James Van Der Beek‘s friends stepped up to help him secure a down payment on his family’s Texas ranch before he passed away … his rep revealed.

People spoke to the rep about the $4.7 million Texas Ranch, which, as we reported, he bought on January 9 … and the rep told the outlet his family wanted to stop paying rent and start paying a mortgage, and some helpful friends made that dream a reality.

As we mentioned … James and his family moved to the ranch in 2020 — but, they were only renting the property for the first 5+ years.

We broke the story … James passed away Wednesday. His cause of death hasn’t come out yet, but he was fighting a very public battle with colorectal cancer over the last couple years.

Numerous famous friends have posted loving tributes to JVDB over the last few days … with his pal, former WWE wrestler Stacy Keibler, seemingly sharing a pic of one of the star’s final moments from the estate.