FORT LAUDERDALE, FL-After two years on the market, Landmark Towers has finally traded hands. An assumable loan, high vacancy and deteriorating units challenged brokers to seal the $8.81 million deal on the 167-unit multifamily asset in Plantation.

Tal Frydman and Felipe Echarte, vice president of Investments in Marcus & Millichap’s Ft. Lauderdale office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, a limited liability company from New York. The duo also secured the buyer, a partnership from Philadelphia and New York. M&M took over the marketing about a year ago and has had it under contract for 11 months while working through the loan challenges.

“With the loan assumption and a tremendous amount of deferred maintenance, it took a unique buyer to follow through,” Echarte tells GlobeSt.com. “The vacancy rate was about 28% at the time of sale—and that’s in a submarket that has performed strong in the last 18 months.”

Landmark Towers is located at 601 NW 42nd Ave. That’s east of the Florida Turnpike, west of NW 40th Avenue, south of West Sunrise Boulevard and north of West Broward Boulevard.

As Echarte sees it, the assumable financing of 80% loan-to-value opened the door for the buyer to get into the property with 20% down. The buyer plans to invest about $5,000 to $10,000 a door to rehab about half of the 43 vacant units, then stabilize the property.

Landmark Towers was the buyer’s second acquisition in South Florida. The first, which closed just days ago, was Oak Grove apartments in North Miami. Echarte says he’s seeing an uptick in new-to-market multifamily investors, especially from New York, Texas, Chicago, California and Canada.

“There is cheap financing available and it looks like apartments have bottomed out—and if not they are very close to the bottom,” Echarte says. “It’s a worthwhile risk at this point, especially when banks aren’t providing much of a return.”