This 1975 built property was owned by a local couple for approximately 10 years. It was self-managed and mostly self-maintained. The owners were ready to do some hands-off investments (DSTs) and had been approached by a broker who said he had a buyer and asked them to list it with him.
The owners then contacted The Hellwig Team and we met with them at the property to tour and discuss options. We let them know that we were confident our marketing would bring in more than just one buyer.
After listing with us, our marketing actually brought in way more than one buyer. Within 30 days, we actually had nine contracts in hand to present to the sellers. Since the highest of the nine offers was very close to what they were hoping to achieve, with good terms and conditions, our sellers lightly countered and we closed the sale approximately 90 days later. The sellers were very happy that they had not just let one buyer see it!
1722 Garfield:
45 Unit Apartment Complex
This 2023 built complex was originally built and marketed as luxury condos. Unfortunately, because of several factors (neighborhood and market timing) sales were not occurring. The developer's project financing was about to drastically change, so it made sense to explore a multi-family sale before that happened.
Through our marketing, we were able to quickly procure a solid buyer for the seller, while keeping the marketing going in case the first contract fell. While we did have three additional interested parties with serious interest step up before closing, the seller stayed with the first contract, as timing was key for him due to his refinancing issue.
1331-1357 Baker Street:
14 Unit Luxury Apartments
Called East Campus Village at the time of our buyer’s purchase, this sale was important to the formulation of The Hellwig Team’s business philosophy and marketing tactics for our sellers.
A medium-size investor met with Brian and asked if he could help him find a large investment to purchase, as he and his partner were ready to increase the size of their portfolio. As Brian searched for something of appropriate size to show to this investor, he became increasingly frustrated that other commercial offices kept their multi-family listings in house…as they tried to ‘double-end’ those sales.
Brian then decided to take another tact to find this investor a larger property. By searching through the foreclosure databases at county offices, he found a 108 unit property that had just gone back into a bank’s hands. Brian was the first broker to contact the bank and he was able to get the property under contract at the right price for his buyer. It was this buyer’s first 100 unit+ property (he has since purchased many other large properties!)
Lessons learned from this transaction:
Sometimes it takes working an unconventional route to help your clients.
Too many brokers do their sellers a big disservice by keeping their listings ‘in house’ and not letting other brokers know about them. We think its common sense that giving a property full exposure to the market will bring our sellers substantially more potential buyers and subsequently more offers
2905 Aurora Ave:
108 Unit Apartment Complex
Called Le Deauville at the time, this seasoned transaction (1994) also had another great experience that The Hellwig Team put to use for future transactions.
Prior to writing our clients offer to purchase this property, Brian found out that multiple offers were expected. Our Buyer happened to be “rare stamp” collector and he let us know about a negotiation strategy that he had used in the stamp collector world…an offer with an ‘acceleration clause’. We put together a clean offer for him, at a lower price than he was willing to pay, but with a strong five-figure acceleration clause…and we won the deal.
The Hellwig Team used this strategy from time to time for the next 15 years and, although it became commonplace in the early 2010’s, as we came out of the Great Recession and into a hot market, very few brokers had seen it before then.