The first time I met George face-to-face, was aboard his $12 million Gulf Stream jet. Unlike most private jets, his contained a $4 million sculpture collection with pieces by artist like Fernando Botero, Henry Moore, and August Rodin. They were set in small display areas on the plane and the interior was lit like a fine restaurant. He’d flown in to join me at a planned meeting with the largest individual owner of apartments in America, Harold Farb, in Houston, Texas. He was early, so while we were on board the plane, he scribbled a simple note for me that he said was the secret of his incredible success. Of equal importance was what he said next, which was, “What I do on a large scale, anyone could do on a small scale.” I was too wired about our pending meeting to make sense of it, but years later, I would figure out that it was one of the secrets of master investors. It was the secret that propelled a similar level of success for other real estate investors I’d come to meet, learn from, or do business with during my 40 years in all things real estate dealing in every property type. Investors like Darby whom I helped expand from 250 apartment units to 760, while on the side he acquiring 150 homes. A character like Jerry who bought near vacant shopping centers until he had 100 of them. Ron, from whom I learned how to turn $2,500 into $25,000 with homes without every owning anything or visiting a bank. There was Howard, who did what George scribbled on the paper but with huge, institutional investor grade buildings. The question was, what are these guys doing and can it be used by any level of investor? Over time, I unraveled a lot of what master investors did and even taught some of it to real estate professionals for continuing education credit. But something was still missing. Then, one day, as I prepared to teach a class, it dawned on me. I realized that 95% of the world of investment real estate, residential and commercial, could be distilled and simplified into 2 calculations, 4 situations, and 5 approaches. I soon put this information to the test on my own and while helping others, all with success, on deals as small as a home and a four-plex, and then larger. What I learned after millions of dollars in transactions working with some of the nations’ most successful investors in every property type, and years of study and reverse engineering, was that it could all be distilled into 3 steps: Step One: Generating seed capital (profits from zero down or micro small investments), Step Two: Building wealth with two of the four situations (this is what George had written down), and Step Three: Stabilizing wealth. In practice, the three steps allow you to generate money to invest in the first place (or use to more quickly expand your existing holdings), then invest in hyper profitable situations, with the final step being to own high cash flow, passive income properties. In short, this process is like a treasure map that would let anyone willing to learn, how to graduate from the real estate investor equivalent of a row boat captain to a Navy SEAL. This book takes you step by step to understanding this process that can save you years of trial an error, wasted money, and sleepless nights, all while gaining confidence and lowering risk. George was right, it all works on any scale, and the journey starts with this book.
