In this on‑site video from Abilene, Texas, Christian Osgood explains why he is aggressively acquiring Class B 55+ multifamily properties and why he believes they will remain the strongest multifamily asset class. He contrasts 55+ communities with currently popular asset classes—single‑family homes, RV parks, and mobile‑home parks—arguing that those alternatives are harder to scale, cash‑flow, or require more intensive management. Osgood highlights the booming demand from aging baby boomers, noting near‑100% occupancy and long wait‑lists at his own 55+ properties. He describes the tenant profile as older, fixed‑income renters who are low‑maintenance, respectful, and have a history of being good tenants, resulting in low turnover and minimal upkeep. Pricing advantages are emphasized: 55+ assets often trade at “dumb” low prices, especially those with Low‑Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) restrictions, allowing creative, low‑down‑payment financing. He details a specific deal—a $4.2 million LIHTC 55+ property in Abilene with 80 units, the first in his portfolio to include an elevator—illustrating the operational and learning benefits. Osgood outlines his broader strategy to scale his portfolio toward 1,000 rental units, positioning himself as the go‑to buyer for these niche assets. Finally, he promotes his book, The Book on Creative Real Estate, offering it for free (shipping paid by the buyer) as a resource for investors seeking creative deal structures.
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Hello friends, I'm in yet another office in Abilene that is about to be mine. It is inspection day and is going insanely well on what may be one of the best deals we've ever done. But yet again, it's 55+ in Texas. On today's video, I'm going to go through exactly why we're buying so much 55+ and why I think it's going to continue to be the strongest multifamily asset. First of all, let's talk about some of the other assets that are being marketed popularly right now. Which is single-family. I'm seeing a ton of marketing for, for some reason that's still a thing. And RV parks and mobile home parks. Everyone's saying this is the way to buy things creative and low down, which by the way, we're buying this thing stupidly low down. But if you can buy any asset class right now, I would say Class B multifamily, 55+. Now, first of all, why not RV parks and single-family? I think single-family is pretty self-explanatory for most. Very difficult to scale, very difficult to cash flow. If your business doesn't cash flow, I don't think that's a business you should be in. The RV parks and mobile homes, people love them because you can get so creative on them. You know why you can get so creative? There's so many grossly mismanaged parks. They tend to— not always, some of them are really nice— but they tend to have rougher tenants. The problems that you're solving at that type of property merit the higher return. So if you're doing the RV park and the mobile thing, it's not that you can't do it, it's going to be more work for the amount of money that you're doing. If you want the highest income with the Highest passivity with the highest demand. This is what it looks like. First of all, this is a lot sexier than most RV parks and mobile home parks. Just saying. This is 80 units. This is in Abilene, Texas. We own a 144-unit out here and another 80-unit 55+ community. Why are these so awesome? Reason number one, boomers are turning 80 right now as I'm filming this video. The first boomers are turning 80 years old. What does this mean? Demand is going to go up substantially for 55+ communities. Every single 55+ community that I currently own is at 100% occupancy. And the building right here that we're buying, guess what the occupancy is? It's 99%. I just walked through a unit that is moving out, so I guess it's like 98-point-whatever percent. You get the point. They're all fully occupied. There's a ton of demand. They can't get enough of these. The waitlist on these properties goes on forever because the demand is huge and growing. And I've noticed they don't build a ton of these. Reason number 2, a ton of people see 55+ and they feel unsure and they just don't buy them. I don't think anyone's out here talking about this, which I should probably take into consideration because I want to buy all these before you do. That being said, I've already said it, so you're watching the video, so congratulations. Buy as many of these as you can possibly find where they cash flow because demand is going up. If you have population growth in your market, snag buildings like this, way less competition, and it's not assisted living. Now, assisted living is its own business, and I have some friends who do amazing in it. It's just not my business as a multifamily guy. This is normal multifamily. Your tenants rarely move out. As you can imagine, if they're older, you do have a slightly higher mortality rate, so you'll have some turnover. However, providing great places to live, your tenants are generally really calm. They're usually very respectful to the property. Which brings me to reason number 3: your tenants. By the time they're 55 years old, if they are still renting, which is totally fine— a lot of people rent their entire lives— if they're renting, many of them are on fixed income. All of them have learned how to be tenants by this point of their life. They're through the part of being a trashy tenant needing to get evicted. They kind of know the program, so you end up with really clean, really low maintenance properties like the one behind me. And if you need a 4th reason, the pricing on these things consistently has been absolutely dumb. I find more opportunity in this asset class on a price standpoint than I do anything else, which means conventionally or creative, your ability to buy these low down is way higher. Now this particular deal, let's talk about this transaction itself. 55+, Abilene, Texas. This is a LIHTC property. Not all 55 needs to be, but that means that it has an income restriction. So if you happen to be— someone on fixed income, this could be the perfect property for you. It doesn't mean you're a traditionally low-income individual. It just might mean that you're done with your career, you've downsized to a place that makes sense, and because you're done with your career, your fixed income might put you in a lower income bracket than you used to be in, which means you can qualify for housing like this. So when it's LIHTC and 55+, you typically get the best of the best of the quote-unquote lower-income tenants. The qualifications for these are either 30 50 or 60% of the area median income. So if you are below that and you're 55, which is a ton of people in their retirement, you can qualify to live somewhere like this, which is why the waiting list is absolutely huge. And we're buying this deal for $4.2 million. We're doing the inspection today and it is going phenomenally. This will also be our first property that comes with an elevator, which I'm kind of excited about. I know it's an additional expense, but just having one in the portfolio, it's gonna be a good learning experience. I don't get a whole lot of new flavors anymore. 600 units, about to be 800 after we close Longview, Texas. But this many units in doing real estate for as long as I have been, I don't run into a whole lot of new. I just have never run into an elevator. So we have one in this building behind me, the 2-story, which is a really cool design. The 2-story has the elevator. It's more of your traditional senior living where they have long hallways, really, really easy access. And on the other side, you have the townhome-style apartments that we've been walking through. So I'm going to take you to the interior of the building. Show you guys what this actually looks like and why they make so much money. Follow me. So why is this deal so good? With this being LIHTC M-35+, your buyer pool is pretty restricted, which means you have to do a little bit of work or do a few transactions to become the most obvious buyer for the property. Once you buy one or two of these bad boys, everyone and their sister wants to sell to you because you're the guy buying them. If you have people who are retiring from real estate or people who overbought their real estate and are actively losing it like we're seeing in this market, a lot of people are transferring their buildings to me. We're buying a ton of these, uh, more to come on more deals we're doing, but we'll blow through 1,000 rental units, which is crazy. When I started, my goal was to get to 100. As a reminder, unit count is a super dumb metric to measure. However, I will tell you this, 1,000 units when all of them cash flow makes a lot more than any duplexes or single family that you can save up for. And if you're looking at it at an appreciation plus cash flow standpoint, blows RV parks and mobile parks out of the water. It can match them or exceed them in cash flow, but will always destroy them in appreciation. As you're seeing deals like this in your market, you don't know how to buy them yet. I wrote a book called The Book on Creative Real Estate. I'm actually giving it to you for free. Just cover the shipping. But there's a link below in the description. You can check it out, snag my book there, or if you want to find it on Amazon, you can do that too. The Book on Creative Real Estate by me, Christian Osgood. I go through the actual deals that we did and how we learned each of the creative clauses that we used throughout my real estate career so that if you're buying beyond the money you have in your bank account right now, you can do it in any deal structure, creative equity or finance. Check it out. Link is below the book on creative real estate. So if you are looking for what is the best asset that you can possibly buy, my argument right now in today's market, 55+, as large as you can possibly buy in your market, these deals absolutely rock.
