The Escrow That Came Back Stronger: A Burbank Media District Four-Plex
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The LAAA Team of Marcus & Millichap is proud to announce the successful closing of 2907 W Riverside Drive, a four-unit apartment building in Burbank's Media District, which sold for $1,590,000.
This was the second property we sold for this ownership group in 2026, and the relationship is part of why the deal got done. We had closed another of their buildings, a four-unit property in Van Nuys, in mid-January. When a seller hands you their portfolio one building at a time, you do not get to coast on the easy ones, and 2907 W Riverside was not an easy one.
We brought the property to market in late January. It sits in a stable, employment-driven rental pocket of the San Fernando Valley: directly adjacent to Johnny Carson Park and a short walk from Warner Bros. Studios, in the heart of the Media District between Warner Bros. and Disney. Built in 1942 and held as two buildings totaling roughly 3,023 square feet on a 6,595 square foot lot, the property is a mix of three one-bedroom units and one two-bedroom unit, with four detached garages along the rear alley. In-place rents were running roughly 17% below market, the value-add was achievable through normal turnover and light interior work, and the major capital items that scare buyers had already been addressed: a new roof in 2021, full copper re-piping and waste-line replacement, a rebuilt exterior staircase in 2023, and a new water main in 2025.
The first round looked like a quick win. We had the property under contract within a couple of weeks of listing, opened escrow, and moved into due diligence in early February. Then it stalled. During diligence the buyer pushed to renegotiate, and when it became clear they were not willing to come up to where the deal needed to be, the escrow was canceled on February 20. That is the moment that decides a lot of listings. The easy path is to chase the buyer down on price and salvage something. Instead we advised the sellers to cancel cleanly, reset, and bring the property back on its own terms.
The buyer was a first-time apartment investor who lives in the area and wanted a well-located, stable building to start with. We worked the multiple-counter process to bring the winning buyer up to a strong number. One detail worth pausing on, because it matters to anyone considering a small multifamily building: because the property is only four units, it qualified for residential rather than commercial financing, which let the buyer use a conventional 30-year fixed loan. For an investor who will not occupy the building, that financing typically tops out around 75% loan-to-value, compared with up to 80% for an owner-occupant. That financing flexibility is one of the reasons two-to-four-unit properties draw such a deep and competitive buyer pool. The appraisal came in and cleared in early May without a gap, and Burbank's retrofit compliance was confirmed during diligence with no seismic retrofit required, which kept the path to closing clean. The deal closed on May 27, 2026 at $1,590,000, roughly 98% of the asking price. From the first listing to the final close ran about four months, with a canceled escrow in the middle that, in the end, made the outcome better rather than worse.
The lesson is one we come back to often: a canceled escrow is not a failed listing. A building priced correctly, marketed honestly, and brought back to the market with a clear value-add story will find its buyer, and frequently a better one. We are grateful to this ownership group for their continued trust across multiple transactions. If you own multifamily in Burbank or the surrounding San Fernando Valley and are weighing a sale, we would welcome the chance to talk it through.
