Real Estate: Who Is The Most Successful Real Estate Investor?
In this article, you’ll get the list of America’s top 10 richest real estate investors.
Let’s dive in…
Investing in real estate has made a lot of multimillionaires over the years as well as a handful of billionaires, including former president Donald Trump.
But there’s no shortcut to making massive money or get rich quickly in real estate.
Of course, you can make money slowly and steadily build wealth by investing wisely.
As you know, every business has a loss factor, Investing in real estate stands out as a tried and tested perspective to make money like every other business, it has some risks associated with it.
If you did the right way, it can be a great source to build wealth if you can carefully take the time to educate yourself about the process to get great returns.
What exactly is Real Estate?
Real estate is the land with any permanent improvements attached to the land, whether natural or man-made — including buildings, homes,
water, trees, minerals, fences, and bridges.
You know, real estate is a form of real property.
What Are The 4 Types of Real Estate?
1. Commercial Real Estate
Commercial real estate includes big shopping centers and strip malls, hotels and offices, medical and educational buildings.
But sometimes apartment buildings are considered commercial real estate, even though they are used for residences that’s why they are owned to produce income.
2. Residential Real Estate
Residential real estate includes both resale homes and new construction purposes. The most general category is single-family homes.
There are also duplexes, condominiums, co-ops, townhouses, triple-deckers, quadplexes, high-value homes, multi-generational and vacation homes.
3. Industrial Real Estate
Industrial real estate includes property and manufacturing buildings and as well as warehouses.
In this category, the buildings can be used for research, production, storage, and distribution of goods.
Some of the buildings which distribute goods are considered commercial real estate. The alignment is important because the zoning, construction, and sales are handled differently.
4. Land
Land includes vacant land, ranches, and working farms. The subcategories among vacant land include early development, undeveloped or reuse, subdivision, and site assembly.
Top 10 Richest Real Estate Investors
Here is the top-10 list of richest real estate investors in the U.S., according to the Forbes 400 list.
Here’s a quick look at that elite group of billionaire real estate investors.
1. Donald Bren: Estimated net worth $15.3B
Donald Bren’s net worth around $17B. Bren comes under America’s top real estate richest man. He became the wealthiest person in the real estate empire when he took ownership of Irvine Company.
He acquired a large stake in that company in 1977, which controlled 93,000 acres of land in Southern California, known as Irvine Ranch.
Donald Leroy Bren (born May 11, 1932) is an American-based businessman.
Bren is a chairman and owner of the Irvine Company, which is a United State real estate development company.
Donald Bren’s estimated net worth is around $15.3 billion which is making him number 32 on the 2020 Forbes 400 list.
2. Sun Hongbin: Estimated net worth $9.3 billion
Sun Hongbin is an American citizen. Not like the others on this rich list, Hongbin makes his wealth entirely from investments outside the United State.
He founded Sunac China Holdings, that one of China’s largest real estate developers, focusing on developing large-scale, medium- to high-end residential properties.
Sunac has expanded and diversified its real estate empire by acquiring Wanda Group’s hotel and tourism portfolio for $9.3 billion in 2017, which was the second-largest real estate deal in China’s history.
Read: Top 10 Rich Dad Poor Dad Steps To Know for Success In Life
3. Stephen Ross: Estimated net worth $7 billion
Before founding Related Companies in 1972, Stephen Ross was a tax attorney as well as an affordable housing developer.
However, he has elaborate his real estate investment into other development opportunities, including leading the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project in NYC.
After more than a decade of planning and construction, Finally, he opened his first of two phases in 2019.
Overall, Related Company has developed or acquired $60 billion worth of properties of all kinds from California to Abu Dhabi to Shanghai, — according to a Forbes report.
Ross also owns the Miami Dolphins NFL team and has a piece of billionaire Jorge Perez’s Miami condo developer Related Group of Florida.
4. Sam Zell: Estimated net worth $5.3 billion
Sam Zell started Equity Group Investments
In 1968, that is today invests in industries like energy, logistics, and healthcare.
Zell chairs five public companies, including one of the nation’s largest residential which is under Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). Also, he was one of the forefathers of REITs.
He also notably sold office REIT Equity Office to private equity giant Blackstone (NYSE: BLK) just before the real estate market crashed in 2007.
At $39 billion, his deal was one of the largest deals in history.
5. Leonard Stern: Estimated net worth $4.2 billion
In 1959, Leonard Stern started in his father’s pet supply business before venturing into the real estate market, and seven years later he purchased a warehouse in New Jersey.
This was the first move to enter his career in real estate.
Stern’s company, Hartz Mountain Industries, now owns more than 260 properties, comprising over 45 million square feet of residential, hotel, office, and industrial properties, primarily in the New York/Northern New Jersey area.
6. John A. Sobrato & Family: Estimated net worth $6 billion
When John Sobrato was in college, he started selling houses in California.
He later founded his real estate company and working to develop industrial properties in 1979 at Sobrato organization.
From that, his company owns more than 7 million square feet of office space, predominately in the Silicon Valley area of California, and as well as approximately 6,700 apartments.
7. Sheldon Solow: Estimated net worth $4.4 billion
In 1972, Solow made a major real estate gamble by betting his entire net worth on building 9 west 57th Street in New York City.
Solow owned a small number of office buildings on 57th Street as well as residential properties around Sutton Place near the East River.
8. Jerry Speyer: Estimated net worth $3.1 billion
Until 2015, Jerry is the chairman of Tishman Speyer and his son Rob is CEO also both held co-CEO titles.
His company has bloomed over 152 million square feet of real estate, including skyscrapers in iconic cities like Chicago, New York, Berlin, London, Frankfurt, and Paris.
Jerry also redeveloped several prominent properties, including the Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building in Manhattan.
9. Igor Olenicoff: Estimated net worth $4.5 billion
Igor Olenicoff was a Russian Immigrants who came to the U.S. from the former Soviet Union as a teenager. He lived out the American dream by building a real estate empire.
Igor’s company, Olen Properties, owns more than 8 million square feet of office space and 15,000 residential units, primarily in California.
10. Jeff Sutton: Estimated net worth $2.9 billion
Jeff Sutton owns many prime locations in Manhattan and he is the founder of Wharton Properties.
He has acquired more than 120 buildings throughout New York City and the nearby area.
Wharton owns marquee properties along Fifth Avenue, Times Square, and 34th Street.
Alright, these are the well-known richest real estate investor in the United State of America. And the next article we will talk about — How to make money in real estate?
So, thanks for reading this post, and don’t forget to comment below.
