At this time last year, even two years ago, the story was vastly different. Brad Goff, principal with Apartment Realty Advisors' Phoenix office tells Globest.com that, beginning in late 2007, the so-called "fractured" condos were coming to markets in droves as the demand for the units dried up following a period of frenzied overbuilding and conversion.

"They were coming on the market and no one knew what to do with them or how to get out of them," acknowledges Goff, who partnered with ARA senior vice president David Lord on both transactions. As a result, he says, the units sat on the market for months.

But during the past six months, buyers and sellers of bulk condos have figured it out. "Every offering we turn out is getting 20 to 30 offers," Goff explains. "The perception is that Phoenix is bottoming out, and people want to be in the marketplace." What the investors do, Goff continues, is condo banking; in other words, holding on to the units for awhile, understanding that the investment will pay off in the future. "There's a perceived opportunity there," Goff adds.

The recent sales of La Terraza at Biltmore Condominiums at 4464 N. 22nd St. and Portofino Condominiums at 3830 Lakewood Pkwy. to Chicago buyer RN Properties represents an example of what's on the market and the price it's commanding. Both assets were sold during the mid-2000s as conversion opportunities during the height of the area's condo craze. And both ran into the drop in demand when the craze ended.

Lord tells GlobeSt.com that when Portofino seller Monaco Development LLC acquired the 440-unit asset in 2005, it paid $115,000 a unit, with the average offering price to potential condo buyers topping out at $215,000 a door. Lord says sales were okay, but "the owners felt they'd owned them long enough, saw an opportunity to sell in bulk, and decided to do that." Lord says the buyers paid a shade under $70,000 per door for the remaining 78 units.

Goff, in the meantime, explains that the 224-unit La Terraza has a similar story. Seller Orion Residential LLC of Chicago acquired the project for $42 million some years ago, and offered the units to the market for more than $300,000 per unit. RN Properties ended up paying north of $88,505 per unit for 107 units.

Goff and Lord say that RN Properties' strategy for its new acquisitions will be the same as other investors coming into the market wanting to buy fractured condos. "They'll take them off the market, hold them as rentals, and when the market comes back in three to five years, they'll sell them," Lord comments.