Material and Staging..

[Shannon X.]

In order to save on some money, do many of you buy the materials your self or do you have the contractor do everything? also as far as staging goes, where do you usually buy the staging furniture from and how much would you add to the listing price? do you add a certain percent of what you paid for the furniture and if you don't sell the house with the furniture what do you do with that? put it on storage? use in at another house? take it back and get your money back? :)

Thanks

[Jeff Bridges]

I agree with J Scott. There are lots of benefits to picking out your own materials: 1) Save money by handpicking your materials and ensuring you get the best price and quality for the material appropriate to your rehab goals. (Either by shopping at lowes/home depot or scouring craigslist for an even better deal on a new or nearly new item. 2) Contractor can't pad the price of a component over the amount he paid for it from his source 3) You get a better understanding of the level of materials there are in the marketplace so you know how to control your budget better ***caveat: its always easier of course to just have your contractor buy and install everything, but you pay a premium for that privilege. Some contractors will only bid a contract with materials included in their fee so you might have to shop around. Also, using a trusted handyman for small jobs would save you over a full blown contractor service unless you need a licensed professional for an important repair job that needs permits etc...

On staging: I haven't tried this yet but another flipper/mentor uses rent-A-center or similar furniture rental store to stage his flips with living room furniture etc. They typically cost $99/month for a living room set which includes delivery and pickup fees (how cool is that?). So you budget one or two months into your holding cost and get furniture that is delivered and picked up free once you get something ready to close. He also uses Ross or marshalls etc to get inexpensive window treatments and knick-nacks to stage the place and add a personal touch. I use these places for my window treatments. Works great for very little money. Others might have a set of furniture they keep in storage to use for staging while some use extra stuff they have in their own house but that's alot of effort to get a truck to move furniture if you ask me. Totally up to you! Good luck!