Buying a Gazebo

Buying a gazebo should not be something done on a whim. You drive by a neighbors house and see a gazebo in the yard, or you go to a family members house and they've set up a garden gazebo, so then you think "yea, wonder where I can buy a gazebo." Now you hop online (a big mistake for some people b/c they dont' shop around lol) and type in "gazebos". Boom, up comes a ton of pages. You click the first one that pops up, see a couple of pictures and think, sweet, you dish out the credit card info kick back, and wait.

There are several things wrong with this approach. Number one, most important. You forgot one Moma taught you, how to shop around. You never ever, I repeat never, buy something that is mass produced without comparing it.. You need to compare at the very minimum five places. Especially with something that is going to cost you well beyond $100.

Now, what other mistake did you make? You took the human aspect out of it. When people sell things online, that is it, either you push a button or you don't. Now, when you go into a place then the old barter skill comes into play. I watched a show on the news one time. This lady saved like $400 dollars over her shopping day (must be nice to spend that much one day shopping) simply by asking for discounts. The retailer wants to make as much profit as possible from their gazebo, but they might let $100-$200 go off the price tag if they think it will convince you to buy. What would you rather have? The possibility of $1400, or $1200 in hand? Exactly. All of that is thrown right out the window with online shopping. While I do like the convenience you pay for that convenience in the long run.

So now that we have decided to go to our local shop (or you can go online, just be careful)what do we need? We need a game plan. There are all kinds of gazebos. You have different materials, different price ranges, assembled, kits. Our best bet is to ask a sales associate for help, or come back here for more in-depth articles in the future covering each aspect of the different types of gazebos.

Oh yea, the reason I said be careful online. I went to a beach one time. Wow things looked great on the website of the place I would be staying. Want to know what happened when I got there? So many mosquitoes I had to get another place to stay. One of the people with me got bit like nine times just carrying luggage from the car inside. You may come across a website that has nice pictures of gazebos, but then all you get in the mail is a box of crap wood and junk fasteners. Do yourself a favor, take the time to educate yourself before rushing in to buy a gazebo. Especially if you go all out on a fancy carved wood gazebo or something.