A building or structure that is created to house several different families in individual multifamily housing units. The most typical type of multifamily housing is an apartment building. Duplexes, and town households also qualify as multifamily housing. The entire building or structure may be owned by an individual, an entity, or, as is the case with condos, by individuals who have purchased units.
Types of Multifamily housing for sale
Two-flat - a building essentially like a house, commonly built on a house lot, composed of a flat (apartment) taking up the first floor, another flat taking up the second floor, usually a mutual basement, a mutual front entrance, foyer, and stairs to the second floor, and often a matching back entrance, foyer, and stairs. In old buildings, the back entrance, foyer, and stairs may have been put on later. Sometimes there are front verandas for each of flats, one on top of the other. Typically the entire building is owned by the same party. A property of this type, must have outside entrance for each unit, otherwise it can be regarded as a single unit since for Two-flat, the asset need to comply with the separated units guides created by HUD and regulated by the mortgage industry.
Three-flat - a building equivalent to a two-flat except there are three flats. Two-flat and possibly three-flat buildings are rather typical in certain older neighborhoods in certain cities.
Four-flat - a building equivalent to a three-flat except there are four flats. In some cases, the placement of apartments may be different and the lot size may be larger than that of a regular house.
Duplex or semi-detached- One building consisting of two distinct "houses", typically side by side, each with different entrances and typically without mutual inside areas. Each of the two houses typically has separate owners.
Townhouse - a house attached to any amount of other townhouses each of which may have several floors, commonly side by side each with their own individual entrances. Each such house has its own owner.
Apartment building - a building with several apartments. There can be several apartments on each floor and there are often several floors. Apartment buildings could range in many sizes, some with only a couple apartments, other with scores of apartments on many floors, or any size in between. There are often interior hallways and interior entrances to each apartment, but external entrances to each apartment are also possible. An apartment building can be owned by one party and each of the apartments rented to tenants or each of the apartments can be owned as a condo by separate parties.
Mixed use building - a building with space for both commercial, business, or office use, and space for residential use. Possible placements include the commercial/business use on the first or first few floors and one or more apartments or residential spaces on the upper floors. Another possibility is to have the commercial/business region up front and the residential region in the back.