Wealth & Finance Fund Awards 2015 52 Best US Student Housing Fund HB Sconyers is the management company for HBS Multifamily Managers’ student housing businesses. They service their clients by building their investment pipeline, and negotiating all purchases and sales of assets. Primarily, they man- age the day-to-day operations of the companies, customer relations, marketing outreach, as well as working with their partners so that they have a full understanding of their companies. We spoke to them to find out more. Company: HB Sconyers and Company, owner of HBS Multifamily Managers, LLC Name: H. Brian Sconyers Email :
[email protected] Web Address: www.HBSMultifamily.com Address: 201 Fifth Ave South Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Telephone: 1-615-595-5836 Our company embraces the old adage: “Invest in what you know.” One of the first decisions our company’s founders made was that we were to focus on the South-eastern United States. This region has seen, and continues to see, unprecedented growth. Immediately following our founding, we set out to the university markets in this region to begin identifying properties we wanted, building relationships with universities and developers, identifying potential hazards and risks, and, finally, building a classification system with which we could compare like properties of completely different style, size and price. This system allows us to know where the prime assets are, who has them, and which properties will best fit in our portfolio. Our company believes that the best culture is one where everyone clear- ly sees the company’s goal and has the same incentive to achieve that goal. Every person working with our student housing company to date is a partner, they are all very clear on what is needed to be successful and they are never surprised by new agendas. And, mostly, we all share in the results. Performance of our company depends on constant management of many moving parts. First, we find and employ the very best people to oversee each area. These people are made partners in the compa- ny so that we have aligned their interests and those of other partners completely. From there we closely manage every detail from day-to-day management to marketing to construction of our property pipeline. All members of this senior team make up the oversight boards of each department. This has created a system of teamwork that keeps everyone accountable and very attentive of each duty being performed at any time. I firmly believe that client service is an area where we can all be better. We have taken a different approach with our clients, where they are truly looked at as partners. Either themselves or a representative is present in every meeting to discuss every detail of our investments. Additionally, investor reports are sent monthly. Over the past nine years we have seen unprecedented new money mov- ing into our space. We saw new construction in 2013 of over 60,000 new beds delivered to the market. That was the first time the market had ever crossed the 50,000 bed plateau, and, as a greater comparison, pri- or to 1999 we had not seen more than 20,000 new beds in a single year. Furthermore, we saw more than 60,000 again in 2014. Though the last 12 months have slowed down considerably from the high in 2014, we are still much higher than our national average. There is a great deal of money and building still going on in student housing this year, and, though it will be fun to compare returns at some point in the future with many of these new players, they are making it difficult to make responsi- ble investments for a long term investor. Due to our planning, and the work we have put in throughout the South- east, our acquisition strategy is still very successful. Our company will continue to be a buyer of property, in the right situations, for the next 20 to 30 months. We will also spend that time streamlining the businesses in our portfolio. Following that point, we will make the decision of how to best exit the investment. That could include a public offering, a roll up to a larger company, or simply to be long term owners of the portfolio. There are many good developers and operators in our space, so be considered one of the best of the best company in the student housing space is a great honour. Our industry has grown so much in the past 10 years, it is hard to keep up with all the new companies and all the new areas of focus. I feel that one reason we continue to be successful is we never get distracted from what we do well. Our team is very focused and very disciplined. Also, it helps that we are a small private company, and we are still in a position to move quickly.