My fiancee and I close on our new house in a little over a week and we had one big problem to solve this weekend: the house doesn’t have a refrigerator. The current owners are taking the fridge to their new house so we needed to get some appliances and we needed to get them cheap.
We also wanted to make sure to get something nice because we know this won’t be our “forever” house. We expect to live her for about 5 years or so and then hope to sell for a nice profit.
Everyone knows an updated kitchen (including updated appliances) is the key to raising the value of your home and selling it quickly. We didn’t want to spend money on a temporary fridge when we knew we’d just spend more money for the stainless steel version later.
But we also don’t have a lot of money and couldn’t spend $2,000-$3,000 on a brand new stainless steel fridge.
When you don’t have a lot of money but you want nice things, there’s only one place to go: an outlet store.
50% Off a New Refrigerator
Tag and I ended up buying a brand new $2,100 refrigerator for $1,050 all because there was one dent in the refrigerator door.
I will admit that the dent is big. It’s pretty noticeable even from a few feet away. Luckily once the refrigerator is in our home and covered in magnets for delicious pizza delivery then the dent becomes invisible.
The fridge is literally brand new. Someone paid $2,100 for it, it was delivered to their house, and they sent it back because of the dent. Then I bought it for 50% off. What a deal!
We found this deal at Sears Outlet because it was the easiest place for us to find lots of outlet appliances, but there are probably lots of other different stores that sell appliances that either have cosmetic damage or were floor models and can’t be sold as “new”.
You might even be able to go to your local hardware store and ask the manager for a discount on a floor model. It doesn’t matter where you get it, just don’t pay full price when you can get it cheaper for some small cosmetic damage!
38% Off a New Range
We needed a fridge because we didn’t have one. We wanted a new range because the one in the house is from 1990 and looks like it’s from 1970. While we were at the Sears Outlet we found a Black Friday deal on an $800 range for $500.
This range is brand new in the box; no dents or anything. It is probably either overstock or last year’s model. Regardless, it’s a brand new stainless steel electric range that is selling for $800 at Home Depot and Lowes, and I got it for $500 because I was at an outlet store.
Our Kitchen Renovation is Already Half Done
The first three jobs of moving into our house are the scrape off the popcorn ceilings, paint, and replace all the 22-year-old carpet with brand new bamboo floors. The kitchen renovation probably won’t happen for at least six months or more.
And yet we’re already halfway done just by getting new appliances. The microwave and dishwasher are already upgraded, so we haven’t even moved in yet and the kitchen appliance upgrades are complete. Now we just have to stain the cabinets and get a new countertop and backsplash and we’ll have a lovely updated kitchen!
And it’s all because we found some great deals at an outlet store.
Readers: Have you ever purchased appliances from an outlet store?
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
About a year ago, the water sensor under our dishwasher started beeping, and I confirmed that there is a small leak. I figured we’d have to replace it, and was all set to order a new one at the Sears Outlet for about 20% less than we could get in the store or otherwise. As it turns out, I put a little catch pan underneath to catch the drip (so that it doesn’t ruin the subfloor) and it’s such a minor leak that what drips out actually evaporates, so we haven’t had to replace it yet 🙂
We tried to purchase a new fridge from Sears Outlet, but they didn’t have any that fit into our space (older house with some cabinets and decorative moldings I didn’t want to take down). So we sucked it up and purchased a brand new one from Sears. The good news is we happened in on a weekend when our model was on sale (a real sale not like one of those they do every week).
Other than space being a problem, we totally would have done Sears outlet. We did get most of our furniture from Kittle’s outlet, so I am not against outlets by any stretch of the imagination
I bought a (at the time ) $3,000 Electrolux range for $999. Someone returned it through Lowes extremely liberal return policies when their financing came do. The range was pristine other than some corn bits in the corners, a missing temperature probe, and a cracked grate (all parts available through Electrolux worst case scenario.) I replaced the probe for $15 off Ebay. My boyfriend’s grandfather was a welder so the grate was not an issue. They had discounted it heavily as the store did not know if it was natural gas or propane. The Electrolux display clearly stated it was not available in propane though. I had them write it up and set up free delivery for the same week. I sold my old range on Craisglist for $200. (along with all my cookie sheets, oops). 6 weeks later my 10% rebate came through in the form of a Visa gift card! I couldn’t believe the rebate actually went through on such a heavily discounted item! I love that range and I use it literally every day.
Never from an outlet store but I have bought an open item dryer from Sears for over 50% off. I wrote a post on it a few months ago. One reason it was such a steal was because it didn’t have a matching washer for sale with it.
Great deals man! My fridge was about 1700, but we used a whole slew of discounts, sales to get it down that low. I think it was initally priced at 2100. One thing to watch though is dont buy all this stuff before you’re ready for it. We completely gutted our kitchen, and because of how long it took, we had a brand new fridge, dishwasher and range sitting in the mud room from april – september. waste of money a bit.
I used outlets for refrigerators and dishwashers. I shop at outlets and discount stores for almost evrything. I bought a mattress at an outlet store.
I agree that that is a good deal and it clearly does not affect that capability of the fridge, but for some people it could be a pretty big downfall.
Even though it’s just a fridge, when you go to resell your house there may be buyers that offer less than what they would have if the fridge is in good aesthetic condition.
Will you be buying a new fridge when you go to sell?
Just curious.
That’s awesome. I once bought a microwave for next to nothing because the front door was all “scratched”. When I took it home and washed it, I found out the scratches were actually just pencil marks and they came right off! When I need house appliances and furniture I always check out the “scratch & dent” section. On many items, the marks don’t matter, hardly show or are completely fixable.