In this instructional video Christian Osgood walks viewers through his proven system for acquiring, operating, and profiting from low‑income multifamily properties while keeping rents affordable and tenants satisfied. He begins by showcasing a 76‑unit LIHTC (Low‑Income Housing Tax Credit) project in Texas, explaining the tax‑credit program’s rent restrictions and long‑term incentives. Osgood warns against buying cheap, single‑family homes that generate hidden maintenance costs and advocates purchasing larger multifamily assets that can be managed on‑site and benefit from economies of scale. He details a repeatable operational playbook: standardize every unit’s finishes (flooring, paint, countertops, appliances), bulk‑purchase replaceable parts (light fixtures, LVP flooring), maintain a central supply shed, and use vetted vendors to drive down costs. He emphasizes the importance of on‑site management, consistent branding across properties, and continuous reinvestment in upgrades such as landscaping, fencing, and trash‑handling protocols. By keeping operating expenses low, offering slightly below‑market rent, and leveraging Section 8 subsidies, owners can achieve 90‑95% occupancy, high tenant retention, and strong cash flow, while also positioning the asset for a lucrative exit when LIHTC restrictions expire. Throughout, Osgood shares practical “hacks” (e.g., limiting flags to avoid tenant disputes) and stresses that providing quality affordable housing is both socially responsible and financially rewarding when done at scale.
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Hello and welcome to the 76-unit. This is one of 4 affordable housing projects that we're working on. This one's LIHTC, we work with Section 8. I have done over 186 units in this town, and how are we making money while keeping things affordable? I'm going to share with you exactly on this video the strategy that you can use and what you need to do to keep costs down, profits up, and have happy tenants without being a slumlord. First, I need to show you my favorite upgrade to this property. We're at the 76-unit. These flags were tattered, just disrespectful and horrible. We just got the new flags up. America and Texas are flying high. As a fun fact, we only allow those two flags at our properties here in Texas. The reason being, any political flags or any college flags, any flags of any affiliation of any kind, you piss off half the tenants. So we just said, hey guys, do not do this. We had so many tenant fights because people would put up some flag that pissed off the other half of the tenants. This is a little hack that'll help you out if you buy a bunch of apartments like I'm going to talk about today. Let's talk low-income housing. So this project here, the 76 units, I'll be walking around this as I talk. This is a LIHTC property. I have 2 of these in Stephenville, Texas, but I have 4 low-income properties here in Texas making up 186 units. Now, on this channel, I often cover how we buy these with creative finance. We have a whole school community, SKOOL, you can check out for multifamily strategy with a community of people who do the exact same thing. So you want to know how to do it, go over there. The information is free. For low-income housing, this is the most important thing. We do not want to have a slum. So when you're going through, you're going to notice a lot of these buildings are really nice. The landscaping is looking really good. Here's the model for low-income housing done right. First of all, do not, do not, do not, do not buy cheap houses. Like cheap anything else, cheap is bad. Cheap loses money. It is so hard because what happens is you might be cash flowing a few hundred bucks a month. I've seen these small properties, these beat-up properties, you're like, hey, We're gonna get Section 8 in here, we're gonna make a bunch of money. And then the dishwasher goes out, and suddenly half your year's cash flow is gone. What ends up happening is people buy a whole bunch of these, they get a whole bunch of problems. The bigger you get, the harder it is to manage. So the first thing with low income is eliminate the single family. Houses are for families. Apartment complexes, that's a business for investors. So we're gonna talk about how we run these. Now what is LIHTC? As two of my properties are this, Section 42 of the tax code. Essentially, We have to rent to people who make little enough compared to the area median income, and we have some temporary restrictions on what we can charge for rent at this property. Now, you're not in this program forever, but this is a way that the government incentivizes developers to build properties for lower-income individuals. In exchange for the restrictions on rent, those developers get massive tax benefits for keeping these in the programs, which are usually 15 to 30 years. When you're buying these, because you have fixed variables and restrictions, the numbers are super easy. You have to buy for day one cash flow period because you are limited on your ability to increase your income for an extended period of time. Now, you hold these long enough, eventually LIHTC will expire, or there's a few different exits that you can have from the program where all of a sudden the value of the building doubles, which will eventually happen here. But our primary goal is to buy properties that have enough income to keep the properties nice, to make a profit, but most importantly, to keep rent affordable. So how do you do it for a property like this? Number one thing: standardize the units. The same flooring, the same paint color, the same stains, the same countertops. Everything is the same. I have a storage shed up the hill that has all of our materials in it. Always buy more than you need. The more projects we do, the more we save on future projects. Massive, massive help. Next, buy properties that are big enough to have on-site management, or buy enough properties like I did in Stephenville, Texas, where the smaller properties can benefit from the on-site abilities of your larger properties. But the goal here is to buy big enough and to get consistent. If you go to any of my units, all 186 of them in this town, same paint colors, same color scheme, same flooring. I think I said colors twice. Same appliances. You get the gist. We have set vendors. It's you working for efficiencies so you have cost savings, not so you just make more money, though that is a side benefit. You're doing it so you can provide excellent housing for excellent people. You want to have enough cash flow to consistently every year reinvest back into the property. There is no set it and forget it real estate in affordable housing. Make sure that you use replaceable parts. You have a model where it's, hey, what is the nicest stuff we can get least amount of money. Perfect example are light fixtures. When we go in and update the light fixtures, they're modern, they're way nicer looking than all the old stuff, makes the whole unit look different, and they're like $100 a fixture. And we get contractor discounts because we buy them in bulk. So now we have a whole ton of these every time we rent a unit. Boom, modernized. Anywhere that we find carpet, we bring it to LVP, glue down LVP, looks absolutely gorgeous. It's simple, It's easy. Replaceable parts keep the cost down. Make sure the units look nice. Now, though, how do you make a ton of money doing this? Well, when you get really efficient at this and you're keeping your costs down, you're allowed to offer less expensive rent. When you have less expensive rent, you have very little vacancy because you have a nicer space than other people would have to charge more for. I can make a profit with nicer units, lower price. Guess what that means? More money for you. The other strategy that I think all multifamily owners need to consider: how are you using Section 8 in your portfolio? Make every single building up to the Section 8 standards. It's a higher standard than you think, which means if you renovate to this, even the market rate tenants are getting a better deal. Your safety compliance, your liability, all this stuff is better. In addition, people who need help housing, who have government assistance— I get for this campus There's like 20 people out of 76 that are on Section 8 and on Section 42. So they have reduced rent, but still a majority of that rent, if not all of that rent, is being paid out of my tax dollars and your tax dollars. It comes back to me in exchange for providing housing. You can rent to people who need help and you give a nicer space because the government is helping them out. I think everyone should be on these programs. You're allowed to screen the exact same way. We have fantastic tenants. Maintenance problems, non-payment. Section 8, when done right, is providing, just like always, excellent housing to excellent people. The fact that they need a leg up is a better reason to help them out. The last thing you do is you make sure the thing is just nicer than you bought it. All the time when you're buying for any of these deals, they get better and better and better every year. Always leave extra for projects. Example, these fences were falling down around the trash cans. I don't want to see a bunch of trash cans when I'm a tenant walking around the property. We just got these metal posts up, wood's coming in, we're going to have a brand new fence around. This is going to look way better, but we put something sustainable up that's going to make the campus better. Is it a huge expenditure? No, but it's the little things. Here's a hack that I learned. This actually saves me a ton of money. I'm doing this today. I drove down to the properties, I'm walking every single property, and as I do it I'm pretending I'm buying the property, not that I already own it. What you find, you walk around, you go like, hey, if I was buying this property, what things would I change from the current ownership? And every time I do this, I find things where I'm like, gosh, these owners, what are they thinking? We forgot to do something. And then I'm like, all right, the owner's me. My big thing today is just the trash around campus. There should have been a plan on how this gets picked up. So we have excellent landscaping, Granted, the grass is, you know, it's November, the grass is kind of dead. So if you're seeing brown, it's usually green. But you're looking down here, look at this. Well landscaped, well managed. You have garbage lying around on all the sides of everything. You have boxes out, cans. It makes the whole thing look trashy. So the first thing I would do is like, okay, who owns that task in this person's company? And I realized we didn't delegate anyone to that. We just have a landscaper, we have a property manager. No one knows who's supposed to do what. Easy fixes. Do this on every property, but especially the low income. This is the stuff that your tenants appreciate the most. It's the little things and the attention to detail. If you do this, here's what you end up with: apartments that are at 95— 90 to 95% of market rent. You have tenants who stay forever because you're still the most affordable in the space, and you stay between 95 and 100% occupied, which means you have effectively maxed your revenue and reduced your chance of move-out. You do this in any city in the US that needs housing. Providing affordable housing is always in need. If you can provide the best product at the lowest price, that's the way to do it. And you only do it with replaceable parts and you do it with scale. Stop buying single-family, start buying multifamily and stack your units in one market so all of your materials are in one spot. Your savings can be passed to your tenants and that is being a good landlord.
