Repairing a rental home (or your own home) use to require running down to the local hardware store or to the nearby building supply house. After several stops around town, you found everything you needed to solve your maintenance problem.

If you are a fixer upper or tenant landlord today, you now have the marvel of Home Depot and Lowe's!

Now we have one-stop shopping for virtually everything needed at one of these two stores.

But more than that efficient feature for saving time (and often cost), you can get instruction for repairs from either experienced employees and/or special classes of instruction. If you don't know how to perform the job, you will often find it easier than you imagined. I had never laid any tile, until I discovered that an experienced tile-layer-turned-Home Depot-employee showed me how easy it is. And I found I could get my tile cut free at the store to fit those difficult spots around the tub faucets.

And add to these attractive store features the ease of acquiring commercial and consumer credit, often with promotions of $299 or more purchases at 0% interest for 6 months or more.

I was in Phoenix many years ago when I visited my first Home Depot. It was love at first sight. I had always wanted good quality tools fit for the job at hand at discount prices, and what I saw was a dream come true. I walked that store in amazement as I saw row after row of ceiling-high supplies of every sort of tool and construction material imaginable. It was an awesome experience, and I have never lost that euphoria in walking into a Home Depot or Lowe's. I have become increasingly appreciative over the years at this luxury of shopping at these two stores. Shopping is time-saving, and I leave it to Home Depot and Lowe's to do the research on discovering which suppliers manufacture the best tools, equipment and supplies for the job at hand.

Even if you are a real estate investor who does NONE of your own labor, these stores are a great place to learn how a job should be done right.

But if you perform the repair work on your own properties, you can find the materials and instruction at Home Depot and Lowe's.

It seems Home Depot and Lowe's are gonna slug it out for the predominant position in the marketplace. In some areas, when one new store is opened, the other store buys the lot next door for its own new location. America loves these two competitive stores. Some individual stores do a million dollars of business a week. I find both stores are excellent sources for the best tools and materials I've ever found. And it's hard to beat their prices.

Home Depot and Lowe's fill a void for real estate investors with convenience, pricing, instruction and availability.