Real Property Management Regions Day of Service: Our Legacy⁠

At first, our focus was entirely on the logistics, finding a community partner, selecting a family, recruiting volunteers, and coordinating sponsors. We wanted to ensure every detail reflected the unique opportunity we had been given. But somewhere along the way, my perspective changed. I stopped thinking about this September, and I started thinking about the next fifteen years.

A Shift in Perspective on Community Legacy

That shift began after learning about Jo McCabe, owner of Mr. Handyman of Northern Virginia. As Neighborly® highlighted franchise owners making a lasting impact through the National Day of Service initiative, one story especially caught my attention. Jo has spent nearly fifteen years faithfully serving veterans, families, and her community. I later had the opportunity to meet her, and she was exactly what you’d hope she’d be—kind, humble, and generous with her encouragement. Before we parted, she simply told me that if we needed anything as we prepared for our own Day of Service, all we had to do was reach out.

It wasn’t a long conversation, and Jo probably has no idea the impression it left on me. It wasn’t her words that stayed with me so much as the example she represented. Driving home, I found myself thinking about what fifteen years of showing up for your community really means. It is not defined by one successful event or one memorable project. It is fifteen years of making the decision, year after year, that serving your community is simply part of who you are.

That reflection also reminded me why this initiative feels so personal to Phyllis and me. Community service isn’t something we discovered after starting Real Property Management Regions. In many ways, it was one of the things that brought us together. Today, we’re fortunate that our property management work allows us to serve homeowners, residents, and communities throughout Virginia’s Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula, and Caroline County, but those values existed long before we ever opened our doors. From the beginning of our relationship, we shared a desire to serve others and make a positive difference in the communities around us. It wasn’t something we scheduled. It was simply part of how we wanted to live our lives.

We both come from families where service was a way of life. Military service runs deep in both of our families, and those examples shaped us long before we became business owners. They taught us that leadership isn’t measured by recognition, but by a willingness to step forward when there’s a need. As our family grew, those values became part of our children’s lives as well. We wanted them to understand that serving others isn’t something you do because people are watching. You do it because communities become stronger when ordinary people decide to help one another. Owning Real Property Management Regions didn’t create those values; it simply gave us a larger platform to live them out.

That is one of the reasons the Neighborly® National Day of Service initiative resonates so deeply with us. Neighborly® created the framework and gave franchise owners across the country an opportunity to put shared values into action within their own communities. For Real Property Management Regions, that framework became the starting point. From there, we took the opportunity and made it our own, bringing together our team, business partners, volunteers, sponsors, and neighbors around a local project we hope will become a lasting tradition.

Meeting Jo McCabe didn’t change what I believed about service, but it changed the way I thought about legacy. Until this year, I had been thinking about one Day of Service. Jo’s example challenged me to think about fifteen years of service.

One successful project doesn’t create a legacy, and one annual event doesn’t build a tradition. Both are built through countless ordinary decisions to keep showing up, long after the excitement fades and the cameras are gone. That’s the kind of organization we hope Real Property Management Regions becomes.

This September, we’ll partner with The 516 Project Ministry for the first Real Property Management Regions Day of Service, held as part of the Neighborly® National Day of Service initiative. We’ll work alongside volunteers, community partners, sponsors, and friends to serve a family that deserves our very best. We’ll celebrate when the work is finished, but I hope that’s not what this story is remembered for. I hope it’s remembered as the beginning, because every tradition starts somewhere. Every legacy has a first year. Ours just happens to begin this September. And if we’re fortunate enough to still be serving our community fifteen years from now, I hope people won’t remember one successful Day of Service. I hope they’ll remember that we simply kept showing up.