Product/Service
We identify, acquire and manage properties and engage in farming operations to drive cash flow as well as property appreciation.
Business Model
We follow the top three rules of real estate: 1. Location; 2. Location; and 3. Location. We like to know and believe in a location and believe in—or be—the tenant. We are conservative and only use reasonable amounts of debt, with the goal of paying down debt overtime while using cash flow or equity in assets to purchase additional properties. We are long term investors that believe in the appreciation of attractive real estate in due time.
Values
We strive to be:
- Honest and transparent, hardworking, problem solvers.
- Family-oriented, accountable, team players.
- Humble, innovative lifelong learners.
- Fiscally responsible business people.
Leadership
Dave Duea
Managing Member
Dave Duea is the founder of Duea Real Estate and Asset Management, LLC.
Dave is a humble, enthusiastic, hard-working entrepreneur that is grateful for his Norwegian ancestry and humble Iowa farm boy roots.
D ave’s great grandfather, Jonas Duea, was the Duea ancestor that first made the trip by boat from Norway to the USA and became a US citizen. After temporarily settling his family in Chicago, Jonas and a few other Norwegian immigrants made a journey on horseback from Chicago to Roland, Iowa where Jonas homesteaded land in Iowa to create the first Duea farm. The journey on horseback took over a year—including snowy periods—with Jonas returning to pick up his family and journey back to Roland, Iowa to settle the town and the first Duea family farm. Jonas became a town entrepreneur and leader in Roland—including becoming the first postmaster, helping build the first church, setting up the Duea farm and establishing the general store, etc.
While not inheriting any of Jonas’ wealth, Dave takes after his great grandfather and has been a brave entrepreneur, strong family man, church leader, and adventurous explorer, choosing to settle his family and establish a new business in that strange and beautiful land known as California.
Dave grew up on a farm rented by his parents in Roland, Iowa. Dave, with his brother Sanford, would do “chore” (feeding the animals) each and every day, including before and after school. Dave was a bright, hard-working young man that asked lots of questions and was always ready to take on the next task. In his early years, Dave was active in 4-H and won many ribbons and titles showing livestock, including several grand champion titles at the Iowa State Fair.
Dave grew up next to and eventually married his high school sweetheart, Mary Sampson. To help pay for their living expenses and Dave’s college tuition at Drake University, Mary worked as a beautician and Dave drove a gravel truck and worked at a quarry.
Soon after Dave graduated from Drake University, Dave was drafted into the Army and spent a year in Korat, Thailand, primarily in procurement and logistics. After Dave completed his service in the Army, rather than returning to Iowa and joining his father and brother in farming and the breeding of Duroc pigs, Dave boldly accepted a job in San Diego, California to run San Diego Fire Equipment, Inc., a fire equipment business owned by his aunt and uncle. Dave’s aunt and uncle always thought Dave was incredibly bright and hard-working when they visited him on the farm in Iowa when he was a boy. They also appreciated his curiosity and desire to learn, evidenced by the many questions he asked.
Dave and Mary moved to San Diego and lived with Dave’s aunt and uncle in a one bedroom house, as the business was very small and they were not able to pay Dave much of a salary.
Dave and Mary eventually purchased their own home in San Diego and raised three children: Kristin, Karla and Brad.
Dave and Mary eventually bought San Diego Fire Equipment, Inc., and the land on which it operated. Dave and Mary have since sold San Diego Fire Equipment, Inc. and another fire equipment business before founding Fire Etc.
Dave currently serves as President of Fire Etc. Fire Etc. is Southern California’s leading provider of both new and used fire protection equipment. Fire Etc. consists of several operating divisions or wholly owned subsidiaries (i.e., SoCal PPE, LLC, Redline Rentals) that sell to (and service) fire departments, individual firefighters, the U.S. Government, the construction industry, homeowners, various companies in the local shipyards, businesses throughout Southern California, international entities and more.
Dave has been a national figure in the fire protection industry for over 50 years, including roles as the former president and board member of the National Association of Fire Equipment Distributors (NAFED).
Dave is a veteran and entrepreneur with a passion for equipping the courageous to save lives and property.
Brad Duea
Managing Member
Brad Duea currently serves as the Managing Member of Duea Real Estate and Asset Management, LLC and is responsible for day to day operation of DREAM.
W hen Brad was a kid, at the urging of Dave’s banker, Dave and Mary Duea began investing in real estate, initially buying a run-down rental house. Brad “helped” his parents fix it up—help meaning went to the house as a young kid and helped clean. While cleaning, Brad would hear his dad recite the top three rules of real estate: (1) location, (2) location, and (3) location. Dave and Mary sold the rental house and bought another fixer upper. As a teenager, each Sunday after church Brad would mow the yard at the Duea house and then mow the yard at the rental house. Eventually, these efforts and investments led to more enjoyable days at the Duea’s first small beach house in South Mission Beach.
While Brad was born and raised in California, Brad’s parents, Dave and Mary Duea, made sure Brad developed a hard work ethic and understood his Norwegian ancestry and Mid-Western farming roots. Growing up, Brad spent many weeks and hot summer days working on the farms of his uncles and cousins in Iowa (walking beans, feeding livestock, bailing hay, driving tractors, mending fences and pens, attending livestock auctions, hauling outputs to the Coop and even “pulling pigs”—don’t ask). Brad would also visit the farms in the cold Iowa winters, understanding there were no easy days and no days off.
Brad’s fascination with technology and innovation began from his early days spent on the farm doing laborious activities, like walking beans (carrying a machete up and down the crop rows to cut corn stalks and weeds out of the growing bean crop). With each exhausting row, Brad would think, “there must be a better way.” Over the coming years, Brad’s uncles and cousins would share the innovations taking place on the farm. The innovations inspired Brad to pursue a career in technology and digital transformations.
Brad has been an integral player and leader in the digital transformations of several industries, including music (as President of Napster), communications (as SVP of Marketing for T-Mobile), retail, home entertainment (as Managing Director of the Americas-Pacific with SONOS) and the restaurant industry (as CEO of Restaurant Revolution Technologies).
Brad is the Co-Founder and serves as Managing Member of Duea Real Estate and Asset Management, LLC, handling the day-to-day management of the firm and leading its various investments.
Like his father, Brad also has a passion for serving first responders. After working in many industries, Brad refocused his efforts on making sure his dad’s 60-year legacy in serving the fire industry in San Diego continued. Brad currently serves as Executive Vice President and a Member of the Board of Directors for AFECO, Inc. (DBA: FIRE ETC.). As a Co-Owner of and leader in the second-generation family business, Brad is building on his dad’s legacy and working with his dad and the FIRE ETC. team in pursuit of its mission of equipping the courageous to save lives and property through the sale, rental and servicing of new and used fire and safety equipment.
Brad has also expanded these efforts to supporting law enforcement. In December, 2023 Brad became the President and CEO of RollKall. RollKall connects communities with everyday heroes with a vision of national respect for law and order and the heroes who deliver it. RollKall powers the leading off duty job platform for leading law enforcement agencies, officers and entities that need their services.
Brad also currently serves as an independent director on the board of The Whitaker Company, a fourth-generation family-owned business. The Whitaker Company is a chemical manufacturer and distributor that handles a variety of services from railcar delivery of hydrocarbons to specialty blends and formulations packaged into 22 oz. bottles.
Brad holds a B.A. from University of California at Santa Barbara, a M.B.A. from the University of Southern California, and a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law.
As a believer in life-long education, Brad attends and speaks at conferences across the globe and is an active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization for over 18 years. Brad is a licensed attorney and current member of The State Bar of California. As a Significant Sig, Brad remains involved in the Sigma Chi Fraternity and Sigma Chi Foundation. Brad has been married to his Texan wife for over 27 years and has two sons, both of whom attended or are attending Texas Christian University.
Duea Logo
The DUEA Wordmark
The wordmark design uses the idea of a modular and consistent ‘U’ shape to form each letter (with three small lines–each of the same size–helping distinguish the shapes and letters). The use of all capital letters is strong. The design creates a very even balance and gives the wordmark logo a kind of ‘family’ unity. Also, the letters are totally unique (not an off-the-shelf font). The wordmark works great in all black and all white—or can be used in color or various color combinations.
The Viking Longship Logo
The Viking longship highlights the Duea Norwegian heritage. It also speaks to the current Duea life near the ocean and water. The high school near the Duea farm in Roland, Iowa has the Roland Story Norseman as its mascot. Dave was born on the farm and the farm was next door to Mary’s farm when Dave and Mary grew up. Also, Victor Duea (Dave’s father) enjoyed watching the Roland Story Norseman sports teams play and was the #1 fan of the Roland Story Norsemen girls softball team. Dave and Mary’s children all went to Valhalla (heaven of the Norsemen) High School in San Diego and Valhalla’s mascot was also the Norsemen.
The Viking longship is perhaps the greatest technical and artistic achievement of the European Dark Ages. The “Dark Ages” refer to the time period in Europe during the fall of the Roman Empire. The idea and name “Dark Ages” came from later scholars who were heavily biased toward ancient Rome. During the Dark Ages, however, many great things took place. The Church replaced the Roman Empire as the most powerful force in Europe, redefining the relationship between church and state. The Dark Ages were also a time of learning. Finally, the Early Middle Ages were boom times for agriculture. All relevant to the Duea heritage.
The longship sail has a least five references or meanings. First, the sail itself is one of the most unique aspects of the Viking longship as it allowed Vikings to travel over greater distances than the oars alone. Second, the D in the sail ties to the D in the DUEA wordmark. Third, there are four sails, representing each of the four letters in the DUEA name. Fourth, the stripes in the sails hint to Iowa crop rows (corn and soybeans on the Duea farm). Finally, the stripes hint to the lines of waves in the ocean.
The oars of the longship speak to the Duea hard work ethic. There are also three oars that represent Dave and Mary’s three kids: Kristin, Karla and Brad.
The head and tail of the longship were known to be very artistic. This is a reference to Mary’s passion for the arts, especially music. The head of a longship was typically a dragon to scare people who saw the Viking longship approaching. The Duea longship logo streamlines the scary dragon to hint more of a horse—a hobby Dave and Mary have enjoyed (owning race horses). The horse also speaks to the journey on horseback Jonas Duea took from Chicago to Roland, Iowa. Jonas Duea was the Duea ancestor that first made the trip by boat from Norway to the USA and became a US citizen. After temporarily settling his family in Chicago, Jonas and a few other Norwegian immigrants made a journey on horseback from Chicago to Roland, Iowa where Jonas homesteaded land in Iowa to create the first Duea farm. The journey on horseback took over a year—including snowy periods—with Jonas returning to pick up his family and journey back to Roland, Iowa to settle the town and the Duea family farm. Jonas became a town entrepreneur and leader in Roland—including becoming the first postmaster, helping build the first church, setting up the Duea farm and establishing the general store, etc.
DUEA.US (shield) Logo
Rather than simply listing the DREAM URL or website address, duea.staging.tempurl.host, the DUEA wordmark is combined with a Viking shield as the “dot” rather than just a “.” Viking shields were very effective at defending Viking warriors. The shields were used to deflect attacks, push attacks offline and spread the shock of a blow.
Colors
DREAM chose the company colors of light and dark blue due to at least six references or meanings. First, blue stands for loyalty, justice and truth. All important to the Duea family. Second, dark blue is a color in both the USA and Norwegian flags. Third, blue hints at both the blue ocean and blue sky. Fourth, Dave, Mary, Kristin, Karla and Brad all have blue eyes. Fifth, the light blue is bright and energetic, something that reflects the optimistic and enthusiastic demeanor of the Duea family. Finally, the actual colors are two of the colors for the University of San Diego, a campus on the hill in San Diego where Dave and Mary live and where Kristin, Karla and Brad grew up. Brad is also an alumnus of the University of San Diego School of Law. In fact, the colors are referred to as Founder’s Blue (dark blue) and Immaculata Blue (the bright light blue), which takes its name from the famous church of The Immaculata on the USD campus with its vibrant blue Dome.
DREAM wants to thank John Wolfe Compton for his creative efforts and collaboration in the design of the DUEA logos.