The First 90 Days After Buying a Multifamily Property

The first ninety days of owning an apartment building determine how the next ten years go. Not because anything dramatic happens, but because this is the only window in which you can still establish a clean baseline — of rents, of deposits, of unit condition, of who lives there under what terms. Miss it and you spend years reconstructing records from a seller who no longer takes your calls.

This article assumes a small-to-mid-size multifamily purchase in Los Angeles County. It is deliberately sequenced, because the order matters more than the content.

Before closing: the escrow document list

Everything here is dramatically easier to obtain while the seller still needs your money. Ask for all of it in writing, and treat gaps as diligence items rather than paperwork to sort out later.

1. 1Executed leases and every amendment, for every occupied unit — not a summary, the documents.
2. 2A rent roll reconciled to actual deposits, showing current rent, lease term, move-in date, and any concession.
3. 3Security deposit records per unit: amount held, date collected, and any interest accounting. This is a liability you are assuming.
4. 4The rent increase history for each unit. Under a stabilised regime, what you may charge is a function of documented history.
5. 5Rent stabilization registration status and any open compliance matters.
6. 6Estoppel certificates signed by each resident confirming rent, deposit, and term.
7. 7Open maintenance requests and any outstanding vendor work.
8. 8Service contracts and vendor list — landscaping, pest, elevator, fire, laundry, trash.
9. 9Utility account details, including which meters are master-metered and which are separate.
10. 10Any notices of violation from the city, and the status of each.
11. 11Keys, access codes, gate remotes, mailbox keys, and a plan for how they transfer at close.

Days 1–7: confirm what you actually bought

The first week is verification, not improvement. Resist the urge to start projects.

• Confirm the regulatory position for the parcel. In the City of Los Angeles, check the address on zimas.lacity.org under the Housing tab. In another city, confirm with that city — the rules do not travel across municipal lines.
• Walk every accessible unit and photograph it, dated. This is your condition baseline for every future deposit accounting.
• Locate and photograph the mechanical infrastructure: main water shutoff, gas shutoff, electrical panels, water heaters, boiler, sewer cleanouts. Write down where they are.
• Verify insurance is in force from the moment of close, with the correct entity named.
• Transfer utility accounts for common areas and any master-metered service. A lapse here means a shutoff notice in week three.
• Confirm which vendors are on autopay and to whose account.

Days 1–14: introduce yourself properly

Residents have just learned that their home changed hands and nobody told them what happens next. The single highest-return action available to you in the first two weeks is a clear written notice of change of ownership and management.

It should state who now owns and manages the property, where and how to pay rent starting with the next due date, how to submit a maintenance request, and how to reach someone in an emergency. Nothing else. Do not announce rent increases, policy changes, or renovation plans in this letter — you will need residents’ cooperation for the next ninety days, and this is the letter that decides whether you get it.

California law requires disclosure of the owner or agent authorised to manage the property and to receive notices, so this notice is a legal requirement as well as a courtesy. Confirm the required content for your situation.

Days 14–45: fix the safety items, then the visible ones

Two categories of work belong in the first six weeks. Everything else can wait for a plan.

The inherited-request list deserves emphasis. Residents in a recently sold building generally expect nothing to improve. Closing out four stale work orders in the first month resets that expectation, and it pays for itself in renewals and in how the next problem gets reported — early, rather than after it has caused damage.

Days 45–90: build the operating baseline

• A unit-by-unit file: lease, deposit record, rent history, condition photos, contact details, open items.
• A written maintenance workflow — how a request arrives, who triages it, what approval threshold applies, how the resident is updated.
• An approval threshold you actually set. Below it, work proceeds; above it, you approve. Most owners are comfortable somewhere between $300 and $750.
• A rent roll you trust, reconciled monthly against actual receipts.
• A twelve-month capital plan with dollar figures, even rough ones. This is the document that turns surprises into scheduling.
• A renewal calendar. Knowing which leases expire in month seven is how you avoid three simultaneous vacancies.

Only after this baseline exists should you think about repositioning — rent adjustments where permitted, unit renovations at turnover, amenity changes. Acting before you have a clean baseline is how owners discover in year three that they cannot document a rent history.

The decision most owners defer too long

Whether to self-manage. The honest test is not whether you can do the work — most owners can — but whether you will do the parts that are only visible when they are missing: dated condition photos, deposit accounting inside 21 days, notices in the correct form, an approval threshold enforced consistently.

If you want to self-manage with better systems, the UnitSimple Platform is $10 per unit per month. If you want it handled, full-service management is $100 per unit per month with ordinary leasing included and maintenance at cost. See self-managing versus hiring a property manager.

Bought recently and want to talk through the first ninety days? Call Theodore at 818-568-6733.