The Story of America’s Largest Real Estate Empire by Robert Sobel — BOOK SYNOPSIS, REVIEW AND NOTES
This expensive book was brandished as one of the top go-to books in the office of Gary Keller. It’s a powerful business-oriented biography of the founder of America’s largest real estate empire, Trammell Crow. He created many of the most notable real estate projects in the United States during the sunbelt boom decades of the 1950s to 1980s, making him the most successful commercial real estate developer of our time, and one of the wealthiest men in the world.
Trammel Crow, Master Builder takes you behind the scenes and back to the birth of the company, now part of commercial real estate giant CBRE. The book traces the company’s meteoric, challenging rise. Unliked most biographies, it includes a great deal of educational analysis of the managerial methods developed by Crow. and his company, while it reveals the personality and philosophies that led to one of the most successful business operations in history.
Crow added significantly to the skylines of Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco and many other cities of the West Coast and South. The book explains how he transformed his one-man operation into a modern global corporation. This biography is jam packed full of field-proven business tactics and strategies for entrepreneurs in the commercial real estate industry. Here are some of Trammel Crow’s success principles:
- Whatever your industry, learn accounting first!
- Put yourself into the right place at the right time. Go where the money is — and the growth.
- Partner with extremely honest and capable people. Reward them exceptionally well for their contributions.
- Always turn failures into successes, or make them stepping stones to bigger success.
- Work in a big and growing industry.
- It’s OK to hire young, inexperienced if they have brains and character.
- Continuously reduce overhead, streamline operations and reduce bureaucracy.
- Do not dilute shares of original partners.
- Don’t Tinker with an old Golden Goose.
- Always have cash on hand to buy under-valued properties. Sell them when opportunities are ripe, when the market for them improves.
- Always be ready to take advantage of changing markets, changing economy and changing government regulations.
It’s no wonder that this is a favorite of Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams. This book reads like a biography, but also as a practical how-to for building a real estate empire. It’s a pricey oldie, but goodie classic with timeless, priceless property industry principles.
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