The Real Estate Bet That Paid Off

The Playbook With David Meltzer

David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode, I’m joined by luxury real estate developer Steve Harbaugh to talk about building a legacy on the crystal-clear shores of Exuma. After years of success in New Jersey, Steve moved his family to South Florida and began developing a high-end resort on an island off an island, where materials arrive by boat and concrete is mixed by hand. We talk about setbacks like the 2008 housing crash, turning failure into a career breakthrough, and why TikTok is now his most effective sales tool. Steve also shares how he manages family life, grief, and business with intention, flexibility, and a little bit of sandbar magic.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Entrepreneurs the Playbook. I'm David Meltzer, and I am super excited to have here because
0:05.4	I now can say I've had all three Harbos on the podcast, the Playbook. Steve Harbao, welcome to
0:11.8	the Playbook. Thank you very much for having me. Well, you have so much I want to talk about. Number one,
0:17.6	I've been to Zuma many times, and a lot of people is a hidden gem.
0:22.6	And I have so many lessons that I'd like to explore
0:26.2	when it comes to real estate development,
0:28.4	what you're doing down there in Exuma,
0:31.0	and also understanding something that's important to me
0:34.0	is impact, because your mission seems to have evolved from when you were in the
0:39.2	United States and comparatively now being down in the Bahamas, there is a lot of different things
0:45.6	you can do to help people. Absolutely. With my favorite asset class, which is real estate.
0:51.4	And luxury real estate, resort real estate seems to have a different frequency. Why did you
0:57.7	choose Exuma to have all these amazing luxury villas and real estate development opportunities for people
1:05.5	to explore the Bahamas? So this, I didn't know how, two years ago, didn't know how to pronounce
1:10.6	Exuma. And I was a builder. I could see it in his face when he asked me, so what do, you know,
1:16.2	I say you stuff about Exuma, like, yeah, dude, I've been there. Yeah, that's awesome. Wow.
1:19.8	You know how to pronounce it and you've been there. That's good stuff. It's good. So I don't have to sell you, right? Right. I was a home builder. I'm only from my perspective.
1:28.3	It's coming.
1:32.7	So I built about 200 homes in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.
1:33.9	I was kind of the cool guy.
1:35.0	It was a vacation area.
1:36.8	And we needed a break, right?
	...

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