Inside Ellen DeGeneres's Real Estate Side Hustle As She Reflects On Life After Comedy

Ellen DeGeneres is well known for her successful entertainment career and savvy real estate investments.

Over the years, she and her wife, Portia de Rossi, have built a reputation as prolific house flippers. They purchase and renovate high-end properties before selling them for a profit.

Their portfolio includes many luxurious homes, from sprawling estates in Montecito, California, to contemporary mansions in Beverly Hills.

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 DeGeneres's real estate strategy often involves acquiring architecturally significant homes, restoring or modernizing them and then reselling them to high-profile buyers.

Her eye for design and her love of interior décor have turned real estate into a secondary career, with total transactions in the hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. The couple's investments highlight a deep passion for architecture, design and the luxury housing market.

When DeGeneres began hosting her talk show in 2003, she purchased a Hollywood Hills home for $6 million, which she sold to Will Ferrell in 2006 for $9 million.

In 2004, after she and de Rossi got together, DeGeneres bought a $1.3 million midcentury-style Hollywood Hills home, affectionately known as "the tree house." A year later, she sold it to actor Heath Ledger, who died in 2008, for $2.1 million.

By 2007, the couple had turned their attention to Montecito, where they purchased a mansion for $15.75 million and quickly flipped it, selling it for $20 million that same year.

In 2008, DeGeneres and de Rossi acquired a $29 million Los Angeles compound, where they married. Over time, DeGeneres expanded the property to three acres by purchasing adjacent land. They made significant upgrades during their ownership, adding features such as a pool, tennis court, guesthouses, home offices, a meditation room and a gym.

In 2011, they listed the estate for $60 million, but when the price proved too high for buyers, they reduced it to $49 million. Still, no offers came in until Ryan Seacrest purchased the property for $37 million in 2012.

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The same year they bought their Los Angeles compound, the couple also acquired a 26-acre horse ranch in Thousand Oaks, California, for $8.5 million. The couple enjoyed it for several years before deciding to sell it.

During their first year of ownership, they renovated each of the eight guest cabins and converted one of the barns into an "art barn" for hosting parties.

They sold the ranch for $10.85 million in 2013, five years after buying it.

In 2011, they also bought a Malibu home from Brad Pitt for $12 million. They sold it the next year for $13 million.

The couple's other real estate transactions include:

  Paying $40 million in 2014 for a Holmby Hills home, which they sold six months later to Napster founder Sean Parker for $55 million

  Buying a pair of condos for $13.2 million, which they took a loss on when they sold them for $11.85 million

  Paying $18.6 million for a home in Carpenteria, California and selling it for $23 million the following year

  Purchasing a John Elgin Woolf-designed Regency-style home in 2018 for $15 million and selling it for $15.5 million a few months later

More recently, DeGeneres and de Rossi paid $21 million for a Spanish-style 12,000-square-foot mansion in Montecito, which they sold to talent manager Scooter Braun for $36 million six months later.

They bought a $70 million mansion and an adjacent parcel of land in Carpinteria in 2022, which they sold in August 2024 for $96 million.

DeGeneres's ventures have consistently proven profitable and each sale has added to her reputation as one of Hollywood's most successful celebrity house flippers.

Her ability to spot architectural gems, transform them with thoughtful renovations and attract high-profile buyers has cemented her status as a savvy real estate investor.

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