Tyson Schuetze
» Founder of Auben Realty
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After pursuing multiple career paths in his early twenties, Tyson Schuetze found his passion in real estate investing. Living in New York City, he interned at Rolling Stone Magazine and worked a variety of freelance gigs in the music business before pursuing the path of every uncertain English major: law school. After working as a paralegal at an intellectual property law firm, Tyson realized the money of an attorney might be attractive however the passion was simply not there.
In his search for a purposeful career that would ignite his soul, he took his first foray into real estate investment. Working primarily as a real estate leasing agent in NYC, Tyson soon understood he wanted to invest more than he wanted to sell. Tyson began his property investing career knowing that the five-hour drive to purchase a duplex in Syracuse, NY was an easier burden than the cost of entry/risk of investing in NYC.
He quickly learned what not to do as a remote property investor/owner. Ultimately, many mistakes later, Tyson would sell the finished property, and make $10,000 in addition to his rental income cash flow. Upon exiting the deal he understood investing was what he was after, but there had to be greener pastures beyond the frozen tundra of a Syracuse January.
An investor network cultivated while Tyson was in New York, ultimately landed him in Augusta, Georgia. With ambition and vision well in excess of his experience, he started the path to what would later become Auben Realty. Frustrated by the direction, service and execution of supposed “experts” in single-family investing led Tyson to conclude there had to be a better way. It was his, now wife, Erin’s encouragement which inspired him to set out on his own. That motivation was the springboard for Tyson’s vision to create a company that would be the fastest growing real estate company in Augusta, GA, integrating property investing services from sales to project management and property management.
Auben Realty began as Auben Homes, which specialized in flipping homes. It was a bountiful business model–until the economic collapse of 2008. This led to Tyson searching for a good property management company in the Augusta area to rent their renovated homes. What he wanted was hard to find. That realization was the catalyst for him to create Auben Realty. He would ensure that his own properties were managed from a holistic asset management perspective, focused on efficiency and open communication.
In just a few years, the company underwent a metamorphosis and massive expansion assisted largely by Auben Realty Co-founder Natalie Walls, who brought experience, urgency and dedication to everyone and everything she interacted with.
“From day 1 we were investor focused–even in a time when there weren’t a ton of ways to invest and make money. We didn’t advertise… the business just started coming and didn’t stop. All from word-of-mouth.” Tyson Schuetze
For the next six years Auben saw exponential growth, but struggled to keep up with the continuing increased demands of integrating it’s respective departments. Based on the need and corresponding challenge of having all people and departments working together, a new model, Auben’s POD structure was created. This model would allow owners, residents and all the various team members: project managers, maintenance techs, customer service personnel and sales agents to function in a cohesive, integrated and mutually beneficial environment–delivering specialized service and excellent communication.
The core value of Auben stems from Tyson’s persistence in continued improvement. By investigating, communicating and taking ownership of mistakes daily, they can be processed out to ensure they never happen again. Tyson’s experience as both a property owner and a property manager is what has continued to validate his belief that over-communication is the key to any good business and strategic partnership.
In 2013, Conrex (a hedge fund based in Charleston, South Carolina) sought the help of Auben to assist with the acquisitions of their institutional real estate portfolio in Augusta, Georgia. Based on a very successful partnership with Auben, Conrex would eventually offer Tyson an opportunity to serve as a consultant. After two years of improvements in production, processes and procedures while managing their renovation department, Conrex asked Tyson to head up their nationwide internalization of property management. During his time with Conrex, Tyson also assisted in the hiring of 100s of people, setting up more than 15 offices, and helped to grow their portfolio of homes from 1000 to 7000 in four years. While he learned the ins and outs of institutional investing, management and operations, he was also shown a clear path he could blaze–opening this same level of service, not only to institutions, but individual investors.
In the summer of 2018, even as Auben had been named an INC 5000 “Fastest Growing Company,” it was struggling without the right leadership and vision. Tyson knew that he needed to return to Auben. So he “came home,” and found some dedicated folks needing direction.
Working alongside, current Auben CEO, Phillip Vera, a new leadership team was formed. A massive transformation based on a big vision, to create a regional, best-in-class, full-service integrated investment brokerage began. This vision has catapulted Auben toward its current track of success. Now, a growing regional brokerage, Tyson is continuing to see and plan for the future. A new, tremendously dynamic and growing team has led the charge–expanding Auben into multiple states and markets throughout the Southeast. With a national migration to come!
As everyone is collectively searching for a “new normal” during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tyson is proud of this new team, and their ability to continue innovating as Auben expands both it’s geographic footprint (Columbia and Charleston) and its range of services to include furnished rental and commercial expertise (Benebu and Auben Prime).
These days, when he’s not working, you may find Tyson enjoying his time listening to his record collection and reading books at home in Charleston, SC. He also enjoys traveling with his wife and girls, and training for triathlons–where he strives to be middle of the pack or better.