I've spent more than four decades helping San Diegans buy and sell apartment buildings and commercial property — through every boom, bust, and rate cycle since 1985. If you own a building in this county, you already know the market is moving again. Let's talk about what yours is worth.
The institutional brokerages chase 200-unit towers. But most of San Diego's rental housing and neighborhood commercial space is held by individual owners and families — the duplex in North Park, the twelve units in La Mesa, the mixed-use storefront on the boulevard. Those owners deserve the same caliber of analysis and representation the big players get.
That's been my corner of this market for over forty years: 2-to-50-unit apartment buildings and small commercial properties, owned by people who know their building better than anyone — and want a broker who treats it with the same respect.
A confidential, no-obligation valuation of your building — grounded in county records and real closed sales, not a postcard guess.
Full representation when you're ready — positioning, marketing, negotiation, and a steady hand through escrow.
1031 exchange strategy for owners who are done managing tenants but don't want the tax bill — including passive replacement options.
California's rules on inherited rental property changed in 2021. If your plan was "the kids will get it," it's worth a fresh look.
Every cycle has a moment when the smart money re-evaluates. This is one of them — and it's being driven by the calendar, not the headlines.
of commercial mortgages nationwide come due in 2026 — loans written at yesterday's rates, refinancing at today's. Many owners are choosing to sell into strength instead.
is where San Diego County apartment buildings have been trading on average over the past year — with roughly 300 buildings changing hands.
quietly ended the ability to pass rental property to your children at your low tax basis. The old "hold it forever" plan doesn't work the way it used to.
Sources: Mortgage Bankers Association 2026 maturity survey · San Diego County transaction records · CA Proposition 19 (2021).
Forty years in one market teaches you things a spreadsheet never will. But I also believe owners deserve to see the numbers — so my practice pairs that experience with in-house data analysis built with my son, a machine-learning engineer.
Every valuation I deliver starts from the county's own parcel and transfer records: what buildings like yours have actually sold for, what you're carrying on your tax basis, and what the current cycle means for your timing. Straight answers, backed by data, delivered by someone who's walked these streets since 1985.
I earned my California broker's license in 1985 and have practiced commercial real estate in San Diego ever since — through the S&L crisis, the dot-com years, 2008, the longest expansion on record, and the fastest rate shock in forty years. I've seen what every kind of market does to every kind of building.
Along the way I taught real estate at San Diego Community College and earned the CCIM designation — held by a small fraction of commercial practitioners and regarded as the gold standard of investment real estate training. But what I'm proudest of is simpler: clients who came back, again and again, for forty years.
Call me directly — you'll get me, not an assistant. Or send a note with your property address and I'll prepare a confidential valuation, no strings attached.
CharleneClare@gmail.com · San Diego, California