One Thousand Ways to Make Money by Page Fox

MONEY IN REAL ESTATE. The Costliest Spot on the Western Hemisphere--A Mile and a Half of Millionaires--The Kings of the Earth--Why Some Rich Men Do Not Live in New York--The Country Fool and the Knowing Ones--How Coney Island Was Born--The Story of a Great Land Sale--Rents in Apartment Houses--The Fifty-story Office Building--The Man Who Gave a _Carte Blanche_ Decoration Order, But Won’t Do it Again--The Western Land Bubble--Good Farms Going to Waste--The Jersey Flats. No class of men have made greater or securer fortunes than dealers in real estate. W. C. Ralston, James Lick, and J. J. Astor, are examples of persons who have accumulated vast sums through investments in land. The _points_ of real estate are: First, a sound title; second, a keen foresight of the wants and the roads of civilization; third, a careful inspection of the neighborhood where a contemplated purchase is located; fourth, a thorough knowledge of market values of this kind of property; fifth, non-professional advice, in the disinterested judgment of men thoroughly familiar with property and prices. Other considerations are the rate of taxes of various kinds, imposed or likely to be imposed upon the property. Tax methods in large cities are often ways that are dark. For this reason, George Gould, the multi-millionaire, and Mr. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil magnate, have disposed of their urban properties.