Real estate is one of the classic rags-to-riches stories and has been the source of wealth for some of the richest people on the planet. According to Forbes, 193 billionaires were created through real estate.
Andrew Carnegie was famously quoted saying that “90% of all millionaires become so through owning real estate. More money has been made in real estate than in all industrial investments combined. The wise young man, [woman] or wage earner of today invests his money in real estate.”
You can read about many millionaires made from real estate.
Sam Zell, founder and chairman of Equity Group Investments, went from reselling Playboy magazines as a child in Chicago to managing student apartments and eventually creating some of the largest publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the world. The real estate mogul built a fortune that is now worth $5.4 billion.
Living off of a $10,000 loan from his mother after being fired from Bear Stearns in 1972, Stephen Ross started organizing deals for wealthy investors to fund affordable housing developments – providing a tax shelter with generous incentives offered by the federal government. Ross founded The Related Companies and now has a net worth of $11.6 billion.
However, real estate isn’t just a means of climbing to the top. Most millionaires and billionaires allocate a significant portion of their portfolios to this asset class for its stability, cash flow and substantial tax benefits. Some notable billionaires are making their own unique plays in the real estate market.
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos invested in the innovative real estate startup Arrived Homes in 2021 during its seed round, then doubled down on that investment in the company’s series A round in 2022. The company acquires single-family rentals across the U.S., securitizes them, then allows retail investors to buy shares of individual properties for as little as $100.
See also: Bezos-Backed Startup Lets You Become A Landlord With $100
The investment platform has already funded over 200 properties with a total value of more than $75 million and allowed tens of thousands of individual investors to become fractional landlords.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc, Twitter and SpaceX, may be making his own play to get a piece of the residential real estate market by partnering with Lennar Corp. on building “Project Awesome,” a new residential area of 110 homes in Bastrop County, Texas, that could provide housing for employees of Musk-related companies
See also: Elon Musk, The Landlord? Tesla CEO Might Be Bringing Houses To Employees With This Company.
The initial deal with Lennar calls for 110 houses, but it could be just the first of several projects between Musk and the homebuilder.
In April 2021, Musk tweeted that more housing was needed in parts of Texas.
“Urgent need to build more housing in greater Austin area!” Musk tweeted.
Musk has created several jobs in Texas between SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company and it appears that he may be taking matters into his own hands to address the state’s housing shortage.
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