The Family
For 40 years, this family owned and operated apartment buildings across Los Angeles. They built their portfolio the hard way: hands-on, building by building, through every market cycle and every new rule.
But the people running the business were getting older. Estate planning was on the table. And each year, Los Angeles made rent-controlled ownership a little heavier to carry. Their goal had changed. They no longer wanted to build equity. They wanted steady cash flow and a simpler life.
Over five years, we helped them move out of multiple apartment buildings and into single-tenant, triple-net retail. Serrano was one of the hardest.
The Problem
On paper, Serrano was an apartment building. In practice, it was a list of problems no owner wants to inherit:
- An on-site manager living in the building with no management agreement, no lease, and no rent paid in years.
- A unit occupied by someone on a forged lease, also paying nothing.
- Insurance carriers canceling coverage because the building’s electrical panels made it uninsurable.
- Roughly $1 million in capital work needed immediately.
The family had a choice. Put another million dollars of their own money into a building they no longer wanted, or find a way out.
They chose a way out.
The Sale
A building with occupancy issues and no insurance scares off most buyers. Our job was to find the ones it didn’t.
We positioned the property for what it was: an opportunity for a buyer with the capital and the appetite to fix it. The marketing drew 10 offers.
The highest headline number wasn’t the goal. Certainty was. With insurance off the table, a buyer who stumbled in escrow could have left the family stuck with the building and no exit. We guided them to the buyer most likely to close cleanly and without renegotiation. That buyer closed.
The Exchange
In a 1031 exchange, the clock starts the day you close. Most owners begin searching for a replacement property then. We started two weeks earlier.
The family’s criteria were specific: stay in California, a new lease, a creditworthy tenant, and a corporate guarantee. That kind of property is hard to find in this state, and harder to find under deadline.
We worked it from every direction. We called agents, combed through listed offerings, and sourced off-market opportunities. After several rounds of feedback with the family, we found it: a brand-new-construction Jamba Juice in San Diego.
The Outcome
The family traded a building that demanded a million dollars, a squatter fight, and an insurance crisis for a corporate-guaranteed lease that requires almost nothing from them.
No tenants to manage. No midnight calls. No new regulations to track. Just a check.
They’ve been happy with it ever since.
Transaction Snapshot
- Asset: 14-unit apartment building, 505 S Serrano Ave
- Ownership: Family-owned, 40-year operators
- Market: Koreatown, Los Angeles
- Challenges: Non-paying manager, forged-lease occupant, uninsurable panels
- Deferred Capex: ~$1,000,000
- Offers: 10
- Outcome: Sold to the highest-certainty buyer
- Exchange: New-construction Jamba Juice, San Diego (NNN, corporate guarantee)
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