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ONALD TRUMP BECAME a billionaire in real estate by making a
Dseries of incredibly creative and successful investments in New
York City properties. He is now the largest real estate developer in
New York and is widely acknowledged to be one of the most brilliant
real estate investing minds anywhere. For example, in the early
1980s, with the building of Trump Tower on 5th Avenue, he single-
handedly created the market for high-end luxury residences in New
York City. He continued with a string of successes and in 2003, 9 of
the 10 highest selling apartments were in Trump buildings—apart-
ments that sold for millions of dollars each.
What can the small real estate investor learn from a billionaire
developer like Trump? After advising Trump on many of his biggest
investments over 25 years, I’m convinced that small investors can
successfully use many of the same principles that earn him millions.
It’s not the scale of your real estate investment project that counts.
Whether you are investing in a single-family rental, a four-unit
rental, or a multimillion-dollar office building makes no difference to
the financial success of your particular project, what’s important are
the real estate investing strategies used to acquire and develop the
property, and how you design and market the property to buyers or
tenants. Many of the same basic principles that work for one of
Trump’s $300-million skyscrapers work just as well for smaller prop-
erties. Anyone interested in investing in real estate can benefit from a
study of Trump’s real estate investor strategies.
For example, you can’t make big real estate investments—or re-
ally profitable small investments—without projecting certain per-
sonal qualities that inspire confidence in others, and make them want

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