How to Build Affordable Housing and Actually Make Money

Fire the Middleman — A Developer's Playbook for Self-Performing and Buying Factory-Direct

If you're a general contractor, this is your cue to change the channel. Today's episode is for developers. Daniel Kaufman — president of Kaufman Development, founder of Daniel Kaufman Real Estate and Oldivai, and a vertically integrated developer with 25+ years in the business, more than 10,000 residential units delivered, and over $2B in active projects nationwide — makes the case that the developer who wins this cycle isn't the one with the best location. It's the one with the lowest cost basis. And the fastest path to a lower cost basis is taking back the work and the buying you've been outsourcing for decades. In this 30-minute episode, Daniel breaks down: THE MATH BEHIND THE GC MODEL. Fees, general conditions, overhead — 15 to 20 percent layered on top of the actual cost of the work before a single check is cut to a trade. Plus the quiet rebates and buyout spreads your GC is capturing today that never touch your basis. WHAT SELF-PERFORMING ACTUALLY MEANS. It does not mean firing everyone and swinging hammers. It means standing up your own licensed, bonded, insured construction entity and putting it in the seat the GC used to occupy. Daniel walks through how to scale from owner's rep, to construction manager, to full in-house builder — and which trades to self-perform versus sub. (Hint: he subs MEP. You should too.) DIRECT PROCUREMENT — THE SINGLE HIGHEST-ROI MOVE MOST DEVELOPERS HAVEN'T MADE. How to cut out distributors and supply houses and buy straight from the factory. Category-by-category savings ranges: appliances 15–30%, plumbing and lighting 10–25%, flooring 20–35%, cabinets 15–30%, windows and doors 10–20%, HVAC equipment 10–15%, drywall and insulation 5–12%. On a 250-unit multifamily project, that's frequently $2–4M of material savings alone. HOW TO BUILD THE TEAM. The minimum viable in-house construction bench (one project executive, one super per active site, one PM per two to three jobs). The 3–4 person procurement group that pays for itself in the first six months. Why templated specs across your portfolio are the unlock — and why every custom-snowflake project is quietly killing your buying power. THE OBJECTIONS YOU'LL HEAR. From your lender ("we need an arm's-length GC" — usually wrong, and here's how to get them comfortable). From your equity partner (sometimes a real constraint, and how to structure around it). From your own team ("we can't carry the liability" — here's exactly how you can). And from the voice in your head saying you don't have enough pipeline to make procurement work — you can solve that with a regional co-op of non-competing developers. THE PITFALLS THAT BLOW UP SAVINGS. Owner-furnished materials with no storage plan. Subs blaming every delay on late delivery. Warranty language that leaves you holding the bag. Developers who try to self-perform trades they don't understand and watch the savings evaporate in a four-month schedule slip. This is the episode the industry has been dancing around for years. No sponsors. No corporate polish. Just a vertically integrated operator explaining exactly how he builds with a lower cost basis than the rest of the market — and how you can too. Fair warning one more time: this one is for developers, not GCs. Links: danielkaufmanre.com · thekaufmanco.com · oldivai.com

The Crowd Is Wrong — And the Data Will Show You Why

Everyone is watching the same markets, listening to the same voices, and following the same institutional money. Daniel breaks down why that's exactly the wrong approach — and what a data-driven, contrarian mindset actually looks like in practice. In this episode: why second-tier cities are where the real opportunity lives right now, and which numbers you should be looking at to find them. Why the financial media and real estate social media are structurally designed to be late — and how to use them without being misled by them. Why following institutional investors into major markets is a losing game for the individual investor, and where your actual edge is. And why syndicated deals and hard money lending carry risks that rarely get discussed honestly. Daniel also talks about mindset — staying positive in a noisy, negative environment, giving people a fair chance, and learning to trust your own analysis over the loudest voices in the room. One thing you won't find here: a pitch. No money is being raised. No product is being sold. This show exists for one reason — to be genuinely useful to people who are serious about building wealth through real estate the right way. The Kaufman Report — Markets. Capital. Ownership. Legacy.

The Mountain Nobody Is Building Anymore

The American ski industry is at a crossroads. Two mega-pass operators now control the majority of destination skiing in this country. They've done something remarkable — and in doing it, they've hollowed out everything that made the sport worth loving. The uncrowded trail. The lodge that feels like a place. The mountain that belongs to a community, not a portfolio. Independent ski areas are closing. Workforce housing in mountain towns is a crisis. And the authentic ski experience is becoming a luxury product for people who can afford $250 lift tickets at a corporate resort. Daniel Kaufman has spent 25 years building real estate — multifamily, workforce housing, mixed-use, and now resort development. In this episode he breaks down the structural problems facing the ski industry, makes the case for why independent mountain development is one of the most compelling real estate opportunities in the country right now, and walks through exactly what he's building.

Modular Is Not a Dirty Word — It's the Future of Workforce Housing

Modular Is Not a Dirty Word — It's the Future of Workforce Housing The Kaufman Report with Daniel Kaufman | Episode 3 The construction industry has a stigma problem. Say the word "modular" in a room full of developers and half of them will roll their eyes. They picture cheap manufactured homes from the 1970s. They picture corners being cut. They picture product that nobody wants to live in. They're wrong. And that misconception is costing this country millions of housing units. In this episode, Daniel Kaufman — real estate developer, investor, and principal of Kaufman & Company — makes the case for modular construction as the most underutilized tool in workforce housing development today. Daniel Kaufman Real Estate has been actively piloting modular construction through Oldivai in Southern California, testing the cost, speed, and quality metrics at real-world scale. This isn't a think piece. This is a developer talking about what he's actually building, what the numbers actually look like, and where the opportunity actually lives. The workforce housing gap in the United States is not a mystery. We know who needs it — teachers, nurses, tradespeople, first responders, the people who make every community function. We know where they need it — in the same cities and towns where they work, not an hour away because that's all they can afford. What we haven't figured out is how to build it at a cost basis that pencils at rents those households can actually pay. Modular construction is a significant part of that answer. When you can cut 20 to 30 percent off construction costs, compress your timeline by months, and reduce your exposure to labor market volatility — you open up sites, markets, and deals that simply don't work with conventional stick-built construction. That's not a theory. That's math. In this episode: → Why modular construction has a stigma problem — and why that stigma is completely outdated → The real cost and timeline advantages of factory-built construction versus conventional stick-built → How Oldivai is deploying modular construction pilots in Southern California to validate speed-to-market and cost-control metrics → Why workforce housing at 80–120% AMI is the most durable rental demand in real estate — and why modular is uniquely positioned to serve it → The real challenges of modular development — transportation logistics, building department approvals, factory quality control — and how to navigate them → What the future of workforce housing development looks like when modular reaches scale If you're a developer trying to make workforce housing pencil, an investor looking for durable demand in a volatile market, or just someone who wants to understand why the housing crisis keeps getting worse — this episode will change how you think about what gets built and how. Daniel Kaufman Real Estate | Kaufman & Company | danielkaufman.info | thekaufmanco.com Want to be a guest on The Kaufman Report? Email jess@thekaufmanco.com [jess@thekaufmanco.com] Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kaufman-report-with-daniel-kaufman/id1880761848 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kaufman-report-with-daniel-kaufman/id1880761848] Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kiBNp3XDv2VuiXdMgQIKa [https://open.spotify.com/show/1kiBNp3XDv2VuiXdMgQIKa]

How to Build Affordable Housing and Actually Make Money

Affordable Housing Isn't Charity — It's a BusinessThe Kaufman Report with Daniel Kaufman | Episode 2 Most developers won't touch affordable housing. They think the margins are too thin, the process is too slow, and the government bureaucracy isn't worth the headache. And honestly? If you don't know what you're doing — they're right. But here's what they're missing: there is real money in affordable housing if you understand the tools, structure your deals correctly, and approach it like a business instead of a social program. In this episode, Daniel Kaufman — real estate developer, investor, and principal of Kaufman & Company — breaks down exactly how affordable housing development works, where the profit actually lives, and what most developers get catastrophically wrong when they try to enter this space. Daniel Kaufman Real Estate has been active in workforce housing, missing middle development, and modular construction across California, Vermont, Maine, and multiple U.S. markets. This isn't theory. This is operator-level insight from someone who has signed personal guarantees, navigated LIHTC applications, fought through entitlements, and built housing for the people who actually need it. In this episode: → The three distinct buckets of affordable housing — and why each one requires a completely different strategy → How the LIHTC tax credit model actually works — the equity, the compliance, and the risk most developers don't understand until it's too late → Why workforce housing at 80–120% AMI is the single biggest opportunity in residential real estate right now — and why almost nobody is building it correctly → How modular construction through Oldivai is changing the cost equation for workforce housing delivery → The California policy tools — AB 2011, ED1, and density bonuses — that are creating real development opportunities for operators who know how to use them → The three mistakes developers make every time they try to enter the affordable housing space — and how to avoid them If you're a developer, investor, or anyone trying to understand why the housing crisis isn't getting solved — and what it would actually take to fix it — this episode is required listening. Daniel Kaufman Real Estate | Kaufman & Company | danielkaufman.info | thekaufmanco.com Want to be a guest on The Kaufman Report? Email jess@thekaufmanco.com