Multifamily Investing has Changed Drastically Since 2017

If it feels like small multifamily deals in Greenville have been a moving target since 2017, that’s because they have. In a data-heavy episode of Selling Greenville, the host digs into what’s actually changed—door prices, price-per-square-foot, rents, and investor behavior—and what hasn’t (including the most durable strategy for making the numbers work). The findings paint a clear picture: pricing surged, rents kept pace, and while underwriting has gotten tighter, a disciplined playbook still wins.

Multifamily Investing has Changed

That phrase—"multifamily investing has changed drastically since 2017"—is more than a punchy title. It captures five years of market evolution for the type of multifamily that shows up in the Greenville MLS: duplexes, triplexes, quads, small “packages” (generally 10 doors or fewer), condos or houses sold as bundles, and mobile home parks. Think “small multifamily” and neighborhood-scale income property—not institutional apartment complexes or off-MLS commercial trades.

What was analyzed—and why it matters

The analysis looked at Greenville County sales in the MLS for each 12-month period from October to October, going back to 2017–2018. On the revenue side, it pulled MLS rentals across the same spans. Two caveats:

1. Rents include all property types (SFH, condos, townhomes, and multifamily), because MLS doesn’t cleanly isolate small multifamily rentals. That slightly inflates rent figures relative to what an average small multifamily might achieve, but it still reveals the trend.

2. Year-to-year figures in multifamily are bumpier than single-family because a single mobile home park or a cluster of higher-end doors can skew averages. The point is the five-year arc, not a single twelve-month jump.

Prices by the door: up, then plateau

• 2017–2018: ~100 doors, a little over $6M total → about $61,000 per door

• 2018–2019: ~79 doors, a little over $7M total → roughly $89,700 per door

• 2019–2020: ~100 doors, ~$7.75M total → about $77,500 per door

• 2020–2021: 121 doors, ~$15.15M total → ~$125,270 per door

• 2021–2022 (latest 12 months): 107 doors, ~$13.35M total → ~$124,857 per door

Bottom line: average price per door roughly doubled from the 2017–2018 period (~$61K) to the past 12 months (~$125K). After the 2020–2021 surge, the last year held near that peak rather than continuing its climb.

Price per square foot: same story, slightly softer

• 2017–2018: about $73/sq ft

• 2018–2019: about $100–$122/sq ft (a sharp step-up year)

• 2019–2020: ~$81/sq ft (shows the year-to-year lumpiness)

• 2020–2021: ~$129/sq ft (pandemic peak)

• 2021–2022: ~$121.90/sq ft (off the peak, still elevated)

Takeaway: while per-door doubled, per-square-foot rose dramatically but not quite double—and it eased a touch in the most recent year.

Rents: nearly doubled, too

Using MLS rental data (again, all property types mixed in):

• 2017–2018: average monthly rent ~$701.88; rent per sq ft ~$0.84

• 2021–2022: average monthly rent ~$1,393 (almost exactly double); rent per sq ft ~$1.36

Because the rent feed mixes in single-family homes and townhomes, the $1.36/sq ft is a bit inflated for multifamily properties. Even so, the trend is unmistakable: rents climbed in step with purchase pricing.

A useful rule-of-thumb shift followed from that: before the pandemic, a working heuristic in Greenville was ~$1.00/sq ft for “average” rentals. Based on the latest MLS view (with noted caveats), a more realistic starting target within Greenville County is now roughly $1.25/sq ft for a home in good condition.

The ratio that calms the “bubble” fear

To compare prices and rents apples-to-apples, the episode introduces a simple Price-Per-Square-Foot to Rent-Per-Square-Foot ratio:

PPSF ÷ RPSF → the lower the resulting number, the better the income relationship.

• 2017–2018: ratio ~87 (a “pretty good” market by that measure)

• 2021–2022: ratio ~89 (surprisingly close)

That near-stability says a lot. If purchase prices had outrun rents, the ratio would have ballooned. Instead, rents kept pace with pricing, and the math, at a market level, didn’t fall apart. That’s why the data here doesn’t scream “bubble”—even if some individual listings (like certain duplexes priced sky-high) look off when you run the numbers.

What’s changed for investors (beyond the obvious)

1) Capital requirements are heavier. When doors rise from ~$61K to ~$125K, down payments double. The investor profile naturally shifts toward buyers who can write bigger checks, qualify for larger mortgages, and stomach deferred maintenance on top of acquisition.

2) Risk concentrates in the rehab line item. Small multifamily often comes with deferred work. If someone bought thin and underestimated repairs, there’s room for stress—not because rents vanished, but because CAPEX + debt service collided. That’s deal-by-deal, not systemic.

3) Supply still pinches. In this lane (duplexes, triplexes, quads, small packages, MHPs), inventory has been scarce for years. That keeps buyer behavior sensitive to projected rents, not current asking numbers.

What hasn’t changed: the BRRRR logic

Even with pricing higher, the most resilient path remains BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat). A few reasons specific to this market:

• Tax reality: In Greenville County, property taxes on rentals are a major expense. The structure of local assessments means buying lower and creating value via renovation can leave you with a more favorable tax position than paying top dollar for “turnkey.” Over the years, that delta matters.

• Debt optimization: If you can handle a purchase and rehab and then refinance out (once stabilized), you can align debt with after-renovation value while keeping your operating costs in check.

• Rent trajectory: Rents didn’t just catch up to prices; in many cases, they reset the baseline. Selecting assets and locations with future rent headroom is still the smartest edge.

Underwriting mindset: the shift that wins deals now

A few investor habits from the episode are worth repeating:

• Stop fixating on current rent. What it rented for last year is trivia. The job is to project: what will it rent for in good condition, and what’s the likely rent in 2–5 years?

• Distinguish “okay now, great later” from “already tapped out.” The best performers in the last five years were often “okay” at acquisition but sat in the path of rent growth (or had clear value-add). Today’s “great” might be yesterday’s “okay” viewed through future rent.

• Reality check: retail-price duplexes. Some asking prices don’t pencil (e.g., the example of a $400K duplex with roughly $1,600/side rents). The market may still transact those for special situations (1031 pressure, strategic buyers), but disciplined underwriting doesn’t change.

So…has multifamily investing changed drastically since 2017?

Yes—by the numbers and by who can play. Per-door pricing roughly doubled, price-per-square-foot climbed, and rents tracked closely. The PPSF-to-RPSF ratio barely budged across five years, undermining the idea that small multifamily is sitting on a cliff edge. If anything, the shift has been from undervalued to properly priced, with cash flow still achievable where investors:

• Buy below replacement when possible.

• Create value with smart rehab.

• Underwrite to projected stabilized rents, and

• Keep the property tax strategy front and center.

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Bottom Line

Small multifamily in Greenville isn’t a bubble waiting to pop; it’s a repriced asset class where rents and values moved together. Deals still exist, but they demand forward-looking rent assumptions, value-add execution, and attention to local tax mechanics that materially affect returns. In other words, the game changed, but the fundamentals did not: buy smart, renovate well, rent right, and structure your debt and taxes so the asset can do what it’s built to do—perform over time.

Ien Araneta

Journal & Podcast Editor | Selling Greenville