The Forbes 400: The Definitive Ranking Of The Wealthiest Americans.
Now that’s a title, ‘The Definite Ranking Of The Wealthiest Americans’. I think it’s safe to assume we would all like to be on this list. The questions is how? How does the average American begin to build massive wealth like the people on this list?
The answer to this question is in this very list. If you take the time to read about anybody on Forbes’ 400. You’ll find a similar commonality. It all started with an idea.
Idea – any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness, or activity.
In this article, I will be highlighting some of my favorite real estate billionaires. I’ll point out some of their most impressive real estate holdings. In a later article I will point out why these people decide to invest in such incredible properties. Let’s get started!
Donald Bren
- Donald Bren is the United States’ richest real estate baron.
- His Irvine Co. owns over 115 million square feet of real estate, mostly in Southern California.
- His empire includes 550 office buildings and 125 apartment complexes.
- Bren owns a 97% stake in Manhattan’s MetLife Building.
- Bren attended the University of Washington on a skiing scholarship and spent three years in the U.S. Marine Corps.
- The son of a real estate investor, Bren worked as a carpenter’s helper on his father’s buildings.
Following the success and acquisition of his first property development company in 1977, Bren, along with a group of investors, purchased a California-based real estate investment firm called the Irvine Company.
Within the first two decades, Bren grew the Irvine Company into a multi-billion-dollar real estate empire. Take a look at just some of the properties Bren and Irvine Company own and operate today.
Jeff Bezos
- Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce colossus Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. He remains CEO and owns a nearly 12% stake.
- He divorced his wife MacKenzie in July 2019 after 25 years of marriage and transferred one quarter of his Amazon stake to her.
- In 2018, Amazon had $230 billion in revenues and a record $10 billion in net profit, up from $3 billion the prior year.
- Bezos owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company that is developing a rocket for commercial use.
Bezos opened Amazon.com, named after the meandering South American river, on July 16, 1995. In the months leading up to launch, a few employees began developing software with Bezos in his garage. Amazon.com sold books across the United States and in 45 foreign countries within 30 days. In two months, sales reached $20,000 a week, growing faster than Bezos and his startup team had envisioned. Amazon.com went public in 1997.
I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all – Jeff Bezos
Mr. Bezos has a number of homes across the U.S. and is currently the country’s 25th-largest landowner. His U.S. Properties include several homes on over 10 acres of land on the shores of Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. Two neighboring houses in Beverly Hills, California. A former museum in Washington, D.C. Four linked apartments in a landmark Art Deco tower on Manhattan’s Central Park West. And over 300,000 acres in West Texas.
There are so many amazing individuals I would like to go into more detail about but Mr. Bren and Bezos will do for now. Keep an eye out for my upcoming article talking about the advantages of owning real estate and why it is so beneficial to these high profile billionaires.
I hope you enjoyed this and are thinking of ways to create you real estate portfolio. If there is anyone you’d add on this list, please comment below! With hard work and dedication anything is possible!
Keep going,
Kendell Angeles
