On the market about three months, the two-year-old complex at 4045 W. Bell Rd. generated high interest for location as well as size. "Most of the newer buildings that are built are 200 to 400 units. ... People like owning new buildings, but there's not a lot of those smaller properties available," Mark Forrester of Hendricks & Partners in Phoenix tells GlobeSt.com.

RK Multifamily Income Fund XV LLC of Long Beach, CA, purchased the class A asset from its developer, Southern Sun Apartments LLC of Scottsdale, which had it on the market for close to $13.3 million. Forrester, who negotiated the 7.9-acre land sale for the development in 2002, says the buyer's interest in investing in the Phoenix market and a price competitive with the ask helped to win the seller's nod. The buyer was self-represented in the transaction.

The 92%-leased Southern Sun is a combination of one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Rents average about $850 per month. Like many multifamily offerings around Phoenix, the complex is running concessions like free rent for a month on a one-year lease. But, Forrester says, the concessions will dissipate as the local market improves.