Tarek and Christina El Moussa Smell a Rat on 'Flip or Flop'
Something stinks in the latest episode of “Flip or Flop”—and this time the simmering tension between Christina and Tarek El Moussa isn’t to blame.
The problem is the house they decide to flip: a 1,200-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-bath Mid-Century Modern house in Garden Grove, a neighborhood where they usually have good luck.
In “Hot Market, Fast Flip,” things start out promising when Tarek (finally) does some negotiating, and gets the owner to come down in price from $375,000 to $340,000. After all, the house needs “a lot of work”—at least $60,000 worth, in their contractor’s estimation.
Little do they know that work will require uncovering, and disposing of, a dead body. And much, much more! Below is a full rundown of all the problems they unearth, and how they patch things up.
A disgusting smell
Christina makes a startling discovery in the fireplace.
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“It smells awful in here,” Tarek says as they tour the house. There’s a reason for that. As Christina is cleaning out the fireplace, she screams, having dug up a decomposing rat. Ewwwww! But hey, at least they’ve identified the source of that funk and can get rid of it.
OK, we’re moving on.
Dead bodies tell no tale, but they do smell.
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Cramped kitchen
Not only is the tiny galley kitchen old and ugly, but it also has too many appliances crammed in, including the washer and dryer (because the garage is too small to accommodate them). There really aren’t any walls they can remove to expand the kitchen, either, so they finagle a little extra space by walling off the door to the master bedroom (who needs a door from the master bedroom to the kitchen anyway?).
No dining space
As Christina points out, a family that fills up a four-bedroom house will need space to eat dinner together. But there’s no dining room, and the kitchen appears to have room for a two-person table at best. This really stumps the couple. At Day 46 of their renovation, Tarek admits, “I don’t know how we’re going to make this work.”
Crisis!
So Christina devises a workaround: They can install a corner booth, or “kitchen nook” as she calls it. They claim it will fit six people, if they’re skinny. It looks cheap, but “it’s better than my idea,” says Tarek, “which was nothing.”
Funky fireplace
Christina applies a stacked-stone surface to the white brick fireplace.
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The corner fireplace is plain white brick, which is not uncommon in Mid-Century Modern homes, and Tarek just wants to repaint. But Christina puts her foot down. She wants to apply a stacked-stone facade over the brick and add a marble floor piece. Tarek balks at the expense, and Christina digs in.
“There’s absolutely nothing going on in this house,” she argues. “The kitchen is closed off, there’s no hallway, it’s very boring. … This will be the only really beautiful piece that’s going into it.” As usual, Tarek caves.
Christina was right—that stacked-stone fireplace is pretty sweet.
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Parched lawn
The front lawn is a patchy, weedy mess, but since Tarek sees sprinkler heads, he assumes there must be a functioning watering system, and plans for turf. On closer inspection, however, he learns that those sprinklers don’t work. Rather than spend thousands on a new sprinkler system, he covers the front yard with brown mulch and adds a few small trees. It’s an improvement over what was there, but not by much.
So how does it end?
In the end, their fixes actually seem to do the trick overall: They purchase the house for $340,000, put $70,000 into the remodel, and estimate $20,000 more for closing costs. They’ll need to make $430,000 to break even. But since comps in the area are in the high $400,000s, they decide to “push the envelope” and price it at $524,900.
In less than a week, they have multiple offers, and sell for $530,000. After deducting home staging costs, they end up with a profit of $96,200!
The take-home lesson: When you’re flipping a house, don’t be deterred by mystery smells (which can be rooted out), cramped kitchens (which can be expanded), or nonworking sprinklers (grass, who needs it?). As Christina reasons, “The bigger the disaster, the better the makeover.”
Who knows? Maybe that saying could end up applying to their marriage as well.
Maybe.
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