There are several shows on HGTV that have made the network one of the most talked about purveyors of the home design/renovation corner of reality TV, and Flip or Flop is certainly counted among them. The series, which ended with a surprise finale episode in December 2022 after 10 seasons on the air, starred the formerly married Tarek El Moussa and Christina Hall as they bought run down homes in southern California, fixed them up, and tried to flip them for a nice profit. Now, El Moussa has had to defend his new show with his second wife, Heather Rae, and explain how it’s different from what he did with Hall.
What’s Tarek El Moussa’s New Show With Heather Rae And How Is It Different From Flip Or Flop?
For those who may have been out of the house flipping loop for a bit now, while the Flip or Flop exes had each previously moved on to their own spinoffs shows like Christina in the Country and Flipping 101, March 2 saw the premiere of The Flipping El Moussas. The new series will once again see Tarek buying shoddy homes with his wife to fix up and sell, so many viewers might wonder what makes this program different from what he did with his ex-wife for so many years. As he recently told E! News:
The Flipping El Moussas, yes, it’s about the house itself. But outside of that, it shows people what it’s like to run a house flipping operation. It shows you behind the scenes of what it looks like to run an actual business that’s out there flipping houses.
If you tuned in to even a few episodes of his former hit show, you’ll know that it spent most of each episode focusing on the renovation of one home, with a bit of the couple’s personal life sprinkled in for good measure. Though fans definitely saw the duo and their revamp crews deal with things like unforeseen costs and issues with getting permits, there wasn’t a real emphasis on delving into the inner workings of the (probably pretty intricate) business side of things and the many logistics involved in flipping houses.
So, this new take on a home show does give it an edge as people try to compare it with his previous series. He continued, and said:
One of the things that really makes our show different from past shows is the level of homes that we’re doing. The homes are higher caliber, more high-end.
As any dedicated home flip show viewer can tell you, one thing that you don’t tend to see a lot of on these programs is the flippers shelling out millions of dollars on houses that will still need an additional several thousands of dollars of updates. There are several series where those in charge gleefully pay $20,000 or less for some of the scariest properties imaginable and then turn them into great places to live.
But, the star, who recently became a dad for the third time with the late January birth of his new son, Tristan Jay El Moussa, noted that his new show will feature more expensive homes, and that can be seen in a clip from the first season that was posted on YouTube. While he and Hall seemed to usually spend about $500,000 or less on homes to fix up, the house in the clip from The Flipping El Moussas is valued at $2.15 million dollars before any renovation, and that’s a steep incline compared to what he used to spend.
He also noted that the all important finishing touches they put on each home matter more than ever, and that Heather Rae will be doing a lot of the heavy lifting in that regard:
Because the real estate market has softened, only the absolute best homes are selling right now. So design is very, very important. You’re gonna see Heather really jumping in and designing the heck out of some really cool houses.
In the aforementioned clip, you can hear the “present, involved” new mom (who was pregnant during filming) talk about the design being “luxury,” so it sounds like anyone wanting to be inspired by homes with as many fancy bells and whistles as possible can really look forward to watching this show every week.
