Almost 80% of my investment property is within 10 minutes of my house. More importantly, I have 2 “clusters” of investment properties where the bulk of my properties are located. Conversely, I have met investors that own 1 duplex 30 minutes south of their house, they own another one 20 minutes

north of their house, and 2 more 15 minutes east of their house. Every time they want to stop by their property, they can only see one at a time and it is an planned event. I can see 14 of my units in about 5 minutes by driving to NE Minneapolis (often when I am just driving past to my house in South Minneapolis).

I tell everyone of my customers to initially buy property close to where they live, work or where ever they travel at least a couple times a week. Clustering your investment property purchases brings you a lot of efficiencies and synergies:

1. You can stop at multiple properties during one trip to your neighborhood.
2. There may be opportunities to save on advertising for open units if you own properties in the same neighborhood and price range. Plus, you will save time by showing multiple units.
3. You will become familiar with the neighborhood including: other vacancies, problem areas, rent amounts, and property valuations.
4. There may be neighborhood handyman that can do most of your repairs for your properties.
5. When I am at my properties, I occasionally have neighbors approach me and tell me about other properties that are for sale (typically non-MLS) and possible houses that I could flip.

There are thousands of good investment property buys out there these days. There is no need to stretch yourself from one side of the city to another. Build some clusters of investment property and you will happy that you did.