Jake Paul Buys Storied Georgia Hunting Plantation for $39 Million

Doug Howlett

Love him or hate him—or to many of us who love to hate him—Jake Paul often comes off as a Gen Z douchebag. But the guy clearly has his fans—nearly 21 million of them at last count from subscribers to his YouTube channel and more than 28 million followers on Instagram. And in today’s bizarre media landscape that many followers translate into big bucks and ancillary business opportunities.

Add to that his odd trajectory as a professional boxer where he has parlayed his social media fame into big money fights with much older, former title-holding boxers with marquee appeal such as heavyweight Mike Tyson and the recent bout with middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and give the guy credit, he has made more money by the age of 28 than most of us could hope to make in 10 lifetimes. So, what’s a guy to do with all of that cash?

Well, with the estimated $30 million he made from fighting Tyson, reportedly the most streamed sporting event in history with 65 million concurrent streams, he just bought a famed Georgia hunting estate, Southlands.

“I’ve been wanting to buy a ranch for the past 15 years,” Paul said on a recent appearance on The Iced Coffee Hour podcast. “It’s kind of been my dream and why I work so hard.”

But Does He Hunt?

According to reports from The Land Report and Mansion Global, Paul paid $39 million for Southlands, a 5,746-acre estate that boasts 4.5 miles of Lake Seminole frontage, a 20-acre stocked lake, a 30-acre duck marsh and five miles of spring creeks complete with small waterfalls and feeder streams. There’s also a renovated 4,884-square-foot lodge, a four-stall horse barn, a deer cooler and more outbuildings than a county fairground.

Oh, and did we mention the land has been managed for wild quail, trophy whitetails and wild turkeys? This ain’t just a run of the mill ranch—it’s a true sportsman’s paradise.

Paul said in his interview Southlands was “a little bit bigger than what I wanted, but when I got there, I was like, ‘I have to buy this.’”

So, the question some in the sporting community may have is, “Does Jake Paul even hunt?”

Apparently, he does. The polarizing influencer said he wanted a place to hunt, as well as wakesurf, build a racetrack and grow veggies. And he did recently post on X a photo of him with a hog he shot on a recent hunt.

Jake Paul hog hunting with a suppressed rifle and thermal optics. Posted on X.

Storied Property, Record Purchase

As Mansion Global reports, the original 26,000 acres were pieced together in the early 20th century by Herbert Stoddard, a pioneering conservationist best known as the father of prescribed fire and co-founder of Tall Timbers Research Station. The land was later owned by U.S. Sen. Houghton Metcalf, who bought the property in 1937. International Paper (IP) bought it in the late 1950s to serve as the nerve center of its 12-million-acre forest empire. It wouldn’t change hands again until 2010 when Jim Dahl, who founded the investment firm Rock Creek Capital, bought as large of a broader land purchase deal from IP. Paul bought the ranch from Brian Philpot, CEO and principal owner of AgAmerica Lending, who bought the land in 2023.

Jon Kohler, of Jon Kohler & Associates, said he believes the sale may be the “one of the largest recreational land sales in Georgia history.” Kohler co-listed the land with colleague Walter Hatchett.

Paul may be a hunter, but whether he can preserve Southlands’ legacy while blending it with his brash, camera-ready lifestyle remains to be seen. Only time will tell. One thing’s for sure: If you thought Jake Paul was done shocking people, you haven’t seen him in overalls, planting tomatoes next to a duck blind.