Most real estate investors chase returns. Few also aim to lift people out of poverty. Samuel Sells does both.
In this episode of The Agent of Wealth Podcast, host Marc Bautis is joined by Samuel Sells, a retired Air Force officer and the founder of Impact Growth Capital. With a background in global health and over $2 billion in completed development projects across five continents, Sam now applied his expertise to one of America’s most urgent challenges: the affordable housing crisis. Through innovative public-private partnerships and a $300 million impact fund, he’s proving that you can generate strong returns while rebuilding communities and transforming lives.
In this episode, you will learn:
- What the affordable housing crisis really looks like – and why public housing is failing.
- How Samuel structures low-risk, high-impact investments backed by government contracts and subsidies.
- The power of combining for-profit development with nonprofit services to help families achieve economic mobility.
- The unique advantages of investing in Opportunity Zones and impact-focused real estate funds.
- Why Samuel believes making money and doing good don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
- And more!
Tune in to discover how mission-driven investing can deliver both purpose and profit.
Resources:
impactgrowthcap.com | Follow Samuel: LinkedIn | Bautis Financial: 8 Hillside Ave, Suite LL1 Montclair, New Jersey 07042 (862) 205-5000 | Schedule an Introductory Call
Disclosure: The transcript below has been edited for clarity and content. It is not a direct transcription of the full episode, which can be listened to above.
Welcome back to The Agent of Wealth Podcast. This is your host, Marc Bautis. Today I’m joined by a special guest, Samuel Sells. Sam is a visionary entrepreneur and retired Air Force officer who has spent over two decades making a lasting impact through social impact investing.
As the CEO and founder of Impact Growth Capital, Sam has led over $2 billion in development projects worldwide and currently manages over $50 million in active ventures. He’s now focused on a $300 million impact fund aimed at addressing America’s affordable housing shortage. Sam, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me, Marc.
I’m excited to have you on. Today we’re going to explore how you’re using smart investing strategies to bring clean, safe, and affordable homes to underserved communities while also delivering strong returns for investors.
To start, can you give us a quick overview of the problem you’re trying to solve? What is the affordable housing crisis in America today, and why is it such a critical issue?
Sure. When you say “affordable housing,” it can mean different things. We’ve worked at various levels of workforce and affordable housing, but let me frame it this way: Who is the largest slumlord in America? It’s America.
The U.S. government, through public housing authorities, owns and operates just under 900,000 units. That’s about seven times the size of Blackstone and makes them by far the largest property owner in the country. Of those units, about 53% are over 50 or 60 years old. Many are severely run down.
Our mission is to improve at least 10 million lives by cleaning up or tearing down these outdated units and rebuilding them into clean, safe places that will last for the next 50 to 60 years and beyond.
How Public-Private Partnerships Work
Are those government-owned properties the ones you’re talking about buying?
They’re not for sale, but the government is interested in what’s called a public-private partnership, or P3. It’s similar to what they do with companies like SpaceX. The government writes a contract, provides funding, and the private entity delivers the project.
In our case, we enter contracts with the government to take over, rebuild, and redevelop these old, run-down properties. But we go further than just improving the buildings. The buildings themselves don’t help people get out of poverty.
What does help is the nonprofit arm that works alongside our development projects. That nonprofit helps residents gain the skills and employment they need to eventually exit government subsidies.
So how does it work at the end of the process? Do you take ownership of the properties, or does the government still own and operate them?
It’s a mix. We own and operate the property, but there are contract restrictions. About 50-60% of the end units are leased back to the government, which pays the rent — typically on the first of the month. The remaining units are leased at market rate based on the local area. We try to keep those rents as affordable as possible.
Why Sam Chose This Path
What led you to focus on this particular area of investing?
I spent over a decade in global health, working with foreign militaries and governments to build sustainable healthcare systems. I designed and built medical facilities on five different continents, but I was gone a lot. I wanted to be a better dad and be home more.
There’s no success outside the home that can make up for failure in the home. I also knew I couldn’t take on the U.S. healthcare system — it’s a massive, complicated problem.
So I looked for something where I could still focus on development and aligning incentives. I realized that if I could show investors how to make money while helping people, they’d invest — and continue to do so. That’s what we’re doing. We’re showing that you can generate strong returns while creating real social impact.
Risk and Return in Government-Backed Real Estate
There’s always risk in real estate. If anyone tells you you can’t lose money in it, they either haven’t been in the business long or haven’t done many deals. You absolutely can lose money.
That said, when we talk about projects involving government grants and subsidies, the risk profile shifts. With these deals, the capital stack becomes very low-leverage. The government sometimes funds 90% or even 95% of the total project cost, which means our equity stretches further and returns can be significantly higher.
Within that capital stack, you often have forgivable portions.
For example, with a 9% LIHTC (Low-Income Housing Tax Credit) equity deal, after seven years, that portion — say, $100 million — can become forgivable.
Similarly, 30-year grants are often forgivable as long as the property remains affordable over that period. The debt structure includes bonds with 3.5% to 4% interest, which is far better than conventional financing from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. So the debt is very low cost, and the overall stack is very low risk.
However, the challenge lies in getting the contract in the first place. Public housing authorities are run by people, and people often give deals to their friends or long-time contacts. We might offer to do a project for $300,000 per door while their favored contractor quotes $550,000, but they’ll still go with the familiar name.
That’s a major hurdle. Once the contract is secured though, that risk is behind you. After that, it’s mostly execution risk — delivering on the construction and management.
Related: Episode 157 – How to Leverage Government Contracts for Small Business Growth
Redevelopment and Tax Strategy
Are these full tear-downs or partial renovations?
It depends on what the housing authority wants. But we typically aim to tear down old structures, especially those built in the 1950s. You can renovate them, sure — they’re sturdy cinder block buildings, like the military barracks I used to live in — but they’re outdated.
So we’ll take a 294-unit complex, tear part of it down, build new three-story structures, move residents into the new units, then tear down more. It’s a phased redevelopment.
We also replace all infrastructure — new pipes, new systems — so we don’t have to deal with things like rotted cast iron later. It’s more expensive than starting from scratch on empty land, but the government expects and covers those higher costs.
On the tax side, most of our projects are located in Opportunity Zones, although many of the original tax benefits of those zones expired during the Biden administration. We do expect those incentives to return. In the meantime, we’ve still secured tax advantages. In one current project, we were granted full property tax forgiveness, which saves a lot and helps keep rents low.
For investors, there are strong tax benefits. We do cost segregations and offer depreciation. Unlike investing in a REIT, where you don’t get those benefits, in our fund you do — and I even contribute some of my personal depreciation that I don’t use back into the fund. That creates even more passive loss opportunities for our investors.
Project Sourcing and Investment Structure
How do you find properties for these projects?
We used to look for the ugliest, most distressed large properties we could buy at a discount — 150 to 250 units or more. But we’ve shifted our strategy. Now, we go directly to housing authorities.
If they’re open to working with a partner who will not only rebuild their communities but also bring in a nonprofit to provide wraparound services — education, life skills, job training — we’ll partner with them.
Buildings don’t lift people out of poverty, but support services can. Public housing was never intended to be permanent, yet today about 80% of people who enter it never leave. It’s like Hotel California.
How is the nonprofit funded?
Two main ways: private donors — many through DAFs — and government grants. For instance, Las Vegas has a $3 million grant allocated for resident services. Once we finalize our deal with them, that funding will go to the nonprofit arm of our project.
As for investor participation, they invest in a fund, not individual projects. The fund has a five-year life cycle. Its goal is to acquire and redevelop these properties, capture the value, and then sell the stabilized portfolios to a REIT that we own and control.
That REIT holds the properties long-term, providing steady, modest returns — about 6% to 8% annually. But our fund investors capture all the upside before that handoff.
Why structure it this way?
Because if we sold to a third party, like Blackstone, they’d immediately raise rents and eliminate affordability to maximize profits. We’re showing you can make strong returns without hurting the residents. You can be a good person and still make money.
From a purely financial standpoint, how does this compare to other types of real estate?
In typical real estate, there’s Class A, B, and C properties. Class A is the new, fancy stuff — Miami Beach luxury apartments, for example. You might see 4% to 5% annual returns and maybe 1.2x to 1.3x on your investment over five years.
Class B with some value-add can give you 17% to 18% IRR. Class C properties can offer even more, but they carry a lot of risk — plumbing problems, structural issues, bad tenants — and if the operator isn’t experienced, they can get into trouble fast.
What we’re doing is different. It’s government-backed. When the contract is signed, we know what our revenue and costs will be, and we know how long it will take.
With our preferred contractors and suppliers, and with government grants and subsidies in place, the potential returns should be far better than traditional multifamily real estate investing.
That’s all the questions I have today. Sam, thanks for joining me on The Agent of Wealth Podcast. I appreciate what you’re doing and the insight you shared with us. How can our listeners get in contact with you?
Thanks. Anyone who wants to learn more can reach out on LinkedIn — just search Samuel Sells. Also visit our site at impactgrowthcap.com. Happy to connect and answer questions about impact investing or what we’re doing.
Great, we’ll include those in the show notes. Thanks again, Samuel, and thank you to everyone who tuned into today’s episode. Don’t forget to follow The Agent of Wealth on the platform you listen from and leave us a review of the show. We are currently accepting new clients, if you’d like to schedule a 1-on-1 consultation with our advisors, please do so below.
Bautis Financial LLC is a registered investment advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.
