'Flip or Flop': Tarek and Christina turn mid-century rundown house into modern-retro haven by magical revamp
On Thursday's (October 29) episode of 'Flip or Flop', Christina and Tarek began renovating a house they bought in Santa Ana, California. The house didn't have much going on for it. The fencing and the patio were in a very bad shape. Once inside, the duo realized that the house had plumbing and drywall issues, the kitchen was super tiny, the bathrooms were stuffy as well as outdated, and that there was no laundry room inside the house. Besides, the entire roof had once caved in because of a leakage.
Tarek and Christina had purchased the house for $415,000 after wrangling with the seller to come down to this price from the initial $450,000. For the renovations, they had set a starting budget of $95,000. However, a huge portion of that amount, precisely $14,000, was spent at the beginning of the revamp work to fix the leakage in the roof and the damages it had caused. Christina and Tarek had flipped hundreds of houses in their career but even the best of the best find themselves stuck at times, and this house was one of those situations. The stakes were high as there was a lot of money involved from their end and they had to figure out a way to make it work.
It took 90 days for Tarek and Christina and their general contractor, Jeff Lawrence, and his entire team to complete the entire renovation. The duo wanted to turn this rundown house with mid-century architectural details into a modern-retro paradise and that's exactly what they managed to achieve in the end. The kitchen was the highlight of this entire house after the renovations as Christina brightened up that space with a pop of color. The cabinets and backsplash were all done up in different shades of green, a rather unusual color for a kitchen, but she made it work. Christina was determined to add a lot of color to the house and hence she decided the entrance door to be painted in bright yellow. Even though she had to argue with Tarek, who didn't approve of the idea in the beginning, it was all worth in the end as the entrance did look good. It also got an approval from Tarek himself.
Coming to numbers, the duo invested a total of $560,200 into this house, including buying price and construction expenses. To breakeven, they needed to sell the house at $585,000. Tarek had already checked the comparables around the neighborhood and found out that they could list the house for $650,000, and it turned out that they made the right decision. Just a few days after the house went on the market, bidding wars ensued and the duo was able to make a good profit on this flip.
'Flip or Flop' airs Thursdays at 9 pm ET on HGTV.