Saving money by being proactive

[Derek Patch]

For those whom have not read my posts before, let me start by introducing myself. For those who already have read my other articles, Feel free to skip ahead.

My name is Derek. I work at The Home Depot as a pro account sales associate. I've been with the home depot for about two years now, and my passion is real estate investing. Their are a lot of mis communication about what the home depot can or can't do for you. Some things i say MAY be specific to my region and or store, By all means, not everyones situation is the same. But feel free to ask any questions and i will answer them to the best of my ability. 

This article is going to be targeted toward real estate investors using the flipping strategy. We, the associates of home depot have access to a program called "your other warehouse" YOW for short. Now before i get into what YOW is, It is important that you know how a corporation of this size works. So quickly- before any product makes it to the shelf in the store, their is a process it follows. This process- It starts at the vendor, Then goes to a regional distribution center, then finally to the retail sales store. So Vendor>RDC>Shelf. In this process you have anywhere from 15-30 people touching your piece of freight. So if home depot pays X for an item, By the time it gets the shelf, they need to pay the 30 people for their work in the process. Now if you understand that, When i source an item through "YOW" Even if it is the same item on the shelf, They are going to source the item straight from the vendor, often times straight to your doorstep, So the mark up of the item can be significantly less than what it is on the shelf, even if it is the same item. 

Quick story- I had a customer buy light bulbs and lights from me a couple weeks ago. Shelf price was 6xx dollars. When i got her the quote back, which took about two days, and a week to get the items in, she paid 3xx. She saved 300 dollars, by waiting about a week. A couple days for my guys to source the items, then 3 or 4 for them to come in. Even though they were on the shelf. I am now sourcing this very happy customer about another 5k through the program to see what else i can help her with. 

Now this is not the case all the time, But in my experience it pays being proactive sourcing what you can through this program. A couple things to mention here. Whatever you order is considered a special order so you can not return them. The other thing is that the lead time is what is, we have absolutely no control over it. Sometimes they say things will take 10 days that come in 2. They are usually pretty good but don't think a hand made copper sink will be made in two days, or 300 lock sets will be in the next day. Be reasonable haha. 

Items you can quote through YOW are light bulbs, Faucets, vanities, showers, toilets, locksets. 

Feel free to send me a message with questions or just post them here and i will be happy to answer them. I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention something, But i hope this helps you all with saving a little bit more each rehab you do.