Trump's Advice for Today's Economy: Buy Real Estate
Trump: today's plummeting house prices are great news for would-be home buyers.
April 14, 2009 -- Donald Trump has never been shy about offering his opinions or advice. Whether it's how to manage finances and money, or confronting a celebrity, the real-estate mogul and reality-TV star seems eager to let people know just what's on his mind.
These days, what's on Trump's mind is real estate: more specifically, buying it. Echoing what real estate agents have maintained for months, Trump said that today's plummeting house prices are great news for would-be home buyers.
"This is a great time to go out and buy a home," he said on "Good Morning America" today.
"You might even lose your one home and you'll end up getting a better one."
But Trump also acknowledged that obtaining mortgages to buy real estate these days is difficult, and he criticized the banks for not lending more cash. "What the banks are doing is terrible," he said.
"The banks have billions and billions of taxpayer money, and they're not giving that money or loaning that money to the taxpayer."
The solution, Trump said, is to buy bank-owned homes. Banks typically take ownership of homes after foreclosures, which have spiked as the housing crisis has escalated.
Banks will help buyers finance the homes they're trying to sell, Trump said.
The banks "don't want these homes; they've got thousands of them," he said. "They don't know what to do with them."
He also said he believed that banks receiving funds under the government's Troubled Assets Relief Program should be subject to compensation restrictions.
"When they're taking the TARP [money] ... all of a sudden you work for the government," he said. "When you no longer work for the government, you go by the board. But when you take billions and billions of dollars like so many of the banks have done, you probably have no choice."
Trump shares more of his opinions and advice in his new book, "Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life."
His lessons include going against the tide, keeping the big picture in mind, creating your own luck and giving yourself a second chance. Read an excerpt of his book on the next page.
