Todd Savage: Founding Partner and Land Consultant
As the founders of Grid Down Bunkers (professional Hardened Structures™ marketing), Aegis Fortified Estates™ (Real Estate and Architecture firm) and the original Survival Retreat Consulting™ firm, we experienced firsthand the pressures of urban life in the San Francisco Bay Area for over a decade. Our perspective shifted in 2003 when I had the pleasure of meeting James Wesley Rawles, the visionary founder and editor of SurvivalBlog.com and the author of the Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse novel series. His insightful advice inspired us to embark on a journey to find a sustainable survival property that met our growing family’s needs while maintaining proximity to a small rural town in Idaho, Montana, or Washington.
Over the next three years, we visited our chosen safe haven region in the Pacific Northwest more than thirty times. However, the process was often stressful and frustrating due to the lack of professional and discreet consulting available to guide us. We needed a consultant who could pre-visit, screen, and evaluate properties based on our specific criteria, thereby saving us valuable time and resources. We also required someone to consult and design our fortified and sustainable property.
Unfortunately, the typical real estate agents we encountered were not interested in getting to know our family or understanding our aspirations. They merely wanted us to drive around and call them if we were ready to make an offer. This impersonal approach left us feeling like outsiders in rural America.
After navigating the chaos of our own Strategic Relocation™ we decided to establish a custom, full-service business model that would allow anyone, regardless of resources, to make a single call and receive the expert service we had only dreamed of. Our mission is to assist others in finding their perfect safe haven, bringing them the peace of mind we have achieved.
Since our inception, and to better serve our discerning and confidential clientele, we have created Aegis Fortified Estates™ focusing exclusively on high-net-worth clients who require elite architectural design-build services and project management. We have proudly partnered with Hardened Structures / Hardened Shelters™ and Douglas Clark, a Senior Secure Home™ and Bunker Architect, who is a certified expert in ballistic homes and bunkers with over three hundred completed projects to date.
Our team is led by Mr. Savage, a former US Marine (1989–1996), Firefighter/EMT, Land Evaluator and Real Estate Broker. As the primary on-site SRC partner, he conducts thorough property searches, on-site scouting, and evaluations based on clients' specific requirements. We meticulously assess site characteristics, including access to abundant water sources, alternative energy capabilities, advanced food production, defensibility features, acreage size, accessibility, proximity to potential threats, and suitability for specific uses, such as vehicle or aircraft storage. This comprehensive assessment facilitates the commencement of architectural design-build services with the Aegis Fortified Estates™ firm.
Our clients understand the critical importance of being prepared for potential threats, whether they are local or regional environmental disasters, violent protests, or societal disruptions caused by various factors such as EMP attacks, monetary collapse, or foreign invasions. Operating under the premise that "nobody is coming to save you," we provide our esteemed clients with the physical structures necessary for survival, training them in self-rescue and emphasizing the importance of having a secure rural property for refuge. In today's uncertain world, such preparation and access to a safe location are crucial for survival in this century.
Our motto ‘History Favors the Prepared’ is valued advice in these unprecedented times.