Key takeaways
- First sale since 1972: one family owned these five Burbank apartments for 54 years and managed them themselves.
- 21 days to an accepted offer, all cash at $1,700,000, with no loan or appraisal contingency and no counteroffer.
- Six days early: we traded the repair credit for a faster close, every contingency came off by October 23, and the deed recorded on October 30, ahead of the original November 5 closing date.
- $340,000 a unit, $472 a square foot, a 5.26% cap rate and a 12.35 GRM, at 97% of the list price.
Sale price, recorded October 30, 2026
$1,700,000
Five units on a corner lot in Burbank's Media District, built 1955
Per unit
$340,000
Days to accepted offer
21 days
The LAAA Team of Marcus & Millichap has closed the sale of 300 N Screenland Drive, a five-unit apartment property in Burbank's Media District, for $1,700,000 all cash. The same family had owned it since 1972. It is the team's 14th closed sale in Burbank, and our second on Screenland Drive: we sold the six units at 1213 N Screenland in 2017.
What sold?
Five apartments in two buildings on a 7,337 square foot corner lot in Burbank's Media District, built in 1955: two two-bedroom and three one-bedroom units, 3,598 square feet in all, with a row of garages on the rear alley.
The property sits about a third of a mile from Warner Bros. and about a mile from Walt Disney Studios, the studio employment that anchors rental demand in the Media District. Burbank is its own city, outside the Los Angeles rent stabilization ordinance, with no local rent control: rent increases on covered units follow the statewide AB 1482 cap, and the city's Tenant Protection Ordinance governs no-fault terminations.
One family bought the building in 1972. The owner inherited it with his siblings from their parents and had helped run the family's buildings since his teens. After he moved out of state, a handyman who knew the building helped him keep it running, and the family decided it was time to sell.
How was it priced?
At the number the sales supported, said plainly: about $1,700,000, give or take $50,000, listed at the $1,750,000 we recommended.
Glen first valued the building for the owner in October 2023. The owner wasn't ready, and we didn't push. Instead of checking in to ask whether he was ready, we kept him current on the Burbank market and offered an updated valuation whenever he wanted one, with no strings attached. In late August 2026 he told us the family was ready and sent Morgan Wetmore his rents and expenses, and within a week a fresh valuation was in front of the family. On September 8 Glen, Filip Niculete, Morgan and Tony Dang walked him through the numbers on a call. Burbank buildings that had traded at about 16 times gross rent in 2022 were trading at 12 to 13 times, and we said so. The listing agreement was signed on September 10 at $1,750,000, and the building was on the market five days later. It sold within 3% of the value Glen gave the owner in 2023.
How did it reach buyers?
Everywhere at once on September 15, then by phone, owner by owner.
We launched on September 15 with a 45-page offering memorandum built by Tony Dang, 20 professional photos and the listing on laaa.com. The Just Listed email went to 10,070 of our clients that afternoon; with the broker send and two follow-ups over the next three days, it went out about 45,000 times. LoopNet and CoStar logged 10,999 views and 2,899 unique prospects by October 1, and the offering memorandum was downloaded 25 times under our confidentiality agreement in the first two weeks.
Behind the email, we loaded 495 owners of Burbank apartment buildings into our system the day after launch, and in the first 17 days Morgan and the team called 120 owners and buyers and had 19 conversations.
21 days to an accepted offer, recorded on day 45
Days from the September 15, 2026 launch
View the data
| Step | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| First offer | September 30 | 15 |
| Accepted offer | October 6 | 21 |
| Contingencies removed | October 23 | 38 |
| Deed recorded | October 30 | 45 |
What did the offers look like?
Two all-cash offers. The first, well below the ask, drew no counter; the owner signed the second exactly as written.
The first written offer came in on day 15, all cash and well below the asking price. The owner did not counter it. On day 17 a second buyer came through a Marcus & Millichap colleague in our Encino office: $1,700,000 all cash, 14 days of due diligence and a 30-day close, with no loan and no appraisal contingency. The buyer's one added term was that the owner deliver the City's soft-story exemption and proof of the balcony and stair status. The owner signed on October 6, 21 days after launch, at the number we had given him on September 8.
How did escrow go?
Quickly. Every question got a written answer within days, the documents a buyer of an older Burbank building needs were in the room in the first week, and when we settled the repair request, we won the owner a faster close with it.
The due diligence room went to the buyer's broker the afternoon escrow opened. Within days it held every lease, the garage assignments, a year of rent payments for all five units, the roof permits with the City's 2020 final inspections, the owner's records of the 2026 gas and water line replacement, and a letter from Burbank's Building Official confirming the building is exonerated from the City's soft-story retrofit ordinance. By October 16 the room's index listed 78 documents. The owner's SB 721 balcony and stair inspection came back the same day with no repairs noted.
Burbank's soft-story ordinance, adopted in December 2024, reaches many pre-1978 wood-frame buildings with parking under the units, with retrofit plans due January 11, 2027. A buyer who reads that deadline wants the City's answer in writing. This buyer made it a term of the offer, and the owner's exoneration letter was in the room a week after escrow opened.
The buyer asked for two extra days to finish repair quotes. When they came back, the buyer's broker sent a list of repairs with a contractor's quote. With nearly 500 closings behind us, and the inspection reports that came with them, we know which items matter to a buyer and what a fair credit looks like. We went through the list with the owner that afternoon and had a written answer back the same day: one credit at closing, for less than the buyer's own contractor had quoted. In return, the buyer removed every contingency in the same signature and agreed to close six days earlier than the contract called for, so the owner got a faster close out of the same negotiation. The buyer signed that evening and the owner the next morning, so every contingency was off by October 23. The deed recorded on October 30 instead of November 5. The buyer kept on the handyman who had helped run the building, who now manages all three of the buyer's Burbank buildings, so the tenants still call the same person.
By our own rate read, apartment loan rates rose about half a point between our September valuation and mid-October. The contract price stayed at $1,700,000.
What did the owner say?
"I had a good feeling about both of you. Very professional and calm and patient. I would recommend you in a minute."
The seller, 300 N Screenland Drive, Burbank
Transaction highlights
- Seller: the family that bought the building in 1972, selling for the first time.
- Buyer: a local owner who already holds two apartment buildings nearby, buying with cash moved out of the stock market, represented by a Marcus & Millichap colleague in our Encino office.
- Terms: all cash, no loan or appraisal contingency, accepted as written 21 days after launch, recorded six days ahead of the original closing date.
- The number: $1,700,000, or $340,000 a unit and $472 a square foot, a 5.26% cap rate and a 12.35 gross rent multiplier on the sale price, 97% of the $1,750,000 list price.
- Our team: Morgan Wetmore led the sale from the owner's call in August to the recording, with Glen Scher and Filip Niculete; Tony Dang built the offering memorandum and the financial model.
What should a Burbank owner take from this?
Price it where the sales are, have the City's paperwork in hand before a buyer asks, and the right buyer moves fast even in a slower year.
A long-held Burbank building comes with questions a buyer will ask in the first week: the soft-story status, the roof, the plumbing, what the rents really are. The sooner each one has a written answer, the shorter the escrow.
If you own an apartment building in Burbank and want to know what it would bring today, call Morgan at (818) 212-2724 or Glen at (818) 212-2808. The team's full Burbank record is on our Burbank page.
Sources
- City of Burbank, soft-story retrofit program and road map: www.burbankca.gov
- City of Burbank, tenant protections: burbankca.gov
- California Civil Code 1947.12 (AB 1482): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
Sale facts are from LAAA Team transaction records for 300 N Screenland Drive. The cap rate is on the property's in-place income with taxes at the sale price. The rate move is the LAAA Team's own reading of lender quotes, not a loan offer. This story is market information, not legal, tax or financing advice.
