Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Transformative Journey of a TV Personality Into A Real Estate Mogul with Tarek El Moussa

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to The Radcast, a top 25 worldwide business podcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of The Radcast. We're talking houses today, my friend. We're talking radical flipping, radical friend. We're talking radical flipping, radical entrepreneurs. We're talking Tarek El Moussa. What's up, brother?

Starting point is 00:00:30 Not much, buddy. How you doing? Hey, man. Just trying to get the hyperbole going over here. All the hype from my friend Tarek. I've been watching from afar. My wife doesn't let us miss a single episode of Flipping 101, which I know you're the host of, and of course, the historic flip or flop. It's good to talk to you, man. You guys are going to be busy because there's, I think, almost 200 episodes. Dude, we've seen them all, I think. We're getting like around to the reruns. He's got us hooked up. But how's life treating you, brother? Life's good. Heather and I, we just had our five month

Starting point is 00:01:06 anniversary, which is very exciting. We got married last year. Kids are doing fantastic. We're excited that we're going into spring, buying as much real estate as I can, teaching as many people as I can and just having a lot of fun. I know it looks like it. I've always liked your kind of spirit on the show. There's kind of like that. I don't know what it is. You have a real approachable quality to you. I think feel like they've, you come off knowledgeable, but you never come off like arrogant. It's just, I don't know. I think there's a real good, I think that's why the show was so popular and had the longevity. You guys, dude. So people watch me on TV and they're like, if this guy can do it, I can do it. That's why this guy can do it. Anybody

Starting point is 00:01:44 could do it. Actually. Most people don't know this, but I actually learned how to flip houses while filming the first season of Flip or Flop. I had no idea how to flip houses. Hey, you pulled it off. Hey, maybe you got some acting possibilities too then, right? Is that what you're saying? Hey, and I appreciate the branding. I like the TEM hat. Very good. Hey, as a marketer at heart, I appreciate the branding. I like the TEM hat. Very good. Hey, as a marketer at heart,

Starting point is 00:02:07 I appreciate the branding nod. So there's a really great story behind this hat. I've been on TV for a while now, as you said, I've done all these episodes and over the years, I've always had people coming up to me. They're like, Hey, Tarek, we want to partner with you. We want to buy real estate with you. And honestly, my answer was always no, because I was like, I don't really need partners in to go flip a house, right? I can do that on my own. I'm just obsessed with real estate. And then I created the company TEM Investments. And TEM Investments gives investors the opportunity to partner with me. And we're out buying apartment buildings right now. So last year, we bought three apartment buildings in

Starting point is 00:02:40 Arizona. And in a few weeks, we're closing on 190 unit in Mesquite, Texas. So if anyone wants to partner with TARC, you got to check out TEM Investments. There we go. I like it. Good plug. And I love the branding. I had Grant Cardone on last month and he was... The real estate thing's hot, man. Let's just be honest. It's like crazy. The smartest guys I know, and it sounds like you might fall in this camp, Tarek. The Grant's telling me in my ear about real estate. You're talking about it. What is it about real estate right now that's just so hot?

Starting point is 00:03:13 There's so many amazing things about real estate. Like one is people are extremely excited about the appreciation of real estate, right? But at the same time, the last couple of years, we've seen the fastest appreciation in, I think, US history. So that's one thing to look at. But real estate is an amazing thing. You can depreciate against your taxes. You get appreciation. You get cash flow. You get leverage. And it's just a fun and exciting business. Yeah. Let's back up for a second, Tarek. I do want to, and I'm sure you've done these in the past, but I do want our audience to know, to, and I'm sure you've done these in the past, but I do want our audience to know,

Starting point is 00:03:50 obviously you've been on reality TV for 10 plus years. I'm sure most have heard the name, if not, but I'd love to give a little bit of that organic story for you from just that professional journey. Yeah, sure. So I'll give you the three to four minute version. I got out of high school and at 19 years old, I was selling kitchen knives. Most people know Cutco kitchen knives because half the world has sold those knives. And I ended up losing my sales book. And inside my sales book had all my leads, all my contacts. And back then when I was 19, that's how I made my living. So I lost my sales book. I was going broke. I didn't want to get a job. I was at a Washington Mutual Bank. And I was just standing there at the ATM machine. And I was like, shit, what do I do now? I have no money. And I swear, true story. I looked up to the right and there was this big crooked sign

Starting point is 00:04:33 said Wise Old Owl Real Estate School. And I had a defining moment. I call defining moment a moment in your life that changes the trajectory of your life. So I was like, shit, man, if I can sell knives, I can sell houses. So I walked right over to that crooked sign, opened the door, walked in and I signed up for real estate classes and it was a rocky ride. So I was officially licensed, I believe at 20 and my first six months in the business, young, hungry, motivated, excited. I completely struck out. I didn't get one sale and I wanted to quit real estate and I hated school and I was going to go back to school. And randomly there was a seminar coming into town by the name of a guy, Mike Ferry. And it was a real estate coaching seminar. It was a

Starting point is 00:05:19 free seminar. And I was 20 years old kid. I just got out of high school. I didn't even know that coaching existed in the business world. For me, a coach was a baseball coach, a football coach, a hockey coach, right? I didn't even know you can get a real estate coach. So I go to this free seminar. And by the end of this thing, like this Mike Ferry guy has me convinced I'm the smartest son of a bitch alive. I'm going to be the most successful guy alive. He convinced me I was unstoppable.

Starting point is 00:05:43 And it was like all mindset. It was wild. And at the end of that free seminar, I'll never forget. I walked up to him and I handed him a piece of paper. And I said, hi, my name is Tarko Musa. You don't know who I am today, but one day you will. By the way, he knows who I am now. He does. I bet he does. Yeah. And so what I did is I signed up for one-on-one coaching. And back then it was a thousand bucks a month. And I'm like, where am I going to get a thousand bucks a month? That was like a zillion dollars back then.

Starting point is 00:06:10 So of course I put it on my credit card. And for me personally, I was going through a really rough period in my life because I had just broken up with my girlfriend. My parents got divorced. My mom rented out my bedroom because she needed money. So I moved into her garage. And so now I'm, and it was a real garage. It wasn't converted. There was cockroaches and spiders. My I moved into her garage. And so now I'm, and it was a real garage. It wasn't converted. Like there was cockroaches and spiders. Like my dirt bike was in there,

Starting point is 00:06:29 like WD-40 cans. It was a garage and it was crazy what happened. So I literally went all in. I put this on my credit card and I, if my coach told me to do something, I would do what he told me times 10, whatever he told me to do, I would blow the goal out of the water. And my life felt like it changed overnight. So I believe it was within three or four months, I went from earning $0 in six months to $120,000 in commissions in a very short period of time, which averaged, I think it was like 30, 40 grand a month. So imagine being like a broke 20-year-old kid. Next thing you're making 40 grand a month. And it was like, damn. So within, I think, four or five months, I moved out of that garage. I bought almost a million dollar house up in and I'm Hills orange, California and had no furniture. I had nothing. I moved into this house and I thought

Starting point is 00:07:14 I made it. I thought I was king of the world. And you know what? I was doing really well with real estate and I built my business through prospecting pretty much cold calling expired listings and door knocking. That's I just hustled, man. It was just a hustle. And 2007 came around, 2006 came around, wiped me out. I had to sell my house. I had to sell my car. I had to sell everything I had. And I moved in this little crappy apartment and talk about some depressing years. So for two years, it was rough. Everybody was running out of real estate. Homeowners were calling me. They're like, take my keys. We don't want our house. I was like, wait, what? What do you mean you don't want your house? Literally just call. You can have it, but we don't want it. And I didn't know what to do.

Starting point is 00:07:54 I remember I did the shorts. I did a short sale transaction, a first, a second, a third, an HOA lien, an IRS lien. I worked this deal for a year. At the end of the day, I made like 7,000 bucks. And I was like, and then I looked at the investor. I sold it to, he put it on the market a week later after painting it and he made like 127,000. So that was the moment I knew I was like, wait a minute. I found the deal. I negotiated the deal. Why am I not making the money on the deal? So that's when I decided I want to be a real estate investor. So now I'm 29 years old. So I pitch everybody I know, like literally everybody I know. And every single person I pitched had every reason why it's not going to work and why I was going to fail. Oh, it's too risky. The market's bad. You're too young. You don't have the experience.

Starting point is 00:08:36 You don't know construction, like every bullshit excuse you can think of. And every time someone would tell me no, it would piss me off more and get me more motivated to prove them wrong that I could do it. Cause I'm a guy that's insecure enough to like to prove everybody wrong. So I was like, all right, I can't do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. So I finally found a guy to do it. He's actually still one of my business partners today, Pete DeBest. And we bought our first flip, Santa Ana, California, paid $115,000 for it, remodeled that thing. And we ended up making profit of about $34,000. And the interesting thing is the first week we bought that very first flip, I was at a real estate convention in Las Vegas. I met a guy, told me he had a local TV show and

Starting point is 00:09:17 he got a bunch of business out of it. So I leave that seminar, it was a Mike Ferry seminar again. And I was like, man, I got to get on TV. and i was like man i gotta get on tv i said i was like how do i get on tv what do i gotta do and it was like 10 o'clock at night i'll never forget my ex-wife she's coming to bed i was like no i'm gonna get us a tv show she goes you're crazy i said i know i'm crazy but crazy works so i literally just jumped on my computer and i started googling like hollywood production companies los Los Angeles production companies. And I just sent like resumes and pictures and said, Hey, I want to flip houses on TV. So what happened was I wanted to be on TV and I had just bought my first flip. So this is where the idea for flip or flop came from. I was like, shit, why don't I flip houses on TV?

Starting point is 00:10:02 So the production company next day, they emailed me back and they're like, send a home video. I send the home video. They liked the home video. Then they wanted to do a two-day professional shoot, which is called the sizzle. They came out for two days and then they shot that out to the networks and nobody wanted it. We got nothing. So I had given up on it, but I was still working on building the real estate stuff. TV was like, if it happens. And then 10 months later, I got a call from HGTV or from the production company. So you're not going to believe it, but HGTV wants to do a pilot. So it was summer of 2011. We shot the pilot for Flip or Flop.

Starting point is 00:10:36 And then it went back to the network. And immediately after they got it, they loved it. And then they sent me a contract to do 13 houses in 10 months on national TV. So as you can imagine, you should be excited, right? Yeah. 13, you got a TV show. Here was the problem. One, I had no money and two, I had no houses and three, I didn't know how to flip houses because in my entire life, I was only on my third flip. So I went from doing three flips in a year to now they wanted 13 and 10 months on TV. So I remember I called my lawyer at the time. I was like, what's the worst thing that could happen? He's like, they can sue you. And I looked around

Starting point is 00:11:14 in my room and I was like, so I signed the contract and that's what I did, man. I burned the boats. I went all in on that. And that first year I just didn't sleep. And I said, I'm going to learn how to flip these houses while filming this show and pulled it off. And we ran that show for 10 seasons. It's the most, most famous house flipping show of all time. Dude, what a story. It was a wild ride. It was a wild ride. Public divorce in there and a whole bunch of other wild shit, but it's been fun. I know, but if people don't know i don't think people know that that's why i'm glad for people to hear your side of that backstory every person i have we're roughly the same age i think i'm a little older than you but everyone that's been in our circle that 2007

Starting point is 00:11:58 8 i know exactly where the story's going as soon as they say the year it's like tank it's like almost every energy especially real estate like people don't understand talk about hard times like shit man i went four months in 2007 without a paycheck i was so broke i used to go to subway and steal lemonade and water cups splitting five dollar footlongs people don't get it like they see my ass on tv flipping like it's they're missing all the real shit i like I spent 10 years of my life miserable and alone working 16 hour days to make this life happen. And that's really what it takes. The key to success is getting comfortable doing what's uncomfortable. There you go. It's in my personal Bible. Glad you

Starting point is 00:12:38 could say it. I like it. So a lot to unpack there. It's so funny. We were talking about the pump up seminar for the real estate stuff, like all that shit. Every, every person that comes out of those things is so pumped up. It's like coming out thinking they're going to knock the world out, but you're one of the few people that actually did it. Right? Yeah. But you want to know why? Because I was willing to suffer and put in the work where most people they're not willing to put in the work. I'm a big believer that anything's possible if you're willing to put in the work. So where did that come from, Tork? How did that, is it just innate? I have this discussion a lot with guys like you,

Starting point is 00:13:15 it's like nature or nurture, like which one is it just, is it just in you? Yeah, like I said earlier, I hate when people tell me I can't do something. It really pisses me off. And the biggest coach in my life was my dad. He's an immigrant to this country, but he coached me on mindset and really mostly on sports. And at five years old, I learned a very valuable lesson. My dad was a soccer coach. I loved playing soccer. And he was an incredible player.

Starting point is 00:13:37 So my dad was actually invited to be the head coach of the all-star soccer team. So as a five-year-old, so excited. And then when my dad picked the team, he didn't pick me. Oh shit. Yeah. So he didn't, I'll never forget being at the dinner table, five years old, just like crying my eyes out. And I was like, why didn't you pick me? And he said, son, I love you. You're not good enough. But he said, I'll never forget. He said, you're not good enough, but if you work really hard next year, you're going to make that team. So what was the lesson my dad taught me? You don't get shit for free. No one's going to do it for you, but you. And the only way to get

Starting point is 00:14:18 success is to put in the work. So that's what I learned at five years old. If I wanted something, I had to work for it. No one's going to give it to me hey I love that amen a lot to learn there I feel like everybody thinks it's going to be handed to you the biggest thing now is just things come easy it seems or they think that it does and it's the biggest misconception the world is being misled by is how easy things this is 20 years later shit Shit. Things are easier now, but it took 20 years of hell to get to the easy. That's right. That's exactly right. Talk about reality TV for a minute. So you've done it. Shit. Most reality TV shows do not have the longevity you guys had. Number one, I'd say you're probably like the top 1% if I just had to guess purely

Starting point is 00:15:03 unscientific guess, but I would guess. Most of them would go, what, a year, two, three years? So you're 10. Yeah, a couple seasons. So how real was your reality TV? Yeah, I mean, it was real because, I don't know, like, here's the thing. If you watch my show, like, literally, I wore, like, sandals, black board shorts, T-shirts. I looked like I was, like, a bum half the time't even, I didn't even think about being on TV.

Starting point is 00:15:28 I was just thinking about not going bankrupt because I didn't know how to flip houses. And just, unfortunately there were cameras there. So like, it was all real. Like at the beginning, I didn't know anything about anything and I just figured it out as I went. But I guess I'm it as the whole, because obviously you talked about the ups and downs, your whole life is being played out. Your kids grew up on reality TV in a way. I know they weren't the center of the story, but obviously you watched them through the series. Everybody feels like you watched them growing up. Did it become more, not staged might be the wrong word, but like how much staging is involved in making the show as interesting as it was.

Starting point is 00:16:07 You're following the processes of a flip, right? So you can't stage that. You have to show the demo. You have to show the walkthrough. You have to show the design. You have to show the remodel, right? And then outside of that, it would follow small parts of our personal life. It wasn't a personal life reality show. So it only gave a little peek inside of a personal life. Yeah. What's your net from the show? And I'm talking, we'll get to Flipping 101 in a minute. And we're talking with Torek El Moussa from Flipper Flop, serial entrepreneur.

Starting point is 00:16:35 And it seems like a pretty fucking cool dude now that I'm getting to know him. So Torek, talk to me about your net takeaway from Flipper Flop. Are you like high gratitude, really appreciate it? I don't want to put words in your mouth, but what's your net takeaway from Flipper Flopper. Are you like high gratitude, really appreciate it? I don't want to put words in your mouth, but what's your net? I'm 40 years old now and I spent almost a third of my life filming that TV show. It's a part of me. It'll always be with me. I'll always have those memories. When I'm a 60, 70, 80 year old man, I can go back and watch myself as a 29 year old kid. So it's definitely something in my life I wouldn't change. And it's been an incredible experience and one hell of a ride. How do you

Starting point is 00:17:09 think about it? As you talked about the company, but I like to talk about this. We do it. We work with a lot of CEOs, founders in personal branding, and obviously having a show on TV for 10 years certainly elevated you to your persona and all that. But when I say the words personal branding to you, where does your mind go with the Tarek El Moussa brand and like your perspective on yourself? I'm a big believer in not just flipping houses. I'm a big believer in flipping your life. I'm talking about upgrade your wardrobe, take your goddamn vitamins, go to the stupid gym,

Starting point is 00:17:45 buy nicer clothing, get your shit tailored, always be the best version of you possible. And I'm always going under a remodel. I'm always working on myself. I'm always trying to improve. I'm always trying to become the best version of me. I guess you obviously have seen and understand the leverage that comes with the attention you've built through the show. Being known pays dividends, as I like to say. And I feel that's paying dividends for you even now. Yeah, it definitely helps with certain things. But when it comes to real estate, it's not, oh, I've seen you on TV.

Starting point is 00:18:19 I'm going to take less from my house. So I still got to operate a business. We're working our asses off every single day and it's a grind and we're just hustling. I actually wondered, it's funny you say that. I actually started to think, I'm watching this, my wife and I watched, I think we've seen every episode we have at a flip or flop. And I watched it and as the years went by, I started to wonder like, did it become harder to get the deals or easier? Because I feel like if they know what you're doing now and you're the famous flipper,

Starting point is 00:18:50 did it ever get in the way of potentially? Because they're like, damn, this guy's just, I know what he's going to do with this house. He's going to make all this money on TV. Did that ever play a factor or did it help you get more deals? Mixed bag, man. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hurts. Finding deals today is definitely more difficult than it used to be. When I first got into flipping, all of my business came from outgoing prospecting, calling, texting, door knocking.

Starting point is 00:19:14 And today I'm very heavy in marketing. It's just different. Yeah. You said that. So marketing. So how much of it is marketing? What's marketing to you? What's your appreciation level of marketing and the role of it is marketing what's marketing to you what's what's your appreciation level of marketing and the role of it in what you're doing marketing's everything you got to get your phone to ring so like for me my first 10 years as an entrepreneur 12 years as an entrepreneur i never did any marketing i was taught sales and i was taught sales on the phone. So all I did was call people. All I did was text people. All I did was network with people. And then as the short sales and those things started to dry up, I realized, hey, I'm building

Starting point is 00:19:52 a brand now. I should try this marketing thing. So in 2000, I think 13 is when I got into marketing. And today we're doing heavy marketing, hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. We have TV commercials running throughout Southern California. We have heavy digital marketing campaigns running. We have print mailers going. We have driving for dollars. We have cold calling campaigns. We have texting campaigns. We have email campaigns. So we're just always hitting everything. And I say, in order to get leads,

Starting point is 00:20:17 you have to hit them from land, air, and sea. You got to hit them from every angle possible. I like that. Land, air, and sea. There we go. Ding, ding. I'm a Nick at my producer. I told him to circle the marketing is everything. We might use that in some promos. Exactly. So let's talk about flipping one-on-one. I think we're finishing season two, about to head into season three. Talk to me about what people, if they haven't already tuned, made the jump from flip or flop into flipping one-on- 101. I'm sure if they were, they see your promos, I'm sure they've made it. Talk about that. It's really similar to Flip or Flop, but it reminds me of the old and Flip or Flop days when I really had no idea what I was doing. So it's a fun show because I'm an experienced

Starting point is 00:20:57 house flipper working with these rookies. And to be honest, I have so much knowledge and so much experience, but they still don't listen to me. Thank God because they don't listen to me, it makes such a fun show. So for the viewer, they're watching, they're like, just listen. And of course they don't listen. And then it doesn't work out. So for me, like flipping one-on-one has been crushing it in the ratings. People are really liking that show. So if you guys want to see a really exciting show, you got to check out flipping one-on-one. Yeah. So you're taking the novice the early the guys that were you maybe even the true you from season one and you're walking them through the ropes it is funny i watch every time they're like i'm like you're giving them advice and i could tell the setup's coming like you're telling them and i'm like they're not gonna do it

Starting point is 00:21:40 they're not gonna do it it's like yeah why don't they fucking do it i'm like why are why aren't they doing it? It's one of those things, but I coach people all the time. So obviously I'm coaching people on the show, Flipping 101. But outside of Flipping 101, I'm passionate about coaching. Like it's my favorite thing to do. So I told you early on, as a broke kid, I got a coach and I made all this money because my coach actually showed me what to do because I just had no idea what to do. So what do you work on when you don't know what to do? It's like trying to teach yourself golf. You're just going to keep practicing the wrong swing. How are you going to get better?

Starting point is 00:22:09 So I'm passionate about coaching. So that's why I actually launched an online real estate school called Homeschooled by Tarek. And now we're teaching people across the country how to flip houses, how to buy rentals. And that's been very exciting too. Homeschooled by Tarek, people. Go check it out. And it was actually a great name because I came up exciting too. Homeschool by Tarek people go check it out. And it was actually a great name because I came up with the name homeschool before the pandemic came out and then everybody had to homeschool their kids. So now everybody

Starting point is 00:22:33 knows homeschool. He's a true marketer folks. He was ahead of his time. He knew the pandemic was coming. Talk to me a little bit Tarek, about real estate advice. People are listening. I like to get all these experts on and we like to share knowledge with our audience. Hot market, a lot going on. I know we're going to link to some of the stuff that they can get involved with you at the end where you can, I'm sure, go much more in depth. But what's some trends or tips or things you put out there for people that are thinking about real estate investing? Yeah, I think it's the absolute best business in the world. But at the same time, I always say before you invest in anything, you have to invest in

Starting point is 00:23:14 yourself. What does that mean? It doesn't mean the first step is to go out there and buy a house tomorrow. It means the first step is to learn about the business, to learn how to buy a house, and then you go buy a house. So it's really important to have some knowledge. It's not rocket science. Just get a little bit of knowledge and just start the process. And I'm a big believer in just take your time. If you don't get a deal your first month, it's okay. If you don't get a deal your first two months, it's okay. You don't get a deal your first three months, it's okay. As long as you're practicing and as long as you're learning. Because over time, no matter what, just like riding a bike,

Starting point is 00:23:48 things are going to start to click. How, what's the biggest, and I know you go through this on flipping one-on-one, but people that get into flipping, what do you think the biggest misconception is with flipping? The biggest misconception is that you make your money from the construction might be one of them. Ah, okay. Yeah. A lot of people are so focused on the construction. So they're so, they just want to go buy a fixer upper and then they think about the remodel. Just because a house is a piece of crap, doesn't make it a good deal. So it all comes down to what you actually pay for that house. So it's very important to buy it at the right price.

Starting point is 00:24:30 Because if you get it at the right price and if things go wrong, you're still going to be okay. In other words, focus more on the pig and not putting lipstick on it. Yeah, exactly. Pretty much. Exactly. And that's it. You have to be a hunter. You have to know how to generate leads. You have to know how to evaluate properties. And ultimately, you need to know what to pay for real estate. Yeah. What percent of what you're up

Starting point is 00:24:55 to now is still in the flip part of it? Is that still the large portion of what you're doing? I know you've got your hands in a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah. We're not really doing much wholesaling anymore just because the market's been appreciating so fast. Over the last 60 days, I think I bought right around 50 flips and probably 10 to 12 rental properties. So you've bought 50 in the last 60 days that you're in the active process

Starting point is 00:25:23 of renovating and flipping yeah shit and you made it sound like i'm over here trying to figure out how to buy 5,000 in 60 days so i'm pretty pissed off at myself right now no geez all in your area all in california socal yeah so yeah all socal so 50 in socal and then the rentCal. And then the rentals are out of state. Okay. Different markets. I have houses in North Carolina, Atlanta, Oklahoma, just different markets, yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:25:52 So are you flipping out of California, though? Or is it just- No, just rentals out of California. So rental properties, my partner and I, we own, I think it's right about 160 houses right now as rental properties, all self-funded. So no outside investors. And then we've really just been grinding on building the flipping business and made a lot of changes over the last couple of years here. And we're really starting to see some great results.

Starting point is 00:26:13 Yeah. How long the TV thing, Flipping 101, headed into season three, do you see that as in your, do you enjoy the TV, the production side? It's not all glamour. It's tough. It's tough being on TV, especially when you're an entrepreneur with a bunch of ADHD. TV can be slow, but at the end of the day, to be able to watch an episode, it's extremely rewarding and be able to coach these people. It's extremely rewarding. So like I have no plans of getting off TV. I'm just looking to continue to build my brand, get better at real estate, teach more people and help more people make money with real estate. How do you, where do you get your knowledge? So now you've, you're kind of in the prime of your career, like knowledge and

Starting point is 00:26:56 opportunities. You've learned a lot. You've got the, I don't know, thicker skin maybe from the experiences of 2007, but where do you, what's your source of, I don't know, thicker skin maybe from the experiences of 2007. But where do you, what's your source of, I don't know, knowledge, learning and other things now that you're kind of at your level? Sure. I'm a guy that learns by doing. That's it. I learned by doing. What does that mean? Well, how do you get off market deals? You got to talk to a homeowner.

Starting point is 00:27:21 So I picked up the phone. I sounded like an asshole. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was calling off market. And as time goes on, just like in sports, when I was five years old, the more you practice at something, the better you're going to get. So for me, I taught myself how to flip houses just through practicing and trial and error. I tried everything. I put signs on the freeway. I door knocked. I texted. I cold called. I drove for dollars. You name it. I tried it. I did everything. Talk about family.

Starting point is 00:27:48 Your kids are growing up on TV in a way, obviously not as the central characters. Five months into a new marriage, you and Heather seem extremely happy. What's that part? It just seems like a really important part of your life. It is the most important part of my life. I'm a two-time cancer survivor. I had some pretty sketchy years there for a while. I wasn't sure what was going

Starting point is 00:28:09 to happen. And now I'm the healthiest I've ever been in my life. I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. And I'm 40 years old. And I'm just so focused on my children. I'm focused on Heather. And we're planning on having another baby soon. I'm just looking to family and I'm just so excited about life because for me, like when the kids are older, it's going to be a family business. I want the kids coming in, working with me. I want them to do real estate investing. I want them to be passionate about what they're doing. And I'm really excited for working with them. That's cool. It's a good legacy to be living. And you know what leads me as we're concluding, talking with Tarek El Moussa from Flipper Flop, serial entrepreneur, Flipping 101.

Starting point is 00:28:50 We're going to tell you the links here at the end of the show. What do you want the legacy to be, brother? Like what's, I think you've encapsulated throughout the show, but I do want to reiterate for everyone. Where do, you know, 20, 30 years from now, like, will you look back?

Starting point is 00:29:02 What do we want people to think and remember about Tarek? I want people to think, remember that anything is possible. I showed the world that a guy that grew up with no money in Buena Park, California, ended up on TV with a dollar to his name. And he did something with his life while a TV camera followed him. I want to inspire as many people as humanly possible. I want to get as many people into real estate as humanly possible. And I really want to change lives because people change my life and it's my obligation to do the same for others. I love it, brother. So let's give everybody some of the places they can keep up with you. Some of these projects, how they can get involved with you. Sure. If you're an accredited

Starting point is 00:29:40 investor, you want to partner with me on some apartment buildings, you got to check TEM Investments or investwithtarik.com. If you want to learn how to flip houses, which is to be active real estate investor, go out there and find, fix, and sell. You got to check out homeschooledbytarik.com. And if you got a house to sell, you got to check out tarikbuyshouses.com. There we go. I love it. All the places to keep up. Tariq, I really appreciate your time, brother. I know there's been some enlightening things here for people get to know you a little deeper, a little better. Really appreciate your transparency and willingness to open up a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. And if you guys want to see a little bit of everything that's going on, my Instagram is therealtariqelmusa. And the reason it's The Real is because someone stole my name.

Starting point is 00:30:29 There's your note for people. I personally bought all of my children's names on Instagram 10 years ago, along with mine for that very reason. You never know. So that's cool, brother. I really appreciate you. All right, man. Great chatting with you.

Starting point is 00:30:44 And until next time. Hey guys, thanks so much for Tarek El Moussa coming on the show. You know where to find us. We're at theradcast.com. Search for Flip or Flop or any of the content from today. All the Hilo clips will come up. I'm at Ryan Alford on all the platforms. We'll see you next time on the Radcast. To listen or watch full episodes, visit us on the web at theradcast.com

Starting point is 00:31:06 or follow us on social media at our Instagram account, the.rad.cast or at Ryan Alford. Stay radical.

Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Transformative Journey of a TV Personality Into A Real Estate Mogul with Tarek El Moussa

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