Drake's Journey From Aspiring Musician To Real Estate Mogul

Drake has always been a big dreamer. Someone who goes after clear goals. The best description for Drake might be that he is “manifster.” He visualizes milestones and physical accomplishments he wants to achieve, and then makes them real.

Drake's ability to manifest goals and dreams into reality is perfectly exemplified in his 3-acre “Yolo Estate”, which just hit the market. Back in the early 2010s, Drake was still a little-known aspiring musician. Actually, he wasn't little-known back in his native Canada thanks to his role as wheelchair-bound high schooler Jimmy Brooks on the teen soap opera “Degrassi: The Next Generation.”

Not many people would have the guts to leave Toronto as a teen soap star with the goal of becoming the biggest rapper in the world. But that's exactly what he did! For a bit, the music world wasn't quite sure what to make of this former soap star turned rapper. However, thanks to his 2007 mixtape “Comeback Season” and 2009 mixtape “So Far Gone,” Drake was able to land a joint venture record contract split between Lil Wayne's label Young Money Entertainment and Birdman's Cash Money Records.

Visualizing Success: Drake's Unique Approach

During this pre-fame period, Drake used a surprisingly simple gimmick to visualize the success he would eventually experience. According to a Rolling Stone interview years later, one day while living in a cheap LA apartment, Drake googled “craziest residential swimming pools”.

One of the pools he saw in the Google Images result was from a home about an hour west of his apartment, out in a suburb he had never heard of called Hidden Hills. According to the article he was reading, this was the largest residential swimming pool in all of Los Angeles County. To give himself daily motivation, Drake right-clicked and saved the image as his background photo. That way, every time he turned the computer on he would see his dream mansion and tell himself, “I'm going to own that pool someday.”

Just three years later, that dream was manifested into reality!

The Bump on the Road: A Pricey Dream

But there was a bump along the way. In May 2009, Drake was crestfallen to learn that his dream mansion had been listed for sale for an eye-popping $27 million. Drake did not have anywhere near $27 million in May 2009.

Fortunately, this was right after the global real estate market imploded, so people weren't exactly in a rush to buy lavish mansions in a random LA suburb. By 2012, the owner of the mansion was experiencing some financial problems, so he re-listed, this time for $12.995 million.

Making the Dream a Reality: The Purchase of Yolo Estate

By this time, Drake had broken through as a rapper thanks to two successful studio albums that sold a combined 4 million records. After the mansion's price was cut by a million bucks, then another million bucks, Drake made his move.

On July 6, 2012, Drake's background screen dream became a reality in the property records of Los Angeles County. Aubrey Drake Graham's name was added to the LA county registrar as the official new owner of a mansion that would soon be known as the “Yolo Estate.” The price he paid? $7,700,077.

Expansion: Growing the Yolo Estate

In 2015, Drake extended the Yolo Estate with the acquisition of a neighboring 1.6-acre estate for $2.8 million. In 2018, he extended the property again when he spent $4.5 million to buy yet another neighboring house. Today, the Yolo Estate encompasses 6.7 acres of contiguous property at the end of a cul-de-sac.

And if Drake's estate happens to be your background screen motivation right now, I have good news! Drake just listed the entire three-home compound for $22 million.

Buying Options: The Yolo Estate on the Market

If that's a bit over your budget, I have more good news! If you just want to buy the primary original mansion, the one with the enormous pool, that can be yours separately for $14.8 million.

Some notable features of the above mansion include:

• Located within a gate-guarded private community at the end of a private cul-de-sac
• 12,500 square feet of living space
• 2,000 square-foot master bedroom
• Massive swimming pool with spa grotto, swim-up bar, waterfalls, and 80-foot waterslide
• Combination basketball/tennis court
• Sand volleyball court
• Equestrian riding ring
• 25-seat movie theater

A Nod to Drake: The MLS Listing

Drake fans will notice a subtle little nod to the rapper in the very last line of the property’s MLS listing: “If you’re reading this, it’s not too late.” (That's a reference to his 2015 album “If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late.”)

So what do you think? Are you going to make this dream home your reality? And the other question is – I wonder what Drake is manifesting next with his $250 million net worth…

***UPDATE***

Two hours after publishing this article, we learned what Drake was manifesting next. It turns out, his next dream home was a 20-acre Beverly Hills estate that he bought from British singer Robbie Williams for somewhere just north of $70 million!