Top 30 Barbara Corcoran Quotes

I built the business exactly the way my mother built and ran her family. I wanted a replication of the big, happy family I grew up in. I wanted happy people having fun.

The most expensive hobby a rich man could have is a boat, and the second most expensive hobby he could have is a very old house.

I wanted to be a 150% entrepreneur and a 150% mom, and I found that I was having a very hard time doing both. I was about 75% and 75% – still better than 100%, but not what I was accustomed to at work.

People stayed with me and worked extra hard for me because I could see the potential in them – I’m not so sure they could see the potential in me.

My greatest strength as a child, I realize now, was my imagination. While every other kid was reading and writing, I had seven whole hours a day to practice my imagination. When do you get that space in your life, ever?

I was a hot-dog stand lady, I was an orphan housemother, I was a waitress 3 or 4 times. All of those jobs did not have good bosses. They basically told you what to do, when to do and when to hop. And I just didn’t like that very much.

I love myself. Anything that has my name I’m tickled to death.

I did everything in my power to give my brokers brand identity and clout in the market. I saw my job as parent to build them up and if I took care of them, then they would take care of their customer.

Buy with your heart, not your head. You can look at all the aspects that make a purchase practical, but that kind of thinking makes it an investment rather than a home.

I was well motivated. What I wanted to do was work for myself. I had twenty two jobs before I started my business at the age of twenty three and I didn’t want one more boss telling me what to do. So I was motivated simply because I didn’t want a boss.

My husband had a very strong identity and was successful in his life. Thank God for that. There’s no way I can control him. I wouldn’t stay married to him if I felt I could. I can readily take my business personality into the home. But he forces me to be a partner rather than the boss.

A funny thing happens in real estate. When it comes back, it comes back up like gangbusters.

I became a larger than life figure for one reason only. When you’re quoted in the ‘Wall Street Journal’, the ‘New York Times’, constantly as the expert in the business people assume you’re a lot bigger than you are. And then I had to run like hell to catch up with my own image.

The best mistake I ever made was believing that I was stupid. It was a childhood thing, but it played out big-time as an adult. It scorned me the rest of my life – in a good way.

In business, you’re the Chief Salesman. Create a sense of demand, rather than waiting to have demand.

When you’re a big money earner and your husband isn’t, it makes you question how feminine you are. I felt I was less feminine than if I was a supporting wife, or a second fiddle, or ‘Mrs. Higgins.’

Especially if you’re over 40, shortening the term of your loan to pay it off sooner could make you mortgage-free in retirement.

My mother is an amazing woman. Not only did she manage the entire household, she noticed a gift in each of her kids and instilled confidence in all of us that that gift would take us wherever we wanted to go.

Everybody thinks that they’re going to time the market, they’re going to sharpshoot the market, and buy right at the bottom. The truth of the matter is that nobody is good at it.

Refinancing doesn’t reduce your debt, it just restructures it, so be clear about what you want to achieve with a refi.

If a house is priced appropriately, make a bid 10 percent below that amount.

Every single thing I learned about marketing and building my business, I learned from my mom, and she had never been in the workforce. She just had great practical sense.

If your house has been on the market for more than four months, take it off the market and re-list it in two months as ‘new.’

I had probably seven agents by the time I became a legitimate real estate broker.

Most great entrepreneurs I know are nothing like the other kids. They’re almost like tangent lines – those lines that seem to go nowhere. Nothing connects them, until they get out in the real world. Then they connect just fine.

I got along with people very well at every job I had, people liked me and I liked them and I loved being on my feet.

I’m never in control of my time during the workday.

I have a theory and I really believe it. I think your worst weakness can become your greatest single strength.

The best time to expand is when people are asleep at the wheel.

I gave up years ago on the concept that you could actually have balance in your life, I think it’s a phantom chase.