Home Flipping Show Hosts Criticized Over Sketchy Real Estate Courses
Fans of the HGTV series “Flip or Flop” are complaining that they’ve been flipped and flopped by real estate courses tied to the hosts of the popular program.
According to an Associated Press report, a Utah-based company called Zurixx LLC has partnered with the series stars, Tarek and Christina El Moussa, to offer three-day courses priced at roughly $2,000 under the banner “Success Path Education” that are supposedly designed to help people understand how to profit by house flipping and to network with investors that will pay cash for these flipped properties. Although the El Moussas are prominently featured in the marketing of these courses, they have not made any in-person appearances—instead, they appear via a pre-recorded video explaining that they are shooting new episodes for the series.
Complaints about the value of these courses and the demands allegedly made by its instructors—including claims that students were told to seek increased credit limits on their credit cards while being coerced to pay for additional courses and software—have been filed with both the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
The El Moussas declined to publicly comment, with their attorney telling the Associated Press that they did not have time in their schedules to be interviewed. An HGTV spokesperson stated that the network had no involvement in these courses, and would not comment on whether the network received any complaints on the subject.