The flooring business -- Vast differences!

[hakrjak]

Hey Guys -

I just thought I'd share an experience I had recently while shopping for some flooring. A good friend of my recently lost her job in the fortune 500 world, and took a commission based sales job selling flooring -- So I was glad to have her over to show me what she had. She had told me she was making great money slinging flooring, and her bosses were very wealthy off this business, so I was even more curious to figure out their business model, based on this.

I was going to pick out a laminant and she pulled out her samples and showed me a lot of stuff for around $13 per sf installed. Thinking this was a bit high, I checked Home Depot the next week, which had the same exact stuff for about $8 per square ft installed. The materials alone would probably only cost me around $2 per square ft for me to install them myself.

No wonder my friend's company is doing so well if they are able to successfully sell this stuff at such a huge margin. I'm both impressed by and disgusted by their sales model at the same time. haha -- It seems they are just employing commissioned sales people who know how to "sell", and they are arming them with a variety of products to sell at extremely high prices, probably to people who have no idea what they are looking at. I don't know where they generate their leads from, but my friend has 5 or 6 homes to visit each day with very interested buyers, and she sells atleast half of them to 75%.

Just thought I'd share this experience in the residential flooring business... it's got me scratching my head going, "Maybe I should start one of these companies to keep my crew busy between flips?"

- Hakrjak

 

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[GettingThere]

I just got a taste of this myself...through a neighbor. I did the laminate floors in my MOL's house (not too tough), so my wife and I were looking around in Lowes at flooring for our home at one point, just to see how much it would cost... like you said, about $2-3 for decent materials, plus all the trim work, renting or buying a table saw with a good blade, etc. To complete out entire living area and dining area, I guesstimated would cost about $1200. We contemplated getting an estimate from a local Co. that always advertises big sales promotions and won't be undersold, etc. Our neighbor got an est. from them and put in the order for his living area (less sq ft than our flooring area). He said that they negotiations for pricing for the LAMINATE flooring they wanted started at $6000!!! I didn't know how to respond, other than a murmured "wow" after he said it would be installed the following week.

I guess there are a LOT of people who don't put much time into researching on their own since these types of places do so much business...if they don't feel suckered then more power to them...I guess

- John

 

[hatterasguy]

Yeah they are expensive, I'm not a fan of the box stores don't get me going.

We pay about $2 a sf for good quality solid oak flooring, unfinished.

 

[TaxGuy]

wow first the concrete thread, now this, I'm gonna call ya Bob Vila, hak :smxB:

those are pretty much the two biggest projects on the home that are on the backburner until we can get a good fastlane plan in action and get out of debt first :coolgleamA:

 

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[Double D]

Wow. I have just recently started to replace all of my carpet in my rentals with laminate as needed. I have found deals at Lowes as low as 69 cents a SF. It is easy to install and if your tenant likes carpet they can buy a throw rug or two. Easy to clean and maintain. I would never pay more than a couple bucks a SF. I have seen several small flooring businesses start and fail in no time. Could be the area. Hard to compete with the big guys who buy in large volumes.

 

[White8]

I don't know where they generate their leads from, but my friend has 5 or 6 homes to visit each day with very interested buyers, and she sells atleast half of them to 75%.


- Hakrjak

I'd be really interested in learning how they generate their leads...

 

[Runum]

I know this is an old thread. I have taken a few trips recently to several areas of Texas. Seeing flooring stores everywhere I look. Someone must be making money at this business. Is flooring kinda like pizza, the profit margin must be huge?

 

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[Luke12321]

I know it varies from market to market, but a good way to get a deal is try craigslist. I just bought my first house (residents) that is like 1930 sq ft. Of course, excluding the bathrooms that I will tile, I will need around probably 1900 sq feet after waste is factored in which won't be that much. I am looking at getting the entire house done with Camuru flooring which typically retails for $6-9 sq ft here for around $2.25 per sq ft, I will do installation myself. I figure I can do baseboards, floors, and stains for around $6,000 but again, this is doing the labor myself.