Transwestern's multifamily team (lead by SVP Ed Cummins and VP Clint Duncan) closed the sale of three multifamily properties totaling 1,039 units: Oaks of Westchase, Clarke Springs, and the Mills. Clint tells us Clarke Springs went to a California buyer in a 1031 exchange. It was a value-add, 149-unit manufactured housing project that offered significant cash-on-cash returns with additional upside. Manufactured housing can be challenging to finance, he says, which made it a trickier sell. But this buyer purchased it all-cash. (Just once we want someone to pay for a property in a pirate chest full of gold.) Transwestern repped seller Starwood Capital.

The duo predicts we'll see a number of stabilized Class-B and C properties selling this year. Many will be deals that sold distressed a few years ago and have been fixed up and put back on the market. (Don't call them distressed, call them "certified pre-owned," like Lexus.) Ed says debt and equity are available for these deals, as well as a strong appetite from investors looking for yield. The team has three assets totaling 1,162 units under contract and closing soon, including a 304-unit asset at I-45 and Beltway 8 North (going to a Dallas buyer that was very active here last year) and two properties in the 1960/I-45 corridor: a 464-unit asset that was recently foreclosed and is going to a syndicator from California, and a 378-unit community selling to a Midwestern private group.