Donald Trump can be hated and loved by many. I’m not going to make this into a political discussion by any means. But, love him or hate, there are traits that (especially in his earlier years) that can teach you lessons on becoming a better real estate/mobile home investor
I noticed some interesting things about him when my wife and I watched a couple of episodes of a Trump documentary series on Netflix.
Of course, all documentaries are biased in nature, but this one (surprisingly) swayed on favoring Trump.
Regardless of your political position and view of Trump, the man was a deal-maker.
Especially in his younger days, where he was less of an a-hole towards others (I’m talking about his insults and attacks… which are pretty humorous when you watch it.)
Anyway, this is how he operated when he was first buying up buildings (at least from what I see from his first success: the Grand Hyatt Hotel):
– He contacted the owner of a non-performing commercial building
– Negotiated a steep price (the owner was motivated)
– He knew what price to purchase it for
– Made a good deal with the owner
– Called on investors (he didn’t have the money to buy it)
– Negotiated with the city on a 40-year tax break (imagine the yearly taxes he would have to pay on a billion dollar building in New York?)
– Negotiated with contractors
– Never swayed on his view of the hotel
– Hired the best people for the position (he even hired a woman [gasp!] to the position of head engineer… and this woman was a tough cookie.
– He got the 7-year project done
– He became the expert in hotel construction (niching down is probably one of the best things you can do as a real estate investor)
Anyway, that looks a lot like how people do deals in the SFR business… or even the mobile home business. No matter how big or small there’s a ton of “deal-making” happening behind the scenes. Deal-making is a learned skill. Trump learned it from his father (Fred Trump) when he worked under his father’s commercial apartment business.
“Deal-making” is just what I described above… the art of the deal… which Trump was excellent at. So getting better at “deal-making” starts with a few traits that Trump was all too familiar with:
1. He stuck to his guns (he didn’t let the city bully him from sweeping their original agreement with him regarding the tax break)
2. He had a huge network of resources (He went out of his way to make himself known)
3. He knew more about the subject than the other guy (having the previous experience in the smaller commercial space helped)
4. He had powerful people behind him (the lawyer he had was the most feared lawyer in NY who represented the mafia)… having someone behind you to guide is a big help in structuring a good real estate deal.
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