Join real estate expert David Olson as he takes an entertaining AND educational look at #HomeDesignFails to explore relevant design trends, local building codes, insurance guidelines, and industry best practices for home selling.
<< Read First
My grandfather grew up in a rural farm town in Wright County, Minnesota. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, he fought with the Navy in the Korean war serving on the destroyer ship USS O’Brien DD-725SS. While he was in the military, he married my grandmother and started raising a family with five boys. With hard work, determination (and a lot of ingenuity) he ended up launched his own electrical contracting business in 1959, which later became ‘Olson & Son’s Electric.’ After six decades, the business is still around and being lead today by my brother and dad in Monticello, Minnesota.
My grandpa came from an era where he was expected to work for everything he had. He worked tirelessly to build his business to provide for his family. His journey was filled with a number of exciting adventures and unexpected tragedies that he was forced to overcome along the way. He lived a full life and accomplished more in 79 years than most people have in several lifetimes. Grandpa was always a fighter and towards the end of his life when he was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, one of the thoughtful things he did during this difficult time was gather and archive all the old letters and photographs that had collected from his past. With hundreds of old projector slides and 8mm films, he recorded new videos of the ‘good old days’ sharing stories with additional insights on the special moments he shared with family and friends.
These priceless treasures of family history and life lessons would’ve been lost if he hadn’t taken the time to document and share the memories with us through his newly narrated videos. It was a massive project that was bitter-sweet and full of a wide range of emotions reflecting on what he had experienced over almost eight decades of his life.
Sometimes when I look back on my life, it seems its moving so fast that everything is just a blur. In what can seem like a blink of an eye, years (even decades) have flown by.
Like my grandfather, I want to remember the ‘good old days.’ I want to share the memories and experiences that helped shaped me into who I am with the people that I love the most. I want to be intentional about leaving a legacy that truly makes a difference in the lives of other people.
Today, especially in this stage of life where I have young children at home, life can be exhilarating, terrifying, and exhausting. Some days seem VERY long, but looking back over time, the years seem 
unbelievably short. I want to remember and archive the precious memories of this time in my life. With the limited time we all have here on earth, I believe life is a gift from God and truly a ‘sacred journey.’ Instead of waiting until the end of my life to reflect and document what I’ve experienced like my grandfather did, I’m doing this now, right here on my website. Essentially, that’s what this whole thing is about; archiving the sacred moments that have shaped me into who I am and hopefully inspire others to live a better life along the way.
From one traveler to another on this journey, I invite you to join me in the adventures or exploring what I believe it means to truly ‘live a great life!’
-David Olson
About Us
Over the last 15+ years, real estate expert David Olson has helped over 3,000+ families buy, sell, remodel, and build homes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Florida. HomeDesignFails.com was inspired after some of David’s first hand encounters evaluating homes as a licensed realtor, broker, general contractor, and property insurance agent. Over time many others started sending photos and questions to David which has evolved into an educational community of collaboration for all things real estate.
#HomeDesignFails is really an entertaining way to learn about current home designs, building code requirements, insurance guidelines, and best practices for how NOT to sell a home.
David received his undergraduate degree at the University of Northwestern and Master’s Degree (MDiv) from Bethel University in St. Paul. Education has always been a passion of David’s and besides substitute teaching at a variety of schools in his community, he owns five real estate brokerages, a residential construction company, and an insurance business.
Do you have photos you want to share with our community? Are you interested in having David be your realtor or general contractor on your next project? Email David direct at David@tc-pf.com 
Getting Started >>
If you landed on this page and you’re cringing, rolling your eyes, and thinking, “Who the heck is this guy? He looks like he’s 15 years old and he built a freaking website to talk about himself? What the heck is his problem?! What useless crap is he selling or trying to promote?”
If I was you, this would be my natural response if I stumbled across my website. So here’s the deal, I’m actually pushing 40 (I have my driver license, made it through puberty, and am married with three kids). I love being a husband, dad, business owner, musician, realtor, and entrepreneur. I’ve grown up here locally and over the last four decades, have had some pretty interesting adventures that have significantly changed the way I look at the world. My goal isn’t to sell something or promote myself, but try and share valuable content that will inspire and motivate others to be stronger leaders and be more intentional about how they live.
The unique challenges I’ve overcome have ultimately sent me on a deeper search for purpose, happiness, and significance. While getting buried with juggling the responsibilities of being a dad and business owner, I’m still driven in the midst of all my limitations, ambitions, and failures, to change the world and make it a better place! I want to be intentional about the legacy I live and the people I invest in. I want to give back & inspire others to truly live a great life. I want to use this space as a resoure to do this.
With that being said, as someone writing and sharing personal stories online, I’ve noticed that every couple of months there’s a new algorithm or online platform that comes into existence to help people connect or share content. Instead of riding that roller coaster, I’m choosing to have everything I create live here on this website then share (if desired) on other platforms.
Also, one of the big disadvantages I’ve seen in creating online spaces like mine is that they easily (and usually unintentionally) give a false impression of who a person actually is.
Over time online platforms end up becoming highlight reels of only the most exciting moments. It gives a limited perspective and only a small snapshot of who that individual actually is. At best it shows only a small slice of life that might be interesting.
No matter what you might discover about me in the process of digging through this website, there’s always going to be more to the story, additional context, or missing info that I didn’t think was helpful in making my point.
As a way to be more authentic with my community of readers, this is my ‘up front’ disclaimer acknowledging that I understand (and I hope anyone else reading this does too) that the stories shared are only a small part of my actual life. For every exciting moment, there are many more unglamorous everyday events that also contribute to who I am as a person. So as you read, hopefully, you’ll see my ultimate intention is not to narcissistically share random things about myself, but instead, sincerely help others learn to become stronger leaders.
Let’s not judge, let’s discuss. Let’s not criticize, but understand each other’s perspectives. Let’s not ‘just survive’ but instead as a normal human being, be intentional about living a great life that can actually change the world!
-David Olson
