Use the Home Depot Bid Room to Save Money on Materials

As frequent buyers of properties in Ohio who do a lot of renovating, we are always looking for ways to save money on materials during the renovation process. Over the last 12 years in the business we have found numerous ways to save on materials, and the Home Depot Bid Room, together with Lowe’s version of the Bid Room (called Lowe’s Volume Savings Program and sometimes referred to as Lowe’s “QSP”), is definitely part of our arsenal.

So, whether you are looking to do some DIY before putting your home on the market, or have a larger renovation project at hand, it is worth considering the Home Depot Bid Room. This article explains what it is and how to use it.

Home Depot Bid Room: How it Works

The Home Depot Bid Room (part of Home Depot’s Volume Pricing Program) is a simple way to save on renovation materials if your order is at least $2,500.00. 

To use the Home Depot Bid Room these are the simple steps you need to take:

(1) Create a free Home Depot Pro Xtra account;

(2) Log into your newly created Home Depot Pro Xtra account and add at least $2,500.00 of items into your online shopping cart;

(3) Use the “create a quote feature” to create a quote number (I show an image of this below so you can easily find it when you are setting up your quote); and

(4) Call your local Home Depot, ask for the “Pro Desk” and once connected to the Pro Desk, give them your quote number and ask them to run your quote through the bid room.

This process will generate a quote that will inevitably include some discounts to help you save on materials as you prepare your home for sale.

What is the Home Depot Bid Room (Works Online or In Store)

Home Depot offers customers a way to run orders of at least $2,500.00 through a quoting system that will often provide great discounts off regular store pricing.  Home Depot refers to this quoting system as, “the bid room.”  Contrary to some misinformation out there, you do not need to be a contractor to access the bid room.  However, you do need to set up a free Home Depot Pro Xtra account.  Note that Lowe’s has a similar program where the current minimum order only needs to be $1,500.00 to receive significant savings.

After setting up your Home Depot Pro Xtra account and choosing a list of materials totaling at least $2,500.00, you can bring your materials list directly to a Home Depot Pro Desk team member at a physical store and ask them to run it through their quoting system/bid room.  Alternatively, and more easily in my opinion, you can put that list together by shopping online and adding the materials to your online shopping cart at Homedepot.com while logged in to your Pro Xtra account. 

If you decide to do this online, as long as you are logged into your Home Depot Pro Xtra account you will be able to click into a box when in your online shopping cart labeled, “create a quote.”  You can see this in the bottom right of the picture below:

There you can add a name for your quote and click, “Save,” and a quote number will be generated for you.  You can now call your local Home Depot Pro Desk with your quote number and ask them to run this quote through the bid room to see what savings might come back. 

Home Depot Bid Room Pricing and Savings

In the next section I show a real example of a quote I received through the Home Depot bid room.  It is important to understand that not all items you add to your order and send to the bid room will receive a discount.  There are several variables that affect the discount you will receive on any particular item. 

The biggest and most consistent variable seems to be how large of a profit margin Home Depot has built into the items you send to the bid room.  For example, high margin items such as windows, doors, faucets, shower heads and lighting have a lot of profit built into them, and on most occasions (not all) I have received solid discounts by sending these types of items through the bid room. 

It is notable, however, that while flooring also has a lot of profit built into it, I have seen much better discounting on flooring through Lowe’s QSP (Lowe’s version of the bid room) than I have seen on flooring through the Home Depot bid room.  In fact, I often see no discount at all on flooring run through the Home Depot bid room, whereas I have regularly received 10-20% off flooring orders through Lowe’s QSP. 

Other variables are less predictable.  For example, during the height of Covid-induced price increases I was not getting any discount on lumber.  Now I am slowly seeing some small lumber discounts, but lumber is an example of something that typically will have a very small discount, if any.

I have also seen better Home Depot bid room discounts at the tail end of the season (or off season) for specific items, as you would expect.

An Actual Quote through the Home Depot Bid Room

Here is an example of a Home Depot bid room quote I received:

As you can see, Home Depot’s bid room offered me 46% off of two windows, 31.4% off of a Kohler faucet, 13.9% off of an exterior door, 10% off of a different set of windows, and 2% off of pre-hung interior doors.

Items that received no discounts on this quote are screws, 2x4s, drywall, a shower head, outlets, flooring and a vanity.  I was a bit surprised by the lack of a discount on the shower head as this is the type of item I have seen solid discounts on before. 

While not always true, in this particular case I believe I can do much better on similar items through Lowe’s QSP and Menards, and I may even bring back pricing from those stores to Home Depot to see if they will make any further adjustments.  Regardless, if you are going to buy items totaling at least $2,500.00 anyway, it makes a boat load of sense to run your order through the Home Depot bid room to reduce what you pay. 

What is the Home Depot Bid Room Minimum

Prior to finishing this post I googled this question just to see what came back.  There is definitely some confusion about the required minimum to send orders through the Home Depot bid room. 

The minimum total purchase order required to access the Home Depot bid room and bid room associated discounts is currently $2,500.00.  Online you find responses stating that the minimum is anywhere from $1,000.00 to $3,500.00.  Those figures are incorrect and at the present time, as long as your order is $2,500.00 or more, you will have access to the bid room.

If you ever do run into an issue where a Pro Desk employee thinks you need to add more than $2,500.00 to your order to receive a bid room quote, I suggest simply opening up this link on your cell phone (https://www.homedepot.com/c/Pro_Pricing_Programs) and pointing to the language that states, “VPP savings start on qualifying purchases of $2,500.00 or more.” 

Home Depot Bid Room Hours and Contact Information

While I have been helped with Home Depot bid room quotes by non-Pro Desk employees in the past, your best bet is to always try to work with the Home Depot Pro Desk.  They are the most familiar with the bid room and you will have fewer hiccups, wait time, etc. if you work with someone who staffs the Pro Desk.

In most Home Depot locations, the Pro Desk is open from 6am-6pm Monday to Friday, Saturday from 6am-3pm, and closed on Sunday. 

To reach the Pro Desk, it is as simple as either calling your preferred local Home Depot general number and asking for the Pro Desk or, as the Pro Service Desk does have a direct number, googling your local store and “pro service desk phone number,” and it should come up in your search results. 

If you are going to shop at Home Depot anyway during a renovation where you will spend at least $2,500.00, putting together a list of at least $2,500.00 in items that you know you will need and running it through the Home Depot bid room is a no-brainer.  Odds are you will receive a discount on at least some of your items so it is just logical to try.

Good luck with your project.

If you are interested in discussing the sale of your home or commercial property and have a property in Cuyahoga County, Summit County, Medina County, Portage County, or Lake County, OH, feel free to give me a call at 216-694-8246 or you can reach out using our form at this link. We regularly make fair and fast cash offers and would be happy to speak with you even if it is just for input/advice.