At the end of the day, nobody cares how much you tried, what the deal was, or if you were a good guy or a bad guy.
Perhaps the secret to making a billion dollars in real estate is that there is no secret.
You don't have to be too bright to get into real estate.
I started my career buying and owning single-family houses, and I know that's a really tough job. Toilets break. Trees fall. There are so many things that can go wrong. Land, on the other hand, is cheap to manage. It's painless, really. All you have to do is pay your taxes, and that's it.
I'm an extrovert.
One valuable lesson I learned is that buying cheap is very important. Buying without debt is also very important. Leverage is your enemy.
Growing companies need commercial space, and their employees need to live nearby.
The annual 'Forbes' Billionaires List speaks volumes about the movement and concentration of wealth across industries and geographies.
Whether an economic boom is fueled by the fashion industry or technology innovations, it needs a brick-and-mortar foundation. This is not only true in New York and San Francisco; wherever you live, you can find a local hotspot positioned to attract interest from businesses, consumers and investors.
When you're in 45 markets, you take it on the chin here and there.
People from all over the world want to be in New York. This rather simple idea took me a long time to learn.
To be human is to err, isn't it?
When you take smaller gambles, no one particular deal can be big enough to have a material adverse effect on the company.
I would rather be the only horse in a one-horse town than be the third horse in a big city.
I'm not interested in having the second- or third-largest mall in Cincinnati.
In Texas, they're very proud of being cowboys. It's a different atmosphere - a lot more agricultural. I can't, living here in Jersey, predict who they are. It's called respecting the community.
I'm just a normal guy.
