Popular YouTuber MrBeast bought tiny Outer Banks island for $1

Corinne Saunders, The Virginian-Pilot
·2 min read

WANCHESE — MrBeast, a popular YouTube and online entertainer from Greenville, North Carolina, bought a tiny, undeveloped Outer Banks island for $1 last month and is now leasing it to the former owner.

The 1,500-square-foot (0.0344-acre) island is in the Roanoke Sound, southeast of Roanoke Island and just southwest of Bodie Island Lighthouse and the Bodie Island Visitor Center. The island is considered part of the Wanchese Historic Mill Landing Marine District, and its land value is $800, according to Dare County tax records.

MrBeast did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday morning.

A non-warranty deed dated Dec. 6 was e-recorded on Dec. 22 in Dare County. MrBeastYouTube, LLC, of Greenville purchased the land from “G. Tully Sweet and wife, Crystal Sweet” of Portsmouth, according to the deed.

The transfer tax was $1, and the company also paid $27 in tax and fees for the property, according to the deed. A memorandum of lease for the same price was also e-recorded Dec. 22. Susan Parisher, manager of MrBeastYouTube, LLC, signed the lease of “0 Island, Wanchese” to G. Tully Sweet.

MrBeast regularly films short entertainment videos in locations around the world, and he is also known for doing large giveaways. He operates the nonprofit organization, Beast Philanthropy.

Time magazine last year named Jimmy Donaldson, known by his online handle MrBeast, as one of the 100 most influential people of the year.

“When we worked together to raise the funds to plant 20 million trees and remove 30 million lb. of plastic from the ocean through the Team Trees and Team Seas campaigns, his optimism was infectious,” Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer, wrote in the April 23 paragraph about MrBeast that was included in Time’s “The 100 Most Influential People of 2023.”

“He’s constantly raising the bar for creators,” Rober wrote.

According to an Outer Banker who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the filming on the local island was done about a month ago — which would be immediately after its purchase — and only took about three hours one day.

The company hired three local boats with captains to take MrBeast’s crew with camera equipment and a drone to the island. The hired parties signed a confidentiality agreement, the source said.

“I said, this has got to be for 8-year-olds,” the anonymous source said. “They didn’t do anything that was very exciting to me.”