Originally from New York, Ben Mallah is a New York businessman with a staggering net worth. His outspoken nature has garnered attention, but how did he come to amass such a huge personal fortune?
Ben Mallah is worth around $250 million, and made his money in the real estate industry. His formula for success is simple; buy property and sell it for profit.
Read more about Ben Mallah, the man behind the fortune, and how he came to achieve his wealth.
Who is Ben Mallah?
According to Medium, Mallah’s childhood was far removed from the affluent lifestyle he lives now. He grew up in Queens, New York, and never finished high school.
Rather than hold him back, however, his difficult start in life appears to have spurred his success. “When I was a kid, I always wanted to make a lot of money,” he says.
Despite his family’s circumstances, living in New York placed him in close proximity to wealthy individuals. As a child, he would see the high-flyers who visited the city’s landmarks.
“I’d say ‘One day, I’m going to be able to go to places like that and stay in places like that.'”
Now, Mallah is known for his lavish lifestyle, quite the opposite to his upbringing. As a child, he saw his father’s attempts to save money, and has seemingly rebelled against this way of life.
“The question is what are you saving for?” Mallah said. “You’re not spending it on yourself. You’re not investing it in the welfare of your family. It was almost like a disease.”
He never graduated high school and, at the age of 17, joined the military and served for five years. “The army pretty much saved my life,” he claims.
Mallah the Businessman
During his time in the military, Ben Mallah rented property from his then landlord Mark Wilton. The two struck up a business relationship, and Mallah became a partner in Wilton’s company, which made money through the buying and selling of property.
His former landlord has since spoken about the young Mallah, saying “He was very astute, a very fast learner. Very pushy. He wanted to know how this was done and that was done and if I didn’t tell him, he’d force it out of me.”
Mallah himself cites his first real estate deal as the purchase of a $26 thousand property. He describes it as “A crack house that nobody in the whole town wanted.”
He bought the property with a 20% deposit ($5200) and worked on renovations, costing him around $10 thousand. The property was split into two apartments, which Mallah was able to rent for $1200/month each.
Since, he has replicated this winning strategy to make the fortune that he has today. “I bought the worst crap that nobody else wanted, and fixed it up, and made money from that, and took the profits to refinance and buy other stuff,” he says.
His net worth is now said to be $250 million, and he shares snippets of his enviable lifestyle on his YouTube channel. He owns a host of luxurious cars, from manufacturers including Porsche, Bentley and Rolls Royce.
Outside the Boardroom
Mallah’s outspoken nature has gained him a certain level of notoriety on the internet. In a YouTube video created with Koncrete, he brutally responds to comments made about him online.
He makes little secret of the key to his success, discussing his route to extreme wealth in several interviews and offering advice to wannabe millionaires in his podcasts and videos.
In 2004, he married wife Karla Nila, and he is a dad to three children, Ben Mallah Jr, Vinson Mallah and Aaron Mallah.
He raised eyebrows in 2014, when he appeared to be selling off his assets via the trading site Craigslist. “For $100,000,000 you get $174,815,000 worth of assets,” he said. “You get it all, my cars, my house, my boat, the apartments, hotels, restaurants and personnel. Everything is in place.”
Despite his forthright nature, it seems Mallah is, at heart, a family man. “Money, power, respect,” he says, “All mean nothing if you are unable to enjoy them with the ones you love.”