Key takeaways
- 22 apartments in Santa Monica’s Ocean Park neighborhood, offered for the first time since the building was built in 1969.
- 5 offers in total. The seller accepted an offer 15 days after our August 11 launch.
- We worked through the rent records, inspection questions and remaining contingencies. The deed recorded October 30.
- $7,200,000, or $327,273 per unit and $423 per square foot, with a 5.56% cap rate and an 11.40 GRM.
The first time 2727 3rd Street came up for sale, we had an accepted offer in 15 days. The work that followed took another two months. A buyer coming into a rent-controlled building that the same family had managed since 1969 had questions about what the tenants were actually paying, what the City’s records showed and what the inspection would turn up. We had to answer those questions and get the parties to agree on what it would take to close.
Aida Memary Scher led the sale for the LAAA Team of Marcus & Millichap, with Glen Scher and Filip Niculete and co-listing broker Earle Hyman of Marcus & Millichap. We represented the seller. The deed recorded on October 30, 2026, at $7,200,000.
What sold in Santa Monica?
The building sits in Ocean Park, near Main Street and Santa Monica State Beach. It has 20 one-bedroom apartments and two two-bedroom apartments, 17,020 square feet in all. Some units have private balconies or patios, and there are 22 covered, gated parking spaces. The same family had managed it since 1969.
The location was easy to show. The income took more explanation. On a building with rent control, you can have two apartments with the same floor plan and two very different rents. Buyers need to know the building they are buying today. So we put the unit mix, rents and operating expenses in the offering memorandum and gave investors the detail they needed to decide whether to take a closer look.
How did we get to an accepted offer in 15 days?
We launched on August 11. The aerial showed how close the building was to Main Street and the beach. The 55-page offering memorandum gave buyers the numbers to go with it. We listed the property on laaa.com, TheMLS, Crexi and Marcus & Millichap’s listing platform. The first email went to 9,878 recipients, followed by a second round of outreach and direct conversations with buyers and their brokers.
Written offers started coming in the following week. The seller issued multiple counters, which gave us a way to see who would improve their offer and on what terms. Some buyers stood by their original numbers or stepped aside. On August 26, the seller accepted a buyer’s counter. We received 5 offers in total, including an offer that arrived after the seller had already accepted.
What did it take to close?
We got the due diligence room to the buyer’s brokers when escrow opened. It grew as questions came in. The buyer wanted to reconcile parts of the rent roll with the City’s rent records. We pulled the underlying notices and rent records, checked them with management and organized the documents so the buyer could see which records supported each answer. When a question came back close to closing, we went back to the City record and asked management to confirm what had actually been paid.
The inspection started a second conversation about the building itself. Glen attended the inspection. As questions came back about prior work and permits, we gathered the records, took the buyer’s questions back to the seller’s team and worked through what the parties would agree to in writing. By September 25, the seller and buyer had agreed on the final price, the remaining buyer contingencies were removed and October 30 was set as the outside closing date.
There was still work between that agreement and recording. Aida and Glen kept up with the seller, property manager and buyer’s team on tenant certificates and rent documentation, while escrow and title handled the closing papers. Escrow confirmed funding on October 29 and recording the next morning. The building sold 80 days after we took it to market. The sale closed at 94% of the original $7,650,000 asking price.
| 2026 date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Marketing launch | |
| Seller accepted an offer | |
| Remaining buyer contingencies removed | |
| Deed recorded |
What would we do first for another Santa Monica owner?
We’d put the rent roll next to the City’s records and check the leases and rent notices before launching. We’d also pull the available inspection reports and permits and find out which records need to come from management. If you’ve run a building for years, you may know exactly why two tenants pay different rents or when work was done. A buyer coming in for the first time has to get those answers from the file.
That’s the work we’d do alongside pricing. We’d look at Santa Monica sales with comparable income, unit mix and tenancies, then talk through what your building could bring, what you’d likely net and what’s worth getting in order before you list. The earlier you start that conversation, the more time you have to decide when it makes sense to sell.
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Transaction team
Aida Memary Scher, CA DRE 01980240, Glen Scher, CA DRE 01962976, and Filip Niculete, CA DRE 01905352, of the LAAA Team of Marcus & Millichap, co-listed the property with Earle Hyman, CA DRE 00803521, of Marcus & Millichap. Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, Inc., CA DRE 00530854.
Sources
LAAA Team transaction and marketing records, the offering memorandum, and the Los Angeles County deed recorded October 30, 2026.
