Barbara Corcoran: Queen of NYC Real Estate Tells All

Barbara Corcoran nearly personifies the residential real estate business. She started in the New York City trenches and went on to build the Corcoran Group, one of the city's powerhouse real estate brands. Sarabeth Sanders of The Real Deal selects some choice nuggets from Corcoran's new book, Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business.


In 2001, given the choice between money and fame, Barbara Corcoran chose money. The self-made Queen of New York Real Estate cashed out -- selling the Corcoran Group to NRT for $66 million -- but quickly regretted losing her personal brand.

In "Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business," out last month, Corcoran writes of her post-business period as "secretly miserable" and without purpose. She missed, she writes, her legions of "adoring brokers."

Now a "Shark Tank" judge, Corcoran -- never one to miss a publicity opportunity -- timed her book's launch with the beginning of the TV show's second season. The "Today" show contributor shares her best self-branding tips in "Shark," co-written by Bruce Littlefield and published by Portfolio/Penguin.