14514 Benefit St, Sherman Oaks

the very successful sale of 14514 Benefit St located in Sherman Oaks, California.

Property Overview

This ideally located property is South of both Ventura Blvd and Dickens St, making this one of the most desirable pockets in the San Fernando Valley. Built in 1951, this 3,608 sqft building sits on a 6,804 sqft lot (0.16 acres), and it boasts a strong unit mix of (1) studio, (3) 1 Bed units, and (1) 2 Bed / 1 Bath + Den unit. This great value-add opportunity has more than 50% upside potential in rents, and this is an ideal property to build at least one detached ADU. The best place to build this ADU would be over the carport that is at the back of the property, which will allow you to add a brand new construction unit to the property without getting rid of any parking for the tenants. Also, since there is no tuck-under parking at this property, there is no requirement for the buyer to do any mandatory seismic retrofitting.

Deal Story

We listed this property in early November 2021 for $1,625,000. We sent out our initial "just listed" email blast on November 11th to nearly 20,000 investors and brokers. Within 7 days of the start of our marketing, we generated 9 offers from both our own clients and outside brokers' clients, and 3 of those offers were at our list price. After we were comfortable with the amount of offers that we had, we had the seller sign a multiple counter offer that would be sent to all of the buyers with the exact same price and terms on it so that all buyers had an equal chance to win the deal.

The multiple counter offer had all the "dream" terms for a Seller including: 1) a price that was above our list price, 2) no finance and no loan contingency, 3) short 10-day due diligence period and a 60-day close, 4) a complete "as-is" sale where any repairs, retrofitting, government requirements, termite, etc. would all be buyer's responsibility after close of escrow, 5) buyer's deposit would be RELEASED out of escrow and sent to Seller after buyer's removal of contingencies, 6) Seller's choice of title and escrow companies, 7) and all necessary language about buyer cooperating with seller's 1031 exchange.

After receiving all of the buyers' responses, only one of the buyers accepted the seller's counter offer in its entirety. Many of the buyers accepted the price, but they all changed at least 1 or 2 or the other terms that the seller requested. The most common objection from the rest of the buyers was the no loan or appraisal contingency....