Two to five weeks direct, four to nine months marketed. The multifamily timeline runs on two clocks: finding the buyer and verifying the rent roll. What drives both, and how to shorten either path.
By InTym Properties
A multifamily property can sell in two to five weeks when a buyer closes directly with its own funds, or four to nine months when the building goes through a marketed listing with a financed buyer. That range is wide for one reason: a multifamily buyer is purchasing a rent roll, not merely a building, and most of the calendar gets spent verifying the income the price is based on.
Here is how the three selling paths compare on the clock, what actually drives the timeline, and what to pull together before the first offer lands.
Direct sale: roughly two to five weeks. One walkthrough, a written offer usually within about two days, then the tenant-file review and the title search running in parallel, then closing at a licensed title company. A duplex or fourplex with a clean lease file lands toward the front of that range; a larger building with more leases to verify pushes toward the back. The cash closing timeline post covers the title-company mechanics that apply to any property, multifamily included.
Marketed listing: commonly four to nine months end to end. Listing an occupied building runs slower than listing a vacant house before the sign even goes up, because photography and showings have to be scheduled around tenants. Then the building sits while buyers underwrite the income and negotiate. Sixty to ninety days on market is a normal range for small multifamily, and accepting an offer only starts the second clock: a financed buyer's due diligence and loan process adds another 45 to 75 days on top.
Auction: a fixed date, weeks to close, a different kind of risk. An auction compresses the back half of the deal but moves the uncertainty to the price rather than the calendar. The investor versus auction post runs that comparison honestly, so it is enough to say here that an auction answers the "when" question loudly and the "for how much" question quietly.
Every multifamily buyer prices off the same documents: the rent roll, the lease file, the collections ledger, and the deposit accounting. When those four agree with each other, the file moves. When the rent roll says one number and the bank deposits say another, everything pauses while the gap gets explained.
On a financed deal, expect estoppel letters: a short statement each tenant signs confirming the lease terms, the rent amount, and the deposit held. Lenders require them because they convert your records into the tenant's own word. Most tenants return them quickly; a few straggle, and a good buyer builds the stragglers into the timeline. On 2 to 4 unit buildings estoppels are common but not universal; on larger buildings they are near-automatic. The occupied-building post covers the occupied-building version in detail.
An occupied building sells at the speed its tenants allow access. Showings, inspections, and the appraiser's unit walk-through all need scheduling around a dozen different calendars. Florida gives landlords entry on reasonable notice under § 83.53; Idaho leaves it to the lease. Either way, a cooperative building moves and a hostile one drags, which is one reason a direct sale with a single scheduled walkthrough compresses the calendar so much.
Four units or fewer can be bought on a residential loan. Five and up require commercial debt: different underwriting, a bigger down payment, committee approval, and an appraisal on the income approach, meaning the appraiser values the building off its net operating income rather than off comparable houses nearby. A commercial appraisal takes longer than a residential one, and the diligence period on a financed multifamily deal commonly runs 30 to 60 days. Each stage is a place where the contract can stall, renegotiate, or die, which is why financed multifamily timelines get measured in months while cash timelines get measured in weeks. The apartment building post walks through how a cash buyer underwrites the same income without the committee.
Vacant units read as upside to an optimist and as missing income to an underwriter. Month-to-month tenancies, expired leases, informal family arrangements, and rents that differ from the written lease all slow diligence, because each one is a question the buyer has to resolve before it can trust the rent roll. None of these block a sale. They have to be priced and documented, and documenting takes time.
A real share of small-multifamily buyers are running a 1031 exchange, which puts them on a statutory clock: 45 days from selling their relinquished property to identify replacements, and 180 days to close. A 1031 buyer late in the identification window can be the fastest financed buyer you will ever meet, because the deadline does the negotiating for them. The same buyer early in the window may be comparing your building against two others they identified, and you will not know which until they tell you. The 1031 exchange post covers the mechanics from the seller's side.
A house sells a price opinion; a multifamily building sells an income claim, and income claims get audited. On a house the diligence is the roof, the title, and the comparable sales. On a building it is all of that plus every lease, every deposit, every ledger line, and the question of whether the tenants will confirm what your paperwork says. That is why the fastest house closes land near a week while the fastest multifamily closes land near two: the title work is identical, but the tenant file adds a verification layer a house never has. Sellers who understand that stop asking buyers to promise a date and start asking what the file needs to contain, because the file is the part of the timeline you control.
On a direct sale to InTym Properties, the calendar looks like this. One walkthrough of the building, scheduled around the tenants. A written offer, usually within about two days, underwritten line by line off the actual rent roll, the real expenses, and the condition of the units. Once you sign, the lease and deposit file gets verified in parallel with the title search, and the deal closes at a licensed title company with the leases and deposits transferring on the settlement statement. Two to five weeks is the honest range: a duplex with a tidy file at the front, a twelve-plex with a messy ledger at the back.
One structural detail is worth stating plainly, because it determines who actually shows up at your closing. On single-family houses the company always closes as principal in its own name, with no assignment clause. On multifamily, both structures happen: on some deals InTym Properties closes as principal with its own funds, and on others the contract is assigned to a vetted end buyer drawn from the company's investor list. The structure that applies to yours gets disclosed in writing before you sign, not buried in the paperwork, and your price and terms stay the same either way. The multifamily page states this up front for the same reason this post does: you should know who is closing before you sign anything.
The single biggest accelerant is the same on every path: pull the file before you need it. That means the current rent roll with each unit's rent and lease dates, every signed lease or the honest fact that there isn't one, the deposit amounts and where they are held, the collections ledger for the last twelve months, the utility accounts the owner pays, and the last two years of income and expense history if you track it.
A seller who can hand that file to a buyer, a broker, or an auctioneer on day one skips the slowest stage of every multifamily deal. The duplex and fourplex post covers the 2 to 4 unit version of the same math, and the document list carries straight over to bigger buildings.
A multifamily sale is two clocks, not one: the market clock of finding a buyer, and the diligence clock of verifying the rent roll. A marketed listing runs both clocks at full length, which is why four to nine months is the honest range. A direct sale compresses the first clock to days and runs the second in parallel with title, which is why two to five weeks is real. Either way, the seller who knows the number and holds a clean file controls more of the calendar than the buyer does.
If you own a duplex, fourplex, or small apartment building in Broward County, south Idaho, or anywhere else and want a straight answer on timeline, call or text (650) 540-1854. InTym Properties buys multifamily as-is, occupied or vacant, and the written offer tells you which closing structure applies before you sign.
It depends on the path. A direct sale to a buyer using its own funds commonly closes in two to five weeks, with most of that time spent on the title search and the tenant-file review. A marketed listing commonly runs four to nine months end to end: months on market while buyers underwrite the income, then a financed buyer's due diligence and loan process on top.
Yes, and most buildings sell occupied. In both Florida and Idaho the buyer takes the building subject to the leases already in place: fixed-term tenants stay through their term, and month-to-month tenancies continue until someone gives statutory notice, 30 days in Florida under § 83.57(3) and one month in Idaho under § 55-208. Leases, tenants, and deposits all transfer at closing.
Yes. The lease binds whoever owns the building, so the buyer steps into the landlord role on identical terms. Security deposits move with the building and are documented at closing: Florida requires an accurate accounting under § 83.49(7), and Idaho makes the new owner liable for refunding deposits under § 6-321(3), which is why they appear as buyer credits on the settlement statement.
Faster than a financed deal but slower than a house, because the buyer verifies the rent roll, the leases, and the deposits as well as the title. A clean small building can close in about two weeks; a larger building with more tenant files commonly lands at three to five. No honest buyer can compress the title search itself, which takes several business days in any sale.
Not always, but expect the request on a marketed or financed deal. An estoppel is a short signed statement from each tenant confirming the lease terms, the rent, and the deposit held; lenders use them to verify the rent roll before closing. On a direct sale a clean lease file and ledger often serve the same purpose, though collecting estoppels early still shortens either path.
Because five units or more means a commercial loan: committee approval, an appraisal on the income approach rather than comparable houses, and a due diligence period that commonly runs 30 to 60 days. Each stage adds weeks a cash buyer skips, and each contingency is a point where the contract can renegotiate or collapse.
Written offer usually within 48 hours, signed by InTym Properties, every number shown. No repairs, no fees, no obligation.
The scams follow patterns: bait-and-switch offers, fake proof of funds, hidden assignment clauses, upfront fees. Six checks that verify any cash buyer without trusting them, run against InTym Properties too.
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