Forty Under 40: Seth Mims

Dallas native Seth Mims is sold on Northwest Arkansas — especially Fayetteville.

Resolved to create environmentally friendly infill residential projects, his company completed Eco Modern Flats near downtown Fayetteville last year.

The company now has three large-scale projects under construction or in the approval process, including Sterling Frisco student housing.

After earning an associate’s degree at Northlake College in Irving, Texas, Mims lived in Mexico for two years to absorb the language and culture.

On a visit in 1994 to his parents’ new vacation home in Northwest Arkansas, his dad convinced him his knowledge of Spanish would be a career asset here.

Mims chose real estate, and went to work for Jim Lindsey, who he calls a huge inspiration.

In 1998, he started Vision Real Estate, now Mi Casa, helping Spanish-speaking residents buy their first homes. His efforts earned him Walmart’s first Heroes de Corazon Award.

He and busines partner Jeremy Hudson founded Specialized Real Estate Group in March 2011 as the parent company of Mi Casa and property management firm MC3 Multifamily.

Mims organized the area’s first LULAC council, and served on the Governor’s Multicultural Task Force to develop the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission and the committee that drafted the state’s fair housing law.

“I really took it on myself to try to integrate the two cultures,” he said.