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Building Family and Wealth: Interview with Jim Sheils
56 Plays16 days ago
Jim Sheils is an accomplished real estate investor with over 25 years of experience. He is the visionary behind Southern Impression Homes, a company dedicated to building investment properties in several Florida markets. Jim is renowned for his transition from handling bulk foreclosure rehabs to spearheading successful new construction ventures. He is also the author of the best-selling book, "The Family Board Meeting," which has gained acclaim for its impactful family relationship strategies. Additionally, Jim's personal values are reflected in his business practices, promoting a healthy work-life balance and strong family connections.
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Transcript
Introduction to Uncommon Wealth Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast.
00:00:12
Speaker
We're going to introduce you to people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you.
Welcoming Jim Shields
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Wealth Podcast, where I'm your host, Philip Ramsey. Today we have a guest, a guest that is very uncommon. I'm going to ask him why he's so uncommon, but it's Jim jim Shields with Southern Impression Homes.
00:00:40
Speaker
He's down in Florida. He has dodged the hurricane. So, ah Jim, welcome to the show, man. Hey, thanks for having me, Philip. Yeah, it's nice to be sitting here today, you know, just post... Colleen, Post Milton. you know It's been a big hurricane year, and they've been calling this one for a long time.
00:00:57
Speaker
ah but we're building, you know we do our our our venture in 12 different markets, and we came out of it basically with with no damage. Wow.
00:01:07
Speaker
Praise the Lord. Because there's a lot of people that have been... And I feel like it's getting worse. Like i had a friend that had ah a father that's had, or actually parents that have a house in Florida.
00:01:18
Speaker
And he said for 25 years, they haven't had a problem. But the last two hurricanes, last couple of years have got them. So, I mean, you're getting lucky. It does. it And it comes in waves. And look, here's one thing I can tell you.
00:01:30
Speaker
Some of the most... attractive, valuable
Family Dynamics and Lifestyle
00:01:34
Speaker
property in the world is where it's waterfront. It sure is. explosionian firm And you, you take a risk with that type of property. I live, I live on four seconds to the beach, right?
00:01:47
Speaker
And, and, and, and, and my, head the little barrier I let them on, you go, 10 houses down near the intercoastal. it's It's a risk you take and you stay well insured.
00:01:58
Speaker
And there are ways that even when you're in hurricane zone, it's not foolproof, but there are ways to down your risks. And one of them is, you know, most investment properties that you work in, you're probably not buying oceanfront or waterfront anyway, because you can't make the numbers work. So that's one thing alone that that does help.
00:02:18
Speaker
Sure, sure. Okay, well, let's just quick introduce yourself. What makes you uncommon? What? a Yeah, what is your business? How did you get to where you're at? Just give us a high level flyover. Probably won't be able to go into too much detail.
00:02:31
Speaker
No, that's okay. Jim Shields, I've been a real estate investor for 25 years. ah What makes me uncommon is my wife and I are happily married. We have five children, a combination of adopted and biological.
00:02:44
Speaker
um we We have done a lot of road schooling where we've traveled to different areas in the world with our kids to teach them and and kind of had a more unconventional adventure with family life most people don't have while running you know a real estate investment company that used to do bulk foreclosure rehabs, but then went into new construction about 10 years ago, partnered up with my now partner, and he's you know a powerhouse in our industry. And it's been great.
00:03:12
Speaker
And so that's been kind of an uncommon adventure. We also have a bestselling family book, number one Wall Street Journal seller called The Family Board Meeting. ah So I'd say, you know, not all real estate investors care about family. A lot of the ones that we work with do, ah but that's been trying to be a core value of mine to live by. And it's nice to be able to work with investors that share that same thing.
00:03:33
Speaker
Yeah, no I love it because at the end of the day, there's always this work-life balance. And at the end of the day, it's just like life balance. And you just gotta to you got to be able to manage and juggle all of that. And so I do like having that principles kind of bleed over into your family of a family boardroom and and writing a book about that. So let's start with the real estate side of it. And then we'll go to kind of the family boardroom um side of things because it's just so powerful. So let's start. So what got you into real estate at the beginning?
00:04:03
Speaker
Was that your first
Career Journey: From Pharma to Real Estate
00:04:04
Speaker
thing? Did you ever have a desk job? Tell me all about it. Yeah, I was ah graduated college, which was not for me. I'm glad I went. But you graduated.
00:04:14
Speaker
so I did graduate, which was which was something. And so that was an accomplishment. But if i I would be lying to you, Philip, if I said the things I learned in school helped me with my entrepreneurial career. it just didn't. So i I'm very 50-50 on college, whether it's for me, my friends, my kids, I'm 50-50. But for me, it was more of a proving ground. i went into corporate America, into pharmaceutical advertising for two years, and it was more boring than it sounds. And I remember almost biting my own hands off doing a podcast. Sales pamphlet for a drug on the irregular bowel syndrome. And I'm like, I can't do this.
00:04:49
Speaker
and And I left. I left the Northeast and moved out to California for a sales job. It fell through. and And that's when I really started studying what do I want to do. And I had been, you know, remember challenged to say, always do something for yourself.
00:05:03
Speaker
Have the courage while you're young and can starve yourself. Go after something for you. Meet your own boss. And so I did. And I was i was looking at everything from franchises to, yeah you know, different biz ops and coming back to this real estate investing.
00:05:19
Speaker
And it just made sense to me. I like the tangibility, the levers. it and and I also read a quote that eight out of 10 millionaires in the U.S. at that time, you know, talking 27 years ago, made their money in real estate.
00:05:32
Speaker
And I like those odds. I'm like, man, right bret I enjoy this. I like the tangibility. I like kind of the things I'm learning. And so that was my start. That's huge.
00:05:43
Speaker
That's huge. So what college did you graduate from? University of Scram. So if you watch The Office, yes, that's where I went to school. That's pretty sweet. Okay. And so you started getting into this real estate game, but I was also pharmaceutical background. So I get it, man. I get it.
00:05:58
Speaker
um And it's like the golden handcuffs, but like those golden handcuffs aren't for me. So we're going to get out in the real world and you start diving into real estate. One, you start seeing the history A lot of people are successful with it.
00:06:12
Speaker
What year was that, that you're starting and get into it? That was 1999.
00:06:20
Speaker
and Okay. 98, 99. back then were what? my first property too My first property that I bought as a new investor, so that hit me up a little bit and had good credit though, but my first property that I bought, my interest rate was 9.125. Right. that 30 year?
00:06:41
Speaker
and is that thirty year 30 years. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So different, different than today, right? Much higher. But, but I do think that's interesting because a lot of people, I like to just at least talk about the interest rate and it is post or 2008 before the collapse.
00:07:01
Speaker
Oh yeah. um So, it is It is higher, but it's also something that you made be worthwhile. So I think a lot of people and a of a lot of our think clients are looking into real estate and kind of thinking like, well, I'll get into it when interest rates are down.
00:07:16
Speaker
You would have jumped up for joy if you saw what the interest rates were down back then. So you made it work. I just wanted to make that quick point um and then we can kind of move on. But so the first property that you bought,
00:07:30
Speaker
Where were you at in your marriage? I'm going to try to interweave all of this. Jamie and I didn't meet until I moved to Florida. So I was single and starving. I was single and starving at the time. Okay. Who was mentoring you at that point?
00:07:42
Speaker
I had a couple of different mentors. I had someone of my parents' friend back in New Jersey who had done some real estate deals. And then I had a really unique beginning because I got into Robert Kiyosaki's original like real estate investing classes. Oh, that's cool.
00:08:00
Speaker
And I had some success, you know, fixing a few houses and and selling them. And and they i i made friends with someone on the staff. They invited me back to staff. I met a guy named Keith Cunningham there who was speaking. And Keith Cunningham was a major inspiration behind Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He's worked with Tony Robbins for years for brand is wealth mastery. And so Keith mentored me for about five years. Every 90 days I'd fly to to Austin, Texas for. Wow.
00:08:28
Speaker
and just sit in a room and just, you know, when you have a good mentor, they challenge you and they hold you accountable. And sometimes it feels great. And sometimes it feels horrible. You hate it. Yeah. But that's, that was my start.
00:08:40
Speaker
Okay. What do you think the biggest thing he taught you in years of mentoring you? I'm going to say this one because it keeps coming up.
00:08:51
Speaker
um if If you if you making in money is supposed to be boring, he's like, if if you if if you need excitement, go, go get chased by the bulls in Spain, jump out of an airplane.
00:09:07
Speaker
i get it. He's like, but the problem with entrepreneurs is they they get something going and they get good at They get on the inside track. They get a rhythm. And then they feel like they got to run in seven different directions, complicate things and become a freshman again. They just reached the senior class.
00:09:24
Speaker
He says that's supposed to you're supposed to get it where it's just cranking and moving and you're able to pivot easy. And and we forget that is sometimes high flying, high energy, you know, problem solving, challenging entrepreneurs.
00:09:36
Speaker
Yeah. And that was great advice because. Simple real estate, and the more I've gone back to it and kept a simple focus on just what niche am I focused on, what am I going deep into, has gotten me better results. But also, I didn't want
Mentorship and Entrepreneurial Insights
00:09:52
Speaker
to be an entrepreneur that has to work 95 hours a week at this age. I mean, I just turned 50. want to be with my family. you know We've been lucky enough to take some long adventures.
00:10:02
Speaker
The last two years, we lived a few months out of the year in Costa Rica you know to work and play from there. ah if If you overcomplicate things, you can't do things like that. And so that was a lesson he taught me. And and that was, you know, i was I was a youngster at that time. I was in my early 20s. And and i'm I'm glad it it finally ah it took hope trying to follow it.
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think that's a lot of truth. Because Uncommon Wealth Partners and Uncommon Wealth is really a lot of people are starting to dive into their own core values, their own beliefs, their own skills, the way they're gifted.
00:10:36
Speaker
And it's exciting at first. And then all of a sudden, this all this this drudge of, we're not going as fast as we want, right? And it shouldn't be that fast. So I think that's really a good lesson and for another key point. So great point.
00:10:50
Speaker
Okay. So got your first investment property. What do you do next? You get in you re revamp it, remodel it. yeah I hit a home run on my first one. I bought a three family house in Longpoke, California. Don't want her. Yeah.
00:11:06
Speaker
Gentleman had passed, you know, his family sold it at at a really good price, went in, fixed it up, um moved around the tenants. two Two of the units were vacant. I just fixed them up and raised the rents from where they were. And boom, I had a home run. I had I think I had it reappraised Five months later, and there was the equity was two times what my salary had been the year before.
00:11:32
Speaker
Wow. Dang, this has some some some legs to it. So I don't know if it was a lucky or a curse, but I had a home run on my first real estate deal. And so that was like, okay, I can do more. Now I had plenty of strikeouts after that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. that's not bad The first one. It's like the first good golf shop. Yeah, that property I sold to 1031 Exchange in the Florida stuff years ago for ah five times when I bought it for. so Wow.
00:12:00
Speaker
Did you do all the remodeling or did you contract that out? It's great. You know what, Philip, I did the first remodel I ever did that one. I'll never forget. I had a surfing buddy contractor who, you know, said, yeah, I'll help you out on the weekends and show you.
00:12:14
Speaker
And he was my buddy, luckily, but he was like, oh, dude, you are not good at this. Like this, like i'm and I'm not. And that's where it's so funny. I mean, and some of my sons are are very mechanically inclined and I'm not.
00:12:27
Speaker
So people expect, oh, you've done a thousand rehabs. You're so good at that. I'm horrible at it. Now, looking at assessing it and and filling in in the pieces for what needs to be done, but I'm not a good rehabber. I don't have that mechanical inclination.
00:12:43
Speaker
So you wouldn't want me fixing your roof or your AC or no, but I know how to find the right roofer and to get the AC and to look at, okay, let's change this about the house and add this and landscape this.
00:12:54
Speaker
But doing it myself, I did that first rehab and I knew I had to change or this was going to end really quick. I appreciate your honesty. A lot of it's just knowing your skillset and then working around it.
00:13:06
Speaker
yeah We all got our own faults. That's good. um Okay. So it sounds like you didn't sell it right away. Did you refinance it, take the equity out and then go do it again? Yeah. See, that's the, that's the secret of wealth that you plant seeds and you let them take hold, you let them grow.
00:13:23
Speaker
And then with discipline, you pull money off of that property, normally through a refinance and yeah And so you could buy Rolexes or go to Vegas or just blow it, or you could do the boring thing and put it into two, three more properties.
00:13:36
Speaker
Right. That's how we really grew the the the business and the portfolio was doing that. And that's, it's such a a straightforward formula that people, first of all, they don't believe that that can work.
00:13:48
Speaker
Secondly, they're too impatient. You know, I said, man, right please stop looking at the you know next 14 months. Look at the next seven to 10 years. Yeah. We'll just take that approach with real estate. Like so many people before you, it's amazing with the opportunities that can open up.
00:14:05
Speaker
Right. Okay. So when does Southern Impression Home start? Not then. Not then. So left California, you know, came, came to Florida in about over. Why did you leave California? We've skipped that. Why? Okay.
00:14:19
Speaker
Um, on now. it was Well, I'm not a fan of their landlord laws. I don't encourage the landlord laws. Beautiful state. Some nice people. Landlord laws were horrible.
00:14:30
Speaker
and And by that time, you know, there was such a frenzy occurring in, I was in a place called Bakersfield, California. You know, Johnny Carson made fun of it. It's like the armpit of California. <unk> Really nice people. It's just a hot, dry area. It looks like the Midwest.
00:14:46
Speaker
Yeah. And ah people were coming down from San Fran up from L.A. and buying properties for, I'll never forget it, $70,000 to $80,000 above praise value.
00:14:56
Speaker
No praise value, no appraisal. Wow. the Numbers weren't making sense. And so I wasn't that smart, but I'm like, this doesn't make sense. I can't keep doing what I'm doing here. Yeah. And we heard about a little place on the northeast coast. I had family here of of Florida called Jacksonville, Florida. And they said, you know, look up the numbers that you look for. It's here.
00:15:16
Speaker
And I found that Jacksonville, Florida was the most affordable large coastal city in the in the US by far. Like, hands down, there was nothing close. I said, oh, that's interesting. And I was ah wanted to be warming by the water anyway because I'm a surfer and I love the beach. and And so that's why we made the move. And California was, again, there's things I loved about it, but it was easy as it from a business aspect to stay goodbye.
00:15:38
Speaker
You know, one biggest reasons now, especially, you know, fast forward, Philip, 20, you know, well, that wasn't quite 25 years from when I started, but, you know, let's go 20 years. so Yeah. Got to look at landlord laws. Yeah.
00:15:50
Speaker
You've got to pay the landlord loss for your individual state because it is detrimental. I've watched it happen to some friends in certain states, especially through the pandemic. If you can't collect rent for 14, 16 months, yeah how do you how do you survive? I'm seeing even the big guys that we've built for suck wind, you know larger institutions, family offices. So I say...
00:16:11
Speaker
There's things you want to look for, but one of them underlying is, does that state allow you as a landlord to protect your assets and to get people out a fair amount of time if they don't pay rent? Right. That's good.
00:16:22
Speaker
so you get to Florida, get to Florida, went into, you know, did some some fix and flips. Got in some properties here in Jacksonville, Florida that were the worst decision of my life. You know, the funny thing is you go from being, you know, the hot shot senior in in California to the freshman here. Oh, I didn't think the neighbor was that bad. The condition was that bad. Well, some of those houses I had to sit on for 12 years almost. Oh, gosh. it's Bad areas.
00:16:49
Speaker
And, you know, and those were a lessons. But one thing great that happened, which I thought was initially going to bankrupt me was 08. and But what happened with 08 is, okay, that was a really painful time. But you remember the bottom fell out. Oh, yeah. yeah hard scene And I had always kept a ah great reputation with my investors. I had always protected them through anything.
00:17:10
Speaker
And so the bottom fell out so quickly. I had people from the different... You know, mastermind groups and real estate events that is coming to, hey, we want to start buying. There's a buying opportunity. And they hire me ah to to get into this, you know, foreclosure market. and I built relationships from the top REO brokers in Jacksonville. and We just bought bulk foreclosures.
00:17:31
Speaker
i I'd renovate them. I'd either on sell it to an investor or keep them for myself. We did a blend of that. And then we built up, you know, the company well with that. You know, by now my family's involved and to tell you, and I write about this in our latest book, that model sounds great. And it, it it made me wealth, but it bankrupt my time.
00:17:52
Speaker
Didn't want to do that. And and it it started even to look worse about it a decade ago because, you know, the, the secret was out. Oh, wait, it was, Completely done. You know, ah that there was no more shadow inventory like they talked about. Everything was getting overbid.
00:18:07
Speaker
And my now partner came to me and said, hey, you know, what if we tried to build our own properties instead of, you know, finding old ones to renovate? well oh that That's a terrible idea. I'm a re-hobber, you know, it's right.
00:18:19
Speaker
Who put it? And he convinced luckily so, because it's a way bigger scale than we could ever go. And also, there's so many things that have brought back my time with this model. You know, we had about five people on our team. Well, now I'm part of a team of 140, a partner in this bigger company. only handle one thing.
00:18:36
Speaker
And I have so many more people in place and I'm not fighting over the same thing. And yeah, there was a barrier to entry, but we have better funding. We have our own in-house financing for our investors now.
00:18:47
Speaker
We're building from scratch, which I can tell you has gotten us into better areas, but also things like this, Philip, with the hurricane, new construction, you know, you have to build differently as of 2004 or newer, instead of building at two feet above sea level in certain markets we were in, like in 1950, you now to build it up 15 feet. Right, right.
00:19:08
Speaker
All these things I gripe and complain about until a hurricane hits and we don't have any damage. And I'm like, yeah, right. I got to stop complaining. Right. Right. That's good. Okay. Where were you your relationship with your wife at this point? Like when did you meet her? Obviously it was in Florida, but when her, my wife and I 2010, married in 2011. divorced with full custody two young boys. She married a high school, Her high school boyfriend right out of college, awful situation that she talks very openly about. It's been part of our story.
00:19:40
Speaker
Alcohol abuse. She stood up for herself, got out, got full custody. And I met her ah very short of few years later. and And so we hit it all. But here I Philip, instant dad. I'd always been to different kids' activities and holy big, big family. Full throttle.
00:19:58
Speaker
Yeah, it was full throttle. And then these two little boys hit it off. They asked me to adopt them when I married Jamie. and Wow. or And so it was great. But here I am post 2008. You know, we to bankrupt us. We're on our way back up. We're helping a lot of people, building a lot of successful portfolios. But I'm running two real estate businesses.
00:20:19
Speaker
And here's this beautiful Montessori principal that, you know, that I fell in love with right away. And here are two boys. And we're an instant family. So we're, we're, again, this is where I, like when, when this started to take, take stride, like I also now have a 10 year old, a seven year old and a three year old.
00:20:36
Speaker
So we've continued on the family, but you know, that was a lot of, am I going to do this better? Cause now it's not just working, know, for, for just myself or a wealth goal. It's like, I want to have my time. want to have, you know, I don't want to miss this. That's why our, our, don't know if can see it for here, but our our Our family education is called 18 summers because a mentor of mine, all you get he said, yeah, he said, look, you can, the stats show it. The average person will spend about 85% of the time they ever have with their child by the end of the 18th summer.
00:21:11
Speaker
Yep. Take advantage of it and know that you could cheat that. You could get more time if you do the first 18 years right. They're going to want to come back for more. There's going to be more of a foundation. And so that always stuck with me. I'd say it inspired me and haunted me, Philip. Yeah. Because being a young, impressionable guy that got into these real estate events early, man, I saw some really big names that you and I would know. Mm-hmm.
Importance of Family and Work-Life Balance
00:21:32
Speaker
balance sheets, big followings, huge crowds cheering from them. And then you would get behind stage and and their life was in shambles.
00:21:39
Speaker
And one of the saddest things when I say shambles, they had basically little to no relationship with their family. Yes. Isn't it? They're on top of the mountain with nobody to see the beauty. Yeah. Their kids weren't talking to them. their Their wife was living down the street and it was just kind of a worse...
00:21:55
Speaker
staying together for image. And it scared me because there what I want to be clear on this. I was like, man, um I'm not the smartest guy, but I am smart enough to know that could be me. for sure For sure. I might fall into that same thing and start growing. and And so there was a certain um there was there was a certain different path that I tried to take that may have lost me money in the short term, but I think it's created a lot of better things in the long term.
00:22:24
Speaker
Right. Yeah. i I always say like, it's, it's not worth it. If you're on top of this mountain by yourself, like I've never heard that, but that is, that is spot on. Yeah. And I just think like keeping your family and your marriage a priority, you know, because it's easy to focus on the kids and focus on your business, but, and just know, I take it for granted that you have a spouse that's like right there, lockstep.
00:22:47
Speaker
And so she's she's been incredible. So the things that we've been through of building the family, of anything from you know health setbacks to deaths in the family to overcoming past traumas to hosting our own family events to growing a real estate portfolio together helping others do the same it's been it's been a hell of a ride never perfect right but but so meaningful and you know we're just excited for the next 10 years now that's cool how'd you and your wife meet don't know if you said that no i didn't so i was um so you'll you'll you'll be you'll laugh at this so i went out to dinner with a buddy of mine i'd been surfing all day he's like come on and come out for for a meal i'm like ah but i don't know i'm tired so i i go i meet him and and we we we're we're walking back from this little sushi place in this little village town up near jacksonville this little beach town and and he goes oh let's go into this this this bar and it's this little brew pub that I, you know, I had heard was a nice place and we walk in, it looks like a bad wedding, right? It's just, it looks like it's like we're we're crashing a wedding. There's all ages dancing to this band.
00:23:57
Speaker
and, and I literally, I locked eyes with my wife and it's, it's pretty awesome because, um you know, i was completely sober and, you know, I saw her and I was like,
00:24:12
Speaker
Whoa. in And we joke like, oh, were you looking at me or was I looking you? I mean, the honest truth, of which I won't tell you, I was definitely looking at you. But yeah she was in there. It was her 28th birthday with her whole family.
00:24:26
Speaker
And so I met her whole family the first night because I'm nice. Yeah. So, you know, I was like either really courageous or stupid. i not going watch what I think it was. Or love, whatever. Or love. Yeah, that's a good one too. But I walk up to her and her friend and I'm like, oh, they're trying to take a picture. I'm like, can I do that?
00:24:43
Speaker
Now, like I just said about rehabs, you don't want me touching your technology. i mean, you saw my setup problems here. Like they asked me to take a picture. I think I got like a picture of like her friend's shoulder. Yeah. That was a joke later. But yeah, that's how we met. And we talked for about five minutes. And she had said, um we just had a really good conversation. And, you know, I think that I was in the right state of mind and frame because she's a very beautiful girl. And and she just said, I don't, I've never given my number out.
00:25:12
Speaker
um But if you want to call me, you can. And if you met my wife, she was shy and coming out of this. and you know Yeah, right. PTSD. Yeah. And she just, and so, and we've talked every day since. so ah every day since so it's pretty pretty cool stuff so how long you been married now we've been married how many years now 15 years now maybe 15 14 years now okay yeah wow that's great that's very cool okay so you get married uh things are going well
00:25:46
Speaker
You're rehabbing or you're you're doing a deal. Oh, it hits. Now you start changing your. We're past now. We're past. so you only changed your business completely to now do new, new builds, new builds.
00:26:00
Speaker
And then what's next? Sorry. Um, you know, there's always challenges. We went, as we started a new builds, we're like, gosh, this works great. But what we had found is we started to build like here in Jacksonville, Jacksonville is our hub market.
00:26:16
Speaker
Yep. We had the decision to make that if we stay in Jacksonville, then we're going to have to start building properties in areas we don't want to be. and and i want i have a rule that was taught to me, original mentor ever.
00:26:31
Speaker
Can you walk down the street at eight o'clock on a Friday night without concerns? I still listen to that. That makes sense to me because I've tried it their way. I know some people do well. There's just not for me. I've gotten out of there.
00:26:43
Speaker
And so we had to make decisions to go outside of Jacksonville. We had to go through all sorts of things where, you know, we now are self builders. So we're own builder in all our markets now.
00:26:54
Speaker
Well, how do we become that? Well, became that because we went out to Ocala, great market. And we, you know, had a several million dollar judgment against a contractor that went belly up that didn't do his numbers, could have bankrupt us.
00:27:07
Speaker
it We covered it. We got it all the builds done for our investors and then we continued to grow. So these things are always happening when when when you're um building, you know, the there are the hurricanes.
00:27:20
Speaker
Is Florida going to last? The pandemic. I mean, right what's going to happen? I'll tell you during the pandemic, too, and this is to the credit of my partner. Beginning of 2020, when all that was going down, we had known to build to rent.
00:27:32
Speaker
And no one knew what this going to happen. It was literally with all my real estate friends. Real estate's going 08 times 10. Yeah. yeah And so we we talked about i he said, we're either going to really right or really wrong.
00:27:46
Speaker
um But we decided to try to be really right. And we we bought over 20 million in land positions in Florida right in the beginning of 2020.
00:27:57
Speaker
Wow.
00:28:01
Speaker
and so no we have enough land or we have over five thousand lot that we're going to be building out in florida a mixture of single-family duplex and quads and remember it's not building costs yeah they went up ridiculous and you have to work on that but if you don't get into the land right almost everything else Right, right. It goes that belly up pretty quick. You can't make the numbers work. So we feel so lucky we made that. But again, it was a risk we had to take.
00:28:25
Speaker
And there was some educated risk to it, but it was a risk we have to take that was pretty scary. and Again, for anyone listening here, you know, you don't have to build the Taj Mahal your first deal, but you got to have the courage to go into that first duplex.
00:28:37
Speaker
I always say that, do you know, a multifamily, right? Yeah, we well, we build single family duplex and quads. We do an array of all residential real estate so we can get you that good residential financing, but we do- Yeah, right.
00:28:48
Speaker
Right. That's good. And now do you help people do that? Like client can call you and be like, hey, I want to step into this and you can get them into that. Yeah. So what we do is we do, um we're on a continual build cycle. You don't build pre-construction with us like, hey, Philip, give me a deposit and I'll give you a house in 10 months. No, we we build on our own dime.
00:29:07
Speaker
And so you can close on a new construction home that's just finishing within 30 days. wow and And not only that, ah so you have to put up your deposit, obviously, like you're buying a house. But we have now our own in-house financing.
00:29:20
Speaker
So right now, um and again, this is another part of the story, but we were partially acquired by a big group called Sumitomo. Sumitomo stepped in and bought a piece of our business um because they like Builder Rent and they liked Florida. They're 330 years old out of Japan. They're an absolute powerhouse. Warren Buffett is heavily invested in one of their conglomerates.
00:29:40
Speaker
ah But like Warren Buffett's style, they give us autonomy to run the business in full funding. So we don't have to raise money to buy land anymore. have zero bank debt. which many builders cannot say. Yeah, that's right. they They've given us the green light. And also now with the balance sheet that we have, we were able to work with a few banks where we can pre-buy mortgages. It's called a builder forward commitment.
00:30:01
Speaker
And you have to have a certain level of ah you know, security in your business to do that. um But we're able to now buy these mortgages up front, Philip, for our people. ah and It's 3.75%.
00:30:14
Speaker
Holy cow. Right now. So we're cutting the the market by about 3% on what it is. And that's 10 year fix, 30 year end. Wow. That's crazy. And then how do you get renters? Are they already rented? Some of our properties are pre-rented.
00:30:28
Speaker
Others, you know, we have our average days of what it takes to rent and in different markets, but we have management. We we manage 95% of what we built. but People can use their own management if they want, but most people go to us. Normally with our incentive programs, like right now we're offering two two free years of monthly management, free management.
00:30:48
Speaker
ah for the first two years. So, you know, it's hard to say no. And again, we were in management before we were in building. That's how my my partner and I met. he was He was a property manager, him and his father, and I had left California, as you know, and I hired and fired four property managers. Yeah, dude, they're hard to find good ones.
00:31:06
Speaker
And it's a tough business. It's the worst part of the business, I think. But they they started to take over my portfolio and did a better job than I did. And that's kind of how we got our start together. and then the building came once. But we always try to set up management in any market we build in before we start.
00:31:21
Speaker
Okay, so when did the family board meeting book come out and like and in all conjunction with all this?
Success of 'The Family Board Meeting'
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, so that came out about 10 years ago. okay We just started you know with meeting Jamie within the first few years. I'm like, man, I don't want mess this up. I have these two boys. We're going on to have more kids.
00:31:39
Speaker
So many people had always said to me, oh, you know I wish you know I'd be at these events. And you know it never just stays about real estate. It goes into relationship, personal development, purpose. And they're like, I'd get up and I'd have to speak. And I would just share...
00:31:52
Speaker
just what brought me on my journey. And it was never a straight line. People said, I'd love for my kids to hear this. So we just started to throw these kind of impromptu events and people started coming to.
00:32:03
Speaker
And the lessons we were sharing, you know, a good friend of ours who's with a group called strategic coach. She said, you guys need to write a book. I said, I have no interest in writing a book about family. I don't, our stories are kind of ah vulnerable and sensitive. First of all, I don't know if I want to put that out there. And and secondly, I'm not a family therapist. I'm not a psychologist. and they're like, exactly.
00:32:25
Speaker
You're an entrepreneur that can relate. And so we wrote it. And think we on the first edition, we're now on our third edition. think it was like ah thousand bucks and we we were putting it out. But two big podcasters who I didn't realize were big because I was kind of like Forrest Gump.
00:32:43
Speaker
had seen me speak and invited me to come on their big podcasts. And the book just took off. And then the second, in the third edition, where we got a real publisher, went to number one on Wall Street Journal.
00:32:53
Speaker
And and i tell that not to brag, it's because the family message is so resonated with people. It's not our writing. It's the story and the simple principles that we shared that, you know, now we think, of There's probably over 200,000 families using this now, which is pretty special. That is cool.
00:33:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool. What a role is Jamie playing in your business in... the family board meetings, like all this stuff, or does she just like, this is kind of more my wife, like she just organizes the house. And like, that's a, that's a job that's more than I could, like, I can't pay you enough. Like you're right. I agree. The fence trying of the house is unbelievable. So ah that is part of it. When we have some, you know, like two, two people to help with that.
00:33:42
Speaker
One thing Jamie will not give up on. She is the Montessori mom. I mean, she ran Waldorf and Montessori schools that she is like, kids are just magnet magnetized to her. So she won't give up kid time, but we'll have other support in the house.
00:33:57
Speaker
and And she's very involved in our kids' education. We're very involved with a smaller turn of school. We help start for different ages in our town. ah But then she she doesn't get involved in the bigger real estate business, but helps oversee our own portfolio.
00:34:11
Speaker
And the one thing that we determined, Philip, is, and I'm very proud of this, is, you know, what is it? 80 something percent of divorces are because of financial issues. She is very attuned and very involved in our finances. We both are.
00:34:25
Speaker
So every Thursday we sit down, we're going over things with our accountant, um you know, our bookkeeper to see where it's at. So we both understand where the money is. And she's very involved in that part because um she has a good knack for it. First of all, and it's really good communication to know when things are great, when things are low, when things are okay. And you know, what should be our next move? And we make those decisions together and it's worked so much better than the Lone Ranger approach. Yeah, that's good.
00:34:52
Speaker
That's good. Jim, I love your Uncommon, man. This is awesome. So our if our listeners want to hear more about you or the family board meeting, like what would be the best way for them to reach out or just find out more information about
Accessing Resources and Closing Remarks
00:35:03
Speaker
you?
00:35:03
Speaker
Yeah, go to JJPlaybook.com. That's something that Jamie and I wrote up. We just had in a second book come out and it's USA Today bestseller. You guys can get the first three chapters free. And also some of our principles, you know, what real estate path do we take? Why do we go from old to new construction? And just a pathway you might be able to follow for that. And not only success in the real estate, but success at home. So JJPlaybook.com will be a great starting point with free information. And yeah, that's what I recommend.
00:35:32
Speaker
Okay, that's good. Well, hey, thank you for your time. I appreciate just all the ways that you've used your gifts to impact other people. And yeah, I wish you the best of luck, man. Huge fan. Love it. Thanks, Philip. Good being on here.
00:35:44
Speaker
Yeah. You've been listening to Uncommon Wealth Podcast. If you have any other questions, ah reach out to myself at uncommonwealth.com. And thank you for listening. Until next time, go be uncommon.
00:35:54
Speaker
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