HGTV Stars Tarek and Heather El Moussa Describe Struggle to Find a Forever Home—as They Proudly Show Off Their Beach Getaway

HGTV icons Tarek and Heather El Moussa have opened the doors to their stunning beach house—while opening up about their ongoing struggle to find the perfect property to serve as a forever home for their family.

The El Moussas recently snapped up a new modern mansion in California, but they have now told Realtor®.com that this dwelling was only ever meant to serve as an “in-between” home, which they will use while they continue their search for their dream abode.

Until that ideal dwelling is found, Tarek, 43, and Heather, 37, will split their time between their newly purchased property and their stunning beach house, which serve different purposes in their lives, they explain in the latest installment of Celebrity Sanctuary.

The dynamic duo, who show off their home-flipping skills in several HGTV series, are now putting those talents to the test by renovating their new “in-between” home—having already worked their design magic on their beach house, which they have proudly opened up to Realtor.com.

They also describe their nonnegotiables for a property that will serve as their “forever” house—and explain how they landed on the $5.2 million four-bedroom, four-bathroom “in-between” home in Newport Beach, which they unveiled on Instagram in June.

We got a new house because our other home was a beach house. It was a three-level beach house, rooftop, deck, and ocean view. It’s in a vacation area, which is hard to get to because there is a ton of traffic.

There wasn’t a yard or pool, so honestly, it was for the kids. We wanted some more space, and we wanted to be by the park because the kids are No. 1, and we want to make sure they’re happy.

So we’ve been looking for a house, you know, for a while, we’ve been living down by the beach. We love living by the beach. We just didn’t have a yard, a pool, all the things for the kids.

One day I was randomly driving by Heather and Tristan’s favorite park, and I saw a for sale sign. I said, “Oh, that house looks cute.” We looked it up, and I was like, “Oh, wow!” It’s actually a pretty nice house, and we thought it was a good buy.

At the time, we felt the price was a little bit too high, so we followed it and then they reduced it a couple of weeks before Christmas, and then us, knowing that during the holidays things are slow, 10 days before Christmas, we wrote a low offer, and we ended up getting accepted.

So we ended up buying the house well under asking, and the cool thing was they actually had a backup offer, all cash, $300,000 higher that came in a few days after we bought it, and that’s why the time of the year that you go to buy real estate can be very important.

When it comes to shopping for our personal house, it’s the most difficult and then remodeling a personal house is always the most difficult and the most expensive.

For our new house, we were looking for a yard, pool, spa, and outdoor firepit area. We wanted newer or new construction. We wanted an open floor plan and high ceilings.

This house kind of filled all the buckets of what we’re looking for right now, and the beautiful thing is, it’s still in Newport. We still have our other house in Newport, so we have the ability to spend time at both houses in the same week, which has actually been really, really cool.

In the new house, I love the main living area because it is a huge open space. I mean the living room, dining room and kitchen are just one huge open space, and I love it because all the families can be in this one big space together, we’re not on top of each other.

We like to entertain and unwind in this house. We just moved in, and we sit outside by the firepit and talk.

One of the cool things that we also did in the new house is we got an infrared sauna in the backyard. So at night, we’ve been swimming before bed, and then go into the sauna, and then go to bed, which has been really relaxing and nice.

At our beach house, I love the rooftop. There are two fireplaces on the rooftop with a sitting area. We completely redesigned and rebuilt the whole thing.

We have a gorgeous hot tub with an ocean view, and then my office is actually on the rooftop of the house with an ocean view as well, so it’s very nice.

When we first got our beach house, it was a very white house, like everything was white, and we wanted to sexy it up a little bit, darken it up a little bit.

So we kept the white aesthetic, but we added a lot of pops of dark gray and black. So the end theme was champagnes, whites, grays, and blacks, and it came out beautiful.

Although we just bought a new home, it’s not our forever home. We will probably be in this house for one or two years. This is going to be the in-between house before we buy the house, and then we’re done.