Exclusive: Tarek El Moussa Opens Up About His ‘Different Life, Different Wife, Different Market’

HGTV

Tarek El Moussa has come a long way.

This house flipper first rose to fame on the HGTV runaway hit “Flip or Flop,” which he co-hosted with his then-wife, Christina Hall. But a lot has changed since the show’s 2013 premiere.

For one, he has branched off to star in his own solo series where he teaches novice flippers the ropes, “Flipping 101 With Tarek El Moussa.” He has also divorced his previous flipping partner and married “Selling Sunset” star Heather Rae El Moussa, who recently gave birth to their baby boy, Tristan. And, as if all that weren’t enough, his family has embarked on a new show, “The Flipping El Moussas,” which follows their busy life together flipping houses in Southern California.

While fans will no doubt tune in to see what Tarek’s new life is like, we got to wondering what really happens behind the scenes when the cameras stop rolling. Lucky for us, Tarek was happy to chat with us and divulge some choice details you won’t see on reality TV.

Congratulations on your baby! Did you need to change anything in your house to prepare?

Oh, my gosh. We spent a lot of time and money remodeling our beach house here. So we love the house. And of course, the baby is not quite running or crawling, so we’re not quite there yet. But the second he starts moving around, we’re going to have to baby-proof everything, the sharp corners.

Tristan’s nursery is so chic and calming. Any tips on creating an elegant environment in a kid’s room?

Just marry Heather! Heather took the lead on the baby’s room, and that calm environment is exactly what she wanted. She wanted it to be a calm, quiet, relaxing space for the baby, and in the end, I really think she nailed it because the room is super cute. It’s elephant-themed because Heather loves animals, and she actually has an elephant tattooed on her wrist. It’s a perfect baby room.

What would you say is the heart of your home, where everyone loves to hang out?

The beautiful thing about our house is the downstairs. It’s a really open area to the living room, dining room, and the kitchen. That’s where the entire family hangs out. So we’re always on the couch all together or sitting at the dining table where we have these big, comfortable bench seats: me, Heather, Taylor, Brayden, Tristan, and Bugsy the dog.

What’s your favorite part of working with your wife?

We really are best friends. This woman came into my life almost four years ago and completely turned it around, gave me hope, gave me life, gave my love back, and I just love being with her. Together, we’re able to do incredible things. We’re both excited about real estate. We’re both motivated to create beautiful projects and work together.

Like you’ll see in the show, we just had a lot of fun. We had a fun time filming this show, which typically when you’re filming shows, you wouldn’t necessarily call it fun. So we had fun on set, and we think it really comes through on the show.

Heather was pregnant while filming, too—what was that like?

We had to feed her often. The one thing that we always had to do was make sure that Heather was fed with snacks and protein shakes and juices. But she was a rock star, man. She filmed until, like, two weeks before delivery.

How does Heather’s experience as a real estate agent help with flipping?

Real estate sales and real estate investing are two completely different animals. Heather has an incredible real estate background. So coming into the work with me, I was able to leverage that and really help my business. We really get these properties marketed and out there.

But what I really loved was teaching her the investment side of the business. I like to simplify flipping houses, because most people think it’s this overwhelming, difficult thing. But there are really four things you’ve got to do and I call them four F’s to flipping: You got to find it. You got to fund it. You got to fix it and you got to flip it.

I believe in the four F’s of flipping so much that I actually launched my company, HomeSchooled, where we teach people all around the country how to be real estate investors.

Since the first episodes of ‘Flip or Flop,‘ your career has boomed. What has it been like starting this new show with all that experience under your belt?

It’s a different life, a different wife, a different market. When I first started shooting “Flip or Flop,” I was a kid, I had no money. I had no idea how to even flip houses. When I signed the contract to do Season 1, I had no idea how I was going to find all these houses. But I signed it, and I figured it out.

Now, a decade later, going into “The Flipping El Moussas,” obviously things are different. I have experience. I’ve done almost a thousand houses. Plus, the real estate market is different. 2022 was the most challenging year in real estate since the Great Recession. So there’s a lot of education that comes through the screen for people watching the show, and it’s really important that we really teach the audience about investing and we teach the audience about real estate. We want them to learn and be entertained through watching our show.

Tarek and Heather El Moussa choose materials for a flip.

HGTV

What can viewers expect in the new show that’s different from your past shows?

“Flip or Flop” was a 30-minute show, and it was really focused on the individual house itself. “The Flipping El Moussas” is a show about our family and the business of flipping houses. So it gives you a deeper look of what it’s like to run a house-flipping enterprise.

What advice would you give someone who’s thinking about flipping a house or just trying to buy for themselves?

A lot of people are scared of the market, and then they don’t get into real estate and then prices start going up, and then they still don’t get into real estate. There’s always a million reasons to not get started in it, and then five years, you look back and you say, “Man, I wish I would have done it.”

So, I’m a big believer. If you have capital, you need to invest in real estate. And that’s why I launched my company TEM Capital, which is private equity real estate syndication, and we’re buying multifamily and self-storage facilities across the country.

When it comes to flipping houses: Before you go buy a house and try to flip a house, you need to invest in yourself. That means you need to learn what to do, because flipping houses is a risky business. So if you go out there and you just see a fixer-upper and you don’t know the math and you just buy it, you’re going to end up in really big trouble.

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