Page 139 - 2

T HE T RUMP T OUCH

GIVE YOUR CUSTOMERS THE ULTIMATE IN
PERCEIVED QUALITY

The key principle here is “spend money where it can be seen.” For ex-
ample, Trump pays more for chairs in lobbies and atriums than those in
interior rooms. He would, for example, easily pay $15,000 for a piece of
furniture in the clubhouse of Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach country
club, because it’s in a strategic location where people are going to see it.
Trump tries to use whatever works to attract a person looking for lux-
ury, but his credo is “spend money where it can be seen.”
Small real estate investors need to ask themselves, “What can I
do with this property that no one else is doing—to make it distinc-
tive?” The answer is to try to get away from the commonplace and
give tenants and buyers more than they might expect. You can often
do this by adding small, but impressive upgrades to your property.
This requires vision and creativity, and an intuitive sense for what
will impress people. If you don’t have this aesthetic sense yourself,
you can hire an architect or designer who does, provided he or she
knows how to work within your budget. Trump found a way to sell
apartments at unheard of prices: $1,000 or more per square foot when
everyone else was struggling to get $600. Ask yourself, what design
elements could I build or renovate into my property that would make
it more desirable than any competing property of its type in its neigh-
borhood? With some concentrated effort, you can find the answer.
Be willing to overpay on a few critical details of your building or
renovation project; the aesthetics must be dramatic and draw people
in and impress them. You can use large entry rooms to make a state-
ment. Spaciousness is always distinctive. For example, the upper level
residential units in Trump Tower have much higher than typical
ceilings, which make the units appear more spacious, which in turn
gives the units a greater perceived value. Try to incorporate higher
ceilings in your plans if your budget permits.

117