On this page
This guide is for an owner who has already decided to sell an apartment building in the City of Los Angeles and wants the mechanics: what the county and the City charge, which forms escrow needs, and which deadlines come from law and which from the contract. It is published by Shaya Lowenstein, a Multifamily Real Estate Advisor with Lyon Stahl Investment Real Estate.
What the guide covers
The pages follow a sale in the order it happens. Pricing starts from the building's income, then come the records a buyer checks and the steps from listing to recorded deed. The money has pages of its own: the county, City and Measure ULA transfer taxes, the tax on the gain, a 1031 exchange, and what escrow withholds at closing. City programs a buyer will ask about, rent stabilization and the soft-story retrofit order among them, come up where the buyer raises them.
Much of it stops at the City line. A Los Angeles mailing address does not put a parcel inside the City, and a building in Culver City or Santa Monica pays a different transfer tax and answers to different rent rules.
Where the facts come from
Each legal rule here carries a link to the place it is written down. A tax rule goes to the IRS or the Franchise Tax Board, a transfer tax to the Office of Finance or the county Registrar-Recorder, and a City program to LAHD or LADBS. Behind every page sits a set of research notes, one line per claim, with the source and what that source says. When a search did not confirm something, the page leaves it out. That is why the withholding page names no rate for the Form 593 alternative calculation.
Figures that change carry the period they apply to, like the Measure ULA thresholds for transfers on or after July 1, 2026. Worked examples use made-up numbers and say so. The site quotes no cap rates, prices per unit or typical commissions, because there is no dataset it can cite for them.
How pages stay current
A page gets reviewed when a law it cites changes, and each page shows the date it last changed. No review calendar exists. No outside lawyer signs off either, so check that date before you rely on a figure. Anything that moves on a set day, such as the ULA thresholds every July 1, is worth confirming on the linked source the week you price.
Who Shaya is, and what he does
Shaya Lowenstein holds California DRE license #01942326. The DRE's public license lookup will confirm it, and Lyon Stahl Investment Real Estate is his responsible broker. He has worked in the industry since 2011, across brokerage, operations and development. His focus is apartment buildings and land in Southern California, meaning value-add and repositioning, land use and zoning analysis, and long-term portfolio planning for owners, investors and developers.
He lists apartment buildings for sale. Some go to the open market and some go quietly to buyers he finds. His part of a sale is the price, the marketing and the business terms, including a closing date that fits a 1031 calendar or sits on the right side of a ULA threshold.
He is not an attorney, a CPA or a tax advisor, and nothing on the site is legal or tax advice. Each page says which question belongs to which professional, such as the wording of a purchase agreement or the number on a tax return, so you know what to take to your own attorney or CPA.