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Advice For Canadian Real Estate Investors From George RossAny Canadian real estate investors out there not know who George Ross is? He's Donald Trump's right hand man and his "go to" lawyer who handles many of Trump's legal activities still today. We had the opportunity to spend some time with him and hear a live chat he gave that seemed to be pretty spontaneous in its content. We even snapped a couple of pictures with him. 
One of the most interesting stories he shared was how you can never lose focus when negotiating a deal. He was down south somewhere and someone was trying to sell his wife a blanket for $30 on the beach and he offered $12.
This goes with his #1 piece of advice and magic phrase he uses in all negotiations, "You've got to do better." Based on the sheer amount of time he spent explaining the power of that line it's obvious he's used it very successfully over the last few decades with Trump. I'm sure Canadian real estate investors can do the same. I've been testing it out lately with everything and it works. The dry cleaners gave me a 15% discount just for blurting it out (I was smiling as I said it :) Anyway, he spends a full day going back and forth with the beach blanket guy and ultimately lets the deal fall away over 50 cents. The guy selling the blanket came down to $15 but George's final offer was $14.50. He explained how he regreted losing that blanket and blames it on his lack of focus. He was more interested in "winning" and not giving that last 50 cents than actually getting the blanket for his wife, which was the actual goal of the process.
Here are few other little gems for Canadian real estate investors that George shared:
1. Always find common ground when negotiating. If the guy on the other side of the table plays golf then you love golf. 2. You must do your homework. Knowledge is key in complex negotiations. 3. Ability to organize information is a critical component to his success. He shared how when he started with Donal Trump he noticed that Donald kept a spiral notebook on his desk to track everything. He immediately started doing the same. And I'm sure Canadian real estate investors will love this little quote he put out there: "More fortunes have been lost in real estate than ever made". Good one eh? He went on to explain how a lot of people buy into things because of the "auro of legitimacy" surrounding the deals. The specific example used was around the condo hotels in Las Vegas and how over the past few years (2005-2008) a bunch of beginner real estate invetors bought up condo hotel units thinking that they were a slam dunk investment. Apparently the fine print of these things didn't guarantee the rental income that the investors believed was theirs and now a boat load of people are carrying negative cash flow condo hotel units that aren't appreciating at the moment. After issuing that story he went on to explain how everyone, including Canadian real estate investors, should borrow to the hilt BUT invest in wisely. George went on to explain that Donald Trump was buying when EVERYONE ELSE WAS SELLING. So basically Trump made a boat load of money by being a contrarian. Before George goes into any negotiation he uses his POST strategy. P - Who are the people and personalities at the meeting. O - What is the objective of this meeting and it must be measurable. S - Strategy, which one? Smart/stupid/rich/poor T - Tactics, which one? e.g. Don't appear anxious. He also made a comment on how people believe generalities instead of specifics. That explains why everyone lives and dies by the media's headlines that the sky is falling but overlooks the fact that one block has rising prices and another has declining ones. Very few people research and use the specifics to their advantage. Including most Canadian real estate investors I know. Couple of last points... George Ross handles all of Trump's licensing deals, things like the licensing of his name for the suits that Macy's sells. Trump surrounds himself with professionals and has supreme confidence. This whole "supreme confidence" concept seems to be a recurring them between huge money makers. Bill Gates and Larry Ellison (Oracle Corp.) come to mind. I'm certain all Canadian real estate investors would benefit from the same attitude. I find beginners often feel that everyone else knows more than they do and it scares them from taking action. It took me a while to figure this out but here's a little secret for ya, hardly anyone out there knows anything and there's very few people actually taking any action. Once you come to understand that the world is your oyster. Seriously. George ends his talk with how important his magical phrase, "You've got to do better", has been to him. Years ago there was an apartment listed for $3.8 million. The seller wanted only firm offers. The developer that he was working with at the time (not Trump) wanted George to write up a firm offer for $3.4 million. Instead, George offered $1.9 million and got it for $2.4 million. Not bad eh? Overall, great guy, suprisingly approachable and obviously a fountain of knowledge.
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