3023 Santa Rosa Avenue — Seller-Financed Sale of a Legacy Family Property
Built and operated by the same family for more than thirty years, the property had strong Santa Rosa Avenue visibility and a history of environmental concerns that kept scaring off lenders. Several escrows had failed. With no debt on the asset, the family was in a position to be the lender — so we structured seller financing that widened the buyer pool without cutting the price.
The Challenge
3023 Santa Rosa Avenue had been owned and operated by the same family for more than three decades. The original owner built the building and ran his business there for over thirty years before passing the company to his son. The property sits on one of Santa Rosa's primary commercial corridors, with strong freeway exposure and high daily traffic counts.
The asset nonetheless presented a serious problem for buyers: a history of environmental contamination and related concerns that made purchasers and lenders hesitate. Over several years it was marketed repeatedly and entered escrow with several buyers, and each transaction fell apart on financing and environmental risk.
Meanwhile the market was shifting — rising interest rates reduced buyer purchasing power and tightened lender underwriting — and the family still wanted full market value for a property with significant personal history, which made conventional pricing adjustments difficult.
The Action
With conventional financing becoming the barrier, we proposed seller financing as the strategic solution. The ownership group carried no debt on the property, which put them in a strong position to act as the buyer's lender.
The structure addressed both sides' concerns:
- The seller offered competitive-rate financing directly to the buyer
- The loan gave the buyer operational time before full payments commenced
- The financing reduced the buyer's dependence on bank underwriting tied to environmental risk
Seller financing made the property attractive to qualified buyers who previously could not secure institutional loans, let the seller hold their target price, and added value through the interest income the loan generated. Once the structure was introduced to the market, buyer activity and serious inquiries increased immediately, opening the property to a broader pool of operators and investors.
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