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As one of America’s most prominent businesswomen, Barbara Corcoran is a coveted public figure admired by millions worldwide for her investing prowess. Since the 1970s, Mrs. Corcoran has been deeply involved in real estate investing. A young real estate mogul, she founded The Corcoran Group, one of New York’s most esteemed real estate brokerages.
Barbara Corcoran is also one of the lesser-known investors (“sharks”) on the ABC series “Shark Tank”. Given her outspoken public character and widespread media presence, many wonder: “What is Barbara Corcoran’s net worth?” To answer this question, we gathered all the publicly available data on her assets and liabilities and compiled them into this profile report.
 | Barbara Corcoran |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | March 10, 1949 |
| Nationality | American |
| Title | Businesswoman, Investor, Author, and Television Personality |
| Companies Founded | The Corcoran Group |
| Best Known For | Co-panelist on ABC's "Shark Tank" |
| Net Worth (USD) | $100 million |
What is Barbara Corcoran’s Net Worth?
By all accounts, Barbara Corcoran’s net worth is roughly US $100 million. This figure is an approximation of all the publicly available records of Mrs. Corcoran’s wealth online. Notable corroborations of this figure have been reported in publications such as Yahoo! Finance and the South China Morning Post, the latter being Hong Kong’s newspaper of record.
Barbara Corcoran Biography
Barbara Corcoran was born on March 10th, 1949, in Edgewater, New Jersey. She was born into a large family consisting of 10 children, which likely played a central role in her lifelong industriousness, competitive drive, and ability to compromise. Her working-class family life was somewhat fraught, and her childhood home was not always peaceful.
The young Barbara Corcoran wasn’t an excellent student, and she even failed some of her courses due to her dyslexia. However, in 1971, at the age of 22, she graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas College with a degree in education. Afterward, she took a job as a waitress where she was later recruited as a receptionist for a real estate company in New York City.
Initially, Ms. Corcoran found success by publishing a newsletter, The Corcoran Report, about real estate data in New York in the mid-1970s. After splitting with her boyfriend and business partner, Ms. Corcoran founded The Corcoran Group, a Manhattan-based real estate brokerage. In 2001, she sold the company to National Realty Trust LLC (NRT) for a reported $66 million.
Later in her career, Ms. Corcoran became a well-known public figure for her involvement in hit television shows such as ABC’s Shark Tank and Dancing with the Stars. Since 2003, she has penned several bestselling books that have brought her additional fame and fortune.
How Did Barbara Corcoran Build Her Wealth?
Like many high-net-worth individuals, Ms. Corcoran has maintained many revenue streams throughout her professional career that have helped her amass significant wealth. Although her initial fortune was built by selling her real estate brokerage, she has since grown her wealth by diversifying with real estate properties, book deals, and TV deals.
In short, Barbara Corcoran’s net worth is a function of her tenacity, grit, and willingness to diversify her wealth. Rather than put all of her wealth in one basket, she had the foresight to allocate some of her wealth in alternative assets such as real estate in addition to her venture capital portfolio.
Aside from her TV deals and investments, Ms. Corcoran’s net worth has been impacted by the success of her bestselling books. Below are the three books that she has authored over the course of her career:
- If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons On Your Pigtails: and Other Lessons I Learned From My Mom; (aka “Use What You’ve Got”) (2003, Penguin Books)
- Nextville: Amazing Places to Live Your Life. (2008, Springboard Press)
- Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business. (2011, SPortfolio Trade)
How is Barbara Corcoran’s Net Worth Calculated?
Barbara Corcoran’s net worth is a function of her assets minus her liabilities. To estimate her net worth, we approximated the value of her assets based on the sale of The Corcoran Group, the value of her publicly-known properties, and the investments she has made in her private life as well as on Shark Tank.
It’s important to note that a large portion of Barbara Corcoran’s wealth is invested in real estate. Ms. Corcoran’s properties include, but aren’t limited to, a 2,7000-square-foot apartment building on Park Avenue and a penthouse suite on Fifth Avenue.
These assets have greatly boosted her net worth over the years, given the meteoric rise in Manhattan property values. In 1997, the average price per square foot of real estate in Manhattan was $328, which skyrocketed to $1,775 per square foot in 2017.
Who Else Invests Like Barbara Corcoran?
Not all investors have the same style. To compare investors like Barbara Corcoran check out these investor profiles:
Want to Invest Like Barbara Corcoran?
Barbara Corcoran didn’t create her net worth by playing it safe. Rather, her rags to riches story was made possible by her daringness, her ability to take calculated risks, and her willingness to diversify her investments.
There’s no one-size-fits-all formula to becoming wealthy. However, there are some general rules that you can follow to get there faster. The first is to diversify. Unless you diversify your holdings, you’re exposing your wealth to an incredible degree of risk. During market downturns, it’s easy to lose vast amounts of your wealth if you aren’t adequately diversified.
Interested in diversifying? The good news is that you can start alternative investing in a tax-advantaged retirement account today. Check out our reviews of the top Bitcoin IRA companies or the best gold IRA providers. These companies offer low-cost, self-directed IRAs so you can diversify with low-risk assets that can preserve your wealth throughout your lifetime.
