How I save 20% on Home Depot Purchases

Here's a trade secret I'll share with you. I will tell you how I get 20% off Home Depot. I don't use the bid room necessarily since they require a $2,500 minimum, and there are some projects where I buy materials in stages so I don't buy everything all at once. I will use the bid room on larger projects.

But in general, I get 20% everything by:

1. getting a bunch of 10% Lowes coupons ( you can buy them on ebay for about 50 cents to 75 cents each) which Home Depot will honor. Each coupon is good for any total transaction up to $5,000.
2. then I buy a bunch of $500 Home Depot gift cards ( you can get them on ebay at a discount of 9%, so a $500 gift card sells for $455)
3. I use my Amex Blue card on my PayPal account to make the Home Depot gift card purchases. My Amex Blue gives me 1.5% cash back on all purchases. (this part will not be easy for most people, because you need really good credit to get an Amex Blue card, but you get the idea, and there are plenty of cash back cards. Even debit cards offer cash back of 1% to 1.25%)

After I do all of the above. I take my gift cards and my 10% off coupons to Home Depot and use them to purchase anything and everything I need.

On a typical flip project, I'm going back and forth to Home Depot all the time. I might spend about $7,000 or more by the time I'm done. So that's a $1,400 savings if I use these methods.

2010 Rings in a New Year of Opportunities!

Last year was a year of challenges and change. I learned so much more by staying focused and in the game. I met many homeowner who were in desperate need for help. Short sales became the norm for real estate agents and we resigned ourselves to the reality of this way of doing business. As ugly and time consuming as short sales were, I have to say it was so rewarding to finally close escrow on them. The homeowners were so relieved, we all were, when each deal was done.

Now 2010 rolls in with promises of change. Streamlined short sales? Dare we hope? A credit to the Sellers to complete a short sale? Less paperwork? No more hardship letters to write? A 21 day maximum waiting period for an approval?

Then there's the FHA anti-flip rule being lifted as of Feb 1st. That's HUGE! Now my investors and I can rehab a house and flip it to an FHA borrower. Even if we resell the house above 20% from our original purchase we just need to show before and after pictures and a detailed records of our improvements.

I'm looking forward to this coming year!