Robert, all lenders will require a full fledged appraisal before they give you a loan. It sounds like the property that you are considering is not yet on the market since you are asking if your request for the seller to pay for the appraisal would cause the asking price to go up. I could see that you are offering more with the understanding that the seller pay for the appraisal. Everything is negotiable. It all depends on how you approach it. I just don't think that the seller will agree to pay for the appraisal solely because you can't afford it. If I were a seller and a buyer asked me to pay for the appraisal because he can't afford the appraisal I would run the other way. Please don't take offense to that. I am just telling you the truth.

Seriously...what type of financing are you using? I guess you want it at no cost? Call an agent, act interested, and if they don't ask qualifying questions to see if you really are a buyer/investor, use their time to provide you want you want. Heck, with the price of gas they can drive you around to see others as well.

If you can't afford an appraisal, how can you afford the multifamily? You need to really evaluate your needs and what numbers will work for you...such as cash flow, long and short term income vs expenses.

Multi family properties are sold on rents using such numbers as cap rates, gross rent multipliers, etc. You can do your own rent surveys in the local area to determine if your rents are high, low, etc. Find out what the expectations are in your market for prevailing cap rates, etc. and price your property accordingly. Example: In this market a saavy investor would look for a gross rent multiplier of 13 or less. Hence, you would annualize your rents - say 3 units times 1,000 each per month x 12 gives you an annual income of 36,000. A selling price of $500k would give you a GRM of 13.9.