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Buying Home Construction Materials
How to Get the Best Savings When Buying Home
Building Materials
By: Mark J. Donovan
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When building your own home or room
addition and acting as your own general contractor you’ll be the one who ends up
buying the home construction materials. In other cases you may use a general
contractor for building the home or home addition, but elect to buy the home
construction materials to save money. Even if you’re using a general contractor
who is buying the bulk of materials you may still end up having to select or buy
home construction materials such as flooring, appliances, cabinets and lighting.
Buying home building materials, however, can be challenging.
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This said, if you have an architect
design your home or home addition, or utilize a kitchen designer then there is a
good chance that they’ll at least specify the particular brands, types, and
model numbers of various home construction materials that you’ll need to buy.
When buying home building materials there are ways that you can obtain some
significant savings.
Ask for a
Contractor’s Discount
First, if you’re acting as the general contractor visit the contractor’s desk of
the home materials supply store and request a contractors discount since you’re
effectively working in that capacity.
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In some cases they’ll have no problem
providing you with the contractor’s discount. If the home construction project
is a small one, however, you may get turned down. From the home construction
material supply store’s perspective, it’s all about the volume of business that
you give them to warrant the discount. Consequently the bigger the home
construction project, the higher the discount and/or the more likelihood they’ll
give you a discount. For lumber expect a maximum discount of around 10%, and for
lighting, cabinetry and flooring expect around a 15% to 20% discount.
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Second, if you’re general contractor
or home builder gives you an allowance to buy items such as flooring, lighting,
and cabinets from a specific home improvement materials supplier make sure you
get the general contractor’s discount from those supply stores. Usually you can
expect around a 15% cost savings, on average, off of the sticker price of the
materials. Make sure your building contract includes language in the contract
that states you’ll receive the builders discount rate at specific home
construction materials stores on any allowances for home construction material
purchases stipulated in the contract.
Demand Free Building Material
Deliveries
When buying home construction
materials in volume demand free delivery from the building materials supplier.
If they do not offer free delivery charges then either shop around at different
building materials suppliers or get in writing what the delivery costs will be.
Delivery of Home
Construction Materials
Also make sure to get your home
building materials on time. Particularly when ordering cabinets and other long
lead items it’s important to clearly understand when you can expect to have the
materials delivered.
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If using a general contractor, make
sure to coordinate between him and the home construction materials supplier the
delivery schedules to make sure material arrives shortly before the general
contractor needs them. There’s no point in having building material delivered
too early, and sit out in the weather and run the risk of damage and theft. On
the flip side, you don’t want to be in a situation where your home construction
project shuts down due to late building material deliveries.
Understand Home
Building Material Payment Options
Though most home building suppliers
accept credit cards, checks, and cash, it’s often wise to explore their other
payment options. Often home construction material suppliers will offer lines of
credit that can help you manage your cash flow. They’ll of course do a credit
check prior to providing you with a line of credit, however it’s often worth the
time and effort. Sometimes, they’ll require it to get a builders discount.
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Photo by Mark Donovan |
Most lines of credit from home
construction materials suppliers will give you 30 day terms. Also, they often
will offer a slight discount for payments made within 10 days of billing you.
Want to Build Your Own Home, see HomeAdditionPlus.com's
Home
Addition Bid Sheets.
Our
Home
Addition Bid Sheets
provide you with the knowledge and information on how to plan a home building
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construction building costs.
How to Finance your Home Building Project -
can help provide funds for your new home improvement project if financing is
required.
Related Information on Home Building
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