Archive View (May 2007)

Very few first-time real estate investors have a lot of money to get started. So to gain a foothold, they buy single-family homes and hope to expand from there. Sounds logical, right? Maybe yes, maybe no, because there are many reasons why investing in smaller multi-family homes or apartment buildings offers a better way to start, provided you know how. There’s a very simple reason: Leverage It’s the near-magic principle of letting other people's dollars work for you. Let’s take a quick look at some advantages of multi-units: They provide multiple income streams and enhanced cash flow. If you analyze the rent roll and fixed expenses on the properties you’re more...

It’s not just business acumen, but integrity, that carries you forward in the business world. It’s as simple as keeping your word, or, in some cases, remembering what your words were. It seems that “simple” isn’t always easy for some people. I came from the world of construction and real estate development, which is known for being demanding and difficult, but it also requires precision. There can’t be anything haphazard in construction, or people can be injured. “Happenstance” is not acceptable. I’ve applied that approach to everything I do. There’s an integrity to building that cannot be compromised. We’ve all seen the results more...

It's no secret that Trump University is the fastest-growing institution of higher learning on the Internet. We opened our doors two years ago, and we already have more than 500,000 members. We thank you. Without you, there would be no Trump University. Because we could not invite you all to New York to celebrate,  we have created a virtual block party on our campus.  We can't give everyone cotton candy, but we can do something even better to show our gratitude. When you visit Trump University online over the next two weeks, you will find a revolving selection of our products on sale at near give-away prices more...

When history books are written, the year 2007 will probably be called “The year of real estate upheaval.”  First there was all the talk about the real estate bubble. Then came the subprime lending crisis, followed by a surge in the number of foreclosed properties hitting the market. Then just last week, there were widespread reports about falling prices and a surplus of newly constructed homes across the country.  What does it all mean if you are trying to get your first mortgage and get started in real estate?  There’s some good news. Despite all the uncertainty in the markets, you can still strategize more...

We’ve all heard the saying “connect the dots.” I see it as having enough knowledge to be able to connect the dots in a reasonable and informed way. In a conversation I was having a few years ago, one guy mentioned that the Trump name had become a famous brand around the world. Then he added, “What’s in a name?” and sort of laughed and then said to me, “In your case, a lot!” I noticed that another man seemed out of the loop about the quip. So I said “That’s Shakespeare. ‘What’s in a name’ is a famous line from Shakespeare.&rdquo more...

If buying and holding new houses is your strategy for investing in real estate, this could be your lucky day.  Thousands of new homes are on the market - and they are selling for record low prices. Here's what the Associated Press reported yesterday: 981,000 new homes sold in April. That’s a jump of 16.2 percent over April of last year - the biggest one-month jump in 14 years.   But at the same time, new home prices are tumbling. The median price of a new home fell 11.1 percent between March and April alone. As the AP article explained, “The big price decline indicated that builders are slashing prices in an effort to move a more...

The New York Times Book Review ran a comprehensive and well-researched articled about two years ago called Ghosts in the Machine, about ghostwriters and co-authors throughout history. There were books mentioned by Charles de Gaulle and Andre Malraux, Thomas Mann, and other notable people, and it ended with a critique of Donald Trump’s books. This critic concluded that his books were seamless, and despite having different co-authors, all of his books over the past eighteen years had retained the exact “Donaldian” voice of Donald Trump - which the critic considered to be “an astonishing achievement.” This was high praise coming from the more...

Years ago, when reality shows first hit the television industry, I had been approached many times to appear in one. I refused all the offers, although a few were tempting. I just didn’t feel it was the right time or right venue for me. Then, after I’d refused all the offers, Mark Burnett approached me with his idea for The Apprentice and I just knew it was right. It had an educational subtext, the concept was solid, and sure enough, we had a solid hit on our hands. Did I know it was going to be a hit show? No. In more...

Every day brings new data about the current foreclosure boom. Just yesterday, Foreclosure Bank released statistics indicating that property foreclosures across the 50 states are running at a rate 46% greater than last year at this time. And during the first quarter of 2007,  foreclosures rose 25% over the final quarter of 2006. How can you not pass on the profit from foreclosure opportunities?  I would urge you to register for our Real Estate Foreclosure Coaching Program. There are no other courses like it anywhere. But in case you think my only purpose here this morning is to enroll you in one more...

Even though women have made great strides, so many of them still hit a glass ceiling on payday. According to some surprising research from the American Association of University Women, women earn just 80 percent of what men earn one year after they graduate from college. And that pay gap widens, falling to as little as 69 percent of what men make 10 years later. According to the study, one factor that plays a significant role in the salary disparity is that women tend to study areas with lower salaries such as education, health and psychology whereas men dominate higher-paying fields like engineering, more...

A recent article in Forbes highlights the risks of using other people’s money to leverage personal success. Using other people’s money (or “OPM” as slangsters like to say) can be extremely risky in the corporate world - especially if you drain the corporate coffers to fund initiatives that don’t work out. But in the world of real estate investing, where it is possible to apply leverage in all kinds of different situations, it can be a very smart thing to do. I recently spoke with one real estate developer, for example, who leveraged his way into owning a lot of property by more...

If I told you that I know someone who bought a business nine years ago and just sold it for an 80% loss, you would probably think I was describing an individual who doesn’t have one iota of business sense. But you’d be wrong, because that is exactly what Mercedes-Benz did a few days ago when they unloaded Chrysler. Here’s what happened, as reported by Mark Landler on May 14th in “A Corporate Divorce on the Cheap,” his article in The New York Times: “The price of freedom for the soon-to-be-renamed Daimler A.G. is $677 million in cash - its out-of-pocket outlay in more...

I’ve heard misery loves company but this is ridiculous. Supposedly, there’s a new fad in London called “misery” clubs. Visitors grab a bowl of chopped onions to help them start crying about whatever’s bothering them in life. This is no joke. The trend started in Japan where businessmen rent rooms by the hour to watch sad movies or pay money to attend group cry-athons and “tear therapy” meetings. It’s all part of the belief that crying is somehow therapeutic. But I think it’s pretty stupid. If you have a problem - whether it’s in business or in your personal life -- then solve it more...

In response to my post of May 6, Trump University Member 8230 posed a question that will interest all our members: “Three years ago I decided to expand a small one-room business into a four-room Day Spa in the No. VA area. I spent my own money with not much wiggle room financially. I have seven employees. Next door to the building my spa is located it in is a larger building with 11 rooms for sale. I want to own a building that my business can be located in and it's in the same town that is important to be in. I more...

Contrary to what you might think, most successful entrepreneurs enjoy a sense of calm control over their own lives. Compared with people who spend their lives working for other people, subject to whims not remotely under their control, entrepreneurs have a much better shot at happiness and inner peace. But starting a company doesn’t always work out so well.  It’s rare to find much joy in a business that fails, exhausts you, or makes you a stranger to your family. Everyone has their own unique interests and objectives, but it makes sense to identify the common ground. Over the years, the happiest entrepreneurs more...

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal*, “Mortgage Woes Force Banks to Take Hits to Sell Homes,” alerts me to a trend you need to know about: a significant change in the way banks are disposing of foreclosed properties. The article, by James R. Hagerty, reports that on Saturday, The Real Estate Disposition Corporation of Irvine, California, organized a property auction in San Diego where nearly 100 foreclosed homes were offered for sale at one time. More foreclosure auctions are planned for May 19th in Los Angeles and for May 20th in Riverside. Click here to visit The Real Estate Disposition Corporation’s more...

With summer just around the corner, a lot of employees in a lot of businesses start dressing like it’s Casual Friday every day of the week. They utterly forget about professionalism and start dressing totally inappropriately for work. In fact, Monster, an online job and recruiting site, conducted a poll about the biggest fashion faux pas in the office. Employers complained the most about employees who came in to work wearing tank tops and visible underwear. They also had a problem with employees who wear flip-flop sandals, Hawaiian print shirts, and shorts. Of course...because none of that belongs in a professional environment. If more...

An interview with Patricia Gaylor During the last 25 years, interior designer Patricia Gaylor has achieved just about everything that anyone in her profession could want - prominent exposure at showcases and industry events and a steady stream of well-to-do clients who can afford to invest in her innovative ideas. So why did she decide to transform her business to “green” by specializing in environmentally responsible interior designs? So much so that she was selected to create environmentally responsible interiors for BASF’s Near Zero Energy House, a state-of-the art green building in Paterson, New Jersey. When we saw Ms. Gaylor present her interiors more...

"The national housing market is better understood as a collection of small, local housing markets. Even if a bubble were to develop in a local market, it would not necessarily have implications for the nation as a whole." - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, speaking before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.  “Where Home Prices Are Hot Now,” an article in today’s Wall Street Journal,* reports that property prices are surging strongly in: Boise, ID; Charlotte, NC; Raleigh, NC; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City, UT; Austin, TX; Houston, TX; and Seattle, WA. Between 2001 and 2005, property values in those cities were more...

Here’s one of the silliest ideas I’ve heard in a long time. A guy in Atlanta is spearheading a movement called “Friends of the Five-Day Weekend.” He wants to shorten the nation’s workweek to two days, saying Americans already work way too hard. This man argues that Americans already have one of the shortest vacation times in the world and they give up nearly 570 million days of unused vacation a year. But I’d like to point out that the reason they don’t take their vacation days is because they have a lot of work to do. Shortening the work week obviously isn’t more...

"Don’t Let Other People Live Your Dreams" - Michael Sexton There is really only one thing that billionaires have in common - the Warren Buffetts, Richard Bransons, Donald J. Trumps and Oprah Winfreys of the world.  At some point in their lives, they realized that they could never reach their dreams by working for other people, so they all started companies of their own. So what about you? Where do you stand on this issue? Are you ready to start your own company? Are you ready to create wealth? If not, I have a Trump University class assignment for you. I want to give you more...

For years, career women have heard that it’s fine for them to quit their jobs in order to become stay-at-home moms. They’re told that it’s the best thing for their children and eventually they can make their way back into the workforce when their kids get old enough. But a new book - called The Feminine Mistake - disagrees with all that. The author, Leslie Bennetts, says that women should not quit their jobs when they have children. The theory is that if women depend on their spouses, it could have serious economic consequences. What if the husband gets sick or, worse, more...

Bootstrapping is the process of conserving financial resources to the extreme during a business’s startup phase. It means pulling yourself up by your bootstraps by doing most of the work yourself. Because you want to go into any new business enterprise with your eyes wide open, let’s take a look at some of the pluses and minuses of bootstrapping: Upside: You can get started, even when you lack the money to hire others to handle the tough work. Downside: You run the risk of making the wrong decisions and wasting time on tasks that could actually have been done more cheaply by specialists. Upside: more...

“Tenacity is absolutely necessary for success” - Meredith McIver Don Trump Jr. started at the Trump Organization the same month I did, which was September of 2001. I remember being impressed by how unassuming he was as well as how diligent he was. Not that I should be surprised, because he has his father’s work ethic to the core. He’s a serious businessman who takes on a lot of responsibility and doesn’t expect any breaks because of his family heritage. If anything, he has more responsibility, which he handles with aplomb. He is mature beyond his years. A few years later, Ivanka Trump more...

Ambitious people don’t go looking for trouble. But they really know how to handle it when it comes along. Look at Jet Blue CEO David Neeleman. He certainly didn’t want his airline to make front-page news a few months ago when a customer-service disaster struck. And I don’t think that Martha Stewart enjoyed being accused of insider trading. (Unjustly, in my opinion.) But David and Martha certainly knew what to do when trouble knocked at the door. That ability is not innate. It is learned. You can only cultivate it by fighting through at least one major difficulty. Or often, quite a few more...