“Crassus, a Roman politician is said to be one of the richest people in history. He had a number of endeavors, but one was real estate. He didn’t buy property in the conventional sense. He formed a fire department to serve the city. When a fire broke out, he rushed there, and asked if he could buy the property for it’s value. The owner usually would agree, because while they would lose their home, the fire department would put out the fire and they would keep their possessions. If they didn’t agree, he just stood there and watched it burn. Once everything was destroyed, he would offer again, at a pittance of the original price. At one point he owned 1/3 of the real estate in the City of Rome, in about 70BC, when Rome was immensely wealthy.”

-Isakk86