Hey everyone just starting out helping my bro who has flipped 3 single families homes in Mesa AZ area. Been studying BRRRR and flip strategies like mad but our first opportunity together that came up is a 4 plex in the historical Roosevelt district in downtown Phoenix. (Yea, stoked.. but yikes!) the calculators don't seem to do multifamily and google and YouTube aren't much help pointing me towards the best way to find comparable props.

Please help🤷🏻‍♂️

For non-agents & realtors, I suggest using Zillow's sold feature. Click the red icon image that says "for sale", then select the yellow for "sold". They recently added multifamily back into their filters, so that should help you greatly by narrowing down the sample size. 

Any decent agent should be able to pull comps using their MLS access, so that's an option to, but it's not as quick and self-sufficient.

@Kyle Forrester I refinanced a 4 unit in Scottsdale a few months ago and one thing to avoid is trying to compare your 4 unit to nearby larger unit count properties even if you're the only 4plex within reasonable distance. The appraiser will not compare it to a nearly identical 5, 6 or higher unit count even if it's next door. You'll want to have a firm grip on SALES COMPS nearby from 2-4 units. We based our estimated value too much off of what we were seeing on a value/income per sq. foot/unit with the most nearby/similar properties.

2-4 units use a 1025 appraisal form and while they will measure the income approach to value, the sales comp approach is always the more heavily weighted factor on 1-4 unit valuations. 

Like @Matt Castle said, the best thing to do would be to have a realtor or someone with MLS access pull recent sales comps of 2-4 (preferably 4 of course) for you to review.

@Kyle Forrester are you guys working with an experienced multi-family investor agent? That's your first must-have resource to properly find, analyze, value, and ultimately purchase a 2-4 (or 5+) unit property. 

@Alex Bekeza is right that a fourplex is valued based on the comparable sales approach, and much less so on the income approach (the way larger commercial MF is valued). There should be enough recent 4 unit sales around central Phoenix to effectively "comp" your property.

I just helped a client close a special triplex (house + duplex) in Coronado district. We were under contract at $510k (which was $12k above ask price with multiple offers), and the appraisal came in at $525k!

@Kyle Forrester finding access to MLS would be the smartest thing to do to gauge what are properties similar comparable to unit size and condition of the properties are going for. Also, localized property managers can you give you a beat on this too as well. Good luck

Wow what a great response guys. I love this site because you three pretty much drew me a road map 

 @Matt Castle Thanks so much for spelling that out! Just getting my ears wet so was unable to find either feature on my own. Nothing comparable coming up so once I can clearly define my role in this deal... it's looking like I'll need to get an agent and a PM in the mix as @Alex Bekeza & @Tj Hines Suggested.

@Ryan Swan looks like you're in my neck of the woods, I'm on the hunt for connects, mentors, ect. Can I find you at regular meet up of some kind or maybe pick your brain on the phone for 10min sometime? My full sitch is deeper than what's outlined here.