From Reuters writer Chris Taylor: "We talked to a few prominent market watchers about the best investments they ever made. What they picked, how they picked it, and what they ultimately learned from it." After profiling a few other luminaries, Mr. Taylor closes with Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group and subject of half the posts on Curbed NY, talking about the best investment she ever made, which she says is a small mixed-use building. "It was 1981, it was a townhouse on 10th St. in Greenwich Village, and I tried absolutely everything not to buy it. I was desperate to open a small brokerage office in the Village, because I felt the neighborhood was turning around and was going to explode.
"I hunted everywhere, couldn't find anything, and finally saw a 'For Sale' sign on this six-story building with 10 apartments. The broker refused to rent the ground floor to me, but said he would sell it to me for a little under a million bucks. I had never signed a mortgage in my life, but for some reason a bank loaned me 95 percent of the money.
"The other day I had it appraised at $7.7 million, and it still makes me a 20 percent profit, year after year. It's the little building from heaven. I've bought many buildings in Manhattan over the years, but no investment has done nearly as well as that first one." Full article here.