From $275K to almost $700K, these Twin Cities duplexes offer potential income to homebuyers

Having someone live in the unit below her family's gave Karen Hoyle a sense of security while raising her two daughters, especially whenever she traveled, mostly during winter.

"In Minnesota, if the furnace goes out, your pipes can freeze," she said. "There's peace of mind of having someone there. If something goes wrong or if there's an emergency, and you're traveling, they can let you know right away."

Karen and her late husband, Robert Hoyle, built their 4,248-square-foot St. Anthony Park home in St. Paul in 1977, knowing they wanted the flexibility of having a lower-level unit they could rent out or use for family members. Now the house —with three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the upper level along with three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the ground level — is on the market for $649,000 as Hoyle looks to live with her children out of state.

"Even though they didn't own the home, tenants told us they felt like they were in a single-family home, not a duplex," she said.

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The Hoyles built the lower unit with their aging parents in mind. In the meantime, the Hoyles rented it out, with the extra money helping them cover the property's mortgage.

"We loved the Scandinavian look with the light wood and open spaces in the house," she said. "We were envisioning the lower level being even with the street, too, so it would be easy for whoever was living down there to take in their groceries, as well as disabled and elderly tenants."

The couple would receive 50 to 100 rental applications at a time, Hoyle said. The family also used a lower-level bedroom to host international high school students. She estimated the downstairs unit could fetch about $1,500 to $2,000 a month in rent, while the upstairs unit could run about $2,500 to $3,000 a month.

There were few drawbacks to having a renter, aside from the occasional mail mix-up or emergency maintenance task (Karen recalled how her husband once had to help the lower-level tenants after a nanny tried putting a corn cob down the garbage disposal).

Building their own duplex allowed the couple to design it exactly how they wanted. The Hoyles were both of Scandinavian descent, and the modern and minimal style they saw while visiting Europe's northern countries captivated them. With the help of Minneapolis architect Eldon Morrison, the couple built in skylights to let in sunlight during the day and wall-to-wall windows in the living room to help heat the home during the winter.

Plus, they installed top-of-the-line insulation, which kept the property's energy usage low, and pocket doors gave their growing children privacy from visiting guests.

The couple also designed both levels so there was no need to use the stairs on a day-to-day basis, which gave them the flexibility to age in place.

Best of all, the couple incorporated Waterstruck bricks made in the 1700s and 1800s that once made up Boston's Beacon Hill roads. The bricks were later purchased by Hoyle's grandfather.

"My grandfather got [Robert] to visit him in the Northeast in the [19]70s when we were dreaming of this house. We took some of that brick back to Minnesota. That's what became the fireplace hearths in the upper and downstairs," Hoyle said. "That's our little legacy in this house."

Kelly Yoon (952-999-6160, kelly.yoon@redfin.com) of Redfin Corp. has the $649,000 listing.

Single-family to duplex

Converting a single-family home into a duplex requires having the right layout, said Twin Cities listing agent Anthony Lorence.

When Lorence saw the South St. Paul home he's listing, he knew it had the potential to be a multifamily home. The two-bedroom, two-bath property already had the main components: two kitchens and two separate entries for the upper and lower units.

And at a lower price point of $275,000, the new owners could have some extra cash to spend on installing separate meters for utilities like water and gas in the 1,422-square-foot home, built in 1905.

Anecdotally, he's seen an increase in buyers looking to buy duplexes, with hopes of extra income from tenants to help pay the mortgage, a term he calls "house hacking."

"I've been doing this eight years now, and the last three to four years, I've seen more and more people interested in buying duplexes," he said. "This is a great house for a younger couple who are looking for a starter home and trying to take advantage of house hacking to make home ownership more affordable."

Anthony Lorence (952-454-5190, tony@northstaragent.com) of the Jason Mitchell Group has the $275,000 listing.

Just move in

Occasionally, a buyer will find a duplex that already has a tenant who wants to stay put. When that happens, all the buyer has to do is move into the vacated unit.

At agent Justin Fox's St. Paul listing in the West Side neighborhood, that's just the situation. The utilities are already on separate meters, and there is already a rental license in place.

The 4,352-square-foot home, built in 2021, has granite countertops, updated stainless steel appliances in the kitchen and a garage with a single-car stall for each unit. Each unit has four beds and two baths. When the time comes to find a new tenant, Fox recommended the new owners take their time finding the right one.

"Don't stress about getting in someone right away. You're going to want to do a proper background and income check," he said. "It's important you get along well with the tenant, especially since you'll be sharing a wall with them."

Listing agent Justin Fox (651-455-7000, justinf@professionals.net) of RE/MAX Professionals has the $695,000 listing.