A four to twelve unit building in a good Los Angeles neighborhood is usually worth more sold as individual homes than sold whole to an investor pricing it off rents. Tenancy-in-common is the structure that makes that possible on buildings that cannot practically be condo-converted.

The basic arithmetic

An investor buys your building on a cap rate applied to in-place rents. Owner-occupant buyers pay on price per square foot for a home they will live in. On rent-stabilized stock with below-market rents, the gap between those two numbers is often very large, and TIC is how you capture it. The gap is not free: you take on the time, cost and execution risk of a unit-by-unit sale.

Which buildings are candidates

• Small unit count, typically four to twelve, in a neighborhood where buyers want to live rather than only invest.
• Units that read as homes: separate entrances, real light, parking, layouts that stand on their own.
• A clean path to delivering units vacant, handled lawfully and with proper relocation, or units already vacant.
• Physical condition that supports individual sales, or a budget to get there.

What the process involves

Feasibility and pricing first: what each unit sells for, what the whole building fetches as an investment, and whether the spread justifies the work. Then the legal structure, drafted by TIC counsel. Then lender lineup, because your buyers need fractional financing to exist before you launch. Then unit preparation and a staged release to market rather than dumping every unit at once.

The risks, stated plainly

Timelines are long and the tenant-relocation side is regulated, costly and legally exacting. Financing availability moves with rates and with a handful of lenders. Carrying costs run while units sit. Value is only realized on units that actually sell. A TIC conversion is an operating project, not a listing.

Start with the numbers

We will run the two scenarios side by side on your building, at no cost: what it sells for whole, and what it sells for unit by unit net of conversion costs and time. If the spread is not there, we will tell you.

General information only, not legal, tax or financial advice. Tenant relocation and rent-stabilization compliance require qualified counsel.