In this YouTube presentation Christian Osgood explains Rule #23 of his weekly real‑estate series: real estate success is a contact sport. He argues that the number and quality of relationships you cultivate directly determines how quickly you can close deals and grow a portfolio. Osgood shares personal anecdotes, including a 2.5‑year relationship with a Moses Lake owner that led to a 6‑unit purchase at 10 % down, and a partnership with his colleague Cody that evolved from early mentorship to joint acquisitions. He outlines practical tactics for building contacts: attending local real‑estate meetups, calling owners directly, and committing to meet one new owner each week (52 per year). He emphasizes that early efforts feel slow, but momentum builds after the first few deals, citing his own timeline—6 months to a first duplex, then rapid subsequent acquisitions, culminating in financial freedom after about 18 months of full‑time investing. Osgood stresses consistency, patience, and focusing on relationship over immediate deals, and encourages viewers to adopt a systematic contact‑building approach to accelerate their real‑estate careers.
Chapters
Hey YouTube, I'm Christian and I'm back this week to talk to you about rule number 23. Every Monday we share our rules of real estate. Today's rule is real estate is a contact sport. A lot of people look at Cody and I and go, how did you go so quickly? How do you do everything you do and how do you build relationships? Well, last week we talked about how owners know other owners and that is a rule of real estate. Well, they're not the only contact in real estate and as you collect more contacts, you can move much quicker. When I say contact sport, I don't mean that I'm literally coming out and tackling people. I don't mean physical contact, but the amount of contacts you have will dictate how fast you can move and how many real estate contracts you end up signing. So I'm just going to dive right into this, and then we're going to talk practical application for you. So if you are looking to build a large portfolio, you're looking to get traction, but you're stuck on your first deal, this is one of the things that you just have to take some time on. One of the bigger owners that we've worked with was a relationship that Cody has been working on for 2.5 years. 2.5 years of relationship, just learning from them, not asking them for deals, just asking them, how did you get started? How did you get to where you're at today? Took that long before they finally put us in their car, drove us both around Moses Lake. Granted, Cody had already put in a year and a half work before I even got a chance to join, but drove us all the way around Moses Lake and let us buy 6 units from them. And they suggested this would be a good first deal for us with you guys. And because we had spent all that time, we got to do that particular deal 10% down instead of 20% down. They taught us all other sorts of things that we have used on multiple deals, but the lesson was worth a lot more. More importantly, those contacts introduced us to other contacts around the city. I met people in insurance. I met other brokers. In fact, the broker who sold us the 38-plex actually works in the firm named after one of those two owners. So as you start to do this, it's not an instant thing, and the longer you play the game, the more contacts you have. Now, as we get to where we're at today, here's a great piece of practical application. Uh, one of the first buildings Cody ever purchased was from a local to Mose Lake. He's also a developer. He He started with actually nothing. He went from no money to houses to small multifamily to larger multifamily to developing huge multifamily. Massive, massive player in the county that we operate in. After several years of doing transactions with him, I got introduced in the picture as Cody's partner. And we took out a big building together. We did a little building with that same owner. And I started getting networked with Cody. We had lunches at his house. He taught us a lot about how to play the game, but most importantly, what we did to build that relationship is we invested time. A 12-plex that Cody bought 3 years ago, 2 and a half years ago, when Cody bought it, that owner said, hey, you should replace the roof. And this is what I would do if I wanted to spend more time on this particular project. He just didn't want to. That's why he's willing to sell it. When we actually purchased the property, we pulled out some money from it and we put on that new roof that he always wanted to put on the property, exactly what it needed. We also gave it a coat of paint, interior renovations, new floors, but we included him on everything that we did. And when we finished, he would drive by, actually throughout each phase, comment how much he loved it. When we finished, we brought him out there and we talked about, this is what we did and this is what we're seeing, and we're so grateful for the advice. We're now in a position with him where as he builds, because he transitioned to building, he's actually let us know, hey, when I'm working on these projects, you're my first call and I'll seller finance everything I build to you guys because you've shown me you know how to operate. I like you guys and you know how to execute and keep a piece of real estate. Not everyone can do what we do. The relationship took years to build. However, where we're at today, Cody and I bought everything together in the last 12 months. Everything you've seen online with the two of us looks like it happened instantly. However, I've been building contacts over a 4-year sales career in CoStar, LoopNet, Apartments.com, meeting owners, lenders, property managers all over Washington State. I had some contacts and I had some experience. I also had to start from ground zero learning how to do the phone calls, which means failing a couple times. I've called some owners, own in Grant County, live in Seattle. My first few calls were terrible. I would reach out. I didn't know whether I was asking to buy the property, form a relationship. I just started with, hey, I was wondering if you'd be willing to meet up. I'm a property neighbor with you out in the county. They're like, well, no, I don't really want to meet. I was like, "Oh, okay. Would you consider an offer on the property?" I just didn't know what I was going to say. And so I just kind of muddled my way through it. But then I had another call and another call. And those calls resulted in meetings where I'd go out and get coffee and I'd sit down and meet another person. If you're starting this game, it's going to feel like you have a lot of meetings and you don't have any deals. And it's going to feel very slow. When Cody started, it took him 9 months from when he committed to buying real estate to when he closed on his first deal. For myself, I made the commitment a few years before, but when I started really trying, I came in with some money. I had saved up $100,000, and before I bought my first duplex, it took me about 6 months of really searching and getting to know the game. After that first deal, 3 months later, my second duplex. 3 months later, 38-plex. A few weeks later, 7-plex and 6-plex. You get momentum as you get these contacts, but I really wanted to share in this video, it is a contact sport. You have to be exposed to it. Go to events. There's a lot of real estate meetups everywhere. People love networking in this particular game. Go to where the players are meeting. Meet people in person at real estate meetups in your area. Every single area in the country has them. Look for them online. I mean, that's really the easy way to find them. Just Google real estate meetup near me. Just show up. Meet someone. Share your goals. Get to know them. Do not chase a deal because that's not how you're going to gain a contact. You don't gain a contact by saying, I want to buy your stuff. You get in contact by sharing your goals, learning theirs, and booking a coffee meeting and expanding upon that relationship. You can also do this by calling owners directly, which is what we do. I have a policy, one new owner every week. That's 52 owners a year. If you meet 52 owners of real estate, learn what they're trying to do, and share what you're trying to do, the deal part is going to take care of itself. However, 52 owners in a year implies there's there's a year of time. Getting rich and creating lasting wealth through cash flow in real estate actually does take some time. Now, is it a lot faster than a 40-year career? Absolutely. In fact, after a few years of learning and one year of actually applying, I quit my job, did this full-time. That does not mean that is right for you, but that was right for me. Full-time doing this for 1 year, I retired myself, I retired my wife, and I now get to start building the companies that I've always wanted to build and play a game that I absolutely love in expanding real estate. But I hit financial freedom really after 18 months of investing, if you include that first duplex and the lag time between. About 18 months full cycle from I closed on my first tiny property to where I'm at today with financial freedom. Year and a half is pretty darn good. If you're not quitting your job, which again, I don't necessarily recommend, if you are just doing this slowly and methodically, 3 to 5 years is a realistic target. All you have to do is be consistent about adding new contacts. People ask me, how do I know if I'm working with the right lawyer? Well, how many lawyers have you networked with? You'll know really quick if you meet 5 or 6 of them who you want to work with and who has the experience that's right for you. I lost my lighting, but I don't want to lose my momentum, so I will wrap here. Get more contacts, you will get more contracts. You will move forward by the contacts you get. Till next week, like, subscribe. Sorry for my lighting. Christian Osgood out.
