Page 160 - Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success

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C REA TIVE , P OSITIVE T HINKING

think creatively about your situation. Dr. Peale was a tremen-
dous storyteller, and I also like to tell stories to illustrate a
point. This chapter tells the story about how something that’s
a mess can turn out brilliantly—if you are positive and cre-
ative in your approach.
I was always interested in foreclosures and would spend my
time in college reading the listings of federally financed housing
projects in foreclosure. That’s how I found Swifton Village in
Cincinnati, Ohio. My father and I bought it together and it
became my first big deal. I was still in college.
Swifton Village was in big trouble. There were 800 vacant
apartments (out of 1,200), the developers had faltered, and the
government had foreclosed. It looked a mess. However, I saw it
as an opportunity. Even the fact that there were no other bid-
ders did not discourage me. That’s often when you can get the
best deals. My father and I put in a minimal bid for Swifton Vil-
lage. The project had cost $12 million two years earlier, and we
paid less than $6 million. We got a mortgage for what we paid,
plus close to $100,000, which we’d use to fix up the property a
bit. This means we got this project without putting down any of
our own money. It would also be possible to cover the mortgage
from the rent proceeds.
Our first big challenge was to find tenants who would pay
rent. That doesn’t sound like an outlandish request, but this
complex had a reputation for “rent runners.” These tenants
would rent a trailer, pile into it with their belongings in the
middle of the night, and be gone. They had it down to an art
form. I realized we’d have to hire someone for round-the-clock
patrol, which we did.
We also wanted to make some improvements because the
place was pretty dilapidated. Considering the size of the com-
plex, that would require $800,000. Fortunately, to cover this cost
we were allowed to increase the rents immediately, something
that was easier in Cincinnati than in New York. Some of the

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