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Powerhouse Principles: The Billionaire Blueprint For Real Estate Success
The #1 private developer in the U.S. Jorge Pérez shares his billionaire secrets to empower both small and seasoned investors.
Known as the King of Condominiums and the Steven Spielberg of Real Estate, Jorge Pérez reveals his principles for achieving success in the real estate market through a clear, step-by-step process. For the first time ever, this top developer shares his most coveted principles, teaching readers everything he knows now that he wished he knew then. Having started with $2 and today boasting earnings of more than $2 billion, Pérez details the financial opportunities in real estate, and instills the importance of total commitment, dedication, and hard work. Pérez specifies effective business tactics that will lead to evergreen profits, including:
• Key points to smart investing
• Cardinal rules for picking and building property
• Commandments on negotiating the best deal
• Valuable tips on securing equity
• Powerful steps for selling property
Finally Pérez explains how to manage and grow investments over the long term.
Emphasizing the importance of staying flexible in an ever-changing market, Pérez offers personal anecdotes, key business philosophies, and top insider methods to inspire and motivate any investor and entrepreneur to achieve the ultimate success in real estate.
Known as the King of Condominiums and the Steven Spielberg of Real Estate, Jorge Pérez reveals his principles for achieving success in the real estate market through a clear, step-by-step process. For the first time ever, this top developer shares his most coveted principles, teaching readers everything he knows now that he wished he knew then. Having started with $2 and today boasting earnings of more than $2 billion, Pérez details the financial opportunities in real estate, and instills the importance of total commitment, dedication, and hard work. Pérez specifies effective business tactics that will lead to evergreen profits, including:
• Key points to smart investing
• Cardinal rules for picking and building property
• Commandments on negotiating the best deal
• Valuable tips on securing equity
• Powerful steps for selling property
Finally Pérez explains how to manage and grow investments over the long term.
Emphasizing the importance of staying flexible in an ever-changing market, Pérez offers personal anecdotes, key business philosophies, and top insider methods to inspire and motivate any investor and entrepreneur to achieve the ultimate success in real estate.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
52 people are currently reading
264 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 23, 2020
"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.
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.
June 11, 2017
Powerhouse Principles is a high level guide and somewhat autobiographical take on Jorge Perez's legacy of development in the southern United States and Latin America. Most of the stories he retells are based around projects in Miami. He lays out his high level steps and ethical approach to negotiating with all of the parties required to get a project of any scale actually completed. He also spends some time on financial leveraging in creative ways, marketing and sales for condos and how to train your teams to perform and build an effective organization among many other topics.
If you are looking for a deep technical book on the ins and outs of permitting, budgeting, zoning, building proformas, and the myriad of other tasks needed to develop even a small project, you will not find that here. To me, this is a book for existing developers that want to see what is possible and how a successful developer solved large problems, dodged bullets, and took the right hits to scale their business at a very general level. It is much more about people and mindset than technical execution. Jorge shares some great nuggets in his book and I'm very glad I read it, just don't expect a complete how to manual.
The book has nine packed chapters, but the core messages that stood out to me are as follows.
Development
This is the act of packing up the deal before you get it financed and the real value add that a developer brings is to create a package that is all clean and ready to finance. This is the hard work of knowing what the market wants, finding the right location, developing the plan for what will go there, and then getting all of the buy in from the stakeholders. This can be a monumental task and even a good plan can fail after you've spent a lot of time and potentially money on it. Jorge has a lot of experience here and has creatively put together some amazing projects. You can't please everyone, but Jorge lays out how to get enough of the players lined up so the deal can actually work. His time as a city planner in Miami certainly served him well. Negotiating with people and solving for their concerns about a project is what a developer does. He spells out how he manages relationships and makes deals about more than just the money involved, as that is not the only component. Integrity and building strong relationships are the foundation of being a successful developer.
Financing
It's easy to see real estate development as very capital intense and daunting to get into. The traditional thinking is you trade risk for leverage by taking on more debt. There are several tactics where you can increase your equity position without cash which gives you options. These usually involve adding value by re-zoning, or being creative with a property for a different use than is obviously intended. Jorge shares a few stories of how he was able to enable more leverage without using more cash. This is another critical skill a developer must learn to create value and spread that didn't exist before.
Selling
He describes a terrific method for driving the market into his sales funnel for selling condo units in a large building. I found this to be one of the most interesting parts of the book. It is pretty specific to selling condos as it requires stuffing your sales funnel all at once with creative marketing to get people to pre-purchase units which is the name of the game for large multi-unit condos. That takes a lot of the risk out. I have never had to market so many units at once in the same location, his approach is very enlightening for that kind of sale. If you sell condo units under one roof, this chapter alone is worth picking up the book.
Long Term Vision
All of these lessons are taught under an unwavering commitment to integrity even to the point of losing money on a deal if that is what it takes to maintain your brand image as one that follows through with the highest level of quality. Short term gains at the expense of quality or integrity will burn your brand in the long run, so you have to be able to afford to take short term hits to keep your long term vision in place.
Facing Change
Jorge is also committed to making his buildings unique and beautiful even when he could build the same building over again that worked great before. This is risky and often developers won't do this which causes you to see the same apartment designs over and over again because they worked in the past. It takes a brave exec to throw away something that worked to continue to try and innovate with design and style knowing that those changes could cost you, and some likely will. However when you get it right, you have the property that stands out, that is a signature that everyone wants because it is unique in the marketplace. If you're going to be outstanding you are going to have to stand out, and that means walking that plank above oblivion over and over again.
I always enjoy reading how other successful entrepreneurs achieved what they have. I certainly cannot claim the same success in development as Jorge, so there were many lessons to learn from in his book. If you are on the real estate development path, this will be a good motivator for you, and you're sure to get some great insights out of it no matter where you are in your journey.
If you are looking for a deep technical book on the ins and outs of permitting, budgeting, zoning, building proformas, and the myriad of other tasks needed to develop even a small project, you will not find that here. To me, this is a book for existing developers that want to see what is possible and how a successful developer solved large problems, dodged bullets, and took the right hits to scale their business at a very general level. It is much more about people and mindset than technical execution. Jorge shares some great nuggets in his book and I'm very glad I read it, just don't expect a complete how to manual.
The book has nine packed chapters, but the core messages that stood out to me are as follows.
Development
This is the act of packing up the deal before you get it financed and the real value add that a developer brings is to create a package that is all clean and ready to finance. This is the hard work of knowing what the market wants, finding the right location, developing the plan for what will go there, and then getting all of the buy in from the stakeholders. This can be a monumental task and even a good plan can fail after you've spent a lot of time and potentially money on it. Jorge has a lot of experience here and has creatively put together some amazing projects. You can't please everyone, but Jorge lays out how to get enough of the players lined up so the deal can actually work. His time as a city planner in Miami certainly served him well. Negotiating with people and solving for their concerns about a project is what a developer does. He spells out how he manages relationships and makes deals about more than just the money involved, as that is not the only component. Integrity and building strong relationships are the foundation of being a successful developer.
Financing
It's easy to see real estate development as very capital intense and daunting to get into. The traditional thinking is you trade risk for leverage by taking on more debt. There are several tactics where you can increase your equity position without cash which gives you options. These usually involve adding value by re-zoning, or being creative with a property for a different use than is obviously intended. Jorge shares a few stories of how he was able to enable more leverage without using more cash. This is another critical skill a developer must learn to create value and spread that didn't exist before.
Selling
He describes a terrific method for driving the market into his sales funnel for selling condo units in a large building. I found this to be one of the most interesting parts of the book. It is pretty specific to selling condos as it requires stuffing your sales funnel all at once with creative marketing to get people to pre-purchase units which is the name of the game for large multi-unit condos. That takes a lot of the risk out. I have never had to market so many units at once in the same location, his approach is very enlightening for that kind of sale. If you sell condo units under one roof, this chapter alone is worth picking up the book.
Long Term Vision
All of these lessons are taught under an unwavering commitment to integrity even to the point of losing money on a deal if that is what it takes to maintain your brand image as one that follows through with the highest level of quality. Short term gains at the expense of quality or integrity will burn your brand in the long run, so you have to be able to afford to take short term hits to keep your long term vision in place.
Facing Change
Jorge is also committed to making his buildings unique and beautiful even when he could build the same building over again that worked great before. This is risky and often developers won't do this which causes you to see the same apartment designs over and over again because they worked in the past. It takes a brave exec to throw away something that worked to continue to try and innovate with design and style knowing that those changes could cost you, and some likely will. However when you get it right, you have the property that stands out, that is a signature that everyone wants because it is unique in the marketplace. If you're going to be outstanding you are going to have to stand out, and that means walking that plank above oblivion over and over again.
I always enjoy reading how other successful entrepreneurs achieved what they have. I certainly cannot claim the same success in development as Jorge, so there were many lessons to learn from in his book. If you are on the real estate development path, this will be a good motivator for you, and you're sure to get some great insights out of it no matter where you are in your journey.
January 8, 2019
Very good read for aspiring real estate developers!
Jorge gives great advice on real estate developments and some personal philosophy. I wish him the best. I am now very excited to be in south Florida and see some of his awesome work!
Jorge gives great advice on real estate developments and some personal philosophy. I wish him the best. I am now very excited to be in south Florida and see some of his awesome work!
March 12, 2019
I really like this book because all of main keys and principles are all going back to building good character and ethics. It's the foundation that I find from one success biography to another. It's so critical what you do at the staring point because as you go further out those foundation and principles will either propel you forward or hinder your process to become successful.
June 8, 2019
If you know Miami very well you might read this book to understand what Related (Jorge Peres company) builded around the city. This book bring me priceless lessons to understand businesses and over all real estate. I know that Related is envolved today with ultra luxury projects like Armani Casa in Miami, I ll love to know the details of that project in Jorge’s next book someday.
May 4, 2025
As a real estate investor and developer this book is spot on. One thing I appreciate was there was quite a bit of meat and potatoes. Sometimes you read a book and its all superficial this is not it. Highly recommend.
Want to read
October 14, 2020yeah
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 20, 2022
Every developer needs to read this
July 13, 2023
Excellent
I felt like I was in his brain and understand exactly how he thinks. Extremely insightful. A must read for any aspiring real estate pro.
I felt like I was in his brain and understand exactly how he thinks. Extremely insightful. A must read for any aspiring real estate pro.
August 18, 2023
Excellent example of a Real Estate Developer!! A little too pretentious but sometimes common in business talented people.
August 29, 2018
If Jorge Perez is "The (pre-2015) Trump of the Tropics" then this is his "Art of the Deal." However, I think this book actually takes the cake on actionable real estate advice.
Jorge Perez is a rags to riches story, growing up dirt poor in Miami and rising to become a billionaire through Real Estate Development. In this book, he outlines his philosophy and strategy through each stage of the development process from construction to sales. His primary focus in on multifamily, so that's really what you have to be interested in to get a lot from this book.
His advice is rock solid, and his business acumen and integrity shine through the pages. The book is in first person, and laid out with different principles, key quotes, and case studies all highlighted for easier reading. It's pretty high level, great for those interested in hearing how a high level player takes on new challenges. It helped me understand the development process, and how important each stage is, from buying the land, to zoning, to financing, to development, to marketing. How risky, but also how lucrative it is.
I was particularly impressed with how important a developer's vision for a community is. They are setting the stage for future growth and progress through their projects, and they always need to be thinking about what's best for a community. Jorge demonstrates this through his case studies in Miami, Atlanta, and all of the tropics of North and South America.
I also enjoyed his comments on the importance of integrity, doing what's best for others, and building trust with clients, lenders, and his team. In addition, he is always stressing the importance of continuous market research and analysis, and constant vigilance over his projects. It's clear that he sees complacency as a true enemy, and does everything he can to avoid it.
All in all, if you're into real estate development, this is a great book for you. If you're an entrepreneur and you want to learn how he became a billionaire, and his advice, it's also a pretty good read. Would recommend.
Jorge Perez is a rags to riches story, growing up dirt poor in Miami and rising to become a billionaire through Real Estate Development. In this book, he outlines his philosophy and strategy through each stage of the development process from construction to sales. His primary focus in on multifamily, so that's really what you have to be interested in to get a lot from this book.
His advice is rock solid, and his business acumen and integrity shine through the pages. The book is in first person, and laid out with different principles, key quotes, and case studies all highlighted for easier reading. It's pretty high level, great for those interested in hearing how a high level player takes on new challenges. It helped me understand the development process, and how important each stage is, from buying the land, to zoning, to financing, to development, to marketing. How risky, but also how lucrative it is.
I was particularly impressed with how important a developer's vision for a community is. They are setting the stage for future growth and progress through their projects, and they always need to be thinking about what's best for a community. Jorge demonstrates this through his case studies in Miami, Atlanta, and all of the tropics of North and South America.
I also enjoyed his comments on the importance of integrity, doing what's best for others, and building trust with clients, lenders, and his team. In addition, he is always stressing the importance of continuous market research and analysis, and constant vigilance over his projects. It's clear that he sees complacency as a true enemy, and does everything he can to avoid it.
All in all, if you're into real estate development, this is a great book for you. If you're an entrepreneur and you want to learn how he became a billionaire, and his advice, it's also a pretty good read. Would recommend.
December 20, 2008
A good book overall. I would recommend that you start with The Best Damn Commercial Real Estate Investing Book Ever first, cause it will lay a lot of basics down. Then move to this book.
Jorge's writing is so-so, but the case studies and the details about certain transactions are really really helpful. He really gives more detail and explanation about how to operate like a billionaire.
A couple really good tips and definitely a worthwhile read.
Jorge's writing is so-so, but the case studies and the details about certain transactions are really really helpful. He really gives more detail and explanation about how to operate like a billionaire.
A couple really good tips and definitely a worthwhile read.
Want to read
April 20, 2013I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11819060
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11819060
November 23, 2015
Some useful tips. Mainly a marketing tool for a billionaire & his corporation & friends. I was hoping for more business insights & practical tips.
October 3, 2016
A really good advise on real state and is a good read to dream big !
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews