The StepsAhead Letter

In our first issue I made the case for buying homes StepsAway from Glacier National Park. Cases are easy to make. Execution is the hard part.

So this issue is about execution. I will show you what a renovation actually looks like up close, walk you through a deal that has already run its full cycle with the numbers attached, and tell you where the funds stand today.

No windup. Let us get into it.

Tom Slater
President and Fund Manager, StepsAway Asset Management, Inc.

When we bought 127 1st Street W last November, it did not photograph well. Several dump trailer loads of unusable furniture and belongings came out of the house and garage before we could even see what we had.

That is the part nobody puts in the brochure. The before is ugly. It is supposed to be.

We bought the home off season for $619,000, below the $650,000 appraisal, three miles from the entrance to Glacier National Park. Then we went to work. Our own crew with Rafter MT Construction’s team started on May 1. The headline project is turning the detached garage into a game room, the kind of space that keeps a family booking the whole week instead of two nights. The first guests arrive in June.

Here is the story in pictures.

We do this with our own construction company, which means the renovation margin stays inside the deal instead of leaking out to an outside contractor. That is what vertical integration looks like when you stop talking about it and start hanging drywall.

People ask if the model actually works, or if it just looks good on a slide. Fair question. So let me show you one that has already played out from start to finish.

254 Glacier Avenue is the oldest home we own. We bought it in December 2017 for $296,000. It is small, one bedroom and one bath, 817 square feet, a short walk from the park.

Here is the part I like. In 2021 we refinanced. The home appraised at $425,000, we placed a new $322,000 loan on it, and we pulled out $95,582 in cash, tax free, while keeping the house and everything it would do next. That is what I mean when I say be the bank. You let the asset pay you, and you keep the asset.

Today StepsAway 254 is worth about $501,200, up roughly 69 percent from what we paid. Add that equity to the cash we already took out and the home has created around $304,000 of value. Call it about 2.25 times the money we put in, and an internal rate of return near 19 percent over the hold.

Now the honest part. A good chunk of that came from buying in 2017 and riding a once in a generation real estate market. We got some of this right. We also got lucky. Please do not pencil 19% into your own spreadsheet and call it a base case. We brought property management in house under StepsAway Montana in 2025 to improve performance further. The easy tailwind is gone, and from here the returns come from execution.

Two quick things.

First, StepsAway STR Fund I is closed to new money. My thanks to the limited partners who backed the StepsAway 127 deal. You share in the risks and you share in the rewards, and now we go operate.

Second, we are turning to Fund II. We are looking for the next property, and for a small group of investors to make the trip with us. Same approach as before, open to accredited investors, with a low minimum of $30,000. There is nothing to do today except reply if you would like to be in the conversation early.

If that is you, the first step is simply an email.

Email: [email protected]

Learn more at: StepsAwayFunds.com

506(c) Exemption for Accredited Investors only. This newsletter is informational and does not constitute an offer or solicitation.