Top Multifamily Deals (2026): Duplex, Triplex & Quadplex Investments

Multifamily properties — duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes — are one of the most asymmetric entry points for new real estate investors. They qualify for conventional residential financing (you don't need a commercial loan until you hit 5+ units), they generate multiple income streams from a single purchase, and they offer a built-in vacancy hedge: if one unit goes empty, the others still cover most of your mortgage.

House-hacking — living in one unit while renting the others — can eliminate your housing cost entirely. A duplex where you occupy one side and rent the other is the canonical first investment, and FHA's owner-occupant 3.5% down financing makes it accessible at a fraction of typical investor down payment requirements. After 12 months of owner-occupancy, you can move out, convert the property to a full rental, and repeat the strategy on a new purchase.

On a per-dollar-invested basis, small multifamily typically beats single-family rentals by 30–60%. A $220k duplex often produces $2,400/month in gross rent ($1,200/unit). A $220k single-family in the same neighborhood usually produces $1,700/month — meaning the duplex generates ~40% more income for the same purchase price.

RealixData ranks multifamily deals on the same deal score model as single-family — but multifamily benefits disproportionately from how we handle vacancy. Single-family vacancy is binary (you have a tenant or you don't); multifamily vacancy is fractional (a triplex with one empty unit is at 33% vacancy, not 100%). Our model captures this directly, so the deal scores you see on multifamily are not inflated by ignoring partial vacancy.

Strong multifamily markets for 2026 are concentrated in the Midwest, Southeast, and high-yield secondary markets where duplexes and triplexes still trade in the $120k–$220k range with rents that hit or exceed the 1% rule. Cleveland, Detroit, Memphis, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Birmingham, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Toledo are all reliably producing deals on this page. Coastal Florida, Texas, and the Carolinas remain active but the entry price for a duplex has roughly doubled since 2020.

If you're new to multifamily, start with the single-family fundamentals: cash flow, cap rate, the 1% rule, and conservative expense ratios. Multifamily just multiplies all of those metrics across more units. The deals you see below are the highest-scoring small multifamily listings from our scanner — open any one to see the full per-unit rent breakdown, projected occupancy, and 10-year IRR.