Trump University Real Estate 101

1. Embrace the Entrepreneurial Mindset for Real Estate Success

To build wealth with property investments, “Buy at the right price, at the right time, and in the right place.”

Perfect Positioning. The current market slump presents extraordinary bargains worldwide, offering a prime opportunity for those who act decisively. Historical experience proves that investors who acquire properties during times of distress and uncertainty are the ones who become the property multimillionaires of tomorrow.

Entrepreneurs Act on Facts. Unlike emotional speculators, entrepreneurs pull back during boom times and act on facts during corrections. They understand that recovery always follows a downturn and step in to relieve financially strapped owners. This approach, combined with entrepreneurial ability, creates extraordinary potential to build wealth.

Think Big, Live Large. Adopting an entrepreneurial mindset means more than just property investing; it means living a richer, fuller life. By opening your mind to possibilities, educating yourself, and accepting responsibility, you can achieve your potential and create value for your customers.

2. Seek Value Beyond Motivated Sellers and Market Appreciation

When they emphasize motivated sellers, too many authors stunt the entrepreneurial vision of investors.

Beyond Bargain Prices. While motivated sellers offer opportunities for bargains, focusing solely on them limits your entrepreneurial vision. A sound decision considers the total profit potential of a property, including cash flow, appreciation, financing terms, and value creation.

Multiple Sources of Profit. Don't rely only on market price increases. Cash flow, amortization, and value creation are major sources of real estate profits. Even in no-growth markets, you can achieve strong returns through cash flow and mortgage payoff.

Media Signals Opportunity. Negative news about the property market signals opportunity, not despair. Every time property prices stall, the press announces "the end of real estate as an investment," but history proves them wrong.

3. Cultivate Positive Habits and Emotional Discipline

Although in business school, I would not have believed that psychology could pave the way to financial success, I now realize that success starts from the castles your mind builds.

Attitude Determines Altitude. Develop and nurture positive habits of mind, motivate yourself with passion and enthusiasm, and set a standard that pleases yourself and your customers. These principles will guide your entrepreneurial success.

Emotional Discipline. Emotional discipline and self-improvement are crucial for entrepreneurial success. Without the right habits of mind and action, no would-be entrepreneur is likely to accomplish much.

Positive Self-Talk. Reprogram your self-talk tapes by erasing negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones. This requires mental energy, but the result will be positive stamina, an ingredient that sustains your efforts towards success.

4. Make Informed Decisions Through Diligence and Discernment

Your life depends on the process you use to make investment decisions.

Fail-Safe System. Engineer a fail-safe decision-making system by ranking priorities, getting your facts straight, using rules of thumb cautiously, questioning advice, and organizing your thinking. This will improve the quality of your investment decisions.

Facts vs. Opinion. Distinguish fact from opinion and think, analyze, and verify before accepting information. Quality decisions require accurate facts and data, giving you a competitive advantage to deal with reality, not illusion.

Consult Experts, Rely on Yourself. Consult experts, but never abandon your critical thought processes. Ask penetrating questions of everyone and anyone, but never delegate critical decisions to your advisers.

5. Master the DUST Framework for Strategic Property Analysis

Fuse knowledge with imagination. In no time, you’ll create something great to put in your “think big” tank.

DUST Framework. Use the Demand, Utility, Scarcity, Transfer (DUST) framework to guide your strategic reasoning process. This framework will help you estimate, forecast, and create property value.

Six Decision Points. DUST addresses six decision points:

• Explore entrepreneurial objectives
• Set up due diligence investigation
• Advance market strategy through data collection
• Value tactical and strategic possibilities
• Synthesize, interpret, and decide
• Execute, monitor, and revise strategy

Systematic Thinking. The DUST framework provides a systematic and thorough thinking process, combined with an entrepreneurial vision, to recognize opportunities and create value. This will help you make informed decisions and achieve your goals.

6. Forecast Area Trends to Identify Promising Locations

Without education and using your brains, your ignorance will cost you a fortune.

Right Place, Right Time, Right Price. To profit most, weigh the pros and cons, the risks and rewards of an area’s growth and appreciation potential against that area’s property prices and cash flows. Look for increasing Demand where you can acquire properties at a reasonable price relative to rent levels.

Macro Indicators of Demand. Review big-picture indicators of demand, such as population growth, employment, wage levels, costs of doing business, quality of life, wealth, community attitudes, and entrepreneurial spirit. Also, review indicators of supply.

Economic Base. Track the growth trends by the actual numbers of people moving in (or out). Determine whether the number of basic jobs is increasing or decreasing, as well as the types of businesses and their potential for growth.

7. Create Value by Targeting Specific Market Segments

Compete with yourself to be the best you can. Entrepreneurs know that to merely compete with others lowers their standards.

Demographics and Psychographics. To maximize your entrepreneurial profits, explore and create niche market segments of renters and buyers. What features and services can you provide to achieve a competitive advantage for tenants or buyers who express similar—yet difficult-to-fulfill—needs, wants, desires, and preferences?

Avoid Standard Labels. Instead of relying on generic labels, picture your actual renters or buyers. What are their possibilities? What are six ways they can save more or cut spending?

Unique and Intense Needs. To create an MVP, discover or create those intense (motivating) needs and wants that other competing property owners miss. Identify your tenants’ (buyers’) hot buttons.

8. Maximize Utility Within Legal and Regulatory Boundaries

You can elevate your attitude, eliminate negative self-talk, plan your schedule, connect with other people, and learn everything about everything. But to become a top-gun property entrepreneur, you also have to figure out how to adjust your sights, where to aim, and when to pull the trigger.

Land-Use Laws. Work the land-use laws to your advantage by understanding zoning regulations, building codes, and other restrictions. This knowledge will help you unlock potential profits and avoid costly mistakes.

Rules and Restrictions. Use rules and restrictions to help fashion your target market strategy. Review the legal limits as well as the legal possibilities that govern the property.

Challenge the Rules. If you feel that zoning rules impact your property too harshly, use some combination of the following to gain more favorable treatment: plead for a variance, petition for rezoning, or sue for relief in court.

9. Market Your Property's Unique Benefits to Attract Top Tenants

I create the best properties in the world. But I make sure my customers know it. Because my properties deserve promotion, the media regards me as a master of publicity and marketing.

Targeted Promotion. To earn the highest profits, to reach and persuade your best prospects, plan your promotion and advertising just as you have planned your property’s set of benefits.

Sell Benefits, Not Just the Property. Craft a persuasive promotional message that emphasizes the benefits of your property, not just its features. Draw your market segment into the ad and motivate them to act now.

Curb Appeal. Create strikingly attractive curb appeal to make a positive first impression. Your building is your best advertisement, so make sure it signals quality and care.

10. Implement a Robust Management System for Long-Term Profitability

You run your operation well, you make a good profit. Run it first class, you’ll add 000s to your bank balances.

Management System. A good management plan assures your customers that they will receive the benefits they expect. It assures you of wealth without worry.

Eight Steps of Successful Property Management:

1. Design a lease for your target market
2. Create a flawless move-in
3. Retain top-flight residents
4. When the market supports it, raise rents
5. Anticipate and prepare for special problems
6. Maintain the property
7. Process move-outs smoothly
8. Continuously find ways to increase your cash flow

Trade Up. As your career progresses, trade up to larger properties and larger deals. This technique, combined with a robust management system, will help you build wealth over time.

11. Secure Financial Freedom by Paying Less Than True Value

Pay less than the property is worth, and you create immediate value for yourself.

Multiple Possibilities. "Pay less than a property is worth" includes multiple possibilities:

• Buy at a below-market-value price
• Buy below use value
• Buy below conversion value
• Buy with below-market cost/terms of financing
• Buy with below-average operating expenses
• Buy with a short (discounted) payoff of liens

Short Payoff. The short-sale technique first gained popularity during the real estate recession that plagued California, Texas, and other parts of the country 15 to 20 years ago. Investors and lenders used the short sale to rescue upside-down property investors and homeowners who fell behind on their mortgage payments.

Preforeclosure Workout. What if, before the lender filed foreclosure on a bad loan, you could get the lender to accept a short payoff—some amount less than the total balance the borrower owes? Quite likely you could save the lender from losing as much money as it otherwise would by going through with its foreclosure.

12. Negotiate Win-Win Deals with Knowledge and Persuasion

In negotiations, look for leverage. What do you have that the other guy wants or, even better, can’t do without. Don’t go into a deal without first figuring out the power you possess to solve the other guy’s problems.

Cooperative Attitude. Develop a cooperative attitude and recognize that every negotiation brings forth multiple issues, priorities, and possibilities. Respect the other party's concerns and work to create a mutually beneficial agreement.

Know the Sellers. Before you think offer, learn about the sellers. What kind of people are they? Do they seem generous and open? Are they rigid and argumentative? Do they show pride in their property? Are they reluctantly moving?

Reduce Seller Anxiety. To maximize the attractiveness of your offer to the lender, talk cash. Lenders prefer to cash out their bad loans. It’s usually tough to persuade a lender to accept a discounted payoff and carryback financing.

Last updated: March 2, 2025