Apartment vs. SFH rental rates

[James Masotti]

There is an 8 unit building in my area that I've been looking at and am curious to know if there is any difference in the rents I can expect to get for an apartment as opposed to a single family home (which is what I'm used to) 

I'm guessing that the square footage is a bit less...but like a 3/1 SFR in my area probably rents for 1050-1100 the proforma on this says they've got it leased at 700. I can't imagine that they're that far apart even if the apartment is only 900-1000 sqft instead of 1200-1400 like a SFH would be. The same is on the 2/1 units. Market is probably around 800-900 and these are renting for 600

For those folks who have experience with both multi-family and SFR, can you chime in on your thoughts about the rent differences?

Thanks!

[JD Martin]

Depends on the area and the sizes. In my area, there are few apartments comparable in size to even the smallest SFHs, but if you look at it from a square foot perspective, around here apartments tend to rent for about $1/sf, while SFH tends to rent for $.75-$1.00/sf. On the surface it would appear that the apartment is more profitable, but apartments here generally include water and common area maintenance (i.e. lawn care) and have higher vacancy rates than SFH. Rarely do I have a unit that's empty more than a week (sfh).