Christian OsgoodCEO, Multifamily Strategy · CEO at Multifamily Strategy

Are you losing money in real estate because you aren’t doing this simple step?

2 Nov 2024 · 1 min

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In this brief video, Christian Osgood explains that many real‑estate investors lose money because they neglect a simple, hands‑on practice he calls “management by walking around.” Osgood describes how, despite living an hour and a half away from a property in Stephenville, Texas, he makes regular trips to physically inspect the site. During his walk‑throughs he checks landscaping, roofs, gutters, laundry areas, and railings, noting that early visits revealed shopping carts, debris, flooding, and a broken railing—issues that would have hurt curb appeal and leasing if left unnoticed. He argues that on‑site inspections let owners spot basic maintenance problems early, preserve curb appeal, improve leasing speed, and ultimately increase profitability. The core message is a direct call to action: if you’re not personally walking the property, you’re likely missing costly problems, so start doing it immediately.

Chapters

You are losing money in real estate if you're not doing this. We call this management by walking around. Now, I live about an hour and a half from Stephenville, Texas, so it's not super convenient to be here every day. However, we make regular trips down here as owners, not just property managers, but as owners. I walk around our properties and I physically get boots on ground here to see how things are going. Now, right now, landscaping's looking pretty good. Roofs are clean, gutters are clean. First time we came down here, right here by the laundry room, there were like shopping carts everywhere. Debris in the gutters, there's a little bit of flooding, one of our railings had fallen down. If you do not walk the campus yourself, you're going to miss out on basic maintenance things that can ruin curb appeal. You can have a harder time leasing if you don't know what's going on at your property. You're not going to operate as well. The best way to save money and make money in real estate: management by walking around. If you're not doing it, do it.