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I believe in all our areas,
Carrie, Southwest Florida. You know the

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greater Fort Myers area that was really
hot. It was the fastest growing area

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in the country last year ranked.
But I think you know, part of

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me really likes Jacksonville. You're listening
to Carrie Letts's Financial Survival Network, where

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Survival Network now more than ever. Go

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to Financial Survival Network dot com and
get your free newsletter in gift Financial Survival

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Network now more than ever, and
welcome. You are listening to watching the

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Financial Survival Network. I'm your host, Carrie lets Well. You hear about

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real estate busts taking place around the
country, but there is there are several

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places where that just is not the
case, one of which is the Great

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State of Florida. My adopted home
and the adopted a home of the person

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you're about to hear from, Jim
Shields. I've known you for years now.

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You've literally been at this NonStop.
I think I've known you five or

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six years. You've been building homes
in the Jacksonville market and selling them to

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investors through thick and thin. How
is business? Business is good. We're

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actually now in twelve different markets in
Florida. So we've expanded the new construction

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model. You know, I used
to do both foreclosures, buy foreclosures,

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fix them up, rent them,
or work with investors on them. And

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we just found the new construction to
be a better way, and it was

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also more scalable and more desirable for
everyone for the for our own building needs,

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for investors, for the tenants.
So we've been able to scale into

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about twelve different markets now. All
right, So you have a really good

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perspective, a unique perspective on the
Florida market. Like I said in the

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intro, there's weak real estate markets
around the country, but Florida is not

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one of them. What is your
take, what's your perspective on what the

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market's doing and where you think it's
heading. You know, right now in

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Florida, supplying demand is a big
factor of all real estate, and we're

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still behind on building for the people
that have been coming here through the pandemic.

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So we're still seeing nothing like the
growth that you saw of twenty thirty

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percent and values and rental growth in
like twenty twenty one, but still ticking

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up a few percent already this year. And we're very conservative at our growth

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patterns, so we're still seeing a
very small uptick in both rents and growth

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our year over on rental contracts if
you do a new rental contract, we're

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having about nine point six percent increase
on our rents, and this year so

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far, the market's average about three
percent growth midway through the year. So

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Florida's fascinating state. Do you know
how many people that were in Florida in

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nineteen fifty A lot less than now
two point seven million. You know what

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the population was in the nineteen sixty
four point nine million. Yes, now

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it's twenty two and a half a
million. It's probably higher than that.

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I don't think Census really has the
key metrics programmed in. So in a

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market where you have rising population,
even in the face of rising interest rates,

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prices still go up. Yeah,
absolutely right. So a house that

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you sold to an investor a year
ago, how much what was the average

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price you were selling for a year
ago? You know, a year ago

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wouldn't be a ton different from now, probably about eight percent less a year

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ago, you know, now to
three years ago thirty percent less, right,

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nice climb for our investors. They've
been very happy. Yeah, so

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eight percent effectively. I mean,
I realize it's paper gain from one year

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to the next. It's not a
real gain until you go to sell.

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But that's got to give you some
some incentive, some security when you're going

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into a market where you hear the
media just saying, you know, can't

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get mortgages, mortgage rates are so
high, all of this. Yeah,

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well, we've tried to create our
own market for our investors. So one

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of the major things that does influence
no matter what anyone says, is interest

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rates, because it affects your payment, whether you're an investor trying to get

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cash flow or a homeowner wanting to
lig there. So what we've done for

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our new constructions, we've created an
in house financing program, locking people in

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at four point seven five percent,
which obviously helps with immediate cash flow when

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when others are out there offering about
seven percent for investor loans, we're trying

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to get them off on the right
tra You have to have a certain size

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company I'm balance sheet to be able
to do this with banks, but we've

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been lucky to cross that threshold,
and now we're able to offer these low

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rates to our buyers. So what's
your typical house that you you sell to

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investors? Well, you know,
typicals a tough word carry because you know,

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our our recipe is all residential right
now, single family duplexes and quads,

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um and and that's our main focus. Those range from about two forty

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two about heat hundred and yeah,
So what what kind of rent can you

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get on these homes? Uh,
we're looking at anywhere from you know,

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fifteen hundred to twenty two hundred or
for smaller units twelve hundred to sixteen hundred.

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So I would classify that almost as
an affordable housing on the small.

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Oh yeah, we're definitely in the
workforce affordable housing price below the medium you

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know. And and I'll none of
the big builders out there will build duplexes

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or quads. They have no interest. No, no, so less than

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I think it's less than eight percent. Since two thousand and nine of new

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construction has been for units under twelve
hundred square feet. Twelve hundred square feet

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are underd So when we step in
with one of our duplex models or quads,

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it's an affordable housing and not a
large apartment that people are really attracted

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to, and that's been to our
advantage because a lot of people just don't

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want to build them. We don't
mind building them, and the returns are

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great for our investors. I can
see that. And I know just in

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my area, Palm Beach County,
very little you know, multi multi unit

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housing is like you know, basically
town homes that are going for like,

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you know, a million dollars.
Yeah, that's what they're going for here.

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You know, you see, the
high end builders are involved in that

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space, but in terms of middle
class housing, there just isn't any really

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being constructed here in Florida unless they're
in areas that are transitioning. You know.

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Yeah, yeah, my m like
for that that southeast side of Florida,

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it's just too expensive. Beautiful,
it's a great place to live,

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as you know, uh, you
know, the Miami Palm Beach for Lauderdale,

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it's just been too expensive. The
numbers don't work. So that's why

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we're more up in Jacksonville, O'calla
areas of southwest Florida. You know,

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several markets down there. Those just
have a little different fundamentals for the investors

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side, and still great lifestyles.
Maybe not as nice as Palm Beach or

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or Emmy if that's what people want, but still a great lifestyle. Florida

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is Floriday of your twelve markets,
is there a standout where things are really

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happening quickly and you know, just
a total panic to move to that area?

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You know. I believe in all
our areas Kerry, Southwest Florida,

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you know, the greater Fort Myers
area that was really hot. It was

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the fastest growing area in the country
last year ranked. But I think,

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you know, part of me really
likes Jacksonville. That's that was our hub

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market, That's where we started,
you know, and I'm just seeing some

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real exciting approvals come through finally in
Jacksonville where we need housing, you know,

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and in good areas we're finally getting
more quads approved, which you know,

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investors love our quads, their uniform
unicorns, I call them, because

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they're harder to find, especially new
construction. They're hard to get approved,

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but they produced a great cash flow. So so probably Jacksonville's the one I'm

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I'm most excited about right now.
Any of your buyers actually taking one of

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those quad units for themselves and just
letting the tenants finance their home pay for

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their home. We've had a few
people all our occupy h and living a

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unit and then rent the other three, which is not a bad strategy for

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people to start off on. Yeah, especially you're young in your twenties,

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early thirties. It's it's your ticket
to building wealth, rif exactly exactly.

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Yeah, So you've been doing this
for like a lot of years here,

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Like, I don't think me four
years been the new construction game about ten

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years now. I hung up my
rehab shoes, you know, about nine

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years ago. So as far as
cost inflation, as far as finding qualified

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contractors and laborers, that's gotten a
lot tougher. It wasn't it a lot

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tougher. But we are you know, a team of one hundred and seventy

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so we have a good sized team. We've also really entrenched in the markets

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where we're not as big as the
nationals, but we've been building through the

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pandemic and so we've established some pretty
good trade routes with both you know,

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our subs and materials, which helps
everyone involves, right, and luckily the

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price of lumber has dipped dramatically from
its peak it's come down quite a bit.

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Still not where we were in twenty
nineteen, you know, a normal

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market, but definitely a lot better
than where it was at end of twenty

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twenty. So, if you're an
investor and you're looking to take your first

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step into this market, what is
your key piece of advice to that person?

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You know, I would look for
the long term people. My best

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advice to people carrying I'm owned hundreds
of properties. If I had to go

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back and do something different, I
would own less of better quality and better

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areas period. And the story because
the cheapes with deferred maintenance can seem like

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a great strategy and the look,
I've owned them, but there is more

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involvement. There is maintenance and more
maintenance for repairs, more turnover, and

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I would I have now in my
more wise years, I'm hoping I've learned.

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I own a lot less property than
I used to, but they're much

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better quality and they produce a way
better cash flow and way more equity than

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when I had more to deal with. So I tell people, you know,

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it's not the amount of properties you
own, it's the quality of each

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property you do own, And that's
my best in so quality not quantity.

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Yeah. Also, when you're talking
quality, you get better quality tenants.

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Right, So better quality tenants means
less maintenance means less headaches, right exactly,

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sir? All right, well,
hey tell us where do we find

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you, how do we contact you? How do we follow you on the

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internet. Yeah, if you want
to learn more about kind of our fundamentals

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and principles, my wife and I
designed something called the JJ Playbook. You

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can go to JJ playbook dot com. That's going to talk about our buildret

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model and kind of our journey over
the last twenty four years. How did

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we create our passive income to support
our lifestyle? And then some and then

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Southern Impression Homes is our building company, and we're in most major markets in

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Florida, like we talked about,
And that's a great starting point. If

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you're wanting to get more involved,
all you have to do is go through

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JJ playbook dot com and set up
a discovery call with one of our sales

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specialists. All right, hey,
reallysting times. It shows that real estate

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is in fact local, and you've
got hundreds of local markets and they're not

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all created equal. If you've got
for Jim or myself, shoot me an

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00:12:11,559 --> 00:12:16,080
email kl at carry Lutz dot com. You'll find the links in the show

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notes this interview on Financial Survival Network
dot com. Just click through, and

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00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:24,159
while you're there, sign up for
your free newsletter Jim. Always a pleasure.

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00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:28,720
Thanks for stopping by. Let's seeing
you carry Thank you, Thanks for

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00:12:28,799 --> 00:12:35,039
listening to carry Lutz's Financial Survival Network, your solution to today's trying times.

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00:12:35,399 --> 00:12:39,840
For the latest, go to Financial
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