Powerhouse Principles: The Ultimate Blueprint for Real Estate Success in an Ever-Changing Market

Powerhouse Principles: The Billionaire Blueprint for Real Estate Success is an entertaining read for the professional and an instructive read for the beginning real estate investor.For those who do not follow real estate closely, Jorge Perez is the southern half of Related Companies (the northern half is his partner Stephen Ross who developed the highly successful Time Warner Center @ Columbus Circle in NYC and who has just inked a deal with Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York to create 12 million square feet of commercial and residential towers above Manhattan's West Side Railyards).Jorge has been the premier developer of quality condo's in Miami and Miami Beach AND most importantly, is still solvent and doing quite well thank you in spite of the bursting of the real estate bubble. Jorge and Related Companies have a well deserved reputation for upscale excellence that has served him in good stead.How did he do it? Get rich and not go broke like many of his over extended competitors? What was his secret? Well, it is a bit like the secret to losing weight: eat less and exercise more. Jorge is a tireless advocate of financial discipline, hard work and SMART work. He knows his territory, he studies his customers, he knows his product, he knows his banks, he knows his subs...Even tho he well on to his second billion, Jorge still runs scared, still acts and invests as if he could lose it all. In other words, he is aware of his downside on every deal and works hard to keep it minimal. Jorge strives to know not only his job but the job of everyone around him; he advises the reader to continually 'pick the brains' of all their advisors, to find out WHY they give the advice they do, to learn as much as possible from them, in effect make them your tutors.Jorge is evidently committed to being a life long learner and instructs potential investors to "read, read, read, read". Yes, that's right he says it 4 times.While far from an how to manual (Jorge sends his readers elsewhere to get an understanding of IRR), Jorge does give a lot of practical advice, tells a lot of stories that give the reader a good flavor for real estate and make the book flow well.Jorge covers- Five Guiding Principles- Four Keys to Successful Investing- Ten Commandments of Negotiation- Five Rules for Securing Financing- Selling It: From Buzz to Frenzy in Five Steps- Eight Rules for Building Profits- Four Keys for Managing and Growing- Three Principles of ChangeA lot of common sense but would that common sense were common practice. Jorge writes in an easy to read manner, tells stories that make his points easy to remember and covers the same topic from several different angles which i believe is important to drive a point home and make sure the reader remembers and uses the info at critical decision points. To know and not do is to not know! In the interest of full disclosure, i own a condo in one of Jorge's first developments, the Portofino. I almost bought it direct from Related when the building was first built (and i briefly met Jorge at that time), instead i bought in Manhattan. Years later i went an bought the same unit from the second owner and paid about two and half times what i would have paid Jorge.If you want a more technical approach to real estate investing, check out my textbook at  Construction Funding: The Process of Real Estate Development, Appraisal, and Finance  and if you REALLY want to learn more about real estate investing, check out the University of Florida's Nathan S. Collier Master of Science in Real Estate Program at [...]

Powerhouse Principles is by far the best book out there relating to real estate development (my other favorite is  The Peebles Principles: Tales and Tactics from an Entrepreneur's Life of Winning Deals, Succeeding in Business, and Creating a Fortune from Scratch  ). He breaks down the book in different stages of development from finding the right property, to tips in development, sales & marketing, financing, etc. I like how Mr. Perez refrains from telling you exactly what kind of investments you should do, he simply explains what worked for him and what we, as the reader, can learn from this. There are no secrets in this business so any book or wanna-be guru that says otherwise is talking out of his rear. However, Perez offers many, many tips that have worked for him and can be easily applied to almost any real estate transaction. One of the best tips he gives is tying up a piece of land/building with a refundable deposit, using the due diligence time to get a project designed by an architect, finding a contractor, etc. and having all parties agree to forgo their fees until the project has been approved by the city and bank, and even allowing them to put their fee in as equity in the project, hence saving yourself lots of cash (more on that in the financing section of the book). This book isn't like some other shoddy wannabe get rich quick type of books (Trump University, Carlton Sheets, etc.). It was written by an established developer chock full of tips and case studies based on his experiences and a must-read for anyone starting out in this business and even already established in the business as well.

Interesting book! Doesn’t provide a lot of the details or numbers about the jobs but helps you better understand the thinking required to be successful in the industry. Really interesting to hear about his past projects and how he started Related Group.

A complete and very educative book for developers and real estate investor's, the full guide about how to start and how to keep going forward in your goals in this business.

I'm making a career change from the hotel business to real estate development and I am reading every single book I can get my hands on about the subject. I read a hard copy of this book at my local library this past year and liked the business aspect of it so much that I bought my own copy! I recommend this book as well as the books from Donald Trumps Trump University series.For me this book offers good basic knowledge about how he handled certain situations and what he would do.I follow the example of Mr Koch of Koch Industries the biggest privately held company in America. His office if filled with all kinds of books on business. And when he finds a good idea he institutes it in his own business. I also am doing the same. My new Kindle library now numbers 82 books with the addition of this one.

Visionario e inspirador. Simplemente gracias por tus palabras tan motivantes que empuja a la gente joven a crear y a trabajar más.

Anybody who wants to understand commercial real estate development will love this book. Jorge Perez is an energetic, hard-working, smart developer who has proven his mastery many times in the amazing projects his Related Group have completed. Learn from the Master!!!

This is a phenomenal book and one that I would recommend to anyone who has any type of aspirations in life. Apart from the fact that it was written by a bonafide real estate mogul with real experience -- not someone who made their fortune from writing books or giving advice -- its principles and lessons easily translate to virtually any endeavor. If you're interested in real estate (on a big development scale), obviously the lessons are even more applicable. But even if your aspiration lie outside of real estate, Jorge's attitude, mentality and lessons can be applied to any undertaking you are passionate about.

Great mix of practical tips and personal coaching. I was particularly surprised by Mr Perez genuinity and his ability to fly the flag for good business, rather than cut throats. A role model for me in my new business and someone I now greatly value.Highly recommend for anyone moving into development - if you're very aspirational.

Realistic tips for those whose passion is real estate development and are considering it as a business.

"The fundamentals of development never change. Whether you're doing your very first job or juggling twenty at a time, the principles remain the same. You have to know the numbers. You have to know your people. And you have to take the long view.As your company grows you'll have more numbers and people to keep track of, and more things to keep an eye on and think about. That's just the way it goes. As you gain experience, you'll assimilate information about a job more quickly, and zero in on what's important faster.In some ways it's like going from being a musician concentrating on playing a single instrument to being an orchestra conductor. In the beginning, it takes all your concentration to read the notes and place your fingers in the right spots. It's slow and laborious.As you gain experience, you stop thinking consciously about where your fingers are. You play more smoothly. You can handle more complicated compositions.When you become a conductor, you're not thinking about one instrument and whether it sounds right or not. You're thinking about the whole orchestra. You're reading the whole score and guiding each and every musician to create the symphony you envision. And if a single note on a single violin is off, you know it immediately and you can call for it to be corrected just as fast.It's the same in development. It doesn't get easier as you grow. It requires constant, unwavering attention to every single detail. But as you gain experience, you'll learn to spot that sour note immediately, long before it ruins the project-or your company." (Jorge Pérez, Powerhouse Principles: The Billionaire Blueprint for Real Estate Success, Page 226)Written by billionaire Jorge Pérez, the founder of Related Group, a firm that develops real estate. Donald Trump writes a forward to this book and says, "The one person who could teach me something about real estate is Jorge Pérez" (Page xi).The book begins with him explaining how he got into real estate. He actually began his career as a public servant. He worked in the office that approved permits for developers. So, he took his insider information, and began his own start-up in real estate. He noticed a niche within the housing market; that of providing low income housing. One of his strengths was he knew how to find grants to build his lower income housing projects. After being successful in developing low income housing, he started developing land by waterfronts; mostly in Florida: Miami and Palm Beach to be exact. When he started, many people lived in the suburbs and not in the downtown area of Miami for some reason (he explains this in the book), so he set his marketing on freeway advertising boards, while people would be stuck in traffic on their way to and from work. It worked! He was successful in selling his condominiums by the waterfront. He details many different real estate projects in this book and provides pictures.He shares with his readers many different principles he applied to be successful in real estate, hence, the title of this book: Powerhouse Principles.His advice for young entrepreneurs is "Have great focus, set high but achievable goals, and work extremely hard at achieving them" (Page 4). The book starts off with an introductory chapter called The Simple Secret to Making Your First $1 Billion. In it he explains that he didn't set out to become a billionaire or to be on the Forbes list of richest Americans, but he ended up there, and he says if did, the person reading his book can also.Developing real estate is his "simple secret to making his first billion." So there you go, understanding and developing real estate successfully can cause you to reach billionaire status. Actually, after having read over 150 books written by billionaires, I've noticed a pattern. That pattern is that many billionaires have become billionaires through the industry of real estate. Some of them didn't start off in real estate, but later many took the money from their businesses and started investing in this industry. I would say 90% of them in my opinion. And this was not just in buying their own home (which is an expense by the way, and not an investment), it was is buying or developing properties for rental or sale (houses, apartments, office buildings).The subjects that he covers in this book are: investing, picking property, negotiation, securing financing, selling, building, managing and growing, and change. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I had a hard time putting it down. Perhaps, because I also have a passion for real estate. And the number 1 principle that he starts this book off with is: PASSION. He says, "Have a love for what you do. The passion for what you do inspires you, drives you, makes you tenacious...Passion is when working hard inspires you to work harder. While others want to do their jobs and go home, you won't be happy unless you're the very best. And every day, you'll want to be better."Great down-to-earth advice in this book from a billionaire real estate tycoon that I believe anyone who has the will and desire can put into practice.

Escrito de forma ordenada y fresca, el caso de un hispano con gran éxito en los USA.Explica sus principios básicos, de forma muy utilizable.Totalmente recomendable

My.. GOD... this is an amazing book on real estate I've ever read. Thank you sir George perez. Love from India.😇