Rehab tool accuracy question

[Luke Stewart]

Hey, I am in the process of buying a true duplex house hack and I was curious if anyone finds the Bigger Pockets Rehab Estimator tool to be accurate. The property has a small kitchen 212 sqft, I want to redo the tile floor, and new cabinets, counters, sink, and appliances. I would estimate 3 top cabinets, 4 lower cabinets, and at most 25 sqft of countertops (quartz would be the first choice), and a new fridge, dishwasher, and oven/microwave. The estimator is giving me a $63k rehab for the kitchen. This seems insane to me as when I do product lists from home depot or lowes I can barely get over 10k for the total cost of supplies. Even if I go expensive and spend 15k on supplies have a hard time seeing there being almost 50k in labor. Just curious about other's experiences with the rehab calculator.

[David Robertson]

Here's the problem with estimating tools that "estimate for you"....if you are using the new BP Rehab Estimator tool you have no idea how any of these prices are being calculated and most of the calculations are wrong.

I tried out the new BP "Rehab Estimator tool" and it looks like you have zero control over the cost of anything. All of the prices are provided by "Kukun" with no ability to customize the pricing or use your own prices.

Every investor across the nation should have their own pricing sheet that they use that uses their specific materials and labor prices from their local contractors. You should not be using someone else's prices (or Kukun's algorithm), you should be using your own prices from your local contractors and using the specific material selections you picked for your project.

Here's an example of how bad some of the data is in Kukun and why it's not practical for investors that are wanting to create accurate estimates for their projects:

I just added "Exterior Doors" to my project, and I was told that 4 single doors and 1 double door is $59,352 in Kansas City, MO which is 20x what I would actually pay as an investor.

I believe the above was a bug, but nonetheless there was no way for me to fix this issue or understand why or how it was calculating this value.

In summary, you don't need a fancy algorithm to tell you what something costs, you just need to know basic math and have a general understanding of how much materials cost and what contractors charge for specific repairs.

For example, I have 5 exterior doors I need replaced (4 single entry doors, 1 french patio) this is how I would estimate the costs:

- Single exterior door labor 4 x $250/each = $1,000

- Single door material 4 x $300/each = $1,200

- French patio door labor 1 x $400/each = $400

- French patio door material 1 x $750/each = $750

Total = $3,350

Add 25% profit for your contractor and the quote should be around $5k for 5 doors.

The hard part is finding out what your contractors charge, after that it's just basic math that you can do in a spreadsheet.