This month, my collogues and I attended the 3rd Annual Single Family Rental Investment Forum conference in Scottsdale, AZ. (Also known as the IMN Single Family Conference) MACK Companies was asked to attend as a local expert, representing the Chicago-land market as a whole while I was asked to speak on a few panels that discussed single family investment management.
This was my third year in attendance and it never ceases to amaze me how the SFR sector has grown tremendously. I think it’s safe to say that each year the amount of attendees doubles with visitors ranking from coast to coast as well as all over the world.
This particular semi-annual event is a great earmark to measure the activity in the SFR market – because as our industry grows – so do the number of attendees, the caliber of experts that attend and the diverse topics we discuss. This winter’s event alone added over eight topics of relevance that are currently affecting our market including; Entity-Level Mergers & Acquisitions and Portfolio Sales, Getting a Loan to Re-Perform, and advancing Property Management Systems (just to name a few)
While meeting with experts from around the world I found a common theme in what prevailing topics were being focused on and this winter the attention seemed to be on Crowdfunding. Crowdfunding has gained tons of publicity. The idea that an individual can partake in a percentage of ownership of a project attracts people from all over the world to become part of the SFR sector. It also allows people from all different financial backgrounds to take part in small or large projects ranging from $100,000 up to $100,000,000.
The most interested thing I noted this past season and that I spoke at length about was the scaled down purchasing we’ve seen from REITs. The majority of publicly traded REITS have slowed down while they await stablaizion of their recently acquired portfolios. With this slow down, private equity groups have dived in head first with hopes of accumulating properties during the down cycle of the REITS. We at MACK Investments are excited to work with new funds as they bring a sense of “human” to the equation. They understand that a home can’t be judges solely on pro-forma - unlike REITS, they are able to think outside of the box and invest in properties or areas that may show greater HPA versus cash-flow.
All and All the event was yet again a success for us and I look forward to attending again in 2015. This coming year should be a promising year not only for MACK Investments, but also the communities that MACK Companies sales investment inventory in. We hope to reach a production scale of 40 homes per month this year and attend the next IMN event with even more to offer.
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