Determining rent for duplex

[Frederick Wofford jr]

I’m looking into buying a duplex in the Long Beach Ca area. The property has two separate units with no common walls. Only a small yard for each. My question is, when analyzing local rents, should I be comparing these units to similar single family homes; or do duplex’s typically rent at the rate of an apartment? Both units are 2br 1ba

[Daniel Kurkowski]

In general whenever you are looking at comps, I would recommend comparing general desirability.  That is what makes someone pull the trigger at the end of the day.  Pull up what you see in the area and decide how your building stacks up against what you see out there in the market.  If something looks better than you, price yourself lower.  Then find something you think your property is more desirable than and price yourself somewhere between.

It takes a little practice, but at the end of the day you will figure it out pretty quickly.  Hope that helped.