# Selling an Apartment Building to a Cash Buyer: What Changes at Five Units

At five units the loan changes, and everything else follows: the buyer pool, the timeline, the paperwork. What a direct cash sale on a small apartment building skips, and what it honestly costs you.

Somewhere between the fourth unit and the fifth, your property stops being a residence and starts being a business. The building looks the same. The loan doesn't, and neither does anything else: who can buy it, how it's appraised, how long it takes to sell, and how much paperwork the deal requires.

Here's what changes at five units, what a direct cash or assignment sale skips, what it honestly costs you, and the documents to pull together before you take an offer.

## Why Five Units Changes Everything

A building of four units or fewer can be financed like a house. At five, the buyer needs a commercial loan, and commercial loans are underwritten on the property, not the person. Lenders look at the building's income relative to the debt, the debt service coverage ratio, and they want it comfortably above 1. They appraise on the income approach, meaning the appraiser is valuing your rent roll and expense history as much as your brick. Down payments run larger, terms run shorter, and approval runs through a committee instead of a checklist. Deals die in committee regularly, often after weeks of silence.

Then there's due diligence. A serious commercial buyer gets a due diligence period, commonly 30 to 60 days, to inspect every unit, audit every lease, collect estoppel certificates from every tenant, verify the income against bank statements and tax returns, and sometimes order environmental reports. Any of it can reopen the price. Put it together and a listed apartment building often sits for months before it closes, and the price at the end of that road is not always the price that was agreed at the start.

## What a Direct Sale Skips

Selling directly to a cash buyer, or to a buyer whose contract is assigned to a vetted investor, removes most of that machinery:

- **No financing contingency.** No committee, no appraisal on the income approach, no loan collapsing in week six.
- **No retail marketing.** No broker packets, no listing photos across a dozen occupied units, no months of showings that tenants experience as a stranger parade.
- **A compressed due diligence.** A professional buyer still walks the units and reads the rent roll, but the review is days, not two months, because the buyer is pricing risk instead of hunting for a reason to re-trade.
- **No lease-out or fix-up demands.** Occupied, under-rented, tired systems, deferred maintenance: it's priced in once, up front.

For the mechanics of how fast a cash closing moves once the offer is signed, the [closing timeline post](https://intymproperties.com/blog/how-fast-can-a-cash-sale-close/) lays out the sequence. And if the building is occupied, which most are, the post on [selling an apartment building with tenants in Florida](https://intymproperties.com/blog/sell-apartment-building-with-tenants-florida/) covers the tenant-side mechanics: lease transfer, estoppel letters, and how the rent roll gets underwritten.

## What It Honestly Trades Away

This is the part the pitch skips, so say it plainly: a direct sale usually nets less than a fully marketed listing on a clean building. A commercial broker who exposes your property to every syndicator and investor group in the region can produce a bidding dynamic that one buyer cannot. If your building is stabilized, the rents are at market, the books are clean, and you can wait six months, a listing is probably the better tool. InTym Properties would tell you the same thing.

A direct sale is the better tool when the building has friction: below-market rents, deferred maintenance, a problem tenant, thin books, an estate or partnership that needs a clean exit, or a deadline that a six-month marketing window can't meet. A 1031 exchange is the textbook version of that deadline: the post on [selling a 1031 exchange property fast](https://intymproperties.com/blog/sell-1031-exchange-property-fast/) covers the 45-day identification and 180-day closing clocks and why the relinquished side cannot afford a listing that stalls. Sometimes the friction is the owner rather than the building: when you're done being a landlord, the [tired landlord exit post](https://intymproperties.com/blog/tired-landlord-exit-sell-rental-property/) covers the sell-or-hold math. And when the exit involves several properties rather than one building, the post on [selling a rental portfolio fast](https://intymproperties.com/blog/sell-rental-portfolio-fast/) covers selling them in a single transaction. The discount buys certainty and speed. Whether that discount is worth it is a math question, and the [cash offer math post](https://intymproperties.com/blog/how-much-do-cash-buyers-pay-vs-market-value/) shows how to run it.

## The Documents to Gather Before You Take an Offer

Every buyer, financed or cash, will ask for the same file. Pulling it together early is the single fastest way to shorten the deal:

- **The rent roll.** Unit numbers, tenant names, lease start and end dates, current rent, deposit amounts, and who's behind.
- **The leases.** Every signed lease and renewal, plus any month-to-month agreements in writing.
- **Income and expense records.** Twelve to 24 months of profit and loss, or Schedule E from your tax returns if that's how the books live.
- **Utility bills.** Whatever the owner pays: water, sewer, trash, common electric. This is where expense claims get verified.
- **Capital expenditure history.** Roofs, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, appliances: what was replaced, when, and roughly what it cost. An honest capex history builds more trust than a low number does.
- **Tax bill and insurance declaration.** Two pieces of paper that verify two of the largest expense lines.

Missing pieces aren't a dealbreaker. InTym Properties underwrites from what's real, which means partial records get priced honestly rather than assumed to be perfect. But the fuller the file, the tighter the offer.

## How the InTym Properties Deal Is Structured

One disclosure, stated the way it should be. On multifamily deals, InTym Properties either closes as principal with its own funds or assigns the purchase contract to a vetted end buyer from its investor list. Which structure applies to your deal is disclosed in writing before you sign. Your price and terms don't change either way, and the closing runs through a licensed title company regardless. The [cash buyer vs. wholesaler post](https://intymproperties.com/blog/cash-buyer-vs-wholesaler/) explains the difference between an honest assignment and a contract that was never going to close, and the [verify us page](https://intymproperties.com/is-intym-properties-legit/) lists the checks you can run on InTym Properties itself. For the full picture of what the company buys, the [sell multifamily page](https://intymproperties.com/sell-multifamily/) covers the 2 to 20 unit range and how the written offer works.

## The Bottom Line

Five units and up is a commercial transaction whether you want it to be or not: commercial financing, commercial due diligence, commercial timelines. A direct sale skips most of that and trades away the exposure a marketed listing can capture. Gather the rent roll, the leases, and two years of numbers before you take any offer, from InTym Properties or anyone else, because the seller with documents gets a faster, tighter deal than the seller with a story.

## Sources

- Federal Housing Finance Agency, [conforming loan limits](https://www.fhfa.gov/data/conforming-loan-limit) (residential financing caps out at 4 units; 5 and up is commercial)
- IRS, [like-kind exchanges under IRC Section 1031](https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/like-kind-exchanges-real-estate-tax-tips) (the 45-day identification and 180-day closing clocks)
- IRS Publication 527, [Residential Rental Property](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p527) (Schedule E income and expense records)

*Own a small apartment building in Broward County, Idaho, or anywhere else in the country? Email hello@intymproperties.com or call/text (650) 540-1854. InTym Properties buys multifamily roughly 2 to 20 units, occupied or vacant, with a written offer usually within 48 hours.*


## Frequently asked questions

### What documents do I need to sell an apartment building?

The rent roll with unit numbers, lease dates, rents, and deposits; every signed lease; 12 to 24 months of profit and loss or Schedule E tax returns; utility bills for owner-paid services; a capital expenditure history covering roofs, HVAC, and plumbing; and the current tax bill and insurance declaration. Partial records are not a dealbreaker, but a fuller file produces a tighter offer.

### What is the timeline for selling a small apartment building?

A listed 5-plus-unit building often sits for months: commercial loans, due diligence periods that commonly run 30 to 60 days, and committee approvals stretch the process. A direct cash or assignment sale typically moves from written offer to closing in a few weeks once title work and tenant documentation are done, because there is no financing contingency or retail marketing phase.

### Do you get less money selling an apartment building to a cash buyer?

Usually yes, and it is worth being honest about. A fully marketed listing on a clean, stabilized building can produce a bidding dynamic a single buyer cannot match. The discount buys certainty and speed, which matters most when the building has friction like below-market rents, deferred maintenance, thin books, or a deadline a long listing cannot meet.

### Does InTym Properties buy apartment buildings directly or assign the contract?

Both, disclosed before signing. On some multifamily deals InTym Properties closes as principal with its own funds; on others the contract is assigned to a vetted end buyer from its investor list. The structure is stated in writing up front, the price and terms stay the same either way, and closing runs through a licensed title company.

### Where can I get cash for an apartment building without listing it?

Three routes, roughly in order of speed: a direct cash buyer like InTym Properties, which underwrites the rent roll and writes an offer usually within 48 hours; a brokered off-market sale to investors already holding multifamily in your market, faster than the MLS but slower than a direct offer; and a full listing, which can top the price on a clean stabilized building but takes months and re-trades through diligence. Cash for apartment buildings trades some of the top-line price for a fixed number and a date you can plan around.

Published: 2026-09-20 · Last updated: 2026-10-13

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