Camden Property Trust Company Profile

This article was written by Samuel Phineas Upham

When an investor owns any property for the purposes of rental income, he or she typically enlists the help of a management company to keep an eye on the place. These companies deal with issues that arise from the tenant, like repairs that need to be made, and they take care of rent collection.

Camden Property Trust is one such organization, based out of Houston Texas. It owns a total of 180 apartment complexes consisting of over 62,000 units. It completed its initial public offering in 1993, and made its first acquisition in 1997.

The company had a predecessor founded in 1982 by Ric Campo and Keith Oden. It began at the height of the housing boom in Texas, which was directly linked to the oil bust that was imminent in the mid-1980s. When the bust went down, the company converted its holdings (primarily condominiums) into apartments.

Camden focuses on maintaining homes all across the nation, and providing high-quality service to the tenants who live there. It has a work force measuring 1,800 employees, and it was voted one of the Top 100 Companies to Work For by Fortune Magazine.

Camden is in the S&P 400 index, and is traded openly on the New York Stock Exchange. Its non-executive employees receive surprise bonuses for results that come in over forecast. More than 600 of its employees occupy units that the company owns, paying 20% less in rent in addition to receiving a full-time income.

About the Author: Samuel Phineas Upham is an investor at a family office/hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Samuel Phineas Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media & Technology group. You may contact Samuel Phineas Upham on his Samuel Phineas Upham website.