Cost to replace kitchen faucet?

Excelsior, MN · Member since 2016 · 52 posts · 27 votes

One of my rental properties in Kansas City is managed by a property manager. My recent monthly owner statement included a $443 charge for replacing a kitchen faucet. Seemed excessive to me so I got a breakdown of the cost.

$105 to repair/replace

$85 minimum charge for first 30 minutes of labor

$10 fuel surcharge

$243 new faucet, supply lines, plumbers grease

$443 Total

Would like to hear others thoughts on the cost of this. Do you feel this is high or inline with what you have experienced?

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Dan Krupa

Real Estate Broker · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2013 · 749 posts · 399 votes

@Josh V. that is an outlandish amount of money. You got ripped off brother. So many things wrong here. Faucets are not that expensive. There is a cost to go buy a faucet but 15% is the normal mark up. Labor is labor, the cost doesn't increase. Next, what idiot is taking more than 30 to 60 minutes to replace it? Even a complicated one that is weighted and has a single manifold doesn't take that long. I typically pay my contractors $50 to install a sink faucet. Fuel charge is BS, that is built into the labor and the upcharge on the faucet. A good master plumber charges $100 an hour, I highly doubt they called a master plumber in. PM me if you need help man, I am here local in KC and hate seeing people get ripped off.

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Jim K.
Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
6y
Originally posted by @Parker Eberhard:
@Jim K. I may have over generalized about the Delta fixtures. My preference is Grohe, and I should have left it at that. Home Depot vs a plumbing supply house will give you different quality from the same lines, though

Sure, Parker, HD does not physically stock premium fixtures in its stores. You're not going to walk in and walk out with anything particularly fine. I actually don't think HD physically stocks any Grohe faucets. But when you design your kitchen through HD and order these fixtures by model number, it's the same stuff from the same warehouse. There aren't two versions of 20209002, the specific widespread Eurostyle Cosmopolitan faucet I mentioned earlier.
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Parker Eberhard
Contractor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2019 · 339 posts · 325 votes
6y
@Jim K. It’s worth reading discussions on www.terrylove.com . There are many debates about the quality of the same fixture that gets sent to the big boxes vs the ones sent to the plumbing supply houses.
I was told by a reputable plumber that Kohler sends the early runs of their toilets out of the mold to the plumbing supply houses, while the big boxes get the later ones, which show signs from molds that have worn out.
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Jim K.
Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
6y
Originally posted by @Shawn Coverdell:
Knee Jerk reaction is to fire them immediately, and understandably. for me personally I have had great success with what I call "Street love" Here is an example of how I work. The best methods unfortunately, I cannot document on here for obvious reasons. The general idea is to go against most things you were taught, most of which were Publicly school propaganda to keep you weak and enslaved. and enforced by family and friends who were also brainwashed by same lies.

Schedule a meeting with PM manager with Head of maintenance present as well. Both need to be present to prevent the car lot tactics. "let me get with so and so to see what really happened" or some thing to that effect. This is important to remove most exits managers are used to taking, as this will only allow them time to react with creative lies.

Police have been doing this for ever. Remove the exits before questioning. they call this "sweating the Purp"
With every one present. "Over the last 25 years, I have replaced probably somewhere around 100 faucets", stair straight at the maintenance guy.

Pause for a bit. Tell them my initial reaction was to terminate our contract. But...…. There might be a chance we can work this out..... etc...(keep it short) "Another option is for us to continue this relationship on a probationary level to see if things improve...…. I would be willing to give this relationship more time, but I want an addendum to our contract to lower my management fee to 8% ( or lower than current rate).

"I am a business man and like to look for solutions rather than emotionally react." Tell them it is not the money that is the biggest issue here. It is Trust!

Thank you for meeting with me today.

The key here is to turn them into the customer. You are willing to give them another chance to milk your profits. Turn lemons into lemonade whenever possible. You can turn anger into victory and celebrate a happy ending if executed correctly.

Shawn Coverdell
Homes in the Hood
You can either react emotionally or you can smell the blood in the water. Thanks, Shawn.

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Martin White
Enfield, CT · Member since 2019 · 11 posts · 2 votes
6y
@Josh V. That seems high. Is your property manager able to make these decisions in your behalf? Seems like they may have gone with the first plumber they called. The pricing can vary depending on the quality, but I'm assuming that since it's a rental property you don't want super high quality faucets. I'm no plumber but for $60 or so you can buy them at a hardware store. The installation shouldn't be more than 30 minutes to an hour tops. Even if they charged $150 to install, I'd be okay with that. $200-225 should do it.
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JD MartinBusiness Member
Moderator
Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
6y
Originally posted by @Parker Eberhard:
@Jim K. It’s worth reading discussions on www.terrylove.com . There are many debates about the quality of the same fixture that gets sent to the big boxes vs the ones sent to the plumbing supply houses.
I was told by a reputable plumber that Kohler sends the early runs of their toilets out of the mold to the plumbing supply houses, while the big boxes get the later ones, which show signs from molds that have worn out.

I would find this claim highly dubious. I worked as a plumber and on most things I never noticed any difference one way or the other. Besides, there's not a whole lot of improvement a new mold or an old mold is going to make on a toilet. All of them have tolerance of fit at the flange, which is essentially absorbed by the wax ring. I can see a cheaper toilet having unglazed traps, cheaper tank seals and cheaper innards.
I will qualify this by saying I left plumbing (as a profession) 20 years ago and things change, and as a whole I have noticed products have become much cheaper in quality. That said, if you know what you are looking at you can absolutely find perfectly fine quality items at Lowe's and Home Depot. Perhaps it takes a little bit more work than it used to, but you can still buy all-metal faucet bodies, brass cartridges, well-chromed spigots, etc at both stores. Usually the key is to stay away from "Exclusively at Lowe's/Home Depot" type products, which are often low-quality productions designed more for moving product than for lasting a long time. I also do not buy store-labeled brands (Glacier Bay/Project Source/etc) or the cheaper quality "name" brands (Price Pfister, Peerless, American Standard). Grohe/Moen/Kohler/Delta are all OK in my book, and I like Moen & Delta because their parts are largely standardized and they will send you replacement parts for free without a receipt. Do they make cheaper versions of faucets? Absolutely, but you don't have to buy them.
One other thing that bears mentioning: a lot of the faucets have become cheaper because of federal regulations, specifically low-lead requirements. Low/no-lead brass is much more expensive to make than leaded brass (I know because we use and buy a lot of it in the utility industry), so a lot of the faucet manufacturers either switched to plastic or raised prices when the new no-lead specs went into place in 2014.

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Tony Rodriguez
Member since 2018 · 22 posts · 4 votes
6y
Adding my 2 cents,

I did every single thing myself on my first flip except for electrical and that's because the town would only give electrical permits to registered electricians. I probably spent more time and money in doing some things compared to hiring "professionals" but what I learned in doing the work myself is invaluable, it gave me hands on experience on material costs and the level of difficulty each job takes and I can honestly say that I feel 100 times more confident in going to my next deal and I also think it has helped me avoid issues like these.

As an analogy;

During my college years I worked part time as a waiter in a very busy restaurant and I remember that the owner will make new managers work at every position for at least 1 week before permanently hiring them as managers, prospective managers would need to work 1 week as dish washers, 1 week as waiters, 1 week in the cash register etc and if they succeed then they could become managers, many quit the first week after touching the hot plates that came from the dish washing machine but the ones who made it thru the training were successful and are still working as managers today.
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Dan Krupa
Real Estate Broker · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2013 · 749 posts · 399 votes
6y
Moen and Delta are both good brands. Just stay away from Glacier Bay and other builder level faucets.
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Michael Robbins
Property Manager · Henderson, NV · Member since 2018 · 501 posts · 317 votes
6y
In my opinion the only way it should hit the $400 mark is if the actual faucet fixture is expensive. This seems high to me.
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Miguel Nava
Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2016 · 91 posts · 38 votes
6y
@Josh V.
My PM in the Cleveland area just replaced one a couple of months ago for $350.
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Gregory Irish
Rental Property Investor · Bangor, ME · Member since 2019 · 8 posts · 24 votes
6y
The first and last time I used a PM he charged me $168 to plug in a smoke detector. Later I had to get a lawyer involved because he was holding $3000 in rental payments without cause. This wasn’t a small operation either, this guy had employees, an office, and managed a lot of rental properties. I fired him for breach of contract and started self managing, and after evicting all the tenants who caused me to hire a property manager I couldn’t be happier with the choice to self manage.
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Matthew Paul
Severna Park, MD · Member since 2013 · 7k+ posts · 7k+ votes
6y
My break down on this is
$105 to repair/replace ( Thats reasonable for the replacement labor)

$85 minimum charge for first 30 minutes of labor (This too is reasonable to drive to the property and scope out the problem and determine whats needed Drive to supply house and get parts )

$10 fuel surcharge . ( this is a BS charge)

$243 new faucet, supply lines, plumbers grease .
( This could be a wee bit high depending on the faucet , thats the unknown )

$443 Total
Sure it sounds high when you walk thru Home Depots plumbing isle . But people thing that if you suptract the cost of supplies , thats what the contractor makes . They neglect to realize that the so called "profit" has to cover trucks , tools , insurance , company profit , employee pay , workmans comp , office time etc . Sure you can do it yourself cheaper . But my price wouldnt have been that much different .
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Matthew Irish-JonesBusiness Member
Real Estate Agent · Buffalo, NY · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
6y
@Josh V.
Does your PM company employ maintenance techs?
There are a lot of companies that are licensed and simply run a coordination business when it comes to PM.
If they have competent people on staff they should be able to change out a faucet at an hourly rate + materials.
The fuel surcharges, $85 minimum, etc... is just too many dam fees.
If they do have maintenance techs on staff... they really marked this one up.
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Yoel Reinoso
Southwest Florida · Member since 2019 · 12 posts · 4 votes
6y
@Josh V.
$443?!! I need to change jobs, I can do that with my eyes closed
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Ricky Davis
Investor · Searcy, AR · Member since 2018 · 52 posts · 39 votes
6y
Good to know they threw in the Plumbers Grease!!! Whew!!!
I live in a small town and I have a plumber who does my stuff on the side. For a small town maybe kinda high but in KC that may be in line. If nothing else just call a few plumbers in the area and tell them what is going on and see if they will shoot you a guesstament over the phone or call a couple of handymen and get a guess from them. You may be able to set up an account with a supply house and have them invoice you instead of the plumber/handyman. Just pay them to pick it up. Just thinking outside the box.
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Amber Gonion
Real Estate Broker · Hugo, MN · Member since 2016 · 688 posts · 596 votes
6y
@Josh V. You should be getting a store receipt for the plumbing fixture, if it costs that much for the part then you got what you paid for for that portion. I would have a talk of what level of parts you expect to go into your properties with your pm. No need for Bosch appliances in a section 8 property for example.
For the labor, I would get an explanation of what happened, your pm might have a reason why it took so long to complete (or not). Don’t forget someone also needed to spend time purchasing the part.
It seems high, but as any contractor can tell you, things don’t always go as planned, if the faucet out of the box was bad and they needed to replace it who should pay? If the original install was not normal (done by non-professional) and removal was a pain it could increase the time. Was there a problem with the water shut offs before or after installation. Does the pm have more than one maintenance tech? Some are faster and more skilled than others. Were the tenants there asking a million questions about other items around the house?
I would much rather have a client ask why so I can explain the circumstances. I assume my clients are watching every charge closely and would have no problem explaining why things cost what they do.
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Gust Passias
Rental Property Investor · New York City, NY · Member since 2019 · 6 posts · 2 votes
6y
@Dennis M. I agree Dennis! What is your recommnedation on finding a handyman in McKees Rocks, PA. Craigslist?
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Nathan Hall
Rental Property Investor · Martinsburg, WV · Member since 2017 · 111 posts · 81 votes
6y
@Josh V. I'm not the most experienced lad on these forums but that sounds like a total ripoff. That being said, I don't know the details on the units, tenants, etc. I assume you part them ~8% every month to manage. I also assume they need permission for anything over ~$500 repairs. Given the price for the service provided, that seems suspect.
I replaced my own kitchen faucet a couple of months back for something top of the line though, shelled out ~$200 for the best faucet at Home Depot that would look good in their kitchen, and spent 3 hours on what I originally anticipated a 30 minute fix, until I finally had to fire up the angle grinder to just cut off the old faucet due to a stuck retaining nut in the tight spaces under the sink.
I still wouldn't have charged close to $500 for that, had I signed up to do it for someone else. Also what is plumber's grease, and why are you being charged for it? If I'm an accountant, should I charge clients for "money guy ink"?
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Brandon Hicks
Investor · Avilla, IN · Member since 2013 · 796 posts · 769 votes
6y
@Josh V.
$37.99 plus tax for the faucet. Plus the cost of pex connecting lines or braided lines if needed. $100-115 labor on top of that.
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Brian M Sweeney
MBA, CFP®, EA · Columbus, OH · Member since 2018 · 175 posts · 207 votes
6y
@Josh V. That’s probably not that far off. Should be closer to $400
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Kyle Smith
Rental Property Investor · San Diego · Member since 2019 · 109 posts · 87 votes
6y
@Josh V. that sounds like pretty expensive grease. They could've at least shared some with you, if you know what I mean
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Al Pat
Rental Property Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 325 posts · 253 votes
6y
@Josh V. I typically buy the faucet myself from Home Depot for around $79 and my plumber charges me anywhere between $50 and $75. Last occasion, I had tenant (who is handy) install a faucet himself, I provided the faucet, as a part of the deal he got $99 faucet.
You got totally ripped off. I thought property manager has to check with you, if the cost of repair exceeds $200. Not true in your case?
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Chad Daniel
Rental Property Investor · Des Moines, IA · Member since 2018 · 40 posts · 16 votes
6y
We've recently had a similar issue with one of our property managers. Sent request to approve $500 in labor to replace a dishwasher and a kitchen faucet. Shot a text to one of our contractors (different person) and $500 turned into $200 in about 2 minutes. This PM had recently hired the person working this issue, and the $500 bid from from a plumber, the $200 from a general contractor/handyman. [Those are not excuses for the PM, but maybe reasons.] We picked $200 and will have a nice family dinner, buy the kids Christmas gifts, and still thinking about what to do with what's left LOL
Ok, BP community... help me on a permanent corrective action. This will sound a bit cynical, but is true from a basic motivations POV. PM's are basically pass-thru entities on things like this. Receive a complaint and work to resolve the complaint with someone else's money (the owner's). The quicker PM get's it off their task list, the better (in the short term).
Are you familiar with any type of success alignment, incentive programs, profit sharing, etc. model successfully used between PM's and owners? I understand the long-term benefits of being a quality PM with customer interests in mind. Grows your business, etc. looking for other proven strategies. Thanks!
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Eric Hochevar
Member since 2023 · 1 post · 0 votes
2y
You should have paid about $230 to $285! Total for everything
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Andrew SyriosPro Member
Moderator
Residential Real Estate Investor · Kansas City, MO · Member since 2014 · 10k+ posts · 5k+ votes
2y
That sounds too high but it would depend on what kind of faucet they put in. Also, the $105 and $85 charge sound like they're for the same thing. I would ask about that and the type of faucet installed.
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Henry T.
Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
2y
I just replaced my faucet with a Delta from HD for $60. Done in 10 minutes. I'm amazed that it works and its not a leaking piece of junk. Most faucets these days have a problem right out of the box. I'm not sure I'd do that job for someone else for $500. I think what you paid is reasonable, maybe even a good deal. I've noticed labor is off the charts lately.
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