Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi Have Made About $190M in House Flipping

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have made a pretty penny from their real estate endeavours, according to a Sept. 4 report from The Wall Street Journal. 

In the past two decades, DeGeneres, 67, and de Rossi, 52, have become well-known house flippers. Since the mid-2000s, the couple has purchased at least 34 homes, according to the report. Many of them were in California, including properties in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Montecito. But more recently, they’ve been buying houses in the U.K. ever since their relocation to the European country in 2024.

“It’s not that I get bored, I’m just so passionate about architecture and furniture and you can only buy a certain type of furniture for a contemporary house or a midcentury house,” DeGeneres said in a phone interview. She told the outlet she’s lost count of how many properties the couple has bought and sold. 

While some properties they hold on to for years; others, they own for only months. 

From the properties they have sold, they’ve turned about $190 million in profit with an average return of 37%, per the Journal. 

However, the couple’s business manager, Harley Neuman, thinks the real number is lower after the cost of renovations is factored in.

“I would love her to have made that big of a killing,” he said. “Forget about the real-estate agents and the escrow and title people, it’s the cost of the contractors and the designers and the army that comes in once we’ve closed. It takes a village.” 

Neuman also said that the cost of furniture, which DeGeneres typically includes in a sale, is not considered.

“She takes the art off the walls, but everything else gets sold,” he said. 

In the time that he’s known the comedian, the business manager believes the number of properties the couple has bought and sold is closer to 50. 

Rayni Williams with Beverly Hills Estates, who represented a Hollywood executive who purchased one of the couple’s homes in Montecito, said there is an allure to owning “an Ellen house.”

“Once somebody knows it’s her house or she had a hand in it, it adds value,” Williams said. “In L.A., she is synonymous with quality.”

Famous purchasers of Ellen homes include Will Ferrell, Ariana Grande and the late Heath Ledger, according to the report. 

“Every house I’ve sold, I kind of know everyone that’s bought the house,” DeGeneres said. “I go back and everything is the same, all the objects are the same. It is a compliment but it’s also like I’m an idiot [for selling.]”

Most recently, the couple has brought their home flipping overseas. In July, the couple listed their Kitesbridge Farm for about $30 million, for which they paid about $20 million in the spring of 2024. 

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DeGeneres told the outlet she put about $9 million into the property before they made the decision to stay in the U.K. permanently. At that point, they began looking for bigger homes that would accommodate de Rossi’s horses. 

The comedian said they plan on buying and renovating more English homes, but might slow down since DeGeneres plans a return to work in the near future.

“I think I’m going to work again, so I’m looking at how much time I’m going to have,” she said.