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Barbara Corcoran had an 'emotional attachment' to the trailer she lost in the LA fires: ‘It gave me community'

Barbara Corcoran on ABC’s “Shark Tank.”
Christopher Willard | Walt Disney Television | Getty Images

Barbara Corcoran on ABC’s “Shark Tank.”

When Barbara Corcoran first saw her two-and-a-half-bedroom trailer with a terrace and view of the Pacific Ocean in the Tahitian Terrace Park community, it wasn't for sale — but she just had to have it.

The "Shark Tank" star convinced the previous owners to sell by offering to let them use the mobile home whenever they wanted. Corcoran bought the luxury trailer in 2017 for $800,000 and spent $150,000 renovating it, but tragically it was lost, along with the other 150 homes in the community, in the recent wildfires in Los Angeles.

"I feel like I lost my sweetheart. I thought I'd have it forever and that I'd leave it to my daughter," Corcoran told The New York Times. "This was a piece of who I was. I really had an emotional attachment to it. It was like a little lover."

Corcoran says she was on vacation with her daughter when she discovered her mobile home had burned down. The real estate mogul doesn't plan to return to see the remains.

"I'll never go back. I can't even see the pictures. I'm protecting myself. That house was only associated with fun. I drank too much there. I ate too much there," Corcoran says. "When the house burned down, everyone who stayed there sent me photos of their best memories from the house. It was everyone's loss. I'd only go back if I could reproduce it in the same location."

Despite having the money to buy a bigger place in L.A., Corcoran said because she grew up in a bedroom with her five sisters, she liked the "coziness and smallness" of the mobile home.

"For much of my life, I've had big homes. I wanted my own little spot that was just mine. I had phenomenal neighbors. One lady was a stage manager, another read lines with actors, someone else was a gaffer. It gave me community, which I didn't know I was missing until I found it," she says.

Corcoran first revealed on Instagram that her home had burned down.

"For the past five years, I've been privileged to have a home in this loving, tight-knit community. It's a place where kindness thrives, friendships are cherished, and neighbors become family. My heart breaks again and again as I see these incredible people who built their lives here for decades, many of them seniors who poured their hearts and life-savings into their trailers, left with absolutely nothing," she wrote.

In 2023, Corcoran gave host Caleb Simpson a look inside her Los Angeles mobile home. At the time, she revealed she paid $800 monthly in maintenance and the previous owners had only returned twice in four years.

"I like to see people use where I live and make it warmer, and you know, they just leave a little puddle of happiness I feel behind when they move out at the end of the week," she told The New York Post in 2023.

Since losing their beloved community to the fire, Corcoran started a GoFundMe to help Tahitian Terrace Mobile Home Park residents with "immediate essentials like food, clothing and shelter as they take the first steps towards rebuilding their lives," the fundraiser page states.

When the GoFundMe went live earlier this month, Corcoran donated $100,000 of her own money and $181,519 of the $600,000 goal has been raised since then.

"Everybody lost their house. Some didn't have insurance, others had nowhere to go, and didn't have savings. We've raised over $180,000, which has gone to people's rent. It's for every single person who asks for something that they're desperate for, from clothing to a walker," Corcoran adds.

Representatives for Corcoran did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment.

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