A couple things.
First, it's important in Puerto Rico to know when to try a shipping strategy and when to try a building strategy. Without going into to many specifics, if you have indigo focus on building. Otherwise ship.
Second, the idea of getting 3 top level buildings is possible but a tad ridiculous. You don't need 3 to win with a building strat. 2 will work great and actually 1 is fine. You want to fill up your board as fast as possible before any of the other players' engines get going.
Which kind of leads into the best way in Puerto Rico to make money: DON'T SPEND IT.
For one, get at least 2 quarries. Just get them.
Another thing I notice is that people with a building strategy often think they need to spend their coin every build phase and buy something; don't do that. What you want instead are very specific buildings. And to get more specific you want the Guild Hall potentially followed by the City Hall. In that way, think that every non-large production building is essentially going to cost you points while small and violet buildings are roughly equal. For everything else, it's important to realize the points-per-gold ratio of a building; for example Tobacco costs 5 while University costs 8 and yet both only gain you 3 points. (The university, btw, is the red herring for the building strategy. Don't get it, you don't need it. The only viable building strat I've ever seen use this was Hacienda/Hospice/University/Fortress/Residence and he almost pulled it off but it seems a pretty big long shot to me. My hat's off to anyone who beats me with University.)
Which leads to my preferred method of income gain which is the Factory. For one, you want to diversify crops in Puerto Rico anyway and this is going to allow you to not only capatalize on some points through shipping but also disrupt other's shipping by claiming a ship or two. Second, I find you capitalize easier and more often going with a Factory than going the Plant/Market/Office route (and ironically, sometimes it's cheaper). It's preference though and I've seen many a building strats make valiant stands using trade as their #1 source of income.
First, it's important in Puerto Rico to know when to try a shipping strategy and when to try a building strategy. Without going into to many specifics, if you have indigo focus on building. Otherwise ship.
Second, the idea of getting 3 top level buildings is possible but a tad ridiculous. You don't need 3 to win with a building strat. 2 will work great and actually 1 is fine. You want to fill up your board as fast as possible before any of the other players' engines get going.
Which kind of leads into the best way in Puerto Rico to make money: DON'T SPEND IT.
For one, get at least 2 quarries. Just get them.
Another thing I notice is that people with a building strategy often think they need to spend their coin every build phase and buy something; don't do that. What you want instead are very specific buildings. And to get more specific you want the Guild Hall potentially followed by the City Hall. In that way, think that every non-large production building is essentially going to cost you points while small and violet buildings are roughly equal. For everything else, it's important to realize the points-per-gold ratio of a building; for example Tobacco costs 5 while University costs 8 and yet both only gain you 3 points. (The university, btw, is the red herring for the building strategy. Don't get it, you don't need it. The only viable building strat I've ever seen use this was Hacienda/Hospice/University/Fortress/Residence and he almost pulled it off but it seems a pretty big long shot to me. My hat's off to anyone who beats me with University.)
Which leads to my preferred method of income gain which is the Factory. For one, you want to diversify crops in Puerto Rico anyway and this is going to allow you to not only capatalize on some points through shipping but also disrupt other's shipping by claiming a ship or two. Second, I find you capitalize easier and more often going with a Factory than going the Plant/Market/Office route (and ironically, sometimes it's cheaper). It's preference though and I've seen many a building strats make valiant stands using trade as their #1 source of income.