On the corner of a sleepy street in Omaha, Nebraska sits a neat two-story Tudor home, much like the ones around it. Blink and you’ll miss it but this house holds an important place in history—it’s where Warren Buffett grew up.
Within these hallowed halls live the memories of Buffett buying his first stock-- six shares of Cities Service. It’s where the Oracle of Omaha cooked up one of his first business plans; he would buy a six-pack of Coca-Cola (KO) for a quarter and sell sodas for a nickel each. The home is also where young Buffett set his sights on his first million. According to lore, he told his best friend that he’d make his first million by age 30 or jump off of the tallest building in Omaha.
This 3-bedroom house in Omaha’s Historic Country Club District is where the second-richest man in America, worth about $72.7 billion dollars, according to Forbes, got his start. Call it his first home office.
Now one lucky Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) investor and five of his pals will get to spend the weekend of the annual shareholders meeting at the Buffett family’s old home base.
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Buffett, who is well known for his frugality, became miffed at Omaha hotels gouging their prices during the shareholders meeting. He told the Wall Street Journal that he was a “mother bear [who] can get fierce about protecting shareholders.” And that, “I want to protect my cubs, make sure shareholders are well taken care of.” The prolific investor teamed up with Airbnb to provide an alternative housing solution.
Part of that includes an essay contest open to all Berkshire stockholders, the winner of the contest, who will be announced through Yahoo Finance, will receive a three-night stay in Buffett’s childhood home.
In an email statement to Yahoo Finance, Berkshire said, “Warren is delighted with what Airbnb is doing - they have been great to work with.”
Yahoo Finance was invited in for an exclusive tour of the home at 2501 North 53rd street.
“You can tell that this house was built to last,” said the owner who pointed out that the house felt new despite being built in 1936. The home was built to the specifications of Howard Buffett, Warren’s father and a lot of the original details still exist three owners later. The chandelier over the dining room table, for example. Buffett’s childhood bedroom still has its original dresser and tiling. The bathtub in the connecting bathroom is where Buffett would play marbles with his sisters.
Another oddity, the original specifications of the house show that its architect was none other than Bert Hene, Katie Couric’s grandfather. Hene built a number of homes in the area for executives of companies like Hershey’s (HSY). Between 1924 and 1940 he built 57 houses in the Dundee district of Omaha alone.
Watch the video above to take a tour of the house where Buffett got his start.
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