Tarek El Moussa may have started out as a realtor, but he has since become an excellent real estate investor and an entertaining television show host through a powerful and unwavering work ethic.
Even through life-altering struggles, El Moussa has remained determined to give old neighborhoods new life and put on an excellent show while doing so.
Tarek El Moussa and his partner have managed to create a popular television show that introduces people to the idea of seeing a house’s potential, instead of just seeing it as it is.
What Is Tarek El Moussa’s Net Worth?
Tarek El Moussa has a net worth of about $10 million, which is $2 million less than his ex-wife and business partner Christina Haack.
Although it may seem like a nightmare to work with your ex-spouse, the pair have remained reliable business partners and friendly co-parents.
When el Moussa was 21 years old, he got his real estate license and began selling houses all over California.
While he may have become one of the most successful realtors, there were many lessons that he had to learn before he got to that point.
After earning enough through selling houses, Tarek el Moussa got into the world of real estate investing.
In partnership with Hanson Capital, el Moussa founded TEM Investment, which focuses on helping their investors create stable investments that investors can tangibly see and trust.
El Moussa is best known for his first hit show, Flip or Flop, which starred his ex-wife, Christina Haack.
When the show first began airing, El Moussa and Haack were still married and became known as the power couple of real estate.
After season one premiered, many fans fell in love with the show. However, one fan found something extremely concerning while watching the show.
She had noticed a mysterious lump in El Moussa’s throat and wrote to the production team immediately, pleading with them to tell El Moussa to be checked for thyroid cancer.
This wouldn’t be the only hardship that El Moussa would go through. After years of having a struggling marriage, Tarek El Moussa and Christina Haack got divorced.
Despite their separation, they both chose to remain cordial business partners, keeping the show alive.
The great success that El Moussa found on Flip or Flop allowed him to start other shows, such as Tarek’s Flip Side and Flipping 101.
Starting As A Realtor
While many people may spend their 20s figuring out what they want to do for a living or what kind of lifestyle they want to lead, Tarek El Moussa knew he wanted to get into the market of buying and selling houses.
This led him to get his realtor license by the time he was only 21 years old.
Like any rookie, the beginning of El Moussa’s career wasn’t great, and it was filled with mistakes that he tries to help others avoid with his cautionary tales.
The world of real estate can be a fast-paced gamble for new realtors, especially ones who work in the niche of luxury housing.
After earning enough money from helping people buy and sell their homes, the young El Moussa decided it was time to get a place of his own.
Originally, El Moussa wanted a $400,000 single-family home in Orange County, California to serve as his very own bachelor pad.
While hunting for his new home, El Moussa came across what he believed to be the perfect house for him.
The only problem with the place was that it was $800,000 above the cost of what El Moussa wanted to spend.
To afford the house, Tarek El Moussa had to get a loan from the bank and didn’t have furniture in his house until nine months after moving in.
This wouldn’t be the first time that El Moussa went over his budget.
When the housing market crashed, things began to look bleak for the young real estate agent.
He went from having a house with a shark tank to an apartment with a roommate.
El Moussa and Haack would have to split $5 Subway sandwiches because they couldn’t afford two of them.
Becoming A Real Estate Investor
After gaining enough experience in the real estate world, Tarek El Moussa knew he had to expand his career into real estate investment.
The celebrity realtor then teamed up with Hanson Capital’s Chris Hanson to create a new real estate venture called TEM Investments.
TEM Investments looks to pair potential investors with multifamily units, such as apartments or condo complexes.
While investing in single-family homes can be profitable, there can be a lot of downtime between renters when investors aren’t making any money.
When you choose to invest in multifamily properties, there is less downtime when you’re not making money, and you’re bringing in more money with a single multi-family property rather than owning multiple single-family properties.
Thanks to El Moussa’s impressive history of buying and selling homes, he is able to help his clients find the perfect place to invest in.
His co-founder, Chris Hanson, has sold more than 2,000 single-family residential homes and 1,000 multi-family units.
Before Hanson joined TEM Investments, he ran Hanson Capital Group LLC., which is a private equity firm that operates in multiple locations across the United States.
The firm is still running well to this day.
With Tarek El Moussa’s jovial personality and strong sales history, it makes sense that he was able to convince Hanson to join him at his own investment firm.
Both men see each successful sale as a win, and they’re always chasing down the next victory.
They acknowledge how much real estate has helped them feel more free and secure, so they want to share their newfound freedom with other investors who are ready to take the leap into real estate.
Real estate is their passion, and they’re always ready to learn and grow more within the world of real estate.
Getting Flip Or Flop Started
Everything always looks so much easier and smoother on television, and it’s all thanks to the editors who cut out any of the unenjoyable parts of a filming session.
While Flip or Flop has changed the course of Tarek El Moussa’s life, it didn’t come without its hardships.
Flip or Flop started when El Moussa decided to send out a home video from his and Christina Haack’s first renovation to multiple production companies.
The couple didn’t hear back from any companies until HGTV approached them, having enjoyed the home video that they sent.
They had bought the house for $115,000 and put $15,000 into renovating the property.
They ended up selling the house for a profit of $34,000, but the real value that came with the house wouldn’t be revealed until they were chosen to have their own home renovation show.
In July of 2011, they filmed the pilot episode and were signed on with the production company before the show even aired because the studio loved it so much.
However, neither El Moussa nor Haack was ready for the amount of work they’d be expected to do.
For their first contract, they were expected to film the renovation and sale process of 13 different houses in 10 months in order to create the first season of their new show.
This was a much larger workload than they had ever done before.
By the time that they had received the contract, they had only flipped three houses.
While El Moussa and Haack had some experience, they were still pretty new to home renovation.
This meant that they made many mistakes during the first seasons of the show.
The biggest ones, like forgetting liens on the house they were trying to sell or hiring bad contractors, were cut from the show.
Fighting Cancer
As if having to work harder than he ever had before in his life wasn’t enough, Tarek El Moussa also formed two of the worst medical conditions that he has ever had.
During the first seasons of his new home renovation show, El Moussa had to fight through two different types of cancer.
A mysterious lump at the bottom of El Moussa’s throat began to form and became highly visible during the filming of Flip or Flop.
In 2013, it was so noticeable and concerning that one fan, a registered nurse named Ryan Read immediately got into contact with the producers and informed them that El Moussa would need to be seen by a doctor immediately.
El Moussa had been seen by a doctor before, who told him that the tumor was benign and wouldn’t need to be removed.
However, the urgency of Read’s letter pressed El Moussa to go have his neck examined again by another doctor.
This time, they found that the tumor attached to El Moussa’s thyroid gland was cancerous and that the whole thyroid gland would have to be removed.
However, the surgeons found that the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes as they were removing the thyroid gland.
In order to eliminate the cancer, Tarek El Moussa had to go through thyroid radioactive iodine therapy.
This exhausted El Moussa, making it even harder to keep up with Flip or Flop’s workload and putting more of a burden on Christina Haack, at both work and home.
Only two months after finding out about the cancer attached to his thyroid, El Moussa also discovered that he had testicular cancer.
However, El Moussa felt ashamed of his diagnosis, which is common.
He didn’t release this information to the public until his stepfather was diagnosed with the same disease.
The Real Estate Power Couple Divorce
From what was seen on their show, it seemed like nothing could ever stop the Flip or Flop power couple.
However, there was much more going on when the cameras weren’t rolling which resulted in the couple getting into a massive altercation where the police were called in.
Eleven police officers were called to El Moussa and Haack’s home on May 23rd due to the heightening of an altercation.
Eyewitnesses saw El Moussa run out his back door, jump over his fence, and walk towards a hiking trail with a handgun.
Haack followed after him, crying and shaking.
This is when the police were called about a potentially “suicidal male with a gun”.
However, El Moussa told the responding officers that he had no intention of harming himself and was trying to walk off some of the frustration.
El Moussa claims that he had brought the gun with him on the hiking trail as protection from rattlesnakes and mountain lions that are known to live in the area.
Despite his explanation, El Moussa still had to turn in his firearms to the police officers.
After this moment, the couple knew that they needed to go through therapy.
Through therapy, they discovered that the root of their problems was that they didn’t make enough time to spend with each other and felt that it would be better for them and their children if they separated.
Fans of HGTV’s Flip or Flop were concerned that the show would no longer air or be filmed if the couple separated.
While they may have chosen to get a divorce, they knew that they were too good as business partners to give up their work.
Thanks to their efforts, Flip or Flop has continued and is still going strong and in its seventh season.
Going Solo With Tarek’s Flip Side
Since their separation, both Tarek El Moussa and Christina Haack have been given more opportunities and shows.
Tarek has even been a part of Discovery+’s plan to expand to a wider and younger audience.
It’s no secret that younger generations are getting more of their entertainment from the internet than traditional television.
To combat this, Discovery has been expanding its entertainment to exclusive content that can only be seen online, also known as Discovery+.
Tarek’s Flip Side premiered on January 4th, 2020, and features an inside look at his life.
The internet series stars Tarek El Moussa and his new wife Heather Rae Young.
His daughter, Taylor, even appears in a couple of the episodes.
Young is also a celebrity real estate agent, who has her own show on Netflix called Selling Sunsets.
When fans found out that Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae Young were a couple, it only made sense with their similar careers and lifestyles.
Fans of El Moussa and Young’s have loved seeing a more personal side of El Moussa’s life.
Young and El Moussa even shared some of their wedding planning processes on the series, a relationship that fans have loved from the start.
Thanks to the excellent reception from fans, the show has become available on multiple other platforms, such as Apple TV+.
While the series may not be as long as Flip or Flop, fans claim that it satiates their Flip or Flop cravings until the newest season comes out.
Hosting Flipping 101 With Tarek El Moussa
Tarek El Moussa lives to work towards the next greatest score, so it was easy for him to agree to be the host of HGTV’s newest home renovation show, Flipping 101 with Tarek El Moussa.
His entire life, El Moussa has always enjoyed coaching people through the things he loves to do most and watching as they grow in their skills.
Another reason El Moussa agreed to do the show was that he could have his wife, Heather Rae Young, on the show.
Having her nearby during filming kept a smile on El Moussa’s face and gave the show one of the most-watched realtors to work with.
Although the show had a lot of excellent features, El Moussa was concerned that the lack of drama would cause viewers to get bored.
Once filming for the show began, El Moussa quickly discovered that there would be plenty of drama between him and the couples that he would be coaching.
Despite the struggle, El Moussa still appreciates seeing those he is coaching learn and grow.
In order to find and purchase all of the affordable homes for both Flipping 101 With Tarek El Moussa and Flip or Flop, El Moussa had a company and website called sellmyuglyhome.com.
However, the website is no longer available.
Using the money that the couple had made from previously flipped houses, they were able to pay people in cash, which allowed for quick transactions.
Any money made from television show salaries has always been put towards his savings.
NEXT: Why Is Shutterfly Shipping So Expensive? (Top 10 Reasons)