When young YouTube sensations and social media stars begin to rake in piles of cash, some quickly splash around very grown-up amounts of their new-found riches on extravagant homes.
As an 18-year-old who had been named to Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential People On the Internet in 2019, YouTube wunderkind Emma Chamberlain shelled out $3.9 million in 2020 for a glassy contemporary in West Hollywood — she’s already upgraded to a $4.3 million compound in Beverly Hills, and, just before he was raked over the red-hot publicity coals for sexting with underage boys, then 20-year-old internet-based beauty guru James Charles ponied up an astonishing $7 million for a nearly 10,000-square-foot mansion in Encino.
Coming up on four years ago, a then 22-year-old Bethany Mota, who skyrocketed to teenage fame and fortune starting in 2009 with her insanely popular “haul” videos, in which she displayed various recently purchased makeup and clothing items, made a more modest and sensible, though hardly inexpensive, $2.2 million purchase of a home in L.A.’s Studio City. At the time, she probably could have afforded a far more expensive house.
In her heady heydays, roughly 2009-2017, Mota posted tons of videos and they regularly tallied up millions of views, some more than 20 million. But fame is fickle, kiddos. Despite still having nearly 10 million YouTube subscribers and 4.7 Instagram followers, much of the heady helium seems to have drained from her balloon. Nowadays, Mota’s infrequently posted videos rarely rack up more than a few hundred thousand views and her most recent, posted about a month ago, a 12-minute thing about what happened when she drank a gallon of water every day for a week, has garnered but 273,000 views.
Now, with her once stratospheric social media star on the wane, Mota has packed up, moved out and heaved her Studio City home base on the market at just under $2.9 million. The property is listed with Zach Goldsmith and Jen Baker of Hilton & Hyland.
Just a few blocks from Tujunga Village, a block-long stretch of charming mom-and-pop shops and eateries, the home was built in 2015 with five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms in close to 3,900 square feet. Well appointed with high-end amenities like a home automation system, security cameras and LED lighting, the unassuming two-story home is a well-appointed if generic version of the traditional-meets-modern-farmhouse style of home that has become almost ridiculously ubiquitous across the San Fernando Valley over the last decade.
Just inside the front door, adjoining formal living and dining rooms, the former with a fireplace, feature custom coffered ceiling treatments, while the great room, comprising a high-end kitchen, breakfast bay and family room with fireplace, spills out to the backyard. A main floor home office includes a climate-controlled wine display cabinet, and the two-car garage is finished with laminate floors and mirrored walls. Three second-floor guest bedrooms are all en suite, and the main bedroom includes a fireplace, two walk-in closets and a marble bathroom with claw-footed bathtub.
The backyard isn’t particularly big, but it’s ringed by a high fenced and and even taller hedging for maximum privacy. Surrounding a small, flat patch of lawn, there’s a built-in grilling station, a swimming pool, and an open-air pavilion.
It’s not clear if Mota will return to her hometown of Modesto, Calif., if she’ll remain in Los Angeles or head for parts unknown. Whatever the case, she and her financial advisors are probably feeling pretty good about her prospects of turning a nice profit.