Ellen DeGeneres recently made $15 million dollars in six months. And this had nothing to do with her show. She did it like lots of others dream about: by flipping houses.

In fact, Ellen has bought, renovated, and flipped more than half a dozen homes in Southern California in the last few years.

“I somehow manage to find out what’s on the market everywhere,” Ellen said. “People come to me. I like looking whether I’m buying or not. I love real estate.”

Ellen’s most recent conquest was a home she bought for $40 million, then renovated and sold to billionaire Sean Parker for $55 million, within six months.

The oddest thing about Ellen’s house-flipping prowess is that she never means to do it that way. She buys to keep. She explains, “I’ve never bought to sell. I always say: ‘This is it. I’m never moving.’ People laugh at me now.”

Ellen does her house buying and renovating with wife Portia de Rossi. The places they have purchased have not been multiple versions of the same style. They are all different.

In 2007 she and Portia bought a home, bought the adjacent properties, then joined everything into a compound that spanned three acres with two guest houses an underground parking garage, and a pool.

She bought and richly renovated several other homes in quick succession, often seeing her work featured in magazines which brought buy offers to her door.

As busy as Ellen is, she does a lot of her own furniture shopping for her homes. She does frequently use designer Cliff Fong to help her with certain elements.

“I’ve done about 15 homes for her,” Fong said.

If this talk show thing doesn’t work out, at least Ellen has a fall back option.

Image via YouTube