comparing multi vs. single family rentals

[Heather U.]

Dear Members, 

I am struggling to do an apples to apples comparison of buying a multi vs. a sf. It should be simple but for some reason it is evading me.  Looking for your input.  Backstory (more or less), I have 4 sf's that I bought for about $120000 each (give or take.) They all meet the 1% rule (give or take.) My payments are about $700 and rent is $1195 so they each cash flow, after expenses about $200 a month.  I think to compare we need to assume I'm buying the properties conventionally at 20% down on a 30 year fixed. 

I'd now like to move into buying a few multi families.  But when I look at the numbers I can't decide if it is a better deal to continue with my Sf's or if some of the multi's are better.  For example, I'm currently looking at a multi 4-plex that is $250000.  Rents bring in $2575. My monthly payment would be about $1325 (plus water for a 4plex-not sure how much.) So monthly (before expenses like saving for vacancies and repairs etc..) I'd bring in $1250 a month. How does this compare to what I bring in for the Sf's? Do I look at the numbers separately for example, per unit I paid $62500 and then if I add 2 units together that is about what one sf would cost me so I can compare those numbers??  

Basically am I better off sticking with using my money to buy more sf's like I already have or is the above multi family a "better" deal per say?? Help!!!!  

[Larry Turowski]

@Heather U. it's a simple ROI and cash flow question. You don't go into great detail but you day that your $24k down (20%) on your singles yields $2,400 cash flow annually (1% of invested cash) and your $50k down on the multi would yield $15k annual cash flow (3% of invested cash).

If that is true cash flow and not considering anything else the multi is by far the better investment.