Tarek El Moussa rose to fame with HGTV’s Flip or Flop and has since appeared in a number of shows. However, he recently opened up about what it took to reach this point, including a few struggles. During the conversation, he also revealed other ventures he pursued before finding his niche.
Tarek El Moussa & Christina Haack First Became Known To Fans Through Flip or Flop
El Moussa is best known for co-hosting HGTV’s Flip or Flop with his then-wife, Christina Haack. The series saw the two purchase homes, flip them and resell them.
The series would eventually branch out into a franchise, with spin-off shows in different parts of the country, including Las Vegas and Nashville. However, the main show came to an end after ten seasons in 2022.
Since then, El Moussa has been part of other series. Recently, he, his current wife, Heather Rae El Moussa, and Haack found themselves buying, renovating, and flipping houses for The Flip Off, which is set to return for a second season later this year.
Taking to Instagram, El Moussa recently looked back at his career, noting that it was filled with highs and lows. As he shared, “I’ve had a TV show for over 15 years. I’ve sold over a billion dollars in real estate. But, here is everything that I tried and failed before I finally won.”
El Moussa revealed that he struggled a bit trying to find a business that suited him, even as a teenager. He continued, “At 15, I started a T-shirt company, and we had 500 shirts sitting in my mom’s garage. But a company with the exact same name shut us down before we even got started. At 16, I started investing in the stock market with the money I made from bagging groceries. Right before it crashed, I sold it all and bought a motorcycle. At 17, I tried starting a craft beer company, but me and my buddies, we drank all the profits.”
El Moussa Also Touched On What It Was Like Getting His Start With HGTV
Even after getting his real estate license at the age of 20, El Moussa shared that it was hard getting clients until he switched agencies. He noted, “I switched firms, closed two deals in 24 hours, and earned $33,000 in commissions,” he stated. “During the Great Recession, I tried to pivot out of residential real estate into commercial real estate. [I] walked around the city of Anaheim, taking pictures of apartment buildings for six weeks until I finally quit.”
Of course, it was these ups and downs that spurred El Moussa on to look into renovating and flipping houses. However, as he admitted, he pitched the idea of a show about flipping houses before even actually flipping one. As he shared, he bought and reworked a condo, all the while recording the experience on a friend’s camera.
This was when things appeared to turn around. As El Moussa shared, “11 months later, HGTV called, and they offered us a pilot for our house flipping show, Flip or Flop. That show became the No. 1 show in America within two years.” As he also noted, “Now, I’m building a home-selling platform to help homeowners sell smarter and keep more of their equity.”
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John Witiw has been a writer since at least 2015. He’s covered a variety of topics, especially when it comes to film and television.
