Warren Buffett Bought Nebraska Furniture Mart For $60M With A Handshake Deal In 1983. He Relied On His Shopping Experience Instead Of Audits

2026년 2월 12일 · Unknown · financial · 출처 Yahoo Finance

In 1983, chairman and former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK, BRK.B)) Warren Buffett made one of the most unconventional deals of his career. He bought 90% of Nebraska Furniture Mart for $60 million. No audit. No team of lawyers. Just a 1¼-page contract and a handshake.

A Business Deal Built On Trust

The seller was 89-year-old Rose Blumkin, better known as Mrs. B. Born in Belarus, she immigrated to the U.S. with no money, no formal education and no English. She started NFM in a basement with a $500 loan in 1937 and turned it into one of the biggest furniture retailers in the country.

Don't Miss:

The AI Marketing Platform Backed by Insiders from Google, Meta, and Amazon — Invest at $0.85/Share It’s no wonder Jeff Bezos holds over $250 million in art — this alternative asset has outpaced the S&P 500 since 1995, delivering an average annual return of 11.4%. Here’s how everyday investors are getting started.

Buffett didn’t rely on spreadsheets or investment bankers. He had shopped at NFM and was blown away by the prices and customer experience. That was enough. “Mrs. B simply told me what was what, and her word was good enough for me,” Buffett wrote in his 2013 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. “We completed the deal without the involvement of investment bankers or lawyers (an experience that can only be described as heavenly).”

Even more remarkably, the company’s books weren’t audited. “This purchase is being made without any audit whatsoever of the books or the inventory or anything about this business and that’s unheard of in business,” Buffett said at the time.

Some vintage footage from back in 1983 when Warren Buffett bought Nebraska Furniture Mart.

"This purchase is being made without any audit whatsoever of the books or the inventory or anything about this business — and that's absolutely unheard of in business." pic.twitter.com/7slEFjILUD

Trending: Deloitte's #1 Fastest-Growing Software Company Lets Users Earn Money Just by Scrolling — Accredited Investors Can Still Get In at $0.50/Share.

Mrs. B stayed on after the sale, working 70-hour weeks until her family pushed her into retirement at 95. Annoyed, she opened a competing store across the street. Buffett had not included a noncompete clause, so she was free to do it. Within two years, her new store was the third-largest carpet outlet in Omaha. Buffett eventually bought her out again, this time with proper legal paperwork.

Buffett often praised her business instincts. “Put her up against the top graduates of the top business schools or chief executives of the Fortune 500 and, assuming an even start with the same resources, she’d run rings around them,” The New York Times quoted him saying in 1984.

Story Continues

See Also: Motley Fool's analysts have built a new lineup of passive ETFs — explore which "Foolish" strategy fits your investment goals.

Texas-Sized Growth

In 2015, NFM opened a store in The Colony, Texas that spanned 1.8 million square feet, making it the largest home furnishings store under one roof in the world. Buffett said that it was a proud moment after working with the Blumkin family for 30 years. He predicted the Texas location would surpass NFM’s Omaha and Kansas City, Kansas, stores, each already pulling in about $450 million annually at the time.

For investors looking to follow in Buffett’s footsteps without buying an entire store, platforms like Arrived make real estate investing more accessible. Folks can invest with as little as $100 in shares of rental properties and potentially earn monthly income and long-term gains, without the stress of being a landlord.

Read Next: Professional traders demand transparency — see why Kraken Pro has become one of crypto's most trusted advanced trading platforms.

Image: Imagn

Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market.

Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga:

APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article Warren Buffett Bought Nebraska Furniture Mart For $60M With A Handshake Deal In 1983. He Relied On His Shopping Experience Instead Of Audits originally appeared on Benzinga.com

View Comments