Alumni Spotlight: Gene Burns
When Gene Burns moved to Las Vegas in 2001, he left his heart in San Diego and at SDSU. In February 2008, Burns, co-author of An Insider’s Guide to 52 Homes in 52 Weeks, visited his alma mater to deliver a presentation to SDSU’s Finance and Investment Society (FIS).
Burns spoke to the students about how he and his business partner set off to purchase 52 homes within a one-year period and
the techniques they employed to profit from the experiment by the end of that year.
When the experiment started in 2002, the real estate market was strong, but hadn’t hit its peak. “I timed the housing market perfectly,” said Burns, who earned his B.A. in Recreation Administration in 1979. “I got in around 2001, then sold when the market peaked in 2004.”
Burns came to SDSU from Pacific Palisades, Calif., as a graduate of Loyola High School in Los Angeles. He chose SDSU because he “loved San Diego, the beach and the weather and wanted to live there. I thought it would be an enjoyable experience to receive my college degree from SDSU.”
Now in the lending business (“I lend hard money lender to developers who are having challenges getting short term financing from the banks due to the current credit crunch”), Burns has fond memories of his college days and was even a member of SDSU’s champion championship water ski team for three years.
He also enjoyed his discussion with the FIS students. “I was happily surprised on how up the students were on the real estate market and would be happy to do this again, if asked.”
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