The Sunburst Companies

About Us

The Sunburst Companies offers property management services for vacation rentals as Sunburst Beach Vacations, individual homes via Home Watch services and real estate sales and marketing through the Sunburst Group at Davis Properties. Sunburst was founded in 2001, incorporated in 2003 and our vacation rental business, Sunburst Beach Vacations, has become our primary focus now managing 80+ homes along Scenic HW 30-A in the Beaches of South Walton in NW Florida

In 2011 Sunburst Beach Vacations won the "Finest on the Emerald Coast" conducted by The Northwest Daily News for their annual awards under the category "Vacation Rental Company" for the entire Emerald Coast of Northwest Florida area. As well in 2009 Sunburst was named "Favorite Vacation Rental Company" in an online "Best of 30-A" poll conducted by southwaltonscene.com

About the Owners

Sunburst owners Steve Howard and David Leuze have known each other for over 30 years and have extensive backgrounds in marketing/advertising and finance/accounting respectively. Steve‘s family, thru his wife Payson has ties to the Seagrove area that date more than 50 years.

Steve is the owner in charge of oversight and direction of Sunburst Beach Vacations including all new business, vacation home inventory and composition, all marketing and advertising programs including the website, newsletter (Sunbursts at the Beach), e-mail blasts, sponsorships, preferred partners program and homeowner relations and rental pricing of homes.

Steve has an ABJ degree in Advertising from the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia and spent close to 20 years in the marketing/advertising world beginning with McCann Erickson Worldwide, Whittle Communications and 14 years with New York Times owned GOLF DIGEST Magazine.

In 2010 Steve served as a local tourism advisor on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. As well, in 2011 Steve was interviewed by CNBC (CNBC article) for a perspective on second home sales and their effect on the vacation rental business.

David is the owner who oversees all financial functions of company as well as the maintenance department. This includes monthly and yearly homeowner statements, reconciliation of credit card charges, housekeeper payroll, maintenance work orders, winter maintenance programs, etc. Corporately he is in charge of human resources, office equipment purchase, company insurance and taxes.

David holds a BS degree in accounting from the University of Tennessee and began his career as a CPA in Atlanta with Ernst & Whinney. While his expertise focused on small and emerging business, he also spent considerable time with Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola. David’s corporate background includes a stint at Coca-Cola Enterprises, where he assisted in the areas of corporate consolidation and mergers and acquisitions. He spent more than a decade as the Controller/CFO of Leland Inc, an Atlanta based software developer and reseller.

About our Associates

Payson Howard

Payson is the Director of Operations for Sunburst Beach Vacations, supervising vacation managers, reservationists, laundry manager and admin assistants. She also provides all information for the website including photography and copy, and maintains all internal operational documentation as well as dealing with owner relations regarding specific home functionality issues. She oversees housekeeping and is a Manager on Duty.

Payson is Steve’s wife of over 25 years. She received her BBA degree from the University of Georgia with a major in management information systems. She spent her corporate career performing computer consulting work for Deloitte & Touche and later network management and support for Georgia Pacific. After moving to Florida, she became certified to teach middle school math and taught at South Walton Middle School before joining Sunburst.

Leigh Leuze

Leigh Leuze joined Sunburst in 2004 to head up the Home Watch division of Sunburst. Leigh has considerable experience in the home watch field, servicing more than 30 clients along the 30-A corridor. Her attention to detail and personal interaction with each client are the hallmark of her true professionalism.

Leigh is David's wife of more than 20 years and she holds bachelor degrees in History, Political Science, and Geology from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, TN. Leigh's corporate career includes more than 10 years in the banking industry in Chicago and Atlanta.