3 Show-Stopping Mistakes From Tarek and Christina El Moussa of ‘Flip or Flop’
HGTV
Sorry, “Flip or Flop” fans: Tarek and Christina El Moussa have not only split up, but news has also surfaced that their hit 3-year-old HGTV reality show will soon come to a sudden, bitter end. An insider has just told E! News that a handful of episodes will be filmed in the new year to fulfill contractual obligations, but “the show will end after that.” Bummer!
This is all the more reason to scrutinize the latest few episodes now airing, bemoan our loss, and look for telltale clues that the end was near. Was it hiding there, in plain sight, all along?
Our suspicions were raised in the previous episode, where Tarek left Christina at home with the kids to go flipping with remodel buddy Pete de Best. But guess what? In the latest installment, Tarek and Christina are back together! Flipping, at least. But interloper Pete is still lurking, and pushing the couple to make some serious mistakes with their latest remodel project. Since the best lessons come from when you botch things big-time (or watch others do so), here’s what we learned.
Lesson No 1: Never buy a home sight unseen
Pete calls Tarek and Christina to tell them that he’s made a $365,000 offer on a three-bedroom, two-bath house in Anaheim, CA, that is mere days away from closing. He wants Tarek and Christina to get in on it, but they don’t have time to swing by and inspect the property. Still, the comps in the area are between $440,000 and $460,000, and Pete estimates they will need to spend only about $30,000 on remodeling. So they agree to go halfsies. Yet Tarek admits, “Buying a house sight unseen is always risky.”
And how. Pete’s “estimate” turns out to be tens of thousands of dollars below what they really need.
Lesson No 2: Never judge a house by its cover
When Tarek and Christina pull up to the house for the first time, they note that it needs new paint, and “the carpet is filthy,” according to Christina. But she loves the exposed beams and the retro kitchen, and begins making plans for mostly cosmetic fixes that would be well within the $30,000 budget. However, once they start, they find out that two-thirds of the plumbing needs to be replaced and, horror of horrors, the house needs a new roof and HVAC system. They end up spending more than double what they’d budgeted on the renovation, to the tune of about $70,000.
Lesson No. 3: Never show the house until it’s picture-perfect
Finally, after much work, the house has a new kitchen, baths, roof, and paint job.
“I must say, this house looks adorable,” Christina says, beaming. Then she steps into the backyard and finds something less adorable, verging on disastrous: The water in the pool they’d just relined has turned dark green.
Instead of postponing the imminent open house, they hold it anyway. Surely the visitors will understand the pool will be blue by the time they buy, right?
Nope. The first potential buyers eye the green gunk and run.
The house spends three long weeks on the market, and time is money when you’re renting furniture for staging. Finally they get an offer just over the $489,900 list price: $495,000. In the end, their total investment in the property was about $437,400 plus $20,000 in closing costs, so they end up making about $37,600 in profits, which they have to split with Pete. So their take-home ends up being a measly $18,000 for four months of hard work.
All of which has us pining for the days when it was just Tarek and Christina. Sigh.
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