Transaction manager Kelly Witherspoon with Apartment RealtyAdvisors' secondary markets team in Austin, TX says the Pleasanton,CA-based seller wanted to keep the portfolio's marketing efforts onthe QT. As a result, Witherspoon and Apartment Realty Advisor vicepresident Jeff Patterson, also with the secondary markets team,approached only a handful of investors they felt would beinterested.

"The investor in Abilene responded immediately," Witherspoonsays. "I think he saw opportunity and significant upside in thesedeals. This investor has had previous success in repositioningdistressed properties." Though Witherspoon declined to mentionsales figures, comps put trading of comparable class B and class Cproperties in the mid-$20,000s to low $30,000s per unit.

One upside involves the portfolio's age. The assets wereconstructed in the 1970s and 1980s, and the new owner will likelyinvest between $5,000 and $8,000 per unit. Some of the propertiesneed a little more attention than others, Witherspoon says.