Headquartered in Northern Virginia with regional offices in Massachusetts and Colorado, ILM Capital is a real estate investment firm focused on the acquisition and operation of both student housing and traditional multi-family properties. Founded in 2013, ILM now employs over 80 people through its three offices and affiliated management company, WE Communities. As owner/operators, ILM’s success is built upon their three-pronged strategy: Buy Right, Manage Tight, and Improve Prudently.
Before partnering with Update Capital in 2017, ILM managed its investor communications the way many firms do – through email and PDFs.
“We had our own investor package, but there was no way to provide updates and a repository of documents for investors,” says AJ Hawrylak, COO of ILM Capital. “We handled our communications through email which was time-intensive and ultimately ineffective. Our investors are very sophisticated and receive 100’s of emails a day – our emails and notifications were easy to lose in the shuffle.”
ILM went looking for a mobile-friendly solution that could act not only as a convenient repository for documents and up-to-date investor information, but also offered a streamlined, secure way to communicate with investors.
They found it in Update Capital’s platform.
“There are plenty of shared files document providers, but what led us to Update Capital was their very intuitive and creative dashboard. Internally, we refer to it as the investor vault,” says Hawrylak. “It provides one location, with one log-in, where our investors can go to view their current and historical distributions, how much capital they’ve contributed to a particular property or fund, original investor documents, investor commentary, and more.”
The platform also provides ILM with a reliable, secure private way to send important messages to investors.
“During Hurricane Michael, we were able to send updates to the investors on any impacted properties. Ahead of the storm, we were able to let them know we were monitoring conditions closely, and in the aftermath, we shared updates on any damage and actions being taken by management.,” says Hawrylak.
ILM has grown significantly since implementing the Update Capital platform and Hawrylak has yet to hear from a single investor who has had trouble accessing the platform or finding the information that they need when they need it. Furthermore, the platform has proven to be a huge time-saver for the ILM team.
“Now we can upload documents to the portal easily and everything is taken care of by Update Capital.”
Of course, saving time is important for all companies, but especially so for ILM, which not only owns but also directly operates all of its properties.
Though it was the platform’s intuitive dashboard that drew ILM, Hawrylak says it’s Update Capital’s stellar customer service that has led to their strong ongoing partnership.
Hawrylak explains: “Many companies say, ‘This is what we’ve got and this is how it’s going to be until it’s worth our while to make changes,’ but I’ve never heard that from Update Capital. They are constantly updating their product based on customer feedback, and they are willing to go above and beyond to help in any way they can.
“Update Capital does provide the repository that we were looking for, but they also provide so much more. Their dashboard allows our busy investors to quickly overview all of their holdings, distributions, and messages without having to dig through PDFs hoping to find the necessary information.
“I can always get ahold of the Update Capital team. They are always willing to help, and that’s ultimately what sets them apart.”
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