Apartment broker vs residential Realtor: Who should sell your building?

Owners ask me this when a Realtor they already know offers to list the building. It is a fair question and I will give you a straight answer, with the obvious disclosure up front: I am an apartment broker, so I have a horse in this race. I will also tell you where the residential agent is the right call, because sometimes they are.

Same license, different job

Florida does not issue a separate commercial license. The agent who sells houses in your neighborhood holds the same kind of license I do, and they are legally allowed to sell your 20-unit building. So the question is never "can they." It is whether the way they price, market and close a house fits the way a building actually sells. For five units and up, it mostly does not, for three reasons: value, financing and buyers.

Reason one: A building is priced on its income

A house is priced by comparison. What did the three-bedroom down the street sell for, adjusted for a pool and a newer roof? That works because the buyer is a household deciding what a home is worth to them.

An apartment building buyer is buying an income stream. They take the rent the building actually collects, subtract real expenses (insurance, taxes, maintenance, management, vacancy), and divide the net operating income by a market cap rate. For small Florida buildings, that cap rate lands around 7% to 8.5%. If you want the difference between cap rate and the return an investor earns after the loan, I explain both in cap rate vs cash-on-cash return.

Here is a quick way to see how far apart two "comparable" buildings can be. Take two hypothetical 10-unit buildings across the street from each other with identical rents. One pays insurance at about $950 a door, the low end of what I see inland today. The other pays about $1,500 a door. That is $5,500 a year less income for the second building. At a 7.5% cap rate, that one line item is worth about $73,333 of price. A house comp would call those buildings the same. A buyer's spreadsheet will not.

Price per unit is still a useful sanity check. Across Florida, the median recorded sale of a building with five or more units was $157,143 a unit in 2025 (945 arm's-length sales, from Florida Department of Revenue and county sale records). But medians mix whatever sold. In Miami-Dade the 2025 median was $218,992 a unit across 247 sales; in Duval it was $106,157 across 70. Your building's income is what places it inside that range.

Another way to see it: in 2025 the statewide median price per unit was about 6.64 times a year of average Florida rent (Zillow's ZORI average for 35 counties, $1,971 a month, which covers all rental homes, not only apartments). In 2015 the same multiple was 5.78. That multiple moves with interest rates and expenses, which is exactly what a house-style comp ignores. My full walkthrough is in how much is my apartment building worth.

Reason two: Five units is where commercial lending starts

Conventional home loans are built for one to four units. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide, for example, covers residential properties of one to four units (Fannie Mae, B2-3-01). At five units the buyer is in commercial or multifamily lending, and that lender looks at the building first and the borrower second.

The key test is debt coverage: the building's net operating income has to cover the loan payment by about 1.20 to 1.25 times. On a $1 million loan with a 30-year amortization at 6.86% (the average 30-year rate in September 2026, per FRED), the payment is about $78,711 a year. At 1.25 times coverage, the building needs about $98,389 of net operating income to support that loan. Commercial loans are priced off the 10-year Treasury, which was about 5.2% in early October 2026, so the exact rate differs, but the logic does not: if the income is not there, the loan shrinks, and so does the price a buyer can pay.

This is where house-style pricing breaks deals. A list price set from comps can be a price no lender will finance. The buyer signs, their lender underwrites the real income with a fresh insurance quote and a reassessed tax bill (Florida counties reset taxes after a sale, at roughly 80% of the price times the millage), and the loan comes back smaller. Then you are renegotiating in the middle of due diligence, which is the worst place to do it.

Reason three: The buyers are different people

A house is sold to whoever walks through the open house. A five-plus unit building is sold to a smaller, knowable group: local operators adding to what they own, investors from out of state looking for Florida income, and 1031 exchangers who have sold something else and are on a federal deadline to buy. Many of them are not browsing the residential MLS. They are on broker lists, and they want a rent roll, the trailing twelve months of income and expenses, and a current insurance quote before they will drive by.

There is also confidentiality. A yard sign and an open house are normal for a house. For a building, they can unsettle tenants and staff and invite every curious neighbor. Buildings are usually shown with notice, and the financials go to buyers who have been qualified.

The comparison at a glance

When a residential agent is fine

Here is the honest part. For a duplex, triplex or fourplex, the line is blurry and I will not pretend otherwise. Two to four units still qualify for residential financing, so a real share of the buyers are households who plan to live in one unit and rent the others. A good residential agent who knows the neighborhood can reach those buyers well, sometimes better than an apartment broker can. If your fourplex is the kind of property an owner-occupant would buy, a strong local Realtor is a reasonable choice.

It tips the other way when the likely buyer is an investor: when the property is a pure rental in an investor area, when the rents are the selling point, or when the buyer will judge it on income no matter what the financing is. In that case, pricing from the income still matters, and you want someone who can defend the number to a buyer with a spreadsheet.

At five units and up, I do not think it is close. The financing is commercial, the value is income, and the buyers are investors. You want someone who does that every week.

If you are interviewing either one

Ask the same questions of everyone: how many apartment buildings they have closed, how they arrived at their price, what the fee and term are in writing, and who actually runs your deal. I put the full list, with good answers and red flags, in how to choose an apartment broker in Florida. And walk in with your own number. Run your building through my model below; it uses the same income approach your buyer's lender will.

Questions owners ask

Can a Realtor sell an apartment building in Florida?

Yes. Florida does not issue a separate commercial license, so any licensed agent working under a broker can list your building. The real question is whether they price it on income, can talk to commercial lenders, and can reach investors and 1031 buyers. Ask how many apartment buildings they have closed.

Why is a 5 unit building valued differently from a house?

Because the buyer is buying income. They value the building at its net operating income divided by a market cap rate, and their lender sizes the loan on that income, usually requiring it to cover the payment by about 1.20 to 1.25 times. A house is priced by comparing it to similar homes that sold.

Do 2 to 4 unit properties need an apartment broker?

Not always. Two to four units still qualify for residential financing, so many buyers are owner-occupants, and a good local residential agent can reach them well. If the likely buyer is an investor judging it on rent, an agent who prices from income is the better fit.

What is the average price per unit for a Florida apartment building?

The median recorded sale price was about $157,143 per unit across 945 arm's-length sales of Florida buildings with five or more units in 2025. It ranges widely by county, from about $218,992 in Miami-Dade to about $106,157 in Duval, and your building's income decides where it falls.

Does an apartment broker charge more than a Realtor?

Not necessarily. Fees are negotiable either way. I charge 4% paid only at closing on a 90-day, one-page listing agreement. Compare the fee with the pricing, because a price set 5% too low or too high costs far more than a point of commission.

If your building has five or more units and you want a second opinion on the number, that is the everyday work of a multifamily broker like me. I answer my own phone at 321-275-KING.