This post is titled What Would Donald Trump Do. As one of the biggest real estate moguls out there, surely The Donald is shaking in his boots right now right?
Wrong. According to Trump, "Somebody says 'how's the market?' I say not good except for Trump." It looks like he learned a big lesson back in the early '90s when he almost declared bankruptcy. Back then, he was personally responsible for paying back hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Lucky for him, he was able to do some debt restructuring and save his behind (banks are suckers for his personal brand name; A similar thing happened when his casino company almost went bankrupt in 2004).
Now, he runs his real estate brand in a smarter way. Instead of putting his personal assets as collateral for his projects, Trump makes deals with developers around the world to allow them to use his name on their projects in exchange for brand licensing fees, a percentage of sales, and in some cases, he just throws in a small pot of money in exchange for a bit of equity. He has some good diversification in his current plays. He has 20 projects in the U.S. and half of that abroad. Through his dealmaking, he has plays in Dubai, Seoul, Tampa, Chicago, Toronto, Atlanta, etc.
Several of his projects have some challenges going on and a few have stopped construction. It doesn't matter much to Trump though since he's personally liable for very little. So for now, he will remain his cocky self. I'll close with Trump's statement "All of my stuff has been a great success...Nobody has even come close to the track record that I have."
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