Real estate values still haven't come back in Chicago (it's Monday afternoon, do you know where your values are?), and there's a risk of more defaults should interest rates rise, says Foresite Realty Partners CEO Don Shapiro. So who's waiting on the other side of receivership to buy those properties?

Local investors' familiarity with the properties and their neighborhoods certainly is an advantage, says Don (left, with colleagues Jamie Hadac and Greg Nieder), but being a little removed can also work in the favor of institutional investors. Sometimes a "challenged" property's historycan dwell in a local investor's mind, while out-of-towners (especially those tired of paying coastal prices) may better see the opportunity to reposition it.

That was the case in the recent sale of the 300-unit Schaumburg Villas Apartmentsfrom a CMBS servicer (repped by Don and company) to an institutional, value-add multifamily investor. He says the property's condition was bad enough for the municipality to get involved. Considering the property's occupancy, condition, and three years in receivership, most local buyers weren't interested in purchasing it and then putting in even more money, Don says. Buyers from outside the Midwest, though, are the ones who saw the opportunity to scale up amenities and increase rents.