Mark McDonald of the Sherman Oaks office of Hendricks & Partners tells GlobeSt.com that the rent-controlled property with only about 19 units occupied attracted 33 offers and sold for well above the initial asking price of $3.6 million.

McDonald, who represented the sellers, says the many offers and the above-asking price are easy to understand in the context of the city's apartment market, where buyers often prefer to acquire rent-controlled properties with empty units so they can upgrade the apartments and raise the rents to market levels. He tells GlobeSt.com that the new owner plans to rehabilitate and improve the two-building apartment complex, and probably will change the unit mix, which is mainly bachelors now. The 139 units are in one brick building and one concrete building at 4067-77 W. Third St. The adjacent single-family home was part of the deal because it was owned by the same family that owned the apartment complexes. The sellers had owned the buildings since the 1940s and were in the early stages of renovating them when they decided a better course of action would be to sell the properties, McDonald explains. Besides the general potential of the local market and the opportunity to upgrade the property, the Hendricks & Partners broker says, the bidders on the property were also attracted by its location near Hancock Park. The bidder who won the property was represented by Janet Neman of the West Los Angeles office of Charles Dunn Co.