Our Team

Chris Funk is a driven business executive with a commitment to excellence in everything he does. These traits surfaced as early as his high-school days when Chris achieved the number one National Ranking by winning the North American Championship in the Equestrian sport of 3 Day Eventing. Mr. Funk came to Florida in 1999 to attend Flagler College. While in college, he started a laundry and dry cleaning business that grew to be the premier dry cleaner in Northeast Florida. Chris’s vision and drive toward business development and growth took the laundry and dry cleaning company into nontraditional fields for the industry such as fire restoration and government contracting. Those fields were less affected by the shifting economy of the late 2000s and helped the company continue its growth during the difficult economic recession.

Furthermore, Chris was quick to see favorability in the real estate market. He led the company’s initial investments into residential real estate rentals and recognized an opportunity to bring in outside investors. He developed the marketing plan, established loyal strategic partnerships, and led the formation of multiple real estate ventures. Driven by the need to provide superior service and profitable investments for his clients, Chris founded SunCoast Property Management to manage his growing real estate portfolio.

Following the success of the property management company, alongside the stabilization of the real estate market and the national economy, Chris founded Southern Impression Homes and transitioned the company into home building and land development. Today SunCoast Property Management and Southern Impression Homes provide a vertically integrated solution focused on the growing Build-to-Rent segment of the real estate market.

Chris has a business management degree from St. Augustine’s Flagler College. Chris’s wife, Marcea, remains active in the equestrian arena as one of the country’s premier equestrian athletes.

Carter T. Funk, has an engineering degree from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA from West Virginia University. Carter spent 30 years in the energy industry where he headed several subsidiary companies of Consolidated Natural Gas, was President of Belden Energy Services Company, served on the Boards of energy companies in the United States and Argentina and owned a successful energy consulting firm advising major energy companies such as Shell Oil, Amerada Hess, First Energy, Hydro Quebec, Equitable Resources and various smaller companies. In 2003, Carter moved to Florida to pursue business interests with his son, Christopher.

After 30 years in various leadership roles, Carter joined his son in Florida to further develop their successful dry cleaning and restoration business. At the same time, they began to recognize the unprecedented returns in real estate, the father-son team began accumulating residential rental properties. After developing a proven acquisition, rehab, and rental process with their own equity, they were able to attract clients seeking high yields and diversity from stock markets.

Jim Sheils is a full-time real estate investor for over twenty two years, completing over 2,000 acquisitions and rehabs. After his start in Bakersfield CA, he came to Florida to follow the long-term growth patterns he was seeing predicted for the southeastern United States.

Post 2008, his company focused on bulk foreclosure acquisitions for several years until creating a joint venture with Carter and Chris Funk to focus on the emerging “Build To Rent” model. His expertise in sales, marketing and capital raising were a perfect blend to support Florida’s growing niche. He was also a principal owner of the Island Oak RV Resort, playing a key role in the development and design of this company project.

In 2022, after over $300 million in deals together, Jim came on as a full partner in SI Homes. This dynamic partnership has enabled him to better develop key initiatives and relationships with both clients and strategic partners.

“Passive income real estate has changed the direction of my life and so many of our clients lives. I have every intention to keep doing it and on an even larger scale for all involved.”

Jim’s own real estate investments have allowed him to travel the world with his beautiful wife and five children. It gave him the space and ability to donate a kidney to his father and enjoy his favorite pastime of surfing. He is also active in many charities and service organizations.

In addition to real estate, Jim is co-founder of the company 18 Summers and #1 Wall Street Journal best-selling author of the popular book “The Family Board Meeting”. His family talks have been delivered on stages worldwide and are a matching core value for our team and many of our clients.