Which paint should I use for my flip?

[Johnnie Fair]

I bought a short sale for 315 in a 500k area, the home has not been painted before, the home should be painted but I want to keep the entire budget for the flip below 10k. I don't want to buy cheap paint but I don't want to buy the $60 dollars a gallon stuff either. I've looked at Craigslist and found paint but its a set color and I don't want to do that either. Anyone have any tips for where to find good paint at close out prices? One other note I am aware that lowes, Home Depot, and sherwin Williams do have paint returns that they sell cheap.

[Brandon Turner]

Last year I decided to do a test on Paint -

I bought the exact same color from several different places and brands including:

1.) Home Depot Glidden
2.) Home Depot Behr
3.) Home Depot Behr Paint and Primer in One
4.) Home Depot Speed-Wall
5.) Home Depot Kilz ProX (Kilz's paint, not the primer)
6.) Sherwin Williams High End
7.) Sherwin Williams Low End
8.) Wal-Mart ColorPlace
9.) Wal-Mart Dutch Boy.

And here is what I found:

Every single kind of paint required 2 coats (except for one) and they all looked the same after. Yes - the expensive stuff from Sherwin Williams (at $50 a gallon) covered MUCH better than the cheap stuff elsewhere - but it still required 2 coats. The higher end stuff covered like 90% well the first coat, where the lower end stuff only covered maybe 60% - but they all needed 2 coats. EXCEPT the SpeedWall from Home Depot. That took 3 coats. Terrible stuff - don't use it.

So, as a result of my study - I decided to always buy from WalMart and get the "ColorPlace" stuff when it's convenient because it's only $80 for a 5 gallon bucket.

However - my WalMart has TERRIBLE customer service and I would sometimes wait ten or fifteen minutes for someone to come mix it. Not cool. So if I don't feel like waiting - I'll get the Kilz ProX from Home Depot, at roughly $100 for a 5 gallon bucket for the SemiGloss.

As for Color - I use the exact same for every flip, every rental, everything: it's called "Country White" and it's one of the "in stock" ones at Walmart, but I carry the card with me so I can get it color-matched wherever I happen to buy from.

Thoughts?