All Forum Posts by: David Robertson

I wish I could be there, but sadly I will be out of town during this event!

Why not just analyze your deals in your own spreadsheet?  The BP calculators don't have any revolutionary calculations or metrics...It's mostly basic math you can do in a spreadsheet.

There's a bunch of customizable spreadsheets available in the BP file place:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Hi Brian,

I'm the founder of FlipperForce, and yes we're recently acquired by Fund That Flip.  I am still running the show for FlipperForce and will continue to be heavily involved in working on the product vision.

By joining Fund That Flip which is a leading nationwide lender for real estate deals we will have more resources to invest in our software platform and improve our product and services for our customers.  We are already starting to make significant investments in our team and are currently in the process of filling multiple software engineer positions so we can knock out our software roadmap faster than ever. 

Now that we are apart of FTF we can also provide fast and reliable capital to fund your real estate deals.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Thanks!

Hey @Jonathan Klemm thanks for reaching out. 

Yep, Flipper Force is a nationwide project management software platform built specifically to help real estate investors manage their house flips and rehab business.  Our parent company Fund That Flip provides capital to fund your deals.

I'll DM you to setup a time to talk!

Bidding on work is a cost of doing business and is generally a "sales/business development expense" for a contractor.

With that said, I also understand that the average residential GC doesn't have a dedicated estimating department so bidding on work can be very time consuming and a big waste of time if you are dealing with tire kickers.  If a investor doesn't have a property under contract they are a tire kicker and the chances of them getting the property under contract are slim to none.  If they have the property under contract, at least there is a legitimate project that is likely going to happen.

I spent 7 years as a estimator in the commercial business, and trust me we did plenty of "free" estimates for legitimate clients and legitimate projects...but there were also a lot of projects we did not bid on because the clients were tire kickers and the projects were pipe dreams and we didn't want to waste our time.

If I'm an investor with a legitimate project, I wouldn't expect to pay for a bid.

If you are a GC that is so incredibly busy right now that you are backlogged for months, don't have time to bid on work and are charging a fee to put together a preliminary estimate then it sounds like you probably aren't that hungry for work and probably aren't the right contractor type for a house flipper to begin with.

If you are a new house flipper and are completely new to construction and renovations and have absolutely no clue how much stuff costs you are currently in that awkward stage.

If you don't feel comfortable estimating rehab costs then you need to team-up, partner, or hire someone who can help you estimate rehab costs.

#1 Pay a GC for a Consultation and Property Walk Through

You can hire a General Contractor to provide a consultation to walk the property for you and provide an detailed estimate breakdown of what they would charge for the repairs to the property.

Be honest with the Contractor up front and tell them that you are a new real estate investor and are trying to get a better understanding of construction costs in the area.

Creating Estimate Proposals can take Contractors several hours to create, so be respectful of their time. If you don't have the property under contract you will likely have to pay the Contractor for their time ($150 to $300).

#2 Partner with Someone That Has Construction Experience

To get your feet wet, you could partner with another house flipper, contractor or construction professional that could help with Estimating Costs.  In a partnership, both parties need to bring something to the table...If you don't have construction experience, what experience or skills can you offer to the partnership?

#3 Hire An Employee

You could hire a part-time or full-time employee that has Construction Experience that could handle the process of estimating the repairs and creating the Scopes of Work for your projects.

In conclusion, learning to estimate rehab costs takes time and experience, so if you aren't willing to put in the effort to learn how to estimate rehab costs then you need someone on your team to take on this important task!

Learning about renovation costs is a process that takes time and experience.  Here is my boilerplate list of the steps you should take to learn how to estimate rehab costs:

#1 Read the Book on Estimating Rehab Costs

Expert house flipper J Scott discusses the fundamentals of budgeting and pricing rehab costs and reveals the steps, tips, and tricks he uses to accurately estimate costs for 25 common trade categories and hundreds of repairs. The Book on Estimating Rehab costs is a must-read book for new rehabbers that struggle estimating rehab costs for their rehab projects.

#2 Walk Through Distressed Properties and Spy on the Competition

Walk through a couple of completed rehabs that a local real estate investor has completed in your local market and study the types of repairs they made and the level of finishes they installed in the property.

Spying on the competition and understanding what buyers are looking for will help you determine what type of repairs and level of finishes you need to install in your own properties.

#3 Explore Lowes and Home Depot to Learn About Material Pricing

Take a tour through Lowes and Home Depot (or their websites) and look at finishes materials and fixtures that you will consider using in your rehab projects. This will help you get a better idea of what tile, hardwood, carpet, plumbing fixtures and light fixtures costs for your rehabs.

#4 Contact Local Contractors For Pricing

Call local Subcontractors and get budget pricing for common repairs on your typical rehab project.

For example, call a roofer and ask what their average cost per Square of Architectural Asphalt Shingle Roofing would be on a 1,500 sf house, with a 6/12 pitch.

#5 Build Out Your Database in a Spreadsheet or Estimating Software!

Once you start to get a better understanding of Labor and Material costs you will want to store this data into a spreadsheet or software that you can use to help you streamline the estimating process.

#6 Practice, Practice, Practice

Walk through distressed fixer-upper properties (or find properties virtually online) and practice creating detailed scopes of work, quantifying repairs and estimating rehab costs for the projects.

This will help you get acquainted with common rehab repairs, rehab costs & estimating terminology.

#7 Get Your First Rehab Project!

You can practice all you want, but ultimately you will learn the most about estimating rehab costs by actually rehabbing a house. Getting your first rehab project will require you to create a SOW, talk to contractors, compare and review bid proposals, review budgets, & make countless trips to Home Depot.

You will inevitably make mistakes and underestimate things, but you will learn 90% of what you know by just doing your first rehab!

#8 Learn from Your Experience!

Once you complete your first house flip project, take some time to review your actual costs that you spent on the project and compare it to your initial estimates and budgets.

Reviewing your final numbers will help you gain a better understanding of how much you actually spent in each Category and identify areas where you underestimated cost and blew your budget.

When you buy your next house flip project you will have this valuable learning experience to help you build a more accurate estimate!

As your continue to do more and more houses, you'll gradually gain more experience and be able to develop accurate estimates quickly and confidently!

We’re excited to announce we just launched our new Rookie plan for beginner and part-time real estate investors. The Rookie plan is a streamlined version of our other plans featuring our most popular tools, our Flip Analyzer, BRRRR Analyzer, and Rehab Estimator (all outlined below) to help you get your house flip under contract! Best of all — it’s totally free.

Sign up for a now, and

Flip Analyzer — never buy a bad deal again.

Use our (AKA House Flipping Calculator) to calculate project costs, profitability, and the maximum purchase price (MPP) you should offer for an investment property.

Our Flip Analyzer is our simple, step-by-step calculator that takes you through each step of the analysis process so you don’t overlook any project costs and know exactly how much you should offer for your property, so you don’t overpay!
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BRRRR Analyzer — upgrade your cash flow game.

The BRRRR investment strategy is a hybrid flip/rental strategy where you BUY an investment property at a discount, REHAB it, RENT it to a long-term tenant, and then REFINANCE the property with a long-term, low-interest mortgage — and REPEAT.

Our has a simple, step-by-step workflow to easily calculate short-term equity and forecast long-term cash flow potential.

• Short-Term Sweat Equity from buying the property at a discount and increasing the property value by making smart renovations.
• Long-Term Cash Flow from renting out the property to a long-term tenant.
• Long-Term Amortization from paying down the principal of your loan balance.
• Long-Term Appreciation from the property value appreciating over time.
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Rehab Estimator — create a detailed scope of work without a contractor.

There are a lot of repair calculators and estimators available to rehabbers, but we find that if you’re having to figure out the average cost of a roof, fixing window panes, or replacing flooring to calculate your expenses, that’s not much better than the calculator on your phone.

Our has common costs built in to help you get a more accurate estimate, without having to know the inventory of your local hardware store.
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Our new Rookie plan is a great way to help you start analyzing your first deals so you can get start building your real estate empire!

While you’re getting your account set up, our tutorial videos can help you get the most from your tools. We’ve also created case study videos to show how these tools work in real situations — sometimes saving tens of thousands of dollars.

ICYMI; We had some big news last month at FlipperForce!

We were acquired by Fund That Flip, Inc. and we are now investing heavily in growing our FlipperForce team and building exciting new tools and features! 

If you are a software engineer (or know someone) that wants to work at a fast growing fintech and proptech that is revolutionizing the house flipping and real estate investing industry please reach out!

Here's some more information on our Careers page about current opportunities!

https://www.flipperforce.com/c...

The 2026 World Cup is an extremely big deal for Kansas City which is a relatively small market.  In fact, KC ranks 33rd in media market size in the US.

The main reason KC won the World Cup bid, was because it is the "soccer capital of the US".  We have world class soccer stadiums and training facilities (Sporting KC, KC Current), as well as a huge soccer fan base.

There are major infrastructure and development projects going on in the urban core that will transform KC over the next 4 years leading up to hosting the World Cup.

- New international airport (completion 2023)

- New Kansas City Current women's soccer stadium

- New women's soccer training facility

- New Royals downtown baseball stadium (TBD)

- New downtown baseball entertainment district (TBD)

- Street car extension to the Plaza

- Street car extension to NKC (TBD)

- New Buck O'Neil Bridge (2024)

- Old Buck O'Neil Bridge Renovation/Park (TBD)

- Arrowhead Stadium renovations to accommodate World Cup

- Arrowhead Stadium entertainment district??? (TBD)

- Downtown South Loop Cap/Park

- West Bottoms New Master Planned Development