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G ET H ELP FROM THE B EST R EAL E ST A TE S PECIALISTS

office, he will likely have a great deal of valuable information stored in
his database. He can tell you who the owner of a beautiful new prop-
erty is, how much he paid for the property, what it cost to build, and
who the general contractor (GC) was, and if he doesn’t have this data,
he can get it. He can call any former client and say, “I have a client that
likes very much what you built. Who did you use as a GC?”
Then get the name of the GC or architect and say to him, “You
did such and such a job and it really looks good, we would like to use
you for our project. Can I see your portfolio?”
You need to make a connection with someone who has done an
outstanding job on the same type of work you need done. The best
contact to get you started is the local realtor in the area. Don’t limit
yourself to just one. Go to two or three realtors and get as much in-
formation as you can. Ask a whole bunch of questions. Then, if the
same name keeps popping up again and again for a given specialty,
that’s probably the one to use.

BE WILLING TO PAY A PREMIUM

Generally speaking, it’s worth it to pay for the best people in their
real estate specialty since they have the ability to significantly add
value to your investment. Trump’s budget for any project usually
assumes that he will hire the best people in every area of his real es-
tate business. Small investors have smaller budgets to work with
and should focus their spending on the few people who are deemed
to be essential to the success of the project. If you have a property
with a complicated tax situation, a top tax accountant may be a good
investment, at least for the first year. If you are buying a fixer-
upper, you should hire an interior designer, architect, and landscape
architect. If you are smart about how you use them, the value they
add to your project can far outweigh any fee they charge. If you are
an investor with limited funds, think about giving your profes-
sionals a small piece of the profits after you’ve recouped all your
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