The Art of Making A Deal

1. Think BIG
One of the keys to thinking big is total focus.
Obsessive. Driven. Single minded.
These traits lead you to getting what you want.

2. Protect the downside & the upside will take care of itself
Believe in the power of negative thinking.
Go into a deal anticipating the worst.
If you plan for the worst - if you can live with worst - the good will always take care of itself.

3. Maximise your options
Be flexible.
Never get too attached to one deal / one approach.
Keep a lot of balls in the air, because most deals fall out, no matter how promising they seem at first.
Once you've got a deal, always come up with at least half a dozen approaches to making it work, because anything can happen, even the best-laid plans.

4. Know your market
Ask everyone for an opinion and make your own judgement.
Ask and ask and ask, until you get a gut feeling about something.
Then make a decision.

5. Use your leverage
The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it.
The best thing you can do is deal with strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have.
Leverage is having something the other guy wants. Or better yet, needs. Or best of all, simply can't do without.
Convince the other guy that it's in his best interest to make the deal.

6. Enhance your location
The most misunderstood concept in all of real estate is that the key to success is location, location, location.
You don't necessarily need the best location.
What you need is the best deal.
Just as you can create leverage, you can enhance a location through promotion & psychology.
Take a mediocre location and turn it into something considerably better just by attracting the right people.
What you should never do is pay too much, even if that means walking away from a very good site.

7. Get the word out
You can have the most wonderful product in the world, but if people don't know about it, it's not going to be worth very much.
Generate interest, then create excitement.
If you're a little different, or a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you.
Use bravado. Play to people's fantasies.
People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do.
People want to believe that something is the biggest, the greatest, and the most spectacular.

8. Fight back
If you're fighting for something you believe in - even if it means alienating some people along the way - things usually work out for the best in the end.

9. Deliver the goods
Promote the hell out of something, and then deliver it.

10. Contain the costs
Spend what you have to.
Not spend more than you should.
Dream great dreams, then turn them into reality at reasonable costs.

11. Have fun
Anything can change, without warning, and that's why I try not to take any of what's happened too seriously.
Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score.
The real excitement is playing the game.
I don't spend a lot of time worrying about what's going to happen next or what I should have done differently. 
If you ask me exactly what the deals I'm about to describe all add up to in the end, I'm not sure I have a very good answer.
Except that I've had a very good time making them.

- Donald Trump
The Art of The Deal