I'm a millennial real-estate agent here to tell you that long-term homeownership is not the best way to build wealth. Here's why.

• David Ravitz thinks he's cracked the code to building wealth with homeownership.
• Ravitz bought a home in 2021, lived in it during renovations, and is selling it two years later.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with David Ravitz, 31, a millennial real-estate agent who is dropping the idea of long-term homeownership to accumulate wealth. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up and lived in the same house for 18 years. But most people don't stay in the same home for more than 10 years anymore — they are more inclined to move around and sell.

That is similar to the workforce. You don't see people working at the same company for 25 or 30 years. Instead, we jump around to different companies or industries for better opportunities.

People moving around means the American dream of homeownership is changing, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I'm giving up on long-term homeownership

I was in finance for a number of years. I went back to school and got my MBA at the University of Miami, and then jumped into real estate. I'm going on four years now as a real estate agent in South Florida.

Everyday, I look at, and buy and sell houses on behalf of my clients. So, I'm in tune with the market and have a keen perspective on what's going on in housing.

Over the past few years, the South Florida real-estate market has taken off and there has been a flood of people moving here. You hear about prices leveling out in other parts of the country, but we haven't seen that at all in this area.

In 2021, my wife and I purchased our first house for $960,000 — a four-bedroom, three-bathroom, ranch style starter-home in Boca Raton. The home had really good bones but was built in 1996 and needed to be updated.

At first, we thought we would renovate the home and live there for at least four years before selling. However, given the strength of the area's market, our mentality shifted.

To maximize our investment, we moved into the home and renovated it over the course of two years, and have now listed the property for sale. We plan on repeating that process indefinitely.

We're not traditional fix and flippers

My wife and I are in the wealth accumulation phase of our life and believe this model will yield the most results financially.

The biggest advantage of this model is from a tax perspective. If you're a married couple and you own a home as a primary residence for at least two years, you can have tax-free capital gains up to $500,000. If you're single, that total is up to $250,000. That tax treatment provides opportunity for investment because you build equity and the home appreciates as it is renovated.

It definitely depends on the route that you go, but I think this renovation approach can work in any market.

We believe our home purchase in Boca Raton is a good investment due to the demand for housing in the area. Prices are elevated while supplies are constrained, and there are tons of people looking to jump into the market.

We plan to repeat this process indefinitely

It took us two years and $500,000 to fully renovate our home. We expanded floor plans and brought in new appliances and furniture. In June, we put it on the market for just under $2 million.

We budgeted for the home's renovation by looking at other remodeled homes in our area. To make sure we saved on the project, I used Excel spreadsheets to keep track of costs. Since we were living in the home, I was also able to observe our contractors and make sure we splurged where we wanted and saved where we needed. We stayed right on budget almost to the dollar.

The home has been listed for a month but buyers have been pretty active — we've received numerous offers. I anticipate it will sell in August or September. But no matter how long it takes, my wife and I are not in a rush to sell — we love living here and know our investment will pay off.

In a couple of years, we plan to target another home and repeat the process all over again.