‘We’re Going Bigger Than Ever’: Tarek El Moussa and Christina Hall Come Together for a Final ‘Flip or Flop’
HGTV
For those of you who thought you’d seen the last of Tarek El Moussa and Christina Hall working together on “Flip or Flop,” surprise—they’re back!
These two have returned for one more episode, titled “Flip or Flop: The Final Flip,” where they renovate a four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 2200-square-foot house in Sunset Beach, CA. They’d bought this property way back in 2020 for $925,000, figuring they could spend $200,000 to renovate it, and then sell it for about $1.5 million.
But that was two years, a bitter breakup, and a few new reality shows and spouses ago.
While they congenially worked together on the flip itself, it was not lost on us that they didn’t appear together in the interviews and commentary on the project. They spoke separately about everything they learned on the show over the past 10 years.
“It’s been a trial by fire,” says El Moussa. “We’ve learned a ton. We’re going bigger than ever on this last house, and along the way, we’re going to be sharing some of our favorite memories.”
As always, they never fail to give excellent advice on renovating a house. So if you’re looking for some last words of inspiration from these two, take a look at what they do below.
Don’t let the stink sink the deal
The famous stinky turkey and other detritus on “Flip or Flop”HGTV
As they look around the house, Hall thinks she smells urine outside the bathroom.
“Sadly, urine hasn’t been the grossest thing we’ve run into,” says El Moussa. “Over the years, we’ve flipped some of the nastiest houses. … They were all we could afford.”
That’s followed by a retrospective of some of the most disgusting finds they ever came across, including a turkey that had been out of the freezer and sitting on a countertop for what smelled like months. Even so, El Moussa managed to find a silver lining in this.
“Watching Christina squirm was pure enjoyment for me,” says El Moussa.
“Trust me, I know he loved it,” says Hall.
And even though some of the houses they worked on stunk to high heaven when they purchased them, with new walls, flooring, and paint, they made hundreds of thousands of dollars on stinky houses over the years.
Bad smells can definitely be stopped. They’re the least of your worries.
Perfect your poker face with contractors
Keeping a straight face with favored contractor Izzy BattresHGTV
“When you’re dealing with contractors, you have to keep your game face on,” says El Moussa. “If you show any weakness, they’ll walk all over you.”
The two renovation experts reminisce about the favorite contractors they’ve worked with in the past, Izzy Battres and Jeff Lawrence.
They interview a new one, David Agayo, for this project, and El Moussa has a straight face throughout the negotiations, which are professionally handled by all parties.
“Let’s hope this new contractor is even half as great as Izzy and Jeff,” says El Moussa.
Black appliances look chic in a kitchen
Kitchen with black appliancesHGTV
Hall has a bold idea for the kitchen and proposes black appliances.
“The reason why I’m kind of leaning toward black appliances is because we could do nicer appliances here and go with, like, black. I think that would look really cool.”
Surprisingly enough, El Moussa agrees.
“You just sold me on black appliances. Because originally, I was kind of leaning more toward blue ones, because I think that’s more beachy. But now I think black could be really neat,” he adds. But, “If we want to go with black appliances, it’s probably an extra $7,000.”
Hall is good with that.
“All these little details really count, and I think they’ll definitely pay off,” she says. She had no idea how long it would actually take for them to pay off.
Grand views sell the house
Invaluable finished deck with ocean viewHGTV
The house is a mess inside and out when El Moussa and Hall first tour it. But the second they see the deck, they’re sold. It’s giant and unfinished, but at least you can see the ocean from it.
“This is what is really going to sell the house,” says El Moussa.
Hall agrees, and they make plans to finish the deck, add trifold glass doors leading out to it, and add a powder room inside on the deck level.
It will be an added cost of $17,000, but El Moussa thinks that’s a good investment.
“If we spend the $17,000 here, we’ll probably get $60,000 back,” he says.
Change your style with the times
Christina Hall and Tarek El Moussa’s first kitchen remodel in 2012HGTV
“We have come so far from our very first kitchen makeover to some pretty extravagant designs,” says Hall, as viewers see the humble first kitchen they worked on in 2012.
“Some of our early house designs might have been a little bit too beige,” admits El Moussa. “At first we were obsessed with dark wood floors, dark cabinets, granite countertops, travertine, and, of course, stacked stone.”
“It was the height of luxury,” adds Hall. “But it was time to change it up. Home design is a lot like fashion. It is definitely evolving, and we have evolved with it.”
El Moussa remembers they came up with a lot of new design style names with hyphens: “Rustic-farmhouse, contemporary-transitional, beachy boho, Hollywood glam, and don’t forget modern farmhouse.”
While they didn’t exactly coin all those phrases, they sure helped to make a lot of them popular.
Far more evolved kitchen Hall and El Moussa remodeled in 2021HGTV
Is this final house a flip or a flop?
By the end of the show, it isn’t certain. We do know they had to spend an additional $30,000 to bolster the foundation and add another deck on the roof. They also had to spend an extra $40,000 on smooth stucco for the exterior, which was previously clad in old shingles. Their break-even price, including closing costs, commission, staging, etc., would be about $1,321,000, according to El Moussa.
Yet by the end of the show, viewers have no idea if the house has sold or if they make a profit. But a little sleuthing through Sunset Beach listings allowed us to figure out what finally happened.
According to the listing, they put this beach house on the market in May 2022 for $1,899,900, and then sold it for $1,850,000 in July. That’s an approximate profit of $578,500.
Not a bad ending for these two, and the epic series they began so long ago.
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