Jay T. Clark
CEO and Founder
Jay is Founder & CEO of SEC. Jay began his professional career in public accounting and later founded Apartment Realty Advisors (“ARA”), a real estate brokerage firm, in 1993. After successfully selling ARA, Jay focused exclusively on SEC with initial investments in multifamily.
Jay is highly regarded as an expert in the multifamily and residential marketplace and has been the General Partner on over $1.5 billion of residential acquisitions and developments. Under Jay’s direction, SEC has received multiple project honors and awards, including Community of the Year (Smyrna Grove) and 50+ Community of the Year (Soleil Laurel Canyon), both from the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association.
Jay received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Jay is a licensed Georgia real estate broker and a previous Certified Public Accountant. He is an active member of the National Multi-Family Housing Council and Urban Land Institute.
Gary M. Buechler
Chief Investment Officer
Gary joined SEC in 2023 with responsibility for all aspects of the firm’s investments and development of multi-family, for-sale residential, and mixed-use real estate projects. Gary has more than 30 years of experience as a real estate executive and attorney. Gary has overseen the acquisition, capitalization, development, construction, renovation, and operation of more than $14 Billion in assets since 2001 – including approximately 56,000 multi-family units with an aggregate investment of $11.3 Billion. Gary’s experience also includes the ownership, capitalization, development, and operation of healthcare, hospitality, retail, office, and industrial properties.
Prior to 2001, Gary was a partner at Kelley Drye & Warren, an international law firm, where his practice specialized in real estate transactions. Gary received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and his B.A. from the University of Michigan. Gary and his wife reside in Roswell, GA.
John S. Huckaby
Vice President – Operations
John joined SEC in 2016 and is Vice President of Operations. He has 33 years of experience in the investment, development, sales, and operations of multifamily and residential real estate. At SEC John is responsible for construction services, marketing, sales, and asset management for ground-up and completed multi-family and residential properties. Throughout his career John has closed more than $1 billion in transactions including $450 million in multifamily transactions, with many of the top REITS and private capital funds, as well as aggregate residential condominium sales in excess of $650 million.
Prior to SEC, John held a senior leadership role with ST Residential, the consortium formed by Starwood Capital and the FDIC. John was instrumental in the launch, marketing, and liquidation of ST Residential’s Atlanta real estate portfolio, comprising approximately $500 million in residential condominium sales (1,200 units), an $89 million bulk-sale of a fractured condo, the disposition of 32,000 square feet of retail space, the sale of two entitled land parcels, and the sale of some 1,200 condominium units to individual end-users.
John received a B.A. in Communication from The University of Alabama. He is a licensed real estate agent in Georgia and holds several certifications from the Institute of Real Estate Management, the National Apartment Association, and the National Manufactured Housing Association.
Carson C. Hammer
Vice President – Investments
Carson joined SEC in 2025 and manages the firm’s acquisition efforts in the Southeastern United States. Carson brings over twelve years of multifamily experience to the SEC team, most recently as Vice President of Investments for CREC based in Columbus, OH where Carson was responsible for $30 million in acquisitions during unique market conditions.
Prior to CREC, Carson worked at Sundance Bay based in Salt Lake City, UT as Vice President of Investments and was responsible for $250 million of acquisitions. As Carson’s first role as an acquisitions officer, he worked at Rincon Partners, a real estate company based in Phoenix, AZ as Vice President of Acquisitions for the Southeast. During his time there, Carson was responsible for $65 million of acquisitions. Carson began his acquisitions career at Passco Companies, a DST multifamily investment firm based in Irvine, CA during which time he was part of $900 million in acquisitions.
Before his time on the principal side, Carson worked for Greystar as their regional operations team and Cushman and Wakefield as an analyst for the multifamily sales team.
Carson holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Real Estate from Georgia State University.