What Did Warren Buffett Say He'd Write A $25 Billion Check For?

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is well known for his frugality. 

The extent of his frugal quirks are well-documented. You may already know that he never spends more than $3.17 on breakfast or that he lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for about $31,000. You may even know from his documentary “Becoming Buffett” that his No. 1 is: Never lose money.

What you may have missed though, was the Oracle of Omaha’s fancy for farmland. It must be heavy on his mind lately, as he alluded to it as an investment he would gladly make over Bitcoin. 

At a Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in April, Buffett stated his distaste for the cryptocurrency with the position “it doesn’t produce anything tangible.” He reiterated his stance and the rationale several times. He doubled down by saying, “Whether it goes up or down in the next year, or five or 10 years, I don’t know. But the one thing I’m pretty sure of is that it doesn’t produce anything.”

The operative word here is “produce.” Buffett’s buddy Bill Gates isn’t just rich because of his co-founding of Microsoft Corop. It’s largely because of smart investing. One of Gates’s biggest bets lately has been farmland. The public has started to take note of the billionaire’s emerging farmland monopoly, and other celebrities like Russell Brand have provided their 2 cents on the matter. It’s worrisome that Gates owns more land than McDonald’s, but as for investing, his habits are one to copy.

Buffett agrees. At that same shareholders’ meeting alluded to previously, the example Buffett gave as the anti-Bitcoin was farmland. 

“If you said … for a 1% interest in all the farmland in the United States, pay our group $25 billion, I’ll write you a check this afternoon,” Buffett said during the meeting. ”[For] $25 billion I now own 1% of the farmland. [If] you offer me 1% of all the apartment houses in the country and you want another $25 billion, I’ll write you a check, it’s very simple. 

“Now if you told me you own all of the Bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25 I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything. The apartments are going to produce rent and the farms are going to produce food.”

So there you have it, Buffet, the fifth-richest man in the world according to Forbes, says to invest in farmland and housing. Here are some of the best ways to do it, without $1 billion.

Real Estate:

Billionaire Grant Cardone said the Federal Reserve has essentially turned us into a “nation of renters” and ended most people’s chances of owning a home. That’s bad news if you’re looking to buy a house for yourself but great news if you’re looking for property as an investment. If you are able to purchase a property outright and on your own, that may be the best option. However, even if you can afford to, you’d be locking yourself in to a specific property.

With fractional real estate investing, you can invest the same amount of money but spread it across several different properties and locations throughout the U.S. Some investment platforms allow you to buy shares of rental properties with a $100 minimum investment, while others let you buy into multi-million-dollar portfolios with as little as $10. 

Farmland:

Gates’s fancy for farmland has been well-documented recently. But it’s not just Gates or Buffett — even Goldman Sachs sees an opportunity with farmland.

There are several popular ways to do your best Gates impression, if you don’t want to do this… 

... you can use crowdfunding platforms to get the best bang for your buck and rely on experts to help you invest in the most profitable farmland available. 

One of the most popular farmland investment platforms has new offerings available almost every week, where accredited investors can buy equity shares of high-quality agricultural land.