$31K Net on a Duplex Wholetail: The Direct Mail Strategy Most Investors Are Ignoring
Most real estate investors focus almost exclusively on single-family houses. That's not wrong, single-family deals make up the bulk of most portfolios, but it means small multi-family properties like duplexes and triplexes are consistently underlisted, undermarketed, and undervalued.
SoldFast, a nationwide home-buying company, has built that gap into their strategy. Here's how one apartment postcard campaign led to a $31,000 duplex wholetail in just six weeks!
The Challenge: Finding Off-Market Multifamily Deals That Most Investors Overlook
The small multifamily space (two to four units) sits in an awkward middle ground in real estate investing. It's too small for most commercial investors to care about and too unfamiliar for most residential wholesalers to pursue. That means owners of duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes receive a fraction of the direct mail that single-family homeowners get.
For SoldFast that's an opportunity.
Their business model is built around giving sellers multiple options (a transparent comparison between listing the property and accepting a cash offer) so they're not dependent on squeezing every dollar out of a distressed seller. They just need to find owners who are ready to move on. The challenge is reaching them, because most off-market marketing strategies are designed around single-family leads.
The Plan: Target Small Multifamily Owners With a Dedicated Apartment Postcard
SoldFast used a simple but underutilized approach: they pulled a targeted list of small multifamily properties and mailed them with a postcard designed specifically for that asset class.
Here's what the campaign looked like:
- List: All 2-4 unit properties with equity (pulled from PropStream)
- Mailing piece: Handwritten-style apartment postcard
- Format: 4x6 postcard with real blue ink handwriting, first-class postage
The apartment postcard is purpose-built for multifamily outreach. The copy uses asset class merge fields, which means the message matches the specific property type the owner holds, a duplex owner sees messaging about their duplex, not a generic "we buy houses" pitch. That level of specificity shows to the owner that you know what they have and you're serious about buying it.
SoldFast also included their website URL on the postcard, which gave the seller a second way to respond beyond calling.
Their data (and ours) consistently shows that a meaningful percentage of leads will visit your website before making contact. It builds credibility and captures leads who prefer filling out a form over picking up the phone.
The Execution: A Transparent Offer That Gave the Seller Flexibility
The sellers were a family who had owned and lived in the duplex for five years. They weren't in distress, they were ready for a lifestyle change. Their plan was to find a property with more land, and in the interim, they intended to live in their camper while they searched for the right lot.
SoldFast's transparent process was a perfect fit for this situation. They showed the sellers exactly what they could expect from listing the property versus accepting a cash offer. Listing would have netted the sellers roughly $50,000 more, and SoldFast made that clear upfront.
The sellers chose the cash offer anyway. The reason: flexibility. They didn't want to deal with showings, staging, buyer financing contingencies, and the unpredictable timeline of a traditional sale. SoldFast offered a six-week close, which gave the family a clean, predictable exit on their terms.
This is a detail worth highlighting for investors. Not every seller is motivated by price. Many sellers (especially those in transitional life situations) are motivated by certainty, speed, and simplicity. When you lead with transparency and give sellers a real choice, you close deals that a hard-pitch approach would lose.
The Results: $31K Net Profit on a Quick Duplex Wholetail
SoldFast purchased the duplex for $302,000, put approximately $5,000 into cleanup, and listed it for $390,000. After commissions and closing costs, they netted $31,000 — on a deal that most investors in their market never would have pursued because it wasn't a single-family house.
- Property type: Duplex
- Exit strategy: Wholetail (light cleanup, then list)
- Purchase price: $302,000
- Renovation/cleanup costs: $5,000
- List price: $390,000
- Net profit: $31,000
The timeline from acquisition to sale was fast, which is typical of the wholetail strategy on small multifamily. These properties are in demand from both investors looking for cash flow and families looking for house-hack opportunities, so the buyer pool is larger than most people assume.
Looking to add small multifamily to your marketing strategy?
Let's talk it through! Schedule a free strategy call today.
