One year after I used that property to pull a HELOC and this year used that money to purchase an off market 4 family property in Clinton for well under market value, which I just recently finished all of the repairs and upgrades on.

you can still find good deals more west of the freeway in SLC or off market in SLC or south salt lake but they are harder to come by

Quote from @Ivan Castanon: Quote from @Jay Hinrichs: depends on market most of FLA that wont move the needle.rust belt mid west you can find deals for those amounts.. going to be rougher areas of course. do NOT follow the advice of anyone suggesting second postions or gap funding.

For multifamily, target markets with strong rental demand, value-add opportunities, and creative financing options like seller financing or private capital.

I would say you should start off by just meeting multi-family investor-friendly agents who can help get you started with 5 units search and work on finding you off-market ones as well Thanks Kerlous!

If the latter, how does that look on a day to day in terms of operating, marketing, and the ownership structure?

In this case, your monthly payment with 20% down will have a good MARKET rate if your DTI works with a much lower month payment and no mortgage insurance(MI).

Best if the people you work with are in your area and know your market. 

The key for me wasn't to invest in the 'best place' but to know a market so well that a deal jumps off the page when it appears.

But if costs are high or demand is uncertain, holding onto the land while monitoring the market might be the better play.