Shilo Sanders is done trying to find a rental home in Florida. After spending weeks touring luxury apartments across Fort Lauderdale and Aventura, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety announced that he is heading back to Texas to build a custom house from scratch in Canton. To cap it off, he’s asking his dad, Deion Sanders, to help him pull it off.

In the latest video on his YouTube channel, Sanders put out an open call for Texas architects, and explained why he wants the legendary Coach Prime to run point on the build.

“I have to say my second favorite place is Aventura. You got the mall over there,” said Shilo in his video. “My uncle stays on Miami Beach. So if I ever just want to go over there and just chill, like I can go stay over there whenever. So I wouldn’t get a spot there. Regardless, I’m not paying an arm and a leg though, because I am going to build a house in Canton, Texas, starting as soon as I post this video and an architect can message me. I need the best architects in Texas. Thankfully, I got one of the best house builders in the world, which is my dad. 

“He has built the best houses, the most luxurious of the luxurious houses. And during this process, I get to learn a lot from him in a different category that I haven’t had to learn anything from him before.”

The decision to build in Texas came down to pure sticker shock for Shilo. During his house-hunting quest, Sanders set a personal budget of around $6,000 a month, only to be shown places listed at $8,950, $9,950, $11,000, and $14,000. Even after factoring in write-offs from his personal businesses, Shilo couldn’t bring himself to burn five-figures every month on a lease.

“So, everyone, just so you know, I do a lot of business from where I live at,” Shilo said in a YouTube Video. “So, my rent is usually written off. So, that’s like 30% off of what you usually have to pay. But still, even $14,000 is insane for rent. At that point, you might as well just buy in Texas.”

Now, if Shilo wants construction advice, his dad has plenty of experience with massive builds. Back in the late 1990s, while starring for the Dallas Cowboys, Deion built “Chateau Montclair,” a 29,220-square-foot compound in Prosper, Texas. The nine-bedroom estate featured a two-lane bowling alley, a private barbership, an indoor basketball court stamped with his motto “You Gotta Believe,” and even a two-story closet.

Deion owned the property until 2014, and it sold again this past August for about $4.5 million to buyers planning a full restoration.

Deion also knows a lot about high-end real estate outside Texas. He owned a 5,346-square-foot custom farmhouse on 42 acres in Canton, Mississippi, during his coaching stint at Jackson State. That estate – originally built in 2011 with soaring ceilings and a cypress-and-iron staircase – hit the market for $1.5 million when he left for Colorado in 2023.

But while Coach Prime has spent decades buying, building, and living in multi-million dollar compounds, breaking ground on a new home comes with real financial complications for Shilo Sanders.

The 26-year-old is in the middle of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case in Colorado, which he filed in October 2023 to protect himself from an $11.89 million default judgement. That judgement stems from a 2015 high school incident where security guard John Darjean accused Shilo of assault. A five-day federal trial wrapped up in Denver last month, with both sides filing post-trial briefs through November before a judge declared whether the debt can actually be wiped clean.

Shilo Sanders did get one legal problem off his plate this week. On October 5, a Dallas court dismissed a separate lawsuit from his former law firm, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, which had been trying to collect about $170,000 in unpaid legal fees. But without an NFL contract coming in following his release from the Buccaneers last year, building a house from the ground up is going to be a herculean task – even with Deion Sanders’ help.