What do institutional investors see in build-to-rent that’s driving billions of dollars into the space? In this episode, Jim Sheils breaks down the powerful trends—demographic shifts, demand for rental housing, and scalable community development—that are attracting major capital and reshaping the real estate landscape.
More importantly, this conversation goes beyond institutional strategy to highlight how individual investors can align with these same tailwinds. Jim shares how build-to-rent can create consistent income, long-term wealth, and the freedom to reclaim your time—making it one of the most compelling opportunities in today’s market.
Episode Highlights Here:
Brett
Before we jump into this episode, I want to invite you to join our community to help you become a better steward scale to billions and ultimately give more or all of it away. All I want
you to do is to click the subscribe button right now. I love your support. It’s incredible to see your comments, and we’re just getting started. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you.
Thank you so much for subscribing. It means the world to me. Welcome to the build to billions podcast where we guide successful entrepreneurs and investors on their journey from millions to billions. We believe the key to scaling and compounding your wealth and life starts every single day with the mindset and practice of stewardship over ownership and applying billionaire biblical principles. Our ultimate goal is to have to scale and compound your wealth and life, so you give more all their way to help. MVPs. My name is Brett Swarts. Every episode, we feature some of the world’s best entrepreneurs, millionaires and billionaires, but they share their secrets and insights with us, so we can all level up and make a bigger impact. I’m excited about our next guest. In fact, he’s a repeat guest. He is an amazing, successful real estate investor, author and mentor focused on helping entrepreneurs achieve financial freedom and work life balance. I could speak for this. I’ve read, I read at least two of his books, and also implemented some strategies, which we’ll talk about, for building amazing, extraordinary families. But he is a partner at Southern impression homes, and he’s been instrumental in building rental portfolios in Florida’s high growth markets, specializing in built to rent properties with management services, which is really kind of unique for what they what they have to offer. And he has his experience includes over 2000 rehabs and so much more. Please welcome this with me. Mr. Jim shields. Jim, how you doing?
Jim
Okay Brett, good to be here again. Thanks.
Brett
Excellent. For listeners, getting to know for the first time, maybe give a little bit more about your story and your current focus.
Jim
Yeah, I started investing in real estate. Oh, man, back in 1999 so 26 years in, and it’s definitely been a major focus of my life. And going from near poverty to abundance, real estate investing was the key. I started in bulk foreclosures, and about 10 years ago, made a switch in the new construction, which is now known as build to rent, which wasn’t even a term back when we really started. But that really accelerated my wealth. And in those last 10 years, I’ve also built a family education company to help entrepreneurs stay successful at home. So that keeps me busy. Along with my wife, five children, like to surf and travel so soit keeps me, keeps me on the go.
Brett
Amazing, by the way, you can learn more about Jim couple different places, and he might just actually share what he wants to go Jim. If you want to, actually, you know, you know, jump in right now. Where do where can I find you?
Jim
Yeah, if you want to go to southern impression homes.com to learn more about our real estate investments. That’s a great spot to see me. If you’re looking for family stuff, just go to 18 summers.com
Brett
perfect and style right into the topic at hand, which is the current built to rent market, or even the real estate market. We can get hyper, hyper focus on Florida itself. Jim, where maybe go back, where have we been the last 1224, months, in your opinion? And then, you know this, where are we kind of currently at? And then we kind of got a future, you know, semi predict where you think things are going. But it’d be great for you to get your expertise on, especially Florida real estate market, which I think has had some, some, some mixed, mixed headwinds and some mixed, mixed places, depending on where you’re at, absolutely.
Jim
So yeah, you know when three years ago now, over three years ago now, mid 2022 is when we started to see a dip in a lot of major markets, especially the upper end markets in certain areas of Florida and such, when the interest rates started to just go up, and up, which wasn’t expected to the rate. So that definitely slowed things down, especially in the, you know, the, what I call the emotional markets, properties that are, you know, priced well below the median price for a home in the area. These are the popular ones that builders build with bigger spreads, and, you know, more draw to them because they’re so good looking and nice. And problem on the investment side, those do not cash flow and are emotional investments you’re betting on appreciation and monthly losses if you decide to rent it. And so those have definitely taken a bigger hit. What’s very interesting now is we saw certain areas, and then there were some hurricane things. But actually, that was not what we can talk about. That not what really drove up the insurance here, which I was educated on, did a whole webinar on with our insurance expert who’s done 1000s of policies for ourselves and our clients.
Brett
So if you like this little, short clip of the interview I just did, click over here to watch the full interview, and please don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much, everybody
Watch the episode here:
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About Jim Sheils
Jim Sheils is a seasoned real estate investor, author, and mentor dedicated to helping entrepreneurs achieve financial independence and stronger work-life alignment. As a partner at Southern Impression Homes, he has played a key role in developing rental communities across Florida, specializing in build-to-rent properties with integrated management services. His experience includes overseeing more than 2,000 rehabs and contributing to a major merger in 2022.
Beyond business, Jim is a husband and father of four who prioritizes family alongside professional success. Together with his wife Jamie, he co-authored the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller The Family Board Meeting and the Amazon bestseller Passive Income Playbook: Leverage Build-to-Rent Real Estate to Buy Back Your Time & Create a Legendary Family Life. His work introduces practical frameworks—such as the “Board Meeting” and “Date Night with a Question”—designed to deepen family connection while building wealth with purpose.
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