Selling a Duplex Fast [2 Best Ways]

Generally speaking, it can be difficult to sell a 2-unit property. Most home buyers look for a home to live in. They prefer single-family homes and townhouses.

If you are marketing your duplex to the general public, most often, you will find potential buyers who’d purchase just half a duplex.

If you’re looking to sell the duplex fast, the sale becomes even more challenging.

However, there’s a unique group of property buyers who specialize in buying duplexes: real estate investors. They are also often called “cash house buyers.”

Investors are real estate professionals who purchase properties to rent them out or to repair and resell to others.

Whether you want to sell a new duplex with modern amenities and finishes or an older house, they will be interested in making an offer on it.

How Does Selling to a Real Estate Investor Work?

A sale to a real estate investor is usually more straightforward than dealing with a buyer who is looking for a home to live in. It often follows a standard procedure:

1. Send a cash offer request to a real estate investor.
2. Schedule a property viewing with them so they can examine the property.
3. Review the offer made by the investor. Usually, you will receive an offer within 24 hours of the property walkthrough.
4. Sign a real estate purchase contract with your buyer if you’re satisfied with their offer. Once you sign, the investor will put the money in escrow and begin working toward closing.
5. Finalize the sale and receive your cash.

If you are working with professional real estate investors, it usually takes 2-4 weeks to close on a property.

Pros and Cons of Selling a Duplex to a Real Estate Investor

Selling your duplex to an investor allows you to enjoy the following benefits:

• You can sell the property in its current condition without having to make any repairs or upgrades. This saves you a significant amount of time during the sale.
• One of the strongest cash house buyers’ selling points is that you sell your house fast. They close quicker than non-professional home buyers. You can often close and get your cash within a couple of weeks when working with an investor.
• Investors buy homes for cash. This eliminates the need for mortgage approval (which would entail a lender-required appraisal and inspection), speeding up the sale of your duplex even more.
• Investors cover all closing expenses, minimizing your out-of-pocket costs.
• You can avoid paying high agent commissions since investors manage every aspect of the sale — you don’t need a realtor in a sale to an investor.
• Because of bypassing realtors and lenders, there are fewer formalities in a sale to a cash buyer.

Still, there’s one issue with selling your house privately to an investor:

• The cash offer you receive may be lower than the property’s market value.

This is because the investor has to consider repair and upgrade costs, closing fees, and their profit margin if they aim to resell the house.

However, if you account for the realtor’s fee you don’t have to pay, as well as other typical closing costs for sellers, your ultimate proceeds may be comparable to the ones you’d get from a traditional sale.

Where to Find a Good Real Estate Investor

To sell your house directly to an investor easily, you need to find a local professional who’s reputable, ethical, and experienced.

The HouseCashin platform has a network of seasoned real estate investors buying properties in cities and towns across all states.

Our partner investors are carefully selected and have been screened for experience and proper ethical practices throughout their real estate careers.

To get started on your duplex sale, request a cash offer on your house now.

After that, you will get cash offers from different investors in your area. There’s no obligation to accept any of the offers. And there is no fee to request or receive an offer — it’s completely free of charge.

Once you receive a suitable offer, you can accept it and move toward closing, which usually takes about one or two weeks if you need it really fast.

Another way you can sell your duplex is by doing it the traditional way.

Selling a property traditionally involves marketing it to the general public on online property marketplaces, social media, via print materials, and other channels.

For a classic sale, there are two different approaches you can follow:

1. Sell the duplex by yourself as a “for sale by owner (FSBO)” listing. If you choose this option, be prepared to oversee every step of the sale.
2. Hire a real estate agent who will be your representative and handle the entire selling process.

Generally, none of these methods is as fast and easy as selling to a professional cash house investor. But they allow you to try and get the highest possible price for your property.

Note that to sell your two-family home traditionally, you will still need to find a real estate investor — a landlord who’d buy it to lend at least half of the duplex to a renter.

But it doesn’t have to be a professional cash property buyer who buys and sells real estate as a business.

Alternatively, you can try and sell each unit of your duplex separately to different people looking for a home for themselves, as if you were selling a townhouse unit or selling a condo in a multifamily building one at a time.

This would require two separate property sales and other legal arrangements related to splitting the property’s title.

The following sections explain the traditional real estate sale process and why it takes more time compared to selling to a professional investor.

Prepare the Property

The first step in a traditional home sale is readying the property for marketing and selling.

If learning how much you lose when selling a house as-is upsets you, you will have to make repairs and necessary renovations or upgrades.

Typical buyers want houses that are ready for living. Most landlords also prefer turnkey rental properties.

Furthermore, typical buyers often rely on a mortgage to buy property, and most lenders won’t finance a house that’s in poor condition.

Because of this, the buyer often cannot purchase a home that needs work, even if they’re willing to handle the renovations after the sale.

You also need to clean the property, stage it, and photograph it professionally for your marketing efforts if your local real estate market is not super fast.

What Does a Traditional Real Estate Sale Entail?

In a conventional property sale, you can choose to sell the 2-family home by yourself or through a real estate agent.

If you choose to sell by yourself, you will be responsible for overseeing every aspect of the sale — from listing and marketing the property, to price negotiations and closing.

If you work with a realtor, they will coordinate every step of the sale on your behalf, including advertising your property on the local MLS, on popular property listing sites such as Zillow, and on social media and other channels.

Whether you opt for a realtor or a for-sale-by-owner approach, the sale process remains the same:

1. Assess the scope and level of damage if you are selling a house in bad condition. Hire a professional contractor to evaluate the needed repairs and estimate repair costs.
2. Set a suitable asking price for the home. A real estate agent will do a CMA (comparative market analysis) to determine a fair price.

   If you’re selling via FSBO, you can determine a suitable price by using property valuation tools, such as our home value estimator and local market data.

3. Prepare the property for sale by making repairs and cleaning it.
4. Market the property to the public. A realtor will list your house on the local MLS and advertise it on major listing websites such as Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, and Opendoor.

   If you’re selling via FSBO, list your property on popular FSBO listing services such as the HouseCashin marketplace and the Real Estate Bees property marketplace.

5. Negotiate offers. As offers begin to come in, compare them and pick the best deal possible.
6. Wait until the buyer has the duplex professionally inspected and appraised — buyers who use loans need these for mortgage approval. If the house is found to have a market value that’s lower than your asking price, you may need to adjust it.
7. Hire a title company to take care of the paperwork and document transfer. When the title search is done, you can arrange a closing date.
8. Close and receive the money in your bank account.

Pros and Cons of Selling a Duplex Traditionally

The following are the benefits of selling your duplex the typical way:

• Your agent (if you choose to hire one) is responsible for managing every aspect of the sale, allowing you to avoid the burdensome formalities and headaches of the transaction.
• You can sell the property at its market value if you or your agent has the necessary experience to negotiate such a deal and set the price adequate to the current market.

Selling traditionally also has its drawbacks:

• Realtor commissions range from 3% to 6% of the final sale price, reducing the amount you take home. If you are selling FSBO, you avoid realtor commissions (unlike other costs to sell a house by owner).

  However, if you aren’t proficient in selling real estate, you could still net more money, thanks to the expertise of the agent, even despite the realtor costs when selling a house.

• A traditional sale requires handling renovations, a process that can be expensive and time-consuming.
• The marketing and sales process in a traditional sale takes a lot of time compared to selling to an investor. Especially if you aren’t using a realtor, you can waste much time because you just don’t know how to advertise a duplex properly.
• Mortgage lenders require homebuyers to conduct inspections and appraisals before approving a loan, which extends the time it takes to close.
• Typical homebuyers are very particular in what they want in a house, making negotiations with them and their agents lengthy and stressful.

Now that you know the different ways to sell your property, the next step would be comparing how much you can get for it by selling to a real estate investor versus using a real estate agent.

To do this, find a few local professionals and compare their offers. When talking to a real estate agent, don’t forget to ask for a quote on their commission, in addition to the estimated property price.

And as for real estate investors, fill out our quick online form to request cash offers and compare the offers coming from reputable professional cash buyers working in your area.