Single Family vs. Multifamily

[Account Closed]

More new investor questions from a new investor. Again, even as a newbie, I know where I stand. I will definitely be buying single family properties if the numbers make sense, but my focus will be on multifamily because of the greater rental income potential. But out of curiosity, which would you rather focus on, single or multifamily?

[Andrew Johnson]

@Account Closed Personal opinion, so much of it depends on the market (and submarket).  Living here in San Diego I'd focus on SFRs if that's where I wanted to invest.  To be overly general, the value is in the dirt and duplexes aren't in the nicer areas where the value of the dirt is higher.  However, where I invest (Arkansas) I look at commercial multi-family because the value isn't in the dirt and I can force appreciation through nudging rents up overtime.  For me it's an entirely different strategy for an entirely different market.  And if you look at apartments you get some nice aspects like less roof sq ft per unit.  If you pay for landscaping it's usually far less per unit that if you were doing it on equivalent SFRs, etc.  You can develop a wait-list for the building in a way that's harder to do with more "unique" SFRs.