Madison's Duo Goes Small

Madison Commercial Properties' Greg Johnson (here with his partner Kyle Malnati) doesn't see the three-year run on multifamily investment ending anytime soon. "In fact, we're still seeing new buyers come into the market," Greg tells us. Greg and Kyle specializing in selling small-unit apartment properties (say up to 40 units) in the Capitol Hill area of Downtown Denver. And whereas many were hesitant to buy into the inflated pricing seen on apartments, their tune is changing of late, especially with apartment fundamentals still improving. "There's office guys looking at multifamily. We have land buyers looking at multifamily. What's even more amazing to us is to see long-time multifamily owners coming back into the market." (It begs the question, how many families are there?)

Greg's latest deal helped sell Kendall Arms Apartments, a 1920s-era apartment building at 1125 Marion St in the Cheesman Park area that consists of 13 apartment units. Price: Nearly $1.5M or $115,300/unit. "We generated 10 full-price offers for this vintage building," Greg says. Today, Denver landlords are breaking $100k/unit prices, up from $65k/unit 10 years ago. "Here we are in the third year of it, and [investors] are saying, 'Okay, that's fine. I get it.'" Todays' pricing is even getting long-time family owners to dispose of properties. For instance, Greg says he just sold 764 Cherry St, a 12-unit apartment building that was held by a single family for 40 years. It just sold it for $119k/unit. "With an owner like that, it's probably been in their mind to sell for 20 years. When you see prices like this, okay, it's time to sell."