Having contractors purchase on your Lowe's/Home Depot Pro Account

[Steven Barr]

Hi BP! 

We are thinking of opening up a Pro account at Lowe's and Home Depot. They have a program where your contractors can come into the store and pick up the materials that you order. It is just billed to your account. Also, contractors can go collect materials, and Lowe's/HD will call you with an itemized list of materials being purchased so that you may approve or deny before they put on your account and leave the store

Was curious if anyone is doing this, and also what the risk implications of doing this are? Only thing that stands out to me is that they could steal materials, and this is just paying them upfront in a different form as opposed to the 10-30% cash of the project's cost

Seems to be a good option if doing a decent volume of home flipping, but would love to hear other's opinions

[Mark Bohstedt]

Steven, my mistake, I thought you would order materials and they would pick them up. 
Determining who will warranty items and installation on products you purchase will still be an issue, and either you or your contractor will be making at least a few additional trips to pick up material that was missed on the original order. 

  I don’t think that experienced contractors will want to work this way. For new contractors that don’t have established accounts or the capital to purchase material this could work for them.