Holliday Fenoglio Fowler has arranged the sale of 95 mixed-quality loans with a balance of $105.4 million on behalf of a special servicer and bank.

The investment-sales specialist, which handles loan sales through its Chicago office, had initially planned to offer the loans in bulk. But given their nature - all have relatively small balances and are backed by apartment properties in 25 states - it decided to sell them in relatively small pools and individually. Most of the loans were nonperforming.

It was able to attract interest from more than 500 potential investors through a broad marketing effort that leveraged investor contacts developed by each of its 17 offices. In the end, it sold the loans to 18 investors. In one case, a buyer of a loan owned a nearby property and would never have competed for assets in bulk.

HFF speculates that it achieved sales prices that were perhaps 20-25 percent greater than if it had sold the assets in bulk. "We found investors who owned assets literally down the street," noted Bill Mitchell, managing director at HFF.

Local investors, as opposed to large national players, will often be able to pay the highest prices for loans and properties because of their intimate market knowledge.

Comments? E-mail Orest Mandzy or call him at (215) 504-2860, Ext. 211.