How a Wichita 8-Unit Moves From Call to Close

I get this call regularly from brokers in the Wichita market: "I have a seller. It is an 8-unit, older building, some deferred maintenance. Would you look at it?"

The answer is almost always yes. When a broker pre-screens deal fit before calling, we can move fast. Rather than describe that in the abstract, here is the whole sequence worked end to end, from the first call to the recorded deed.

Worked example: illustrative, not a specific transaction. The property, the seller, and the negotiation below are constructed to show how the process runs. The underwriting method, the expense recast, the cap rate range, and the timeline mechanics are exactly what we use.

This is illustrative math, not tax or legal advice. Talk to your CPA before structuring any actual sale.

The scenario: 1971 vintage 8-unit, east Wichita

Picture a broker with a long-standing relationship with the owner through property management referrals. The owner is in his early seventies and has held this east-side Wichita building since 1990. There is no financial distress. He simply wants to exit before the flat roof triggers another major capital outlay.

The property facts:

• 8 units, 1971 masonry construction, two-story walkup on a corner lot
• Unit mix: 4 one-bedrooms at $700 per month, 4 two-bedrooms at $850 per month
• Gross scheduled rent: $6,200 per month, $74,400 annually
• Trailing 12-month collected rent: $71,200 (trailing vacancy around 4%)
• Owner's T-12 shows $19,000 in operating expenses, implying $52,200 of net operating income
• Owner's asking price: $450,000, which on his own numbers looks like an 11.6% cap

The broker calls us before bringing a price to the seller. Smart move.

What do we need before issuing an LOI?

A call like this runs about 15 minutes. By the end of it, we have everything needed to underwrite:

1. The address (so we can pull the Sedgwick County tax record and confirm the assessed value and tax bill from the Sedgwick County Appraiser)
2. Unit count and unit mix (4 one-bed, 4 two-bed, confirmed)
3. Trailing 12 months of rent collected from the seller's tax schedule, not a pro forma
4. A rough description of physical condition (flat roof at original 1971 installation, HVAC aging, masonry otherwise solid)
5. The asking price and whether the seller needs all cash or would consider a carry note

We do not need photos, an offering memorandum, or an inspection report at this stage. Those come after the LOI.

How do we underwrite a Wichita 8-unit in 30 minutes?

We run the same 30-minute underwriting template on every deal. For a 1971 Wichita 8-unit, the sequence looks like this.

Step 1: Recast gross income. Scheduled rents of $74,400 minus an 8% vacancy assumption equals $68,448 in effective gross income. The 8% vacancy is our standard Wichita B-class underwriting assumption. Trailing actual vacancy on this building is 4%, so the underwrite is conservative by design.

Step 2: Recast expenses. The owner's T-12 shows roughly $19,000 in total operating expenses. When we underwrite, the first thing we do is recast each line to current market cost rather than the seller's locked-in basis. This is where most of the price gap comes from, and it is worth walking a broker through line by line.

Recast NOI: $68,448 minus $30,876 equals $37,572, against the $52,200 the owner's own schedule implies. That $14,628 spread is the entire negotiation, and none of it is a haggling tactic. It is a twenty-year-old tax basis, an insurance quote that has not been re-shopped since the last renewal, below-market management, and no capital reserve at all on a building with a roof at end of life.

This is the single most useful thing a broker can understand before taking a price to their client. On the owner's numbers, $450,000 looks like an 11.6% cap and feels like a bargain. On recast numbers, that same $450,000 is an 8.3% cap. Both parties are looking at the same building and reading two different deals.

Step 3: Apply the cap rate. Wichita B-class 1970s vintage multifamily trades at 7.5% to 8.5% cap rate in 2026, with the lower end applying to properties in better condition and premium locations. For a corner-lot building with a flat roof at end of useful life, we would use 8.5%.

$37,572 divided by 0.085 equals $442,024. Round to $442,000.

Step 4: Apply the physical adjustment. The flat roof is the primary concern. Budget a $22,000 replacement in year one (present value discounted at 5% over 12 months: $20,952) and apply that against the cap-rate value.

Adjusted value: $442,000 minus $21,000 equals $421,000. That is the model output, and it is the floor.

The offer goes out at $430,000, roughly $9,000 above the floor. That is deliberate. On an off-market deal the point is to put a strong, clean number on the table once rather than grind through three rounds, and that $9,000 of headroom is also what lets us hold the price through inspection instead of coming back for a credit. A buffer that exists on our side of the ledger is the reason we can promise not to retrade and mean it.

The owner's ask is $450,000. The offer is $430,000. The gap is $20,000, and it is entirely explained by the recast table above.

What do the LOI terms look like?

LOI terms:

• Purchase price: $430,000 (all cash, no financing contingency)
• 15-business-day inspection period
• Closing within 17 calendar days of inspection sign-off
• Broker commission paid by Kallpa at closing, not netted from the seller's proceeds

A seller in this position typically counters, often around $445,000. Our response is to hold and explain the recast in writing: the roof reserve and the expense recast are the price drivers, not a negotiating tactic. We walk through the cap rate math line by line. A seller who sees the arithmetic usually accepts, because the number is not arbitrary.

On inspection, a 1971 flat roof of this description comes back about as expected: some membrane cracking, estimated remaining useful life 2 to 4 years, no structural issues with the masonry, aging HVAC condensers that are functional but near the end. All of that sits inside what was already budgeted, which is precisely why the price does not move afterward.

Why would this close in 17 days instead of 30?

Three things have to run in parallel to collapse the timeline.

1. Title is ordered on day one. We ask the broker to request the title commitment on the day the LOI is signed. If the commitment comes back on day five with a clean preliminary report, no liens, no judgment clouds, no outstanding mechanic's liens, no divorce decree clouds, the timeline compresses immediately. When title is the critical path, 17 days is impossible.

2. The seller has organized records. Estoppels are needed from all 8 tenants confirming lease terms and security deposit balances. When the seller has all current leases in a single dated folder with tenant contact information attached, estoppels can go out on day three and come back by day eight. When they do not, this single item can add two weeks.

3. No new survey is required. For a 1971 corner-lot building with a legal description recorded fifty years ago, the title company's file survey is often sufficient. Ordering a new survey adds 8 to 12 days to the critical path in most markets.

Get all three right and the wire goes out on day 17, with the deed recording the same afternoon. Miss any one of them and you are looking at the standard 30 to 45.

Is a broker-sourced deal different from a direct seller deal?

No, not in the ways that matter.

The underwriting is identical. The due diligence is identical. The speed is identical. The only structural difference is that we budget for a broker commission on our end, which the seller never sees deducted from their net.

We do not treat broker deals differently on retrades. The rule is the same either way: if the inspection surfaces a material defect that was not disclosed and that defect meaningfully changes the recast NOI, we bring the finding in writing with supporting contractor bids and give the seller two options, repair before close or accept a documented price credit. If nothing material surfaces, the price does not move. Our retrade policy is documented in detail in the broker guide.

What should Wichita brokers know before calling?

If you have a Wichita seller who owns a 5-to-50-unit multifamily property and wants to exit, here is what to bring us before the first call:

• Address and unit count
• Unit mix (how many one-beds, two-beds, three-beds)
• 12 months of actual rent collected (from the rent roll or the seller's schedule E)
• Any known deferred maintenance items (roof age, HVAC age, plumbing or electrical known issues)
• The seller's price expectation or range

That is enough for us to give you a verbal underwrite range within 30 minutes of the call. If the range works for your client, we move to LOI the same day. If it does not, you know before the seller does, and you have not burned a client relationship on a number that was never going to close.

Brokers licensed through the Kansas Real Estate Commission have disclosure obligations on their sellers' behalf. We respect that and provide all deal math in writing so brokers can represent their clients with real numbers, not guesses.

We are active buyers throughout Wichita and Sedgwick County, including Douglas Avenue, College Hill, Riverside, and east-side submarkets. We also work with brokers across Kansas. Everything you need to submit a deal is at the for-brokers page, including the deal submission form and our current acquisition criteria.

When you bring us a deal and it closes cleanly, we want to be the first call you make on the next one. That is the only metric that matters to us on the broker relationship side.

Full commission. At closing. Always. If you want to talk through a specific property before approaching your seller, call directly: (206) 775-8555. You will reach me, not an acquisitions associate.