I need a bunch of cheap kitchen cabinets
I am about to install 4 small kitchens worth of cabinets in a rehabbed rental property I own. They don’t need to be super nice or great quality, just standard stock stuff. Lowes and HD have some cheap ones of course, but is anyone aware of another place that has even better deals? If I were to buy them at Lowes they would total about $5k. If I can get something of similar quality and style for less, that’d be awesome. Do actual kitchen companies offer lower-mid quality stuff for real cheap typically or do they not bother with it? I’m in CT if it makes any difference.
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Kitchen cabinets
Are there any "handyman's salvage" or outlet stores in the area? Maybe a Habitat for Humanity outlet? They can usually beat HD or Lowe's prices.
Rental Cheapness
I always wonder why people who rent their abodes have to suffer landlords who want to provide the cheapest fixtures possible. It's always old kitchen appliances in three different colors, and, as you suggest, cheap cabinets. I guess I'd have to be on the landlord's side when a tenant trashes the place, but we, in our area, have safety problems with some rentals (like extension cords inside walls), and we're slowly dealing with it.
Who said anything about buying the cheapest cabinets possible? That's actual very different than buying standard cheap stock cabinets that work perfectly fine. I'm spending $120k on this place, not to mention I'll be buying all new appliances for the entire building, so your insinuation that I'm putting crap in the building is unnecessary and makes no sense. Maybe you're right, maybe I should give the new section 8 tenants $20k worth of cabinets... makes a lot of sense... if eventual bankruptcy seems appealing to me.
And if you have problems with unsafe electrical wiring, that's because of YOU being cheap. I won't have that problem, seeing as I I've already spent $14k putting in all new up-to-code electrical. But hey, if you would rather have a house with unsafe wiring and nice cabinets rather than a home that is absolutely safe with cheap stock cabinets, that's all up to you.
There is a difference
between practical/inexpensive and cheap. The fact is that if the place is serviceable, most renters don't care and if they do, they are always higher priced nicer places to rent. Nobody "has" to suffer, they have choices. Would you put $5,000 worth of cabinets in a rental unit that rents for $600/month? Or would you put $800? If you looked at an apartment or house to rent and the price was right, would you care?
Very right on all points. I think you make far too much sense to be on the internet.
Yeah, I've been wishing Tim would get off the Internet for years.
This is what
I do (in addition to my "day" job). Not make sense on the internet. As Dan can attest, that happens infrequently.
Real Estate Investing is what I mean. We buy, sell and lease houses and multi-family properties. We do not "flip" houses. The retail RE market in this area won't support that endeavor.
I bought all the cabinets for a house last month, played the bid wars with a few boxes and eventually paid $600 for the lot of oak, unfinsihed, basic cabinets. That was about 70% of the retail on-the-shelf price. Another $70 for end panels, stain and polyeurethane. I paid 15 times that for cabinets in my home. Sure there is a difference, but not discernable to most.
There was an article in one of the home building rags (maybe FHB) about 2 years back about using Ikea cabinets. And apparently you can order Ikea-style (knock-down) cabs online several places.
I have worked for both custom and manufactured cabinet dealers and found that there are always extra cabinets which are returns, misorders, or slightly damaged. Often these are sitting up in a storage area until they get thrown out or sold as bargain bin items. Although there are not always enough to do a complete kitchen occasionally there will be. Often you can at least get some good bath vanities if nothing else. I have sold these types of cabinets for less than $50/box many times.
IKEA and other Modular Cabinets
The article Dan is referring to is in FHB and can be found here: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/departments/feedback/buying-and-assembling-kitchen-cabinets-from-ikea.aspx
No personal experience with the quality of the Ikea product.
FHB did an article about modular cabinetry a few years ago. https://www.finehomebuilding.com/PDF/Free/021159076.pdf As a result of the article, I bought all the cabinetry boxes for my daughter's bedroom project, see it here: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/item/8665/allisons-bedroom-trebbi-custom-construction-fort-lauderdale-florida
from one of the recommended suppliers, CabParts, out of Colorado. I made a direct comparison of the boxes I ordered to the junk available out your local BB. I ordered 3/4" plywood boxes, white melamine, delivered to Fort Lauderdale, for 2/3 of what it would have cost to get the boxes only from the BB and they would have been 1/2 -5/8 particle board with cardboard strip backs. The CabParts boxes have solid backs and no toe kick bases (you have to build the base yourself). It is a FAR superior product to the BB product and less expensive. Doors are also cheaper, ordered from anyone other than the BB and RTF doors will look beautiful and hold up to some abuse from your tenants.
Good Luck
I've found
that if you use one box store for most or all of you needs, you can negotiate a significant reduction off of the retail prices. Me and my business partner have a longtime and constant relationship with one box store in my area and I recently bought all the cabinets for a rehab near completion at 20% off of the "store price". Loyalty has its previledges.
You own a 4-plex, as I recall. Any more or just one? Plan on doing more? IF you are a real estate investor and plan to do this frequently, pick your favorite, do most of you business there, bring the contractor desk donuts and you'll see discounts that homeowners and DIYs will not. For the basic stock cabinets, its pretty tough to be the boxes for new units.
My uncle and my cousin work in a major production cabinet shop, it's actually a large cabinet factory. They have a lot of cabinets that are "seconds" etc. My uncle made a pretty fair amount of money installing these cabinets after hours. They were sold to him for very low prices, some had damage that was not visible after installation, some were just made wrong for the order, or just not sold for some reason.
I didnt read every post and Im sure someone already mentioned the Restore which is ran by Habitat for Humanity.They have loads of cabinets among other things.
Also the cabinets stores as MarkH mentioned is a good place to look. I've purchased island cabinets and upper cabinets in the past from Armstrong dealers and even Lowes or HD at 80% off original cost. Some have minor damage and others need a rear wall replaced because of a lazy forklift operator.
Ever try to sell via lease-option? Multi-families are great, if you don't mind being a landlord or have enough to make a property manger worth while.
I've never redone a multi or had tenants before. I just like flipping a lot better in general, but like I said, I'm getting backed into it by the credit market. Still, if I can get enough for it, I'd prefer to sell it and just take the $120k or so for 10 months of work and be done with it. Easier and cleaner than keeping it. Either way, I should do great with it.
I don't think I would like using a propery manager very much. I think I'd like to be a lot more hands on and in the know. Plus it saves you some dollars of course.
Seriously this post is great. I have been looking for something like this only. A lot of information has been shared here. But I would like to know something about ready to install cabinets. I have heard those are easy to install and maintain. Is it so? I need to get my kitchen renovated so needed some help. Hope to get the reply soon. Thank you for this. :)
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Well I know someone who can help you with cheap kitchen cabinets and they have RTA cabinets and pre assembled cabinet for kitchen and bathroom. His name is Shub and his contact number is 740-697-5223. or you can visit this link: https://buildmyplace.com/collections/cabinets
For kitchen cabinet you should call on 740-697-5223. they will give you best deal on kitchen cabinets or you can visit:
https://buildmyplace.com/collections/ready-to-assemble-cabinets