Christian OsgoodCEO, Multifamily Strategy · CEO at Multifamily Strategy

Buying Real Estate in Washington State

11 Sept 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:33

In this YouTube discussion, Christian Osgood and other participants explore how to approach buying real estate in Washington State. Osgood emphasizes the importance of leveraging a competitive advantage—specifically, his 32 years of lived experience and deep market knowledge in Washington—when selecting investment locations. He contrasts this with the operational ease of managing deals in Texas, where his property management company is based, and advises investors to focus on markets where they have the greatest advantage. Another speaker adds that targeting non‑hyped, less‑popular markets can uncover more opportunities and may present fewer distressed sellers compared to over‑hyped areas, acknowledging that each market has its own set of challenges. The conversation underscores the strategic balance between local expertise, operational logistics, and market hype in real‑estate investment decisions.

What is y'all's opinion on buying real estate in Washington State?
For me, I am a huge fan of buying in your backyard. Where do you have competitive advantage? I have competitive advantage in Washington because I lived in Washington for 32 years. I know the markets, and when I built my portfolio, I could drive over the mountains. So right now, if I did a deal in a market where I am currently located and have resources in, it could still make sense for me to do deals in Central Washington because I have resources. However, it's much easier for me to to do it in Texas where I have my PM company. So I'll look at where do I have the greatest advantage? If you could do real estate anywhere, do it where you have the most advantage.
I personally prefer to buy in markets that aren't hyped up. I, I believe there's more opportunities in places like this than some of the more popular investment areas. And there's gonna be difficulty everywhere, right? There's just different types of difficulty. I've found that in a lot of the hyped up markets, you have a lot more people that are losing real estate right now than some of the more steady Eddie areas.
Even though it's becoming less and less landlord-friendly, the rules that were passed, right, rent increases are 9.6% a year. That's actually quite a bit. Landlords that are hurting and where deals can be found, of course, if they choose to sell now when their rents are, let's say it's a 1-bedroom at $1,000 when it should be at $1,600, they also have been told by their brokers what is the likelihood of a sale and where it's gonna trade. So that's also where you can get good deals, but just know that it's gonna take a longer process. It could take 5 or 7 years to really see that progress and get your cash flow much higher.