Flooring
Flooring is another part of the house that’s easy to save a few dollars on.
Basements/Laundry Areas
For example, if we need install flooring in the basement, or put down some flooring in a laundry or closet area, we like to find discontinued material that we can get for cheap.
People don’t tend to be as focused on quality on these parts of the house. They just want it to look nice. So we try not to waste money on buying top notch materials for these parts of the
house.
Tiles
If we’re going to put down tile, it’s usually ceramic tile. I avoid porcelain.
Porcelain’s more durable, but it’s also more expensive.
Never Order Flooring
We only buy items that are in-stock at the store. I learned a long time ago that anytime you have to special order something, it’s going to cost more.
Buy from Flooring Stores
We usually get flooring from flooring stores. I’ve found that flooring tends to be cheaper at these places than it is at a big superstore like The Home Depot.
Being that these stores focus on flooring, they tend to have huge quantities of flooring material onsite. As a result, they’re able to sell the materials for a little cheaper than other stores.
Flooring stores are usually open to bargaining a little bit, too. Try to bargain with someone at The Home Depot, and they’ll laugh you out of the store.
Have Inspector Confirm Repair Assessment
We ALWAYS pay a certified inspector to come behind us and make sure we see everything that needs to be done BEFORE we buy the property.
That way, we limit the risk of having to pay more for repairs that we didn’t expect or see originally.
Do the More Expensive Repairs First
Part of the reason why we order the repairs in a certain order is to make room for the unexpected.
It rarely happens, but if we discover that unexpected work needs to be done, we’d rather find out early in the rehab process.
And we want to uncover that early, so that we can cut back on the expenses of something else that’s less expensive later in the project, if necessary.
If the less expensive repairs are already done, and we come across surprises with the more expensive repairs, there’s no way to make up for the unexpected expenses.
I hope that makes sense.
Have the Previous Owner Clean Out the Property
When we buy from a private owner, we try to establish an agreement with them to clean out all of their possessions and to sweep the property clean before they leave it.
Sometimes they agree to it, sometimes they don’t. But it doesn’t hurt to try it.
When they agree, it’s great; because it saves us the time and money we’d have to spend on paying the contractor to clean out the house.