down the work that doesn't fit.
Who refers work
The practice runs on relationships.
Most of my work comes by referral: from wealth advisors, attorneys, and family offices, from former clients, and from a decade of community built around running restaurants and rentals in the Valley. Specific firms and individuals on request, with permission.
Outside of work
A family in Minturn.
My wife and I met at the University of Denver and moved to Vail together in 2013. Both our kids were born at Vail Valley Medical Center — they're now 8 and 11 and love to ski race. We own a home in Minturn, a few minutes down valley between Vail and Beaver Creek.
Outside of work I ski, fly fish, golf, and hike with the family. Most of it happens out the front door.
Reach out to learn more.
Just thirty minutes, no obligation, in person or by phone. Lets find your home.