Working brief for Michael Colich · October 1, 2026
A small apartment building trades on its rent. The same units, sold one at a time as tenancy in common homes, trade on what a buyer will pay for a place to live. This page lays out that gap, the deals on the market today, and everything we have built to act on it.
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The numbers
This is the model deal from the prospectus: a vacant Silver Lake or Atwater fourplex, renovated to condo quality, four homes sold individually. It is a model built on real sales data, not a property we own. It runs on the same cost assumptions as the live deals below, line for line.
Each finished home is priced against the median of nearby condo and townhome sales of the same size. Our own match of 31 recent LA TIC sales against condos put the gap on existing TIC homes near 8.5%.
Five or more interests triggers a state public report. Two to four does not. The fourplex is also where the spread is widest, because buildings get cheaper per foot as units go up while homes do not.
The seller handles any tenant buyout before closing. In Los Angeles the average recorded buyout is about $25,000 a unit. We do not use the Ellis Act.
Each buyer gets an individual loan on their share. National Cooperative Bank, 5th Street Capital and Meriwest are lending on LA TICs today, and a 30 year fixed option exists. Homes can close one at a time.
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Where it works
The same model run across eight neighborhoods, using typical purchase prices and closed condo sales in each. The margin is net profit over all in cost. Every row runs on the same cost assumptions as the live deals below.
| Model deal | Buy | Sell out | Net profit | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Live deals · pulled from the MLS
Every active 2 to 4 unit building and house with a second unit, priced home by home against closed condo sales and run through the cost stack laid out in the method section. Change any assumption or type your own offer and everything recalculates.
Where each home's size comes from, how it is priced and every cost line are explained step by step in the method section below.
Method
Same steps for every property, in this order. The numbers in these steps are our defaults; the sliders above let you change them for the live deals.
median comp $/sf × home size × (1 + layout premium − TIC discount). Each home is priced at the median comp price, with no TIC discount.Discount is . Premium is 7.5% for a house with ADU or detached homes, 3% for a duplex or a fourplex of detached homes, 2% for a triplex, none for an attached fourplex. The homes added together are the sell out.( loan + project costs) × × months ÷ 12 over months. Selling costs are of the sale price, with no separate marketing budget.Selling of sell out plus marketing. Tenant buyout is set to because we assume the seller delivers the building vacant; the slider adds a cost per occupied unit. A building under local rent control counts as fully occupied unless the listing says units come vacant (Los Angeles before October 1978, Santa Monica before April 1979, Culver City and Pasadena before February 1995).net profit = sell out − all in cost − selling costs, and margin = net profit ÷ all in cost. Ranked by margin. Pursue at or better, negotiate from to , pass below .Earlier calls
We have not bought anything yet. These are deals the analysis picked out in July and August, checked against the MLS today.
| Property | Our call | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 3556 Helms Ave, Culver City | July 21: best on the tour. Asking $1,499,000, we said offer $1.35M to $1.4M. | Sold Aug 21 at $1,435,000 |
| 5030 Farago Ave, Temple City | Aug 4: top of the live ranking at $1,775,000. | Sold Sep 10 at $1,720,000 |
| 5904 Dauphin St, Los Angeles 90034 | July 21: runner up, cheapest entry, four new homes penciled at a 20.8% margin. | Still active at $1,049,000 |
| 9051 Lucerne Ave, Culver City | July 21: works only if the three tenants can be bought out. Was $3,699,000. | Relisted this week at $3,490,000 |
| 11209 Sardis Ave, West LA | Aug 4: ranked on the optimistic screen. Units average 610 sf, too small on today's stricter math. | Still active at $1,320,000, 181 days |
Our work
Since April we have built the investor documents, a live deal engine, and the research behind both. Items with a link open here. The rest are in the company Drive under CCRE.
Decisions
The analysis is done to the point where the next steps are judgment calls, not more research.
Preferred return, profit split and minimum investment are blank in the prospectus. Nothing goes to an outside investor until those are set.
We price finished homes against condo and townhome sales. The measured gap on existing TIC sales is about 8.5%, and one lender source says 12% to 18%. Move the discount slider above to see which deals survive.
Northeast LA has the widest spread and the existing TIC buyers and lenders. The Westside has fewer deals but higher prices per home. Pasadena does not pencil on existing buildings today.
If one of the listings above is worth a tour, I can confirm unit sizes, tenancy and rent control status this week and bring you an offer price.
We need a TIC attorney for the agreement and a broker relationship with 5th Street Capital before the first purchase, so buyers have financing lined up when homes list.
The model deal's cash requirement is calculated in your browser and needs JavaScript. That decides whether the first one is ours or a small raise.