HOW TO SAVE $2000 on Your Funeral and $2000 More on Your Casket

Funeral Homes are not charities.  They are profit motivated businesses that try to get as many funerals as possible and charge as much as they can for each one.  Your job is to get the same funeral that they give everyone for a lower price.  Your local funeral director is probably the nicest person you have ever met.  He knows all your kids by first name, he knows that your daughter just got accepted to a local college and seems to really care what you say.  What a nice guy.  Honestly he is marketing.  Some day you will need him and BOB sure is a nice guy.  He will take care of me. 

This is how you save $2000 on your funeral and $2000 on your casket. 

From the minute you walk in the funeral home, they are just trying to determine WHAT PRICE SHEET to give you.  They have price sheet A at $12,500 and price sheet Z at $2500.  Your answers, your car, your address and how you carry yourself give them clues as to what price sheet to give you.  This is what you do and say to persuade them to give you the $2500 funeral + Casket instead of the $11,500 + casket.  DO NOT TELL THEM you are buying a casket online or they will simply add this lost income on the casket to the price of your funeral and then match our price on the casket.   Your goal is to get a $2500 funeral and our casket for $1350 for a  total of $3850.  It does you no good to tell them you are buying an online casket because they will give you a $1000 casket and a $6000 funeral for a $7000 total.  What is less $3850 or $7000?  The national average for funeral + Casket = $7000.  A good medium price for a funeral is $3500 plus a $3500 or $4500 casket for a total of $7000 to $8000.

The average funeral home only has 1 funeral per week.  They have to make $4000 to break even.  They are not in business to break even, so if they want to make $7000, then they charge you $8000 for the funeral because they pay about $1000 for the caskets.  Whom are they going to get that $8000 from, well of course from you if you are their one funeral for the week.  You have to persuade them that you do not have that much money and you are shopping around so if they want your business they need to give you $2500 funeral.  So you want them to offer you the $2500 funeral on their ITEMIZED PRICE SHEET.  Once it is in writing, they cannot change it.  Later that day or the next day, you can call and tell them that you do not need the casket because  SOMEONE FROM THE FAMILY HAS ALREADY PURCHASED ONE.  They will say THAT’S FINE because legally they have to accept our casket and not charge you anything to receive it.  Do not feel sorry for them because the average funeral takes them only 5 hours (2 hour viewing + 45min-1 hour for embalming + 30 minutes for face and hair + 1.5 hours for paperwork).  If you give them $2500 for 5 hours, that is still $500/hour and even you lawyer would be jealous of that kind of pay.

1)  Let them know you are SHOPPING AROUND and you ONLY HAVE 45 MINUTES.  The problem is they will try to keep you there all day to wear you down – so you sign everything.  No one shops around so let them know YOU ARE DEFINITELY Shopping around, but remember YOU LIKE THEIR CASKETS when they show them to you.

         I only have about 45 minutes because I need to be at the William Home for an appointment, and after that I have 2 other appointments this afternoon and 3 tomorrow. 

2)  You do not live close by and you live in a LOWER income area
         I live over by Oak Cliff near xyz park which is a few miles away, but then again I am just shopping around.  I do not have much money and price is everything.

3)   No Money, No insurance, not dead yet so you are checking around but he has only been given a few days to live.

         My dads lengthy illness has broke us and there is no insurance.  He is only expected to live a few more days, so again I am just checking around for the best price.

4)  Talk about $795 Cremation or maybe a traditional funeral for $1500

       My friend told me about some $795 cremations that are available.  What do you charge for cremation?  If we were to have a traditional funeral could you do it for $1500+casket?


Conclusion:   You are just shopping around, you have little money, there is no insurance   Remember it is their job to get your business and charge you as much as possible, but because you do not have much money, and have no insurance, do not live nearby, live in a poorer section and ARE SHOPPING AROUND, then they are forced to give you their BEST price on the funeral + casket.  The Federal Law requires them to give it to you in writing.  Once in writing, they cannot charge it. 

After shopping around you will find a funeral home that is $2500 to $3000 Plus casket.  You simply call them up and again say, we do not need the limo rides or the casket.  Someone from the family has already bought the casket and will be sending it in.

Make sure you get a vault price (the casket is put into a concrete vault which is already placed in the ground at the cemetery).  The normal price for the concrete vault is $600 to $800 but again can go as high at $2100 ????  The normal price to dig and fill the hole is $600 to $800 but again that can also go to up $2100?  Why?  Because no one knows what these prices are supposed to be.  Funeral homes thrive on ignorance.  Make sure you shop for good prices on the vault and to dig and fill the hole (open and close the grave).

Result is  $2500 + our $1350 delivered casket = $3850 total  instead of the national average of  $3500 funeral  +  $3500 casket = $7000. 
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Other items:  Everyone is on the payroll of the funeral home.  Pastors, priests, rabbis, coroners, hospital, hospices all get $200 to $300 referral money for sending them customers.   “Go down to the Jones funeral home and tell them that Pastor Stevens sent you”.  I sure will Pastor Stevens, and thanks a lot for the suggestion.  My pastor will know what is best for me. 

Do not let the coroner/hospice/hospital   release the body to any funeral home before you have pricing from a few different funeral homes.  Once the funeral home gets the body, THEY GOT YOU!  You have to pay whatever price they charge you and you will get the HIGHEST price sheet they think you can possibly pay.  If you try to move the body to another funeral home, they will charge you $3000.  You say why?  Because they own the body.  You must pay them before it can be moved.  Result, YOU PAY THE HIGHEST PRICE when the body is released to them before you have pricing from them. 

If your loved one dies suddenly at home and you call the funeral home, they will say “you should not have to bear the burden of having the body there, let us come pick him up”.  WHY?  Because once they have the body, they GOT YOU.  Again, you must run around and get some itemized pricing in writing, decide on a funeral home, and then have the body picked up by your favorite funeral home.  When they come out to pick up the body, they do not send thugs.  The people they send are taking note of  how nice your house is, what kind of cars do you drive and how nice the inside of the house is.  When they go back they know what you probably are capable of paying.  That is your price.

If the funeral home’s caskets are $4500 and ours is $1000 does that mean that theirs is better quality?  You know the old saying, “you get what you pay for”.  Well I say, “you pay for what you are willing to accept”.  If you can get a brand new car for $15,000 do you think a metal box that is stamped out in a machine and spray painted should be $4500.  A car has 1000 moving parts, how many does a casket have.  This is not like choosing between a Toyota and a Ford.  Cars need to go 100,000 or 200,000 and last you 5 or 6 years.  This is a metal box.  We sell to the funeral homes for the same $1000 that we sell to you.  They then typically mark them up 3x or 4x because again, they have to make $4000 on this funeral+casket just to break even.

 We sell caskets to funeral homes for $1000 also.  They then mark them typically up to $4000 to $5000.  Some funeral homes charge less for caskets, but then you see that their funeral costs are much higher.  It is all a game.  In the past year, many funeral homes have dropped their casket prices to $2500 but now their funeral price is $4500.  Again you will see the same $7000 total.  Again, you are looking for the $2500 funeral + our $1350 casket  = $3850 total.  Funeral homes will never give you the casket for $1350 unless they charge you $5000 or $6000 on the funeral.

This is simply a homework assignment for you the adult.  The funeral homes are not used to educated buyers that know their tricks.  Remember you are being graded.  If your casket + funeral is:

2500 funeral + $1350 casket = $3850  = You get an A
3000 funeral + $1350 casket = $4350  =  You get a  B
3500 funeral + $1350 casket = $4850  =  You get a  C
4000 funeral + $1350 casket = $5350  =  Not good
4500 funeral or more + $1350  =   You did not try at all.  

Do not tell them you are considering buying an online casket until you have their itemized price sheet + Vault price + Opening/Closing grave  prices all written down.  One funeral home called me to tell me that the client did not save any money by buying the casket from us because they did not have their burial expenses yet, so the funeral home just charged them $3600 for the concrete vault instead of the normal $600-$800 price.  Get all the prices in writing before you tell them about buying a casket elsewhere.