Daniel Kaufman, founder of Kaufman & Company, a Los Angeles-based private investment and holding firm, has developed more than 10,000 multifamily units over the past five years without outside capital. Despite this track record, he recently decided to reduce his involvement in complex deals that he could not easily explain. Instead, he is recalibrating toward work that is straightforward, community-focused, and executed with a small trusted team.
Kaufman compares his approach to Warren Buffett's discipline of investing only in what he understands. He admits that many of his previous deals involved layered debt structures, tax credits, and equity arrangements that required an hour to explain. Now, he aims to describe every project in a couple of sentences. “I don’t want to be involved in anything where I don’t know how it works,” he said.
Heading into 2027, Kaufman is concentrating on three initiatives. The first is Oldivai, a workforce housing platform he chairs that partners with hospitals and school districts to deliver attainable housing using modular construction. The second is Mr. Good Container Homes, a new company converting shipping containers into workforce and affordable units for people in transition and traveling workers in high-demand markets. The third involves smaller special projects, such as a mill conversion in Rumford, Maine, that will become a boutique hotel and bring jobs to an underserved town.
The common thread across these projects is simplicity: straightforward deal structures, measurable community impact, and returns that do not require complexity to justify. Kaufman argues that developers often chase 30% returns on large, risky projects, while smaller, mission-aligned projects in undersupplied markets can deliver 15% returns with fewer stakeholders and real outcomes. “Making 15% on a return is pretty good,” he noted. The markets he targets—secondary and tertiary cities with near-zero vacancy rates—have strong demand without needing concessions.
For Kaufman, the shift is also about personal involvement. Previously, he acted primarily as a capital source on many projects, moving money and pushing papers. Now, he plans to take active leadership on the initiatives he cares most about, rather than being a passive stakeholder on numerous deals with limited visibility. It is a deliberate trade-off: less scale, more signal. For a developer who built 10,000 units without outside capital, the argument that smaller can be smarter carries weight.
