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San Diego Coastal Real Estate Redevelopment

Acquire overlooked homes.
Rebuild them completely.
Deliver exceptional returns.

We find the opportunities others miss and turn potential into lasting value. Leaf & Sparrow acquires and transforms San Diego coastal properties through an integrated team of builders, designers, and operators. We bring together the right properties, capital, relationships, and execution to create exceptional homes buyers want, strong opportunities for the people who invest alongside us, and a trusted partnership for the agents who help us find what's next.

The Record

No projections. No someday. This is what we have actually acquired, built, and returned for the partners already in the room.

$80M+
Portfolio Revenue
40+
Homes Completed
12%
Avg Project ROI
30+
Investment Partners
6 mo
Avg Hold Period
9+
Coastal Submarkets
Why We Exist

Building homes buyers fall in love with.

It was never about flipping houses.

Gabe Stockton didn't start Leaf & Sparrow to flip houses. After 25 years and more than 4,000 units at the institutional level, he left the scale behind to build something sharper, more personal, and entirely his own, a company where the work would mean something and the numbers would never be the only point.

He runs Leaf & Sparrow the way he'd build for his own family: choosing every project, every partner, and every standard himself, because to him, they are family. (His wife, JJ, leads design; the rest of the company shares the standard.) That's the part you'll never see on a spreadsheet, and it's the whole reason this company exists.

So the real question was never whether the numbers work. They do. It's whether you want to build alongside an operator who treats your capital, your reputation, and your name the way he treats his own.

If that's the kind of partner you've been looking for, you're already in the right place.

The Operator

The rarest asset in real estate
isn't a property.

It's an operator you can trust completely: someone whose judgment and discipline let you place your capital, then think about something else entirely. That is what Leaf & Sparrow is built around, and who you partner with directly.

Gabe Stockton

Founder & Principal

Gabe brings 25+ years of Southern California real estate experience to every Leaf & Sparrow project, including leadership across more than 4,000 Class A multifamily units, a 700-unit flagship property, $3B+ in assets managed, and teams of more than 1,200 people.

But the value of that experience isn't the résumé. It's what it gives the people around the table today.

Investors have direct access to the person responsible for deploying their capital. Agents have an experienced operator who can recognize an opportunity, make decisions, and execute. And every Leaf & Sparrow project draws on decades of experience navigating real estate, capital, teams, construction, and changing markets, backed by a full in-house team across acquisitions, construction, design, finance, and disposition, so nothing rests on one person.

This is intentionally a relationship-driven business. We want partners who know us, understand how we operate, and believe in what we're building.

When you partner with Leaf & Sparrow, you're partnering with a team, not a personality. This was never built to run on one person. Gabe leads a deep bench of operators, builders, and specialists, and when you build with us, you're building alongside all of them.

Your capital is treated as a responsibility. Your relationship matters beyond a single deal. And when something needs a decision, there is never a question about who is accountable for making it.

25+
Years in SoCal
4,000+
Class A Units Built
1,200+
Team Members Led
$3B+
Assets Managed
For Investors

Get in early. Get in clean.
Get in with the right operator.

San Diego's coast has made a lot of people wealthy. Almost none of them did it passively. Our partners are the exception: they place capital beside an operator who has already done it 4,000+ units over, and let the work happen without them.

$800K+
Paid to Investors
12%
Avg Project ROI
6 mo
Avg Hold Period

Figures reflect completed projects to date; past performance is not indicative of future results.

You see what the market never will
The best coastal deals here never hit the MLS. We source them off-market, in land-starved submarkets, and you get first look, before the crowd knows they exist.
We manufacture the upside
We don't pray for appreciation. We force it, building in-house, controlling cost, quality, and timeline from acquisition to sale.
Your capital sits out the bad deals
We pass on far more than we buy. Discipline isn't a slogan here; it's the reason your downside is protected before your upside is ever discussed.
We eat our own cooking
Our name is on every home and our capital is in it too. You win first. We win with you, never before.

Not everyone gets a seat.

We don't raise from crowds. Each cycle we open a limited number of partner seats, reserved for people who value discipline over hype and the long game over the quick win. The ones who take them tend to keep them: most of our capital has already been in the room before.

When the seats are filled, they're filled. The next opening isn't promised, and the coast doesn't wait.

For Agents

Bring us the deal. Earn your commission.
Represent the home everyone's talking about.

The best agents in San Diego already know: partnering with Leaf & Sparrow is one of the smartest moves you can make. You bring us a deal, earn your commission, and get to list a finished home that turns heads and wins buyers, the kind of standout that puts your name in front of the whole market. We're coastal high-end redevelopment specialists, and we're agents ourselves, so we know exactly what it takes to make you successful.

$2M+
Earned by Partner Agents
40+
Homes Brought to Market
15+
VIP Agent Partners
Commission Opportunities

We already partner with 15+ of the top-producing agents in their markets, the ones who bring us deals, stay close through the build, and earn first right to relist. It's a small, closed circle by design, and seats in it are earned.

"I've tripled up on a single Leaf & Sparrow home, brought them the deal, listed it when it was done, and repped the buyer. No other investor in San Diego hands agents that. And every home they've given me to sell has made me look like a star."

Top-Producing Agent · La Jolla
  • Earn your commission. Then earn it again. List the finished home you brought us, and that's two commissions on one property. Bring the buyer too, and it's three. Several of our agents have done exactly that.
  • Represent a home that turns heads. Coastal, high-end, beautifully finished, the kind of listing buyers chase and other agents notice. It gets you attention, and it gets you buyers.
  • Build your name and your numbers. Putting your sign on a standout Leaf & Sparrow home raises your sold count and your credibility with buyers, sellers, and agents, and moves you up the ranks in your market.
  • Work with people who get it. We're agents ourselves. We know how you operate, what you need, and how to make you successful, because we've been on your side of the deal.

A small circle.
A lot of opportunity.

We work closely with a select group of agents who bring us opportunities, stay connected through the transformation, and earn the chance to bring exceptional homes back to market. We're not building a database of agents who occasionally send us deals. We're building long-term relationships with agents who know their markets, recognize opportunity, and want to grow alongside us.

You bring us the right property. We'll give you every reason to want to sell it twice.

Our Philosophy

How we build.

Anyone can renovate a house. Very few operate from a philosophy. These six standards are the reason our homes feel considered, our partners come back, and your capital is treated like it's ours.

01
Build homes buyers fall in love with
The single standard everything else answers to. If a buyer won't love it, we're not finished.
02
Craftsmanship over shortcuts
We obsess over details because details become memories. Someone will live their life here.
03
Quality before speed
A home worth building is worth building right. We move quickly, but never at the expense of the work.
04
Relationships over transactions
We're not counting deals. We're building partners, investors, agents, and trades who return again and again.
05
Numbers are sacred
We underwrite with discipline and protect capital as if it were our own, because it's someone's trust.
06
Transparency always
Honest communication from day one. Trust isn't a feature of the business. It is the business.
How We Work

From overlooked to exceptional.

The same disciplined path, every home, so investors always know what to expect, and agents always know what they're representing.

01
Find the Opportunity
We uncover overlooked coastal properties others pass by, value hidden in the right location.
02
Create the Vision
Every finish and detail is chosen with intention, long before a wall moves.
03
Build with Intention
Construction managed entirely in-house, premium materials, honest timelines.
04
Deliver an Exceptional Home
A home buyers connect with immediately, and a partnership everyone wants to repeat.

This is how exceptional becomes repeatable.

Proof, Not Promises

Every home has a story.

Full-gut renovations across San Diego's most sought-after coastal neighborhoods. Not a list of transactions, a record of homes people fell in love with. Tap any home to walk through it.

40+ homes reimagined · $80M+ in sales · 9+ coastal submarkets

Featured · La Jolla

Villa Rosa

A light-filled La Jolla retreat reimagined around the view: vaulted, white-beamed ceilings, warm natural materials, and a rooftop deck that opens straight to the ocean. On the market now.

A look inside a selection of recent Leaf & Sparrow homes. The full project by project record is reviewed personally with prospective partners.

Reputation

People who work with us,
say it best.

The strongest proof isn't what we say. It's who chooses to work with us again.

“I've backed a lot of operators. Gabe is the only one who treats a slow month like a personal debt to repay. Every dollar has come back when he said it would, so I keep re-upping.”

Investment Partner · Three projects in

“I protect my name for a living, so I'm careful whose homes I put in front of buyers. Theirs sell themselves and close clean. I send them everything now.”

Listing Agent · North County Coastal

“We toured a dozen houses that were technically nice. Theirs was the only one that already felt like ours. We stopped looking that afternoon.”

Homebuyer · La Jolla

$80M+ delivered · 40+ homes · 30+ partners

Ready to be part of it?

Invest with us, bring us a deal, or just start the conversation.
This is where it begins.

The Full Bench

One team, every discipline covered.

Behind every home is a full company, acquisitions, construction, design, disposition, finance, and investor relations, all in-house. Tap anyone to meet them.

Start the Conversation

The best partnerships
start with a conversation.

Not a pitch. Tell us whether you're an investor or an agent, and we'll take it from there. Seats and opportunities are limited, the sooner we talk, the better we can fit you in.

You'll hear back from us personally. Your information is never shared.