"TAREK:" "Flipping houses is a risky business." "Tarek?" "I'm Tarek, and this is my wife Christina." "This is our worst buy yet." "We buy the ugliest..." "Wow." "...the nastiest..." "[ Screams ]" "TAREK: ...the most run-down houses that we can find." "Oh, my God." "And we transform them into beautiful homes that every buyer dreams of." "We pay for these houses in cash, sometimes sight unseen." "Now matter how we look at this house, it's gonna be a risk." "And you never know what you've got until you walk through that door." "Oh, it smells." "Oh!" "Oh!" "Oh, gosh." "Come on." "TAREK:" "The bigger the disaster, the better the makeover." "Is this pet hair?" "CHRISTINA:" "No." "That's hair?" "Honestly, I'm being bitten by something." "Oh, gosh." "So gross." "Ugh." "¶" "Are we actually going to be able to get inside the house today?" "We can't get in the house today." "Talked to the agent, doesn't even have the key yet." "So if we " "So you wanted to see it first because you wanted to make the first crack at getting an offer in there before everyone else sees it." "Correct." "Since finding out about Christina's pregnancy, we've been trying to get as many houses under contract as possible." "Because once the new baby arrives, things are gonna get really crazy." "Are you sure they're asking $475,000 for this house?" "because I have a comp here at $666,000." "It's like $200,000 below the comps." "And you said it was supposed to go on the market tomorrow?" "Yeah, tomorrow." "Is it this one?" "No." "It's that one up there." "All right." "The roof looks nice, tile." "Wow, the roof's beautiful." "Ooh, the landscaping's ugly." "Ooh, the house is ugly." "All right." "You want to go check it out?" "Let's go check it out." "This isn't bad." "Look at that front door." "That's one of the coolest front doors I've ever seen." "Imagine with two brand-new huge handles?" "All right." "Let's see what we can see inside." "It's hard to tell." "It's super high ceilings." "It's very, like, late '60s, early '70s." "Okay, so far, right here, that looks good." "Oh, wow." "Little bit of a jungle." "What is this?" "Is that a cash register?" "Looks like it." "Kitchen's totally original." "It doesn't look too bad inside." "It's hard to tell though." "Honestly, it really doesn't." "I mean, so far, it's a no-brainer." "100%." "Just smells weird." "It smells very, very musty, which kind of concerns me." "I'm ready to write an offer on this thing." "I don't even need to see the inside." "All right." "Let's figure out what we want to offer." "If we don't jump on this house right now, other investors will." "Usually, I'm pretty nervous about buying a house sight unseen." "But with a list price of $475,000 and comps in the mid-sixes, we can't lose." "So let's figure this out." "If we write full price," "I'm not sure what shot we have of getting it." "You want to right a little bit above asking or you want to just try full price?" "We could literally spend a $100,000 here and still make money." "It's only a 2,000-square-foot house." "The exterior's decent." "I mean, it's not falling over." "They said we're the first person they've called." "So I don't think we're competing." "Let's call the Realtor and try to figure it out." "Okay." "I totally think we can get this thing." "I mean, $475,000." "It just seems unreal." "Hey, Michael." "This is Tarek and Christina." "We spoke earlier about your property in La Palma." "So my wife and I are here at the house." "We just walked it." "We are ready to jump on it." "The sellers are asking $475,000, right?" "Okay." "If we went to your office right now, signed the paperwork, brought proof of funds, can we lock it up today?" "Okay, we're on our way." "Thanks." "I think we're gonna get this house." "Looks like it." "These are some seriously motivated sellers." "We locked the house up at $475,000 before it even hit the market." "And today, we're gonna see what we bought." "TAREK:" "I'm probably more excited about this house than any other house in a long time." "I know." "Nervous but excited." "What's going on, Tony?" "You ready for it?" "Let's go." "I'm excited." "Ooh, it smells." "CHRISTINA:" "Oh!" "Oh, God." "What is that?" "Oh, my God." "Is this pet hair?" "No." "That's hair?" "I thought that was just carpet!" "Probably like 500,000 cats." "Yeah." "Look, it was cats." "Look at this chair." "They ripped it apart." "Oh, this place is putrid." "But, you know what, beyond the smell, this is going to be a really fun project." "I mean, this is definitely interesting." "CHRISTINA:" "This is a huge project." "Look at that staircase." "You know what's going to be the hardest part here?" "What?" "Design!" "All right." "So the kitchen, you know what?" "It's nasty, it's dated, it's ugly, but..." "CHRISTINA:" "What...is that?" "Spider webs?" "Come on." "This stove hasn't been used in 30 years." "TAREK:" "I don't think this kitchen will cost more than what, like, seven or eight grand?" "At least it's a nice open layout and a big family room here." "CHRISTINA:" "There's litter box trail all the way into here and I think, honestly, I'm being bitten by something." "I'm gonna go get bug spray." "This is disgusting." "All right." "Bring it inside because we're probably gonna need it, too." "Anyways, this place, dude, I don't know." "You guys want some of this." "Uh, yeah." "Spray me up." "Whoo!" "So gross." "Ugh." "Oh, gosh." "You know what?" "The staircase could be cool." "I don't know." "It's..." "I don't even know what we would do with that." "[ Laughs ]" "What?" "Ugh!" "Oh, gosh!" "All right." "Come on!" "TAREK:" "Wow." "This is bad." "It's disgusting and there's just stuff everywhere." "This place is a disaster." "Why did they leave all of their stuff?" "Oh, my God." "What are we even going to do with this?" "It's like wardrobes from the past 50 years someone left." "Look at how bad the bathroom area is." "We're gonna have to do a major redesign here." "Oh, my gosh." "What do you think the trash out is gonna run us alone?" "PEREZ:" "Probably with all the dumpster fees and everything?" "Probably about $4,000." "TAREK:" "Sheesh." "I did not calculate that." "¶" "This is a nice one, bro." "Yeah." "It is, right?" "$55,000?" "Hmm...no." "No, okay." "Probably close to about $75,000 or $80,000." "What?" "Good news is, all the plumbing, electrical, and roof are in great shape." "We don't have to do any changes there." "$75,000, $80,000 without plumbing, electric, and roof?" "We're lucky those were good." "We'd be pushing $100,000." "That's true." "And I have one other thing to show you." "Good thing or bad thing?" "Oh!" "[ Laughs ]" "Oh, my God." "That is unreal." "TAREK:" "Christina and I bought a house in La Palma, California, for $475,000, sight unseen." "But when we walked through the door, we found a nasty house full of cat hair and junk." "CHRISTINA:" "Oh!" "[ Laughs ]" "Wow." "That is unreal." "PEREZ:" "Definitely were pack rats." "All right." "Guys are here, right?" "All right." "Let's get rid of everything." "¶" "Hi, guys." "Hi." "How are you doing?" "CHRISTINA:" "Before getting started on the rehab, we were able to talk to the neighbors who lived next door for over 30 years." "We're hoping they can shed some light on how it got to be in such a rough condition." "I have a question." "So we're walking through the house, and there's just so much fur everywhere." "And the furniture is all scratched." "What's the deal with that?" "Well, they were cat lovers of course." "This is like a cat farm right now." "Yeah." "They must have had 35 cats." "35 cats?" "Good news is the cats are gone, we're here, we're gonna make a beautiful house, and you're gonna love it." "We are." "Fantastic." "We thank you so much." "Note to self -- next time we buy a house site unseen, look for signs of pets." "¶" "TAREK:" "Oh, my gosh." "I kind of feel like I'm seeing this house for the first time." "I know." "You couldn't even tell last time." "It was disgusting in here." "This house is actually pretty cool." "I know." "It's really open." "Hey." "What's up, Frank?" "Hey, guys!" "How's it going?" "Good." "Got a question for you though." "Yeah." "When this house was built, this was an option to be a bedroom." "A bedroom?" "Right here?" "Right here." "Because you can see there's vents." "This is an air conditioning vent and this is an air conditioning vent." "You can see the outline of the closet." "Oh, yeah." "This is the wall." "Well, right now it's a 3-bedroom house." "So we could make it a 4-bedroom." "You can get a 12 x 12 bedroom out of this room bringing it to here." "And then still have about 14 feet by 12 feet to the kitchen." "I don't like that." "You lose the whole family room." "Yeah, but you gain four bedrooms." "People in this area have families, they have kids." "If we can put an extra bedroom in this house, we will get the money back." "Where exactly would it end?" "The bedroom would end right about here." "Now, keep in mind, that if we don't make this a bedroom, we're gonna have to change the air conditioning layout." "We're gonna have to add lighting in here." "That's gonna cost more than making it a bedroom." "All right." "Well, if it needs to be a 4-bedroom..." "it's what it needs to be." "Four-bedroom house." "Okay." "Let's talk about the kitchen." "We're gonna have to do 30-inch cabinets because the ceilings are so low." "Wait." "Let's talk about the kitchen really fast." "This ceiling should be raised up." "Everyone raises up the ceiling." "If we did that, we have a header here, we have ducting here." "No." "We have power here." "We can raise the ceiling." "We'll put all the AC, all the wiring back into the original ceiling, but it's gonna cost about $2,000 to re-wire and reroute everything into..." "You want to spend two grand to get another foot?" "Yes!" "Everyone raises the ceiling." "We raise the ceiling." "If that's a bedroom, this has to be raised." "Yeah, it does." "To make everything more open." "It's gonna feel claustrophobic in here." "You're gonna have that bedroom there." "And then you're gonna have this weird, small, dark, low-ceiling kitchen." "Okay, raise it." "Okay." "CHRISTINA:" "If Tarek insists on adding a fourth bedroom, you better believe I'm gonna fight to raise the roof." "¶" "So this is actually my favorite room in the house." "It has so much potential." "It's so big." "But it's just so weird." "This is a big master suite." "Is it possible to create a walk-in closet right here and blow this wall out, and make this a large master bathroom." "It is, but it's gonna be really, really expensive." "Why?" "All the venting, and all the plumbing and wiring pipes from downstairs come up in these walls." "Aw, dude." "Can we move it somewhere else?" "We can, but we have to redirect everything." "No." "We can't do that." "There's one more alternative." "On the exterior wall of the garage, we can put a tankless hot water tank..." "Okay." "And we can vent it to the exterior..." "I like this." "And that'll run about $2,000, and then we can alleviate all this piping in the wall here." "I think, in order to create a large master bathroom, that's key here." "Right now, it's horrible." "Okay, let's bump this out." "Yes?" "Are we agreeing on this?" "Yes." "For $2,000, we can bump it out?" "Yes." "Okay." "So..." "And you're green because you got a tankless water heater." "Yeah, exactly." "It's a win/win." "In here, I feel like this area is so small," "I don't even think you can fit a double vanity, can it?" "Kind of small for a double vanity here." "So is there any way to " "We can create a private toilet area, which would be great." "Can we make this area a little bit smaller where the toilet is so we can at least make the vanity bigger?" "Yeah, we'll bump this wall over and then we have enough room for double vanity here." "How much is it to do on this side of the bathroom?" "About $3,000 less than materials picked out for finishes." "So about $5,000 total to reconfigure everything?" "Yes." "Not including the high materials." "Right." "So this is our layout." "The next step is, once you get the framing and everything, we need to go design it, and next time we come back, we'll be able to put the house back together." "Yep." "Perfect." "¶" "How do you feel about the space?" "The bedroom wall's up." "Well, it's definitely small in here now." "Hey, Frank." "Hey, guys." "I don't know." "I kind of have mixed emotions about it." "I feel like, you know, this would have been like a fabulous family room, but again, we have a downstairs bedroom." "Can I make your decision a little harder?" "Uh-oh." "Oh, what?" "Everything was drawn up." "Okay." "The city approved all the plans." "The sanitation fees are $4,322." "Huh?" "When you add a bedroom, you add people, you add more usage to the facilities in the house." "So there are more costs incurred." "That's so much money." "The cities mandate what we have to pay." "Why don't we just not move forward with it?" "Is it worth it?" "Is that gonna increase our sales price for by that much?" "TAREK:" "We're already 59 days into this house in La Palma, California, that we bought for $475,000." "And we need to decide if we're gonna move forward with adding a fourth bedroom." "The sanitation fees are $4,322." "Huh?" "It's almost like, why don't we just not move forward with it?" "You know what?" "I say we just stick with the original game plan, pay the four grand, make a bedroom." "Really sucks." "I know one thing." "Houses in this neighborhood are minimum of four bedroom." "This has to bring value." "¶" "We're only 3 months into this house, and my due date is getting closer by the day." "Finally, it's time to talk design." "All right." "So this is the focal point of the house." "We need to figure out what to do in here." "It's the focal point." "It's also the ugliest part of the house currently." "Honestly, what I was thinking here..." "Just, you know, vertical, slanted staircase." "And then you can see all the way through it." "It'd be really pretty." "What are you looking at?" "That's at least two to three grand." "For the railing alone, you're looking at four to five grand." "This is the part where we have to spend the most money." "It's right in the middle of the whole entire house." "Okay, Frank." "She's gonna send you the wrought iron railing design, we'll get a bid, have the floor guy out, see what he says about the staircase." "Let's do hardwood in the living room and up the stairs, tile the entry, and save money by carpeting the bedrooms." "Okay, that's fine." "So now the big question is the massive fireplace." "Okay." "So what I'm thinking is just basically four different types of laminate, different colors, different sizes." "So we can lay horizontally going up." "Four textures, it's gonna be amazing." "So pretty much different color laminate...all the way up?" "And it's not going to be crazy expensive." "Okay." "So we have a game plan for the staircase and the fireplace, right?" "And the floors." "And the floors." "Perfect!" "We move forward." "¶" "To save money on this house we're going with pre-fabricated gray cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms." "In addition to quartz countertop and a honeycomb white backsplash tile." "So we're looking at something like this..." "Exactly." "In different colors in each room?" "Yeah, let's try to add a decent amount of the gray." "TAREK:" "I'm going to throw it out there, Frank." "We've been working on this house forever." "I expected us to be a little bit more done, as in almost done in here, and nothing's really changed." "Can you please let us know what's happening?" "Inspector came out, they won't release any approvals until I give them the specifications for the tankless." "I sent them in yesterday." "We should have the go ahead to start as early as tomorrow." "Now I'm confused." "So until that's done, we can't even put tile up in the bathroom?" "No." "They require certain things, we have to give it to 'em." "They stop us, we stop." "I'm gonna have this baby before the house is done." "Aah!" "[ Laughs ]" "Get exclusive behind-the-scene footage and even more reno ideas with our online videos." "Is it possible to take out these windows and turn this into a door instead?" "Plus, check out our favorite house flips" "TAREK:" "Christina and I bought this house in La Palma, California, for $475,000." "With a big margin between the purchase price and the comps, we thought we were in good shape." "But we've been hit with a bunch of costly fixes and delays." "I'm gonna have this baby before the house is done." "They require certain things, we have to give it to 'em." "I'm sad." "I feel like I'm not even going to get to see this final result." "It's gonna be worth it in the end." "I sure hope so." "Fortunately, our final approvals came through the following day." "So now we're scrambling to get everything together and finish this house." "¶" "That looks amazing." "It's cool, huh?" "It is so cool." "I'm like so tired." "I got to get off my feet." "You're not even going to make the open house here are you?" "There's absolutely no way." "This house is taking a long time." "I'm actually really sad about not making this open house, because it's probably one of my favorite designs we've done." "Go home." "You need your rest." "All right?" "I'll be home in a few hours." "Take it easy." "CHRISTINA:" "We are super excited about the baby on the way, and I just cannot be in construction zones anymore." "I need a break and I'm pretty sure that Tarek can handle it." "¶" "[ Cell phone rings ]" "Hi,babe." "Hey, honey." "How you doing?" "I'mpregnant." "It'shot." "It's definitely hot today." "So check it out." "Itlooksreallypretty." "Iwantto seethe inside." "Lookatthestairway." "Oh, my gosh." "The staircase looks unreal." "Look at this." "Itlooksamazing." "Itlooksperfect." "Wow." "Ithinkthisisprobablymy favoritehousewe 'veeverdone." "Thefireplace,thataccentwall  looksinsane." "Now, good " "I'msosadI'm not there rightnow,honestly." "Thishouselookstodiefor." "Oh, yeah." "We have our $20,000 staircase." "Buyersaregonnabeobsessed." "Well, I got the final numbers today." "We spent $139,000 on this remodel." "After closing costs, that's a break-even of $644,000." "Here's the kitchen." "Wow, look at that." "Thekitchenlookssopretty." "Ilovethegraycabinets." "You know we were going back and forth on the bedroom, it actually works." "Because there's a table, a couch and there's actually plenty of room in here still." "Okay, so I'm going to get started on the open house right now and I'll let you know how it goes." "Allright,callmeafter." "Loveyou!" "Love you, honey." "After spending close to $140,000 to remodel this house, there is no comp as nice." "So we've decided to be really aggressive and list this house for $728,000." "Fingers crossed, we haven't overspent for the area." "I'm Tarek." "Hi, it's nice to meet you." "Hi, how are you doing?" "I'm Kevin." "Kevin, nice to meet you." "So, I'll tell you a little bit about the house." "We just finished remodeling it and it's a 4-bedroom, 3-bath." "And we're on the market for $728,000." "Love to get your opinion on the price as well as the remodel, and feel free to look around." "Okay, great." "Thanks." "Thank you." "Wow, nice wood floors, too." "I mean..." "Yeah." "They're not laminate right?" "No, that's real wood." "Yeah." "Look at this." "Look at the stairwell." "Oh, my gosh." "No carpet." "Wow." "The staircase is amazing." "I definitely like that fireplace." "Got the nice marble there." "WOMAN:" "The color combination." "MAN:" "It is, it's beautiful." "I like how the gray pops out on the cabinets." "WOMAN:" "Oh, the kitchen's beautiful." "Love the high ceilings too, wow." "Right?" "Bonus feature." "And you walk right into the master." "Yeah." "This whole house has the open flow to it." "Look how huge this master bedroom..." "I want one of these." "Wow." "Yeah, of course." "WOMAN:" "It was very tiny before, so this is..." "This is awesome." "...a big improvement." "Look how huge!" "The whole family can fit in there." "Yeah." "Assuming you guys saw the inside and the outside, what do you think?" "It amazing." "So what do you guys think overall?" "KEVIN:" "Oh, it's a great house." "Love the showers." "Love what you guys did with the master bedroom." "TAREK:" "We reconfigured the bathroom and then added the walk-in closet." "Thank you." "Nice meeting you." "Thank you." "Nice meeting you." "Nice meeting you." "Thank you." "TAREK:" "It's been about 2 weeks since this house came on the market, and unfortunately, we haven't received any offers." "It is possible that we're overpriced for the neighborhood, but we think this house is really worth it." "So we're holding steady at $728,000 hoping to get a sale." "In the meantime, time to find another house to flip."