Charlie Kao
Charlie Kao has been a guest on Collecting Keys, the real estate investing podcast hosted by Mike DeHaan, Dan Austin and Dylan Koch.
Becoming An Expert of All Asset Classes with Charlie Kao
Charlie Kao joins Mike and Dan to explain how he invests across self storage, multifamily, assisted living, industrial and mobile home parks using one repeatable analysis process rather than sticking to a single niche. He walks through his two-phase feasibility screen, the minimum value-add number he requires on a deal, and how he uses virtual assistants (plus his 11-year-old daughter as SOP fact checker) to run a small, low-stress operation. He also shares his father's story of arriving from Taiwan at 39, working as both chef and handyman, and buying a commercial portfolio on land contract.
Key takeaways
- Charlie screens every asset class the same way: a VA builds a phase-one feasibility comparing current rents to market rents within a 4–20 mile radius, and only the strongest deals each week move to phase two.
- He sets a minimum value-add target before pursuing a deal — roughly $1M in created value if he's syndicating with investors, closer to $600K if he's using his own money.
- Underwriting the first-year pro forma is the one task he can't outsource, because operating across many asset classes and property ages means no single set of rules of thumb applies.
- He improves SOPs by handing them to people with zero real estate knowledge — including his 11-year-old daughter — to flag jargon and missing links; if only one of 30 VAs can complete a test task, the SOP is the problem, not the VAs.