Financial Minimalist Home Tour | How I Live For Free

What's up guys? It's Graham here. So one week ago, I made a video explaining why I'm a financial minimalist. In that video, I explained that despite how much money I make, I still live in the same one-bedroom, 850 square-foot duplex as I have been for quite some time. And of course, once I mentioned that, I had a lot of people asking me to do a home tour. So here you go, here's that home tour!

I have a feeling maybe some people might assume that I would have some gigantic mansion somewhere, or maybe I would own a home with a pool that overlooks the entire city. And as cool as that would be, I would rather keep things simple for now and save my money here in my duplex.

Now, just as some background, I purchased this property two and a half years ago for five hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars. At the time, that was a really, really good deal. It came on the market about ninety thousand dollars below what it was actually worth, and it wasn't properly advertised online. The owner had no idea what properties here were selling for because they were an out-of-area investor and just wanted to get rid of it.

That basically just gave me the opportunity to offer them asking price as soon as it came on the market, with the condition that they accepted immediately. And they did! However, the property needed a lot of work. So we'll start right here. The front yard needed a complete makeover, and there was zero privacy from the front window when you're sitting in the living room. So that needed to change.

I installed a wooden fence around the perimeter of the front yard and planted about 35 trees to give it a more natural and secluded look. I also took it a step further and had an olive tree planted right in front, which gives you something nice to look at when you're inside. And also, because California is pretty much always in a perpetual drought, I went with an otherwise low-maintenance landscape with gravel and succulents, so it rarely needs to be watered.

Inside, the unit also needed a decent amount of work. For instance, these hardwood floors were original to 1924, so over the last nearly 100 years, they were pretty worn down and scuffed up. I had them all sanded down and completely refinished, and afterwards, they looked entirely brand new.

I also had the entire place painted in a color called spun wool, which is a slightly warmer off-white. It's not that grayish white that all the real estate flippers seem to use, but it’s also not a bleached white either. This one took me about a dozen samples of white to find, but once I found it, it is perfect.

You might also notice that the trim and ceilings are painted in a bare ultra pure white, just to give it a bit more contrast. And also, when I bought it, there was really ugly 70s looking ceiling without any recessed lighting at all. So I knew that had to change. I had all the ceilings smoothed out throughout the entire unit and had recessed LED lighting installed on a dimmer to give it a much more modern and practical look.

Then we have this fireplace. I think at some point in the 70s, it was turned into a really ugly heater that stuck out way too far, and frankly, I have a feeling that was probably a fire hazard. So I had the entire thing removed and I painted the inside white to give it a slightly more contemporary appearance. But it wasn't quite complete yet because I really wanted some hand-painted Spanish tile around the perimeter to give it more of an accent and a focal point for the room.

For those of you that don't know, Spanish tiles tend to be very expensive. The contractor I was using bid me $600 just to tile the perimeter, and all the local tile places wanted ten to twelve dollars per tile, which was obviously not going to happen. So instead, I found a place online that shipped these tiles direct for about two dollars a tile.

Then I spent about a weekend with a friend just putting these up and grouting them ourselves. Doing this project ourselves saved us about $500 in labor and material costs! So for anyone out there who wants to do tile work, it's extremely easy to do. All you need is some YouTube tutorials online; there’s a little bit of a learning curve when installing them, but otherwise, it's totally doable yourself, and this is proof!

So besides that, here's my entire living room. A lot of the furniture you see, by the way, was purchased at wholesale costs through a good friend of mine who runs a staging company. So I got a really good deal on pretty much everything you see here for a fraction of the price it would sell for in stores. Admittedly, I don't get to use this room very often though; like sometimes I'll just be on the couch planning out a YouTube video like this one, or I'll be sitting in one of these chairs just watching a YouTube video.

But other than that, this room doesn't really get used that often. You know, I thought about putting a TV above the fireplace, but to be completely honest, I rarely ever watch TV and it seemed like just a distraction to have it up there. So I figured for the time being, I'm just gonna put a mirror up there with my YouTube Awards—no big deal.

Besides that, I have a lot of books up here that I bought off eBay for $1 each just to kind of fill the space and make it seem like I read a lot, even though I don’t read too often. But I have read quite a few of these books, like "The 4-Hour Workweek," and I do have my "Kenan & Kel" picture for all of you 90s kids—Kenan & Kel was the best show ever!

Besides that, I've kept a lot of my birthday and Christmas cards up here to make it look like I have a lot of friends and family, so all of those are up here. This is probably like two years’ worth. And then I have my subscriber plaques for the Graham Stephan Show—"Graham Stephan" and then again "Graham Stephan."

And then over here, you have a bar cart that I've loaded up with some random things and trinkets, including this thing that I found at an antique shop in Las Vegas. I thought it looked pretty cool, so I went ahead and bought it. The most random purchase I've ever spent money on was this thing. And then also, you got an early 1920s fire extinguisher that was turned into a light, so I figured why not?

Now here we have my dining room, and this is probably the most used room of the entire place, but probably not for what you think. I don't think I've actually ever used this dining room for actually eating food. I've never hosted any big meals or anything here, but I do find it really nice for some reason to edit my videos just sitting right here. Plus, I just really like the arch going to the living room—it definitely adds a lot of 1920s character that you don't often find anymore in newer constructions.

Besides that, I probably still need to furnish this room just a little bit more. Like I got a small bar going on here, but to be honest, I rarely ever drink and a lot of this is left over from different events that I’ve held over the years. So I just put them over here; they look kind of cool, fill the space, and for any guests that come over, they can feel free to help themselves.

No, a big change to the property was actually this wall right here, or now there's actually no wall right here. When I bought the place, there was a huge wall blocking the entire kitchen. It just closed off the entire place and made it feel really dark and claustrophobic. So I went ahead and opened it up and rearranged the entire kitchen around this Center Island right here, which I’m glad I did because it turns out to be the perfect spot to film my YouTube videos.

Now in the kitchen, I went with a terracotta tile floor, the standard just white cabinetry, stainless steel appliances, and just a plain white subway tile backsplash. I know it’s a little bit basic, but whatever, it works! Eventually, I'm going to be turning this into a rental property, so I wanted something that’s gonna be affordable, durable, and just look nice. So this will do the trick.

Besides that, my kitchen is pretty sparse; I don’t have a whole lot of stuff here, but I will show you what is in the refrigerator. As you can see here, I really don't have a lot of food. I eat eggs pretty much every morning with cheese and ham, which I just ran out of. I get the plain bagels—these are a dollar ninety-nine at Ralph's, which is a really good deal for six bagels. You always got to get the generic brand of cream cheese to save that extra money, and then of course, you have the Mister Coffee 20-cent iced coffee right there in all of its glory.

Besides that, the freezer really isn't that much better. We got a huge cake here for a million subscribers that's half eaten, so this is probably gonna take a year to eat. We got a bunch of frozen food, and then we got a cat—Ramsey does not belong in the freezer, but he's extremely curious about what it is and why it's so cold.

Then we have my hallway, and right in the middle, I have a huge closet for all of my stuff. I did my best to organize it, but I basically hoarded all of my clothes for the last decade in here—most of it I never really wear, and I'm just waiting for it to one day come back in style, but I have it here just in case.

By the way, that's not my Louis Vuitton bag; that was a gift—I did not spend any money there, don't worry. And then I have two posters hung up here that I really liked. I found them both on AliExpress. I liked them, so I put them up in the hallway, and I feel like they fill out the room really nicely.

And now that leads us to the bathroom! This is something that needed a lot of work when I bought it because the entire thing was a disaster. The bathtub was originally right here as soon as you walked in, and then the sink was right behind it, and the toilet was right over here. It was a horrible layout. So I gutted the entire thing and installed the shower at the very end with the sink over here.

I also went with a 1920s Spanish tile floor, along with the subway tile in the shower, and a Spanish tile accent just to give it a little bit more color. Now, I did end up making one mistake when remodeling the bathroom, and that was by not thinking of the storage space. I spent too much time focusing on just getting a really cool sink and a mirror that swivels that I overlooked the practicality of actually storing anything on the sink.

So instead, I resorted to using the linen closet right outside of the bathroom for holding any of this stuff instead of putting it here on the sink. Lesson learned!

And then finally, we have the bedroom. This is another one of those rooms that needed a lot of work when I bought it because it was pretty much just a wall of room with very little light, and it was pretty depressing. So instead, I smoothed out the ceilings, added some recessed lighting, and I added some French doors and steps leading out to the backyard. This way, you don’t need to use the side door in order to get to the backyard. You can just open this up in the morning and go right out and get a really nice breeze.

And then over here, I have the TV, and to be completely honest, I really don't watch a lot of TV when I'm here. I'm usually out doing something or making videos, but it is here in the event I want to watch something on Netflix or watch the Graham Stephan Show on YouTube. As you can see here, we're almost at 200,000 subscribers on that channel, so if you haven't already subscribed to that channel, make sure to do that. Let’s get this to 200,000!

Like that. And then we've got my backyard. This was another one of those things that was a total overgrown mess. There were plants just growing everywhere, and there’s a giant laundry hanger cemented into the grass. So instead, I installed a pergola, I hung some lights on it, I bought some patio furniture, I got a mini fountain, and I really tried to do my best to make it as inviting as possible.

Oh, and then how could I forget? We also have my studio. This is another one that I bought that was a huge mess. I bought it knowing that the back of the garage was slipping off the foundation, and that was causing the entire place to basically collapse in the center and split apart. So I had to have the entire garage basically rebuilt and reinforced.

I had it insulated, drywalled, added recessed lighting, and added power to it, and basically just turned it into my office. This is where I film all of my videos, so my entire commute is basically just walking from my bedroom out the French doors to the garage right here. Most days, traffic is pretty light, but every now and then I might have to cross a bird or two just walking over here, but overall, it's doable!

Now, one of the reasons I ended up moving here and foregoing the traditional house is because I knew I could end up living in here for free. And if that sounds entirely absurd to you, then here's how that breaks down. From a cash flow perspective, the rent I receive from the other unit ends up covering most of my mortgage, leaving me with just paying property tax and insurance out of pocket.

However, because of a fixed-rate, three-and-a-half percent, 30-year mortgage on the property, that means about a thousand dollars a month of my mortgage payment goes towards paying down the loan and building up my equity in the property.

In addition to that, I'm able to write off a portion of my home ownership because I use the garage for business use, because this is where I film all my videos from. So when all of that is factored in—between the rent I receive from the other unit, my tax write-offs, and the equity I get every single month by paying down the loan—it's pretty much just a free place for me to live.

That means I'll have more money left over that I could save and invest elsewhere, and that is how you do financial minimalism.

And that brings me to the best part of this entire home tour video, and that would be how much I’m actually out-of-pocket in terms of a down payment and remodeling costs. To own this place, I bought the duplex for five hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars. I spent one hundred and fifty thousand dollars as a down payment, and I got a loan for four hundred and thirty-eight thousand dollars as my mortgage.

I then spent about eighty thousand dollars fixing it up and remodeling it, meaning my total out-of-pocket cost at that point is two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. I then went and got the property reappraised for seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars, because property values have gone up, and it was now a fixed-up property.

Doing that allowed me to do what's called a cash-out refinance, which is where I could get a larger loan for five hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars to pay off the old loan of four hundred thirty-eight thousand dollars, and then I profited the difference. That meant I got one hundred and forty-five thousand dollars back of the two hundred thirty thousand dollars I was out of pocket, and then I got a slightly larger mortgage.

But it doesn’t end there because after that, interest rates ended up going down and property values ended up going up even more. So I had the property reappraised a second time, this time for nine hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars. That allowed me to do another cash-out refinance to pay off the existing loan I already had and then profit the difference again, meaning that my out-of-pocket cost in terms of down payment and remodeling was another zero dollars.

So after all said and done, I was able to get all my money back in terms of a down payment and remodeling costs by seeing rising property values and fixing it up. In addition to getting to live in a place that breaks even cash flow-wise after the rent I receive in the other unit, tax write-offs, and any equity I get every single month by paying down the loan.

And that is exactly how you do financial minimalism—by putting in some work, seeking out opportunity, waiting for the right deal, and then also, obviously smashing the like button for the YouTube algorithm if you've not done that already!

So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it! If you guys enjoyed videos like this, make sure to, as always, smash the subscribe button and destroy the notification bell so YouTube notifies you anytime I post a video. Also, feel free to add me on Instagram; I post there pretty much daily, so if you want to be a part of it, feel free to add me there.

Also, go and add me on my second channel—it’s called the Graham Stephan Show. I post there every single day I'm not posting here, so if you want to go and see a new video from me every single day, go and add yourself to that.

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But it’s a pretty good platform; they have $0 stock trades, and I’m pretty happy with them so far. So if you want to get free stocks, there you go! Thank you again for watching, and until next time!