Looking for a Venice multifamily broker? Michael Sterman, Senior Managing Director Investments at Marcus & Millichap and founder of the Sterman Multifamily Group, has closed $1.41 billion across 254 Los Angeles apartment building transactions over 14 years — including 3 in Venice alone. If you own an apartment building in Venice and are weighing a sale, this is the team that prices it against Venice's real buyer pool and rules — not a generic LA average.
No LA submarket compounds Prop 13 basis divergence faster than Venice. A building purchased in 1990 for $600,000 is often worth multiples of that today. The seller's tax basis — Prop 13–protected through decades of holding — sits far below current market value. The next owner reassesses at the purchase price, absorbs the property tax jump, and prices that jump into what they are willing to pay. That basis cliff, more than any other single factor, shapes whether Venice owners sell, refinance, or hold. Understanding it in advance is the difference between a seller who prices realistically and a seller who waits six months for a buyer who was never coming.
Coastal proximity. Abbot Kinney. The tech campus pull from Snap and the creative-class cluster that followed. Walk streets. A finite geographic boundary that genuinely cannot expand. The pricing is not a story about cap rates or multiples — it is a story about irreplaceability. That word gets overused in real estate, but Venice actually meets the definition.
Venice inventory differs from most LA submarkets in one specific way: a meaningful share of the stock is small multifamily — duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, small courtyard buildings. These are not purely institutional assets. They attract a different buyer. High-net-worth individual buyers show up in Venice small multifamily in ways they do not in larger LA submarkets. Some buy for rental income plus personal use on one unit. Some buy as a generational asset. The pricing is often pulled above what purely cash-flow underwriting would suggest, because the buyer pool includes people who value the building for reasons beyond NOI. For sellers, that matters. Pricing a Venice fourplex on purely institutional math is leaving money on the table for the right buyer.
Value in Venice turns on vintage, rent-control status, your in-place rents versus market, and which buyer pool fits your building — not a single neighborhood average. Michael underwrites your specific Venice building the way a real buyer will, then tells you what it should bring and how to get there. No obligation.
Request a Free Venice Building Evaluation →Institutional and private equity on post-1995 and value-add pre-1978, active and aggressive on the right asset.
1031 exchangers targeting Venice aggressively for coastal exposure. High-net-worth individuals on small multifamily, often willing to pay above institutional underwriting for buildings they personally value.
A sample of Venice apartment buildings Michael Sterman has closed. Each links to the full deal record.
Michael Sterman has spent 14 years specializing exclusively in Los Angeles multifamily, closing 254 transactions worth $1.41 billion. He knows how Venice buildings are valued, who buys them, and what it takes to get a clean deal closed here. CA DRE License #01911703.
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