Financing and partnerships
How I Bought 225 Section 8 Units in 90 Days With $0 Down
The exact Deal-Debt-Equity blueprint behind an $8.5M 144-unit campus and an 81-unit senior property in Abilene, Texas: bought with none of my own money.
Three months ago I had zero rentals in Abilene, Texas. Today I own 225 units there: a 144-unit campus on 22 acres and an 81-unit senior property six blocks down the street. I bought both of them using none of my own money, none of my own net worth, and without the experience you'd assume a deal that size requires.
This is the part of the business that people find hardest to believe, so I want to walk through it plainly: how the deals got found, how they got financed, how the missing pieces got filled in, and why Section 8 multifamily is the vehicle I keep coming back to. The model is repeatable. I've now run it in three different markets.
The Same Playbook, Three Markets
I started my career in Washington State. I'm originally from Seattle, and the first version of this happened in a town called Moses Lake. At the time I owned a couple of duplexes, wanted to get into bigger multifamily, and had no idea how. Then I learned about creative finance.
Around the time I was first hearing about seller financing, I found a 38-unit building with my friend Cody. Long story short, we took out that 38-unit. Then a 12, a 10, a 7, three side-by-side duplexes, a bunch of triplexes. We built a portfolio of over 100 units specifically in Grant County, Washington, and owning that much in one county was unbelievably powerful.
Related reading: Every Deal Structure Behind 100+ Units in Grant County, WA
Fast forward a few years and I moved to Texas, retired my wife from teaching, and over the course of two years built a 186-unit portfolio in Stephenville, Texas. Today we did the same thing in Abilene.
That's the real lesson in the timeline. Each time we practice this, we get to go better, bigger, and faster. Moses Lake took years. Stephenville took two. Abilene took 90 days. The blueprint doesn't change: the operator just gets sharper at running it.
The $8.5 Million 144-Unit Deal
When you're starting in a new market, I love talking direct to owners, but realistically it's usually going to be a broker who brings you into a new market. We'd been looking at deals in Abilene for about six months when we found this 144-unit.
We purchased it for $8.5 million.
If you're doing the math on a building that looks like this, that's a very low cost. The campus is 22 acres. The apartments are absolutely gorgeous and the property is in fantastic condition. When the deal came up, this was the first one where I looked at it and said, "I have to figure out a way to own this."
That reaction matters, because that's the actual trigger for everything else. I did not have the money. I did not have the net worth. Eight and a half million dollars is still out of my strike range. But I started with the opportunity: I loved the price, I loved the location, I loved the building. So let's put it under contract and solve the rest.
Deal, Debt, Equity: In That Order
The model I share on this channel constantly is DDE: deal, debt, equity.
We start with the deal first. Get the property under contract. Then we line up the debt. Then we find the missing pieces.
When I started, I thought you had to seller finance everything. But if you always open with seller financing, not every deal is purchasable that way. On this one we actually got conventional bank financing. We went direct to Fannie and Freddie, so we have agency debt on it at something like a 5.2% interest rate.
Related reading: How I Took On $25 Million in Seller Financed Debt Before 31
Once we had the deal and the debt locked, the question became simple: what am I actually missing? Net worth, and cash to close. So I built the team with people who had the net worth and the cash to close, and we closed the deal.
That's it. There's an argument I lacked the experience to take on a property this large. The structure solved for that too. Anyone can do this: when I started in central Washington I was a W-2 employee with a couple of duplexes, no idea how to raise capital, no friends-and-family money, and no independent wealth. I did it because I had an opportunity.
Why the Money Follows the Opportunity
Everyone gets stuck on the same question: where's the money coming from? Here's the way I'd reframe it.
Imagine you walk into a car dealership to buy a car. You tell the sales rep you'd like to buy one. "Awesome, we don't have anything on the lot right now, but I have amazing cars." Okay: can I get this in red? "I don't know, we'll see what colors come in." What am I looking at for a down payment? "It will depend on the car."
If you don't have a product, how are you going to raise capital?
There is not a lack of people who have money, credentials, and experience. There is a lack of people who have the opportunity in the target market. People aren't opposed to making money in real estate, but capital is what everyone worries about most, so they chase it first and never get anywhere.
So I crafted the model backwards. Instead of find the money, get a lender interested, then find a deal that matches, we find the opportunity and the rest of the pieces fall into place.
How the Second Deal Happened Six Blocks Later
We found the 144-unit through a broker. We reached out, we called, we called, we called. I have a script I've shared on YouTube (the actual script I used to land this deal) and it's linked in original episode description.
Then comes the step most people skip. As soon as you go under contract for a deal, you call every owner and every broker within a two-mile radius and you let them know: "Hello, I'm going to be your new property neighbor."
People understand this. When you enter a brand new market, everyone wants to know who the new player is. Booking those next meetings becomes really easy, which is exactly how I booked the appointment for the 81-unit six blocks away.
That's now my largest market. This is how I like to buy real estate: if you're going to buy in one area, buy the whole neighborhood. As we keep taking out Abilene, we'll keep doing properties exactly like this: bigger deals, more consistently, one by one by one.
Why 55+ and Section 8 Work So Well Together
The 81-unit is Anson Park Senior, a 55-plus community, not assisted living, just age-restricted. Historically these properties stay 100% occupied almost all the time. Right now we have one vacancy out of 81 units there. My 44-unit is the exact same story: 100% occupied with a waiting list. Huge demand.
And with affordable housing like the Section 8 we're doing here, most of these residents are just normal everyday people on a fixed income. They know how to be tenants, frankly because they're older than you are most of the time.
The main lobby at Anson Park is my favorite office of every property we've ever bought: it came completely furnished, and residents get to use it as a common area. There's a lounge space we renovated as one of our first projects, with beautiful couches and tables. We run events in there and residents can book it.
None of that costs a lot. Put a nicer bowl in the middle of the table. Have some personality. Those amenities cost almost nothing, but when you care about the tenants, you actually keep the tenants. Keep a clean campus, keep a beautiful campus, and you keep residents forever.
A vast majority of our money on that property comes in directly from Section 8. My last housing check for this property was about $60,000. Which isn't too bad.
If you've seen the ads from people hunting $30,000 houses in the middle of nowhere: that's not how you actually play the game. I'd make the argument that you can make more money, with more rent checks, more consistently, buying a property this size.
Key Takeaways
- Start with the deal, not the money. Deal, then debt, then equity: in that order.
- Don't marry one financing tool. I assumed everything had to be seller financed; this one closed with agency debt from Fannie/Freddie at roughly 5.2%.
- The pieces you're missing (net worth, cash to close) are pieces other people already have. Build the team around the opportunity.
- The moment you go under contract, call every owner and broker within two miles. That single habit produced the second deal.
- 55-plus and Section 8 properties hold occupancy: one vacancy out of 81 units, and a waiting list at my 44-unit.
- Small, cheap touches in common areas are what keep residents, and retention is what makes the numbers work.
With just one of these two transactions, you could retire yourself from your W-2. I did two of them in a 90-day period using none of my own capital and none of my own credentials.
Watch the full video for the walkthrough of both properties, including the campus tour and the lobby at Anson Park. If you want the exact broker call script that landed the 144-unit, it's linked in the description. You can also download our free course on getting started in multifamily at multifamilystrategy.com/get-free-training, and if you want to be around thousands of investors doing deals like this, join the free Multifamily Strategy community on Skool: the link is in the description. I'll see you there.
Read the episode transcript
0:00 I'm Christian Osgood. This is Multif 0:02 Family Strategy and you are at my 144 0:04 unit campus. We closed this recently. 0:07 I'm going to show you this building and 0:08 another 80 units we picked up down the 0:10 street. In this video, I'm going to show 0:11 you you can take over any market in the 0:13 country. 3 months ago, I had zero 0:15 rentals in this town. Today, 225 units. 0:19 I'll show you all of them and how you 0:20 can [music] do the same thing yourself. 0:22 Follow me. So, I actually started my 0:23 career in Washington State. I'm 0:25 originally from Seattle and we did this 0:27 in a town called Moses Lake. I had owned 0:29 a couple of duplexes, wanted to get into 0:31 bigger multif family, had no idea how. I 0:34 learned about creative finance, and 0:36 around the time I was hearing about 0:38 seller finance, I found a 38 unit 0:40 building with my friend Cody. Now, long 0:42 story short, we took out that 38 unit, 0:43 and then we took out a 12, a 10, a 7, 0:46 three sideby-side duplexes, a bunch of 0:47 triplexes. We built over a 100 unit 0:49 portfolio specifically in Grant County, 0:52 Washington, which was unbelievably 0:53 powerful for. Fast forward a few years 0:55 later, I moved to Texas, retired my wife 0:57 from teaching and in Stevenville, Texas 0:59 over the course of two years, built a 1:00 186 unit portfolio. Today, we did the 1:04 same thing in Abene, Texas. [music] As 1:06 we practice this, we get to go better, 1:08 bigger, and faster. I'm going to show 1:10 you how to do the exact same thing here. 1:12 So, how do you find deals like this? 1:14 Well, when you're starting in a new 1:16 market, I love talking direct with 1:17 owners, but it's usually going to be a 1:19 broker that [music] brings you into the 1:20 new market. We've been looking at deals 1:22 for about 6 months and we found this 144 1:25 unit. We purchased this for $8.5 1:28 million. Now, if you're doing the math, 1:30 that is a very low cost for a building 1:32 that looks like this. This campus is 22 1:35 acres. The apartments here are 1:37 absolutely gorgeous. It's in fantastic 1:39 condition. When we saw this deal come 1:41 up, this was the first deal where I saw 1:43 I said, "Hey, I have to figure out a way 1:45 to own [music] this." Now, we follow 1:46 that model that I share on this channel 1:48 all the time, DDE, the deal debt equity 1:51 structure. So, we start with the deal 1:53 first. For context, I did not have the 1:55 money. I did not have the net worth. 1:56 $8.5 million is still out of my strike 1:58 range. But what I did is I started with 2:00 the opportunity. I love the price. I 2:02 love the location. I love [music] the 2:04 building. Let's put it under contract. 2:05 Now, we line up the debt. Now, when I 2:08 started, I thought you had to seller 2:09 finance everything, but if you always 2:11 open with seller financing, not every 2:13 deal is purchasable that way. We 2:14 actually got conventional bank finance. 2:16 I didn't have the money. I didn't have 2:17 the net worth. There's an argument that 2:19 I lack the experience to take on a 2:21 property this large. So, how do we do 2:23 this? First, we get the property under 2:24 contract. Then, we look for the best 2:26 debt product. Once we have the deal and 2:28 the debt, which we ended up going direct 2:30 to Fanny Freddy, so we have agency debt 2:32 on this 5.2 something% interest rate. 2:35 Now, we find the missing pieces. So, 2:37 what was I missing? Net worth, cash to 2:39 close. I then just built the team with 2:42 people who had the net worth and the 2:43 cash to close and we closed the deal. 2:45 Anyone can do this. When I started in 2:47 central Washington, I was a W2 employee 2:49 with a couple of duplexes. I had no idea 2:51 how to raise capital. I didn't use 2:53 friends or family. I wasn't 2:54 independently wealthy [music] myself. I 2:56 did it because I had an opportunity. 2:58 Imagine it this way. You're going to a 3:00 car dealership to buy a car. You go to 3:01 the sales rep. Hey, I'd like to buy a 3:02 car. Awesome. We don't have anything on 3:03 the lot right now, but I have amazing 3:05 cars. Okay. Um, am I able to get this in 3:08 red? I don't know. We'll see what colors 3:09 come in. Okay. What am I looking at for 3:11 down payment? It will depend on the car. 3:12 If you don't have a product, how are you 3:14 going to raise capital? Everyone gets 3:15 stuck on this idea of where's the money 3:17 coming from? It's going to come from the 3:19 opportunity. There's not a lack of 3:21 people who have the money, have their 3:23 credentials, have the experience. There 3:24 is a lack of people who have the 3:26 opportunity in the target market. People 3:28 aren't opposed to making money in real 3:29 estate. But that is what everyone is 3:30 most worried about. So, what I did is 3:32 figure out what I did is craft the model 3:34 backwards. Instead of find the money, 3:36 get a lender interested, then find a 3:38 deal that matches that, we find an 3:39 opportunity, and then the rest of the 3:41 pieces fall into place. In Abalene, 3:42 Texas, we found this deal through a 3:44 broker. We reached out, we called, we 3:46 called, we called. I actually have a 3:47 script that you guys can follow on 3:49 YouTube. You guys can look at the video. 3:50 I'll link it below on the actual script 3:52 that I used to land this deal. And as 3:55 soon as you go under contract for a 3:56 deal, you call every owner and every 3:58 broker within a 2-m radius, and you just 4:00 let them know, "Hello, I'm going to be 4:01 your new property neighbor." People 4:03 understand this. When you enter a brand 4:05 new market, everyone wants to know who 4:07 the new player is. Booking those next 4:08 meetings are really easy, which is how I 4:10 booked the appointment for the next deal 4:12 that I'm going to show you right now. 4:14 It's right down the street. It's 81 4:16 units, six blocks away. This is now my 4:19 largest market. And in December, which 4:21 was 3 months from when I'm filming this, 4:23 we didn't have a single rental in this 4:25 market. So, we are on the way to one of 4:27 my favorite properties now in my entire 4:29 portfolio. This is another 81 doors, 55 4:33 plus. Now, historically for me, I bought 4:35 a 55 plus community, not assisted living 4:38 specifically, but [music] 55 plus. These 4:41 properties stay 100% occupied almost all 4:44 the time. Currently, [music] we have one 4:45 vacancy out of 81 units at this 4:47 building. My 44 unit, it's the exact 4:49 same thing. 100% occupied with a weight 4:51 list. Huge demand. And if you're looking 4:53 at affordable housing like we're doing 4:55 today in section 8, most of these are 4:57 just normal everyday people on fixed 4:59 income. and they know how to be tenants 5:01 because frankly they're older than you 5:03 are most the time unless you're watching 5:05 this and you're over 60 years old. Also 5:08 convenient, it's 1 minute away. We're 5:10 six blocks away. This is how I like to 5:13 buy real estate. If you're going to buy 5:15 in one area, buy the whole neighborhood. 5:16 As we continue to take out Abene, we're 5:19 going to be doing properties exactly 5:21 like this the entire time. Bigger deals, 5:24 more consistently. Just go one by one by 5:27 one. And here we are in Anson Park 5:31 Senior. Let's check it out. And welcome 5:33 to Anson Park Senior. Follow me. 5:36 So in here we have the main lobby. This 5:38 is my favorite of every office that we 5:41 have ever had come with the property. So 5:43 come through. We actually had this thing 5:45 completely furnished. This space is the 5:47 standard that I like to see. This place 5:49 is absolutely awesome. It's beautiful 5:52 and tenants get to use this as a common 5:53 area. So when you rent, you get a big 5:55 unit, a very nice place. And again, a 5:58 vast majority of our money for this 6:00 property, comes in directly from section 6:02 8. Comes with a kitchen just like this. 6:04 It's the simple little things of a 6:06 property that really elevates the tenant 6:08 experience. None of this cost a whole 6:10 lot, but just the little things. Put a 6:12 nicer bowl in the middle of the table, 6:14 have some personality. 6:17 It goes a long way if you're a tenant 6:19 who's used to paying lower rent. you 6:21 just amenities that cost almost nothing, 6:23 but when you care about the tenants, you 6:25 actually keep the tenants walker. Now, 6:26 one of the first projects that we 6:27 actually did at this property, this was 6:29 a really cool lounge space. So, we had 6:30 like beautiful couches, beautiful 6:32 tables. We run events in here. This is 6:35 another bookable space. But when I'm 6:36 talking about just high quality, how do 6:38 you maximize what you have to give your 6:41 tenants the ultimate tenant experience? 6:43 If you've seen the crappy beat up houses 6:45 or you've seen ads for people like, 6:46 "Hey, I look for $30,000 houses in the 6:49 middle of nowhere." That's not how you 6:51 actually play the game. I would make the 6:53 argument that you can make more money 6:55 with more rent checks more consistently 6:58 buying a property this size. My last 7:00 housing check for this property was 7:03 about $60,000. 7:07 Which isn't too bad. 7:10 So, what's so amazing about this section 7:12 8 strategy when you combine it with 7:14 multif family correctly is you get to 7:15 provide mass housing to mass people. 7:17 [music] With just one of these two 7:19 transactions, you could retire yourself 7:21 from your W2. I did two of these in a 7:24 90-day period using none of my own 7:27 capital, none of my own credentials. We 7:29 were able to own buildings like this. 7:31 You keep a clean campus, you keep a 7:33 beautiful campus, you're going to keep 7:34 tennis forever. Ultimately, if your 7:37 buildings look like this here, you will 7:39 make a lot of money owning buildings 7:42 that are actually fun to share with you 7:44 like I am here on YouTube. I'm not in 7:46 front of a dumpy house with my dirt poor 7:49 tenants. There's not drug dealers. 7:51 There's not money problems. These are 7:52 normal people living in a beautiful 7:54 space who happen to make a little less 7:56 than the average median income. If you 7:59 want to do this for yourself, I share 8:00 how to buy properties like this in any 8:02 market. Red state, blue state, [music] 8:03 big city, small city. All you have to do 8:05 is like and follow this channel. Or if 8:07 you want to join a free community that 8:09 is all about doing deals like this, join 8:11 us on school. The link is below. Skol 8:13 multif family strategy community. 8:15 Thousands of investors all over the 8:17 country buying deals just like this. 8:19 [music] You can too. I'll see you there. 8:21 Thanks for watching.
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