Portland, OR Cost of Repair Estimating

[John Williamson]

Hey Everyone,

I have been actively on the house search for just over 2 months now. We've made 10 offers on flip properties, but have been beat out by higher bidders each time. One good thing: my wife and I are being very conservative and are sticking to our Max Allowable Offer 'guns'. We back out if we believe the profit is too tight.

BUT our main linchpin for determining our offer is the fabled COST OF REPAIR ESTIMATE. I am not a contractor and don't have construction experience. We have walked through a couple of the properties with a contractor, but the prices he's dishing out are so dang expensive for (what we believed to be) low cost improvements. I'm afraid that we are oozing FIRST TIME INVESTOR and will be taken advantage of on the cost front with contractors. And this is taking me out of the game because my max offer is so low

I am about to engage in creating a comprehensive 'cost of repair estimating' worksheet for virtually any rehab item for a house. I will be spending countless hours in research and 'excel time' to do this. I just want a much more systematic and AUTOmatic way to quickly assess repair costs on a property given square footage, # of bed/bathrooms, size of kitchen, size of yard, area of roofing, etc.

My question to anyone out there: is there any tool available that will do this quickly and accurately (within +/-10%)? I am growing weary of spending upwards of 1 hr per property I'm analyzing, while maintaining a W-2 job, new marriage, and having fun with my awesome 5-month old baby boy (pic attached!)

Any help would be greatly appreciated for this desperate investor on a mission!!!

John W.