Cost segregation, made simple.

In December 2020, Airbnb went public. I had no time to plan. We were in the middle of a global pandemic, my first child was one month old, and just six months earlier, travel had come to a standstill.

Almost overnight, my equity became real money, and with it came a hefty tax bill. As an immigrant, I had quietly imagined that seeing a large sum in the bank would open up a new kind of life. In some ways, it did. But it also made one thing clear: we needed a real tax strategy and plan.

To be clear, I am glad to pay taxes. I live in San Francisco and value the parks, gardens, libraries, clean streets, and public spaces those taxes support. I was not trying to avoid my share. I wanted to understand how to plan responsibly while investing in a getaway that would enable me to enjoy the outcome of years of hard work. That search led us to the Sonoma Coast, where one house became a source of local economic activity, a place for guests, and a home for some of our most important family memories.

Congress has long used the tax code to encourage activity it wants to see, from farming to housing to business investment. Real estate is no different. Tax deferrals and depreciation incentives are deliberate economic tools meant to encourage investment, improvement, and productive use of property.

And increasingly, they are becoming a channel of choice for high-income earners, not just large commercial real estate investors.

The following fall, I was at an Airbnb community event when another host mentioned cost segregation. I researched it, paid my CPA to help me understand it, and bought a house on the Sonoma Coast. It was a quiet escape from 60-hour weeks, but also a way to plan more thoughtfully around our tax liability.

Then I tried to get the study done. It cost $6,600, took five months, and came back as a thin MACRS table with no visible calculations. I could not trace the numbers. I could not see the assumptions. No one could show me the math.

That did not sit right with me. I had just finished a full remodel and had tracked everything: square footage, materials, room-level costs, what was removed, and what was replaced. So I rebuilt the study myself from the actual facts of the property, not a generic questionnaire.

That process became Unlevered: transparent, audit-ready cost segregation for people who were never shown their options, and for the tax professionals who want to serve them with confidence.