Learn as much as possible about them, THEN strategize.

Clustering can be done on your own or with your friends (or other investors) and it can have huge ancillary and strategical benefits as part of an overall investment strategy or portfolio.On your own, you would cluster by buying properties very close to one another.

Great CPAs like Ashish provide the strategic tax direction. 

We've retained almost every tenant after bringing the rents closer to market, as we were pretty strategic about how we went about the raises. 

@Jared Asch, It's a great strategy that actually has a potential self perpetuating benefit if you look at it strategically enough. 

Hey everybody,I am trying to strategize with my friend and partner about purchasing our first property.

From a strategic perspective I am looking to buy and hold multifamily and generate good cash flow ( beating the market in terms of COC return).

He or one of his people can help you strategize on the tax side.

They solve the hot water issue for the one tenant and strategize how to get the shut offs done in my unit without shutting down 39 other units. - With game plan set, my plumber returns the following day to perform my work.

(I teach what I call the OOS SFR TK Strategy).In that scenario, you could see if you like to use HELOC as an option to purchase, or maybe keep HELOC as an option to grow your portfolio.In a residency situation, the most efficient use of your available funds would be to use as little as possible for your residence and keep as much as possible for your investing goals.There are a few other strategic options to increase the velocity of your money but that would have to be discussed.