Page 79 - Trump University Commercial Real Estate 101

Ho w to Become a Deal Magnet

These relationships do take time to develop. First go to your local
savings and loan and ask these people if you could have 20 minutes of
their time. Maybe take them out to lunch. Be prepared with a brief
description of what you ’ re looking for. Just be sure that you do not talk

about no - money - down arrangements. Though it ’ s definitely possible for
you to get into a good property with none of your own money in the
deal, mentioning no money down will brand you as an amateur and
effectively end the conversation.
If you are patient and they eventually want to do business with
you, it will be because they feel you can close and you have something
in common with them.
These same people will negotiate short sales on properties the bank
owns. That ’ s when they ’ ll sell the property for less than the mortgage
amount. We recently got a commercial property short - saled from
$ 4.3 million down to $ 2.6 million.

People You Meet

I was flying back from Panama and struck up a conversation with the
guy sitting next to me. He was a commercial property developer. For
the entire flight to Houston we talked about markets, strategies, and

contacts, and he ’ s now in my list of contacts.
Always be prepared with your elevator speech . That ’ s a carefully
crafted and memorized 30 - second pitch to use when someone asks you
what you do. You can then deliver it without thinking, and make it
enticing enough for him to ask more questions.
When people ask me what I do, I tell them I invest in commercial
properties in emerging markets throughout the United States. That
gets them asking more questions. They become intrigued by what I
do, because I believe that secretly most people want to be real estate
investors. Only a small percentage actually take the time to discover
what it takes to do it, the way you ’ re doing right now.
After they ’ ve hit me with a few questions like “ Where do you
buy? ” and “ Do you travel a lot? ” I always ask, “ Whom do you know
who might be looking to sell a commercial property? ”

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