Warren Buffett Vs. Richard Fuld, A Lesson In Home Buying
[Billionaire Warren Buffett's house]
I have never been ashamed to admit where my roots are. Omaha may not have an Ivy within driving distance, and may be full of a lot of corn fields, but it ain't made up of dummies. Above sits Warren Buffet's modest house by Elmwood Park (a favorite area of mine). It is the quintessential home for the quintessential value investor. The quaint 6,000 sq foot gray stucco house was purchased in 1958 for a mere $31,500. Today Buffett is worth upwards of $50 Billion and recently purchased $5 Billion in Goldman Sachs stock. And yet he has never left his roots in Omaha, rather opting to stay far far away from Wall Street, much like a Hollywood mega star who shuns Tinsel Town.
Now, take a look at the difference in Buffet's house versus Richard Fuld's (CEO of Lehman). Fuld's house is worth an estimated $11 million dollars, sits on 12 acres in Greenwich, CT, and has annual property taxes of $70,000 (twice of what Buffet paid for his home). Fuld's net worth is hurting quite a bit these days with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the financial sector as a whole. The security costs alone for his Greenwich mansion must dwarf those of the Oracle from Omaha's.
In any event, it has been a long held sentiment among investors to watch out for CEOs when they start to build their house. You can tell a lot from a CEO by looking at his house. Is the CEO spending too much time building it and not focusing on his company? Is he being extravagant, wasteful, excessive? Buffet's house screams value. It is a most reassuring sight for an investor in Berkshire Hathaway, and anyone who wants to take a bet on Buffett.
Vassili Verrecchia Shows Off His Favorite Things In His Paris Home
While his brother, Timothee, runs the NYC office, Vassili takes on the Paris-based side of things. To gain some insight to what inspires such a creative and entrepreneurial spirit, we asked Vass to show off some of his favorite worldly and sentimental possessions in his Paris home. See where Vass's travels have taken him...
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September 26, 2008
2:47pm
Buffet has many other houses that aren't so modest
GUESTOFAGUEST
September 26, 2008
2:54pm
he had 2 in palm beach one he sold for $4 mil
shw
September 27, 2008
2:02am
wrong he bought a house in laguna beach at his wife's request that he sold later, mentioning at the berkshire meeting two years ago that the price was an absurd 60 mil an acre
Anonymous
September 27, 2008
4:04am
Most CEOs live in multi-million dollar homes. Their homes don't say anything about their abilities. Dick Fuld really had 2 bad years out of 30 on Wall Street. He will be remembered for the collapse of his firm but he has made many employees and investors a lot of money along the way.
cgaros
September 27, 2008
5:11pm
Dick Fuld made many SPECULATORS a lot of money along the way. If you INVESTED in Lehman (i.e. for the long haul, refusing to sell low) you're now on the pink sheets watching major assets get sold off for $2. The only way anyone made money in LEH was by finding the greater fool to take their shares when they were done with them. No one got rich off the dividends, which were about 1% at the peak last year. A company that pays the kind of options and bonuses LEH paid can hardly afford to provide shareholders the multiple percentage point yield often paid by scintillating investments like Treasuries, boring old no-growth company stocks, 6-month CDs, and money markets. They're far too busy reinvesting in shareholder value. How'd that work out for everyone? As to executive houses: why wouldn't you buy a sweet house if you had a job where you could pay yourself $20 million? Given how much he lost in the stock market, it probably was fairly wise of Dick Fuld to buy a mansion: at least now he has a place to live and some remaining digits in his net worth. I assume he wasn't fully mortgaged, although it would be a fitting end to the tale if he wound up getting foreclosed on. I can't believe how much debt some rich people carry.
Anon
September 28, 2008
2:56am
A CEO's home most certainly can tell alot about that CEO's personal traits, priorities, etc. But that doesn't mean that it always does. Look at the CEO of Broadwing, I think it was, that had the dungeon built into the basement so he could snort blow off of naked hookers before leaving them roofied on some beach somewhere. now that tells you something about that CEO. Buffet's house reflects his nature. I don't read anything too negative out of Fuld's home. He made a lot of money over a long period of time. Now, if he were to start building some rediculous michael jackson-style ranch right now, at this moment, for $50 million, that would seem inappropriate.
October 6, 2008
10:56pm
How much to cap a CEO?
October 10, 2008
9:17pm
I've been to fulds place. For back-country greenwich, it's very average. just click on the pic and look around it, you see even bigger properties
MeohMeohMy
July 17, 2009
9:13pm
Oh yeah, this guy is so quaint that he quaintly got himself some insider information that Goldman Sachs was going to get some bailout money and co-op the U.S. government so quaintly used $5 Billion of his crooked money to purchase GS stock. How Quaint. And I understand he gives his poor relatives exactly none of his fortune. Come on people, it's time to start seeing the hand in the sock puppet.
A.Taxpayer
December 2, 2009
6:50pm
What? He only pays $70,000 yearly property tax on a $11,000,000 home that sits on 12 acres of land in Greenwich, CT... What's wrong with this picture? That's less than 1% property tax! I didnt realize property taxes were that low in Greenwich, CT. that's even less than what we are paying in southern California with prop 13 to boot! Sheesh.