Graham Stephan has been a millionaire for a few years now. But until recently, he wasn’t living like one.
The real estate agent-turned-YouTuber, who has more than 3.4 million followers on his main channel and is on track to earn $6 million this year, majorly upgraded his living situation when he moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in December of last year.
Stephan, a born-and-raised Angelino, decided to leave California during the beginning of the Covid pandemic lockdowns last year. While stuck at home, he had doubled down on his YouTube channel because he couldn’t do real estate work anymore and decided that he wanted more space than his 700-square-foot duplex could give him.
While on a trip to Las Vegas to visit a friend who had just moved into a new housing development 20 minutes from the strip, Stephan learned that a yet-to-be-completed home next door was for sale.
Graham Stephan spent an estimated $100,000 furnishing his Las Vegas home, including $16,000 on a grand piano.
Beatriz Bajuelos Castillo | CNBC Make It
“We’re really good friends and we do a lot of work together,” Stephan tells CNBC Make It of the appeal of moving to the same complex. “And I could buy this house and we could live next to each other.”
He closed on the four-bedroom, 3,900-square-foot home in summer 2020 for $1.44 million with a 15% down payment. However, because Stephan acted as his own agent and collected a 3% fee, he ended up laying out just $172,000 out of pocket. His monthly payment is $5,075 on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.
Because the house was in a brand new development and was still under construction, Stephan made his decision based off of digital renderings, saying he “took a leap of faith that it was going to turn out well.”
“I really had no idea what the floor was going to look like, what the kitchen was going to look like or anything like that,” he says.
What he did know was that the layout of the house was “perfect” for his growing team and had plenty of room for an office and podcast studio, as well as an extra bedroom that would allow his assistant to move in with him and help him run his five YouTube channels. Previously, Stephan had created his YouTube videos out of a garage office with no air conditioning.
Graham Stephan bought his $1.4 million home without knowing what his finished kitchen would look like.
Beatriz Bajuelos Castillo | CNBC Make It
And despite the seven-figure price tag, Stephan feels like he “got a really good deal” on the home.
“Since [closing on the house], …….