homedepot Material costs are a huge portion of your property rehab costs.  Saving money on materials is always on the mind of savvy real estate flippers and landlords alike.  Here’s a few tips about how to make the most of your dollar when buying materials.

  • Make one trip instead of five, and save 10 to 20% – Instead of making several trips, make a list and group purchases together for a $2500 minimum order and you can take your material list to the Bid Room for bulk discounts.  When you’re doing a remodel for a flip house, it's easy to rack up a list of stuff for $2500 bucks.
    The Home Depot “Bid Desk” or otherwise called “Pro Desk” is well known by contractors, but most home owners and investors don’t know that this is also available to the general public.  The guys working at the desk can become your heroes when you submit your order through them.  The only drawback is time.  This process is not for the instant gratification types, it takes a day or so for your order to be processed by Home Depot corporate offices.

 

  • 2% Cash back rebate – Become a member of the AZREIA (Arizona Real Estate Investor’s Association) and you can enroll in the Home Depot “Customer Rebate Program”.  It costs about $150 dollars a year for the AZREIA membership, but its very worth it.  Twice a year you’ll get a check for 2% of all the money you spent at ANY home depot store.   The beauty of this program is that you register your credit card numbers and all purchases made with any card will count towards your 2% back.  No paperwork necessary to get the cash back, its all automatic, just sign up once and forget it.  Every six months you’ll be pleasantly surprised with a check in the mailbox.

 

  • Save 7%-10% Using Gift Cards– You can buy Home Depot Gift Cards at a discount and reduce your cost of materials by 7 to 10%!  Check out these online retailers for gift cards that work at any store just like cash.

 

  • Use Competitor Coupons for 10% off – HD accepts coupons from its competitors such as Lowes and Ace Hardware. You can find these coupons regularly in the newspapers, but you can also find stacks of them for sale on auction sites like Ebay. A single 10% coupon usually runs between $1 and $2 depending on how many you buy at once.

 

  • Get a HD Consumer Credit Card, Get 6 months 0% – This isn’t a one time deal, any purchase over $299.00 qualifies for 6 months of zero interest.  This is a great way to float your expense costs until you are able to flip the house.  The laws have recently changed to require you to make minimum monthly payments, but you can still save a lot of dough on interest costs while keeping your cash in the bank for other emergencies.