All Forum Posts by: David Robertson

It's really going to be hard to provide any realistic feedback without knowing the size of the property, the quantities of work and more details on the specific repairs and location of the project.

How many square feet is the property?  How many beds, bathrooms?  

• Drywall: $20,000 <-Re-drywalling entire property?
• Flooring: $18,500 <-What's the square footage of flooring?  What type of flooring?
• Windows: $17,000 <-How many windows?
• Bathrooms: $16,000 <- How many bathrooms?
• Roof: $12,000 <-How many squares of roofing?
• Siding: $10,000 <-How many squares of siding?
• Paint: $9,000 <-What's the property sf?  Exterior and interior painting?
• Cabinets: $8,500
• Appliances: $8,000 <-Probably double what I would expect to spend on a standard appliance package
• HVAC: $7,000 <-New furnace and ac?
• Doors: $5,000 <-Exterior and Interior doors?  How many?
• Counters: $4,000 
• Contingency: $15,000
• Total: $150,000

Although you have a bulk of the items covered, you are also missing several items that could add up to thousands of dollars of work:

Exteriors

• Landscaping?
• Decks?
• Driveway?
• Garage?

Interiors

• Demolition
• Framing?
• Interior trim

MEP Systems

• Plumbing hot water heater/supply piping/waste piping
• Electrical (panel, wiring, lighting)

Software development is expensive.  Just speaking generally, $2,000 is not nearly a big enough budget to build anything useful.

I find it hard to believe there isn't already a well developed scheduling/calendar SaaS product that someone else has already developed that you could pay an affordable monthly subscription.

Here's 3 I found just doing a google search ranging from $8 to $50 per month.

https://calendly.com/

https://simplybook.me/en/

https://acuityscheduling.com/s...

Sometimes it's easier (and cheaper) to just pay someone else a monthly subscription instead of trying to re-create the wheel.

Here's the questions I generally ask a new contractor that I've never worked with before:

What Are The Contractor's Qualifications?

​​This one is misleading because the company could be new, but the contractor could have 10 years of experience, so be sure to find out how much construction experience the contractor has in the industry.

​It's important to find out the scale & scope of work for the Contractor's typical project. Does the contractor typically only work on small bathroom remodels or are they qualified to manage a full rehab project?

Will the Contractor be self-performing the work or hiring other contractors to perform the work? It's important to understand who will be performing the work on your project and making sure that the subcontractors your contractor are utilizing are qualified, licensed & insured as well.

Does The Contractor Have A Portfolio Or References?

Ask your Contractor if they can provide a portfolio of past projects that highlights the Contractor's quality and craftsmanship. Your Contractor should be able to provide marketing materials or a link to their website where you can see photos of their completed projects.

Check for reviews online for your Contractor to see what other past clients are saying about the Contractor:

• Google Reviews
  
• Facebook Reviews
  
• Thumbtack/Houzz/Angi
  
• Better Business Bureau

What's The Contractor's Availability?

​Ask your Contractor what other projects they currently have going or planned during your project to understand how your project will be prioritized.

If your Contractor does have multiple projects going at once, find out how many employees they have and ask if they have enough manpower to staff your project. You should generally have at least 1 or 2 workers on-site everyday in order to keep your projects on-schedule. (No lost days!)

Find out when the Contractor can start the project and discuss the time frame the contractor estimates it will take to complete the project.

How Does The Contractor Handle Unforeseen Issues Or Change Orders?

When rehabbing houses, unforeseen issues are going to inevitably happen on your projects, which can often arise in arguments, conflicts and change orders. The way that you and your Contractor manage these issues are essential to maintaining a strong working relationship, staying on-track and on-budget.

1. What is the Change Order process?
   
2. How are Change Orders communicated and agreed upon?
   
3. How are Change Orders priced?

Is The Contractor Licensed And Insured?

For certain trades and scopes of work (generally Structural, Plumbing, HVAC, Electrical) you will need to hire a Licensed Contractor to perform the work. In some areas, your General Contractor and Subcontractors will need to be licensed in order to pull permits for the project. Check your local building department to determine which Contractors need to be licensed on your projects.

Always make sure your General Contractor or Subcontractors working on your project have their own General Contractor Liability insurance. The insurance should cover:

1. Bodily injury to you, your family or visitor's of the property.
   
2. Any accidental damage to your property.
   
3. Workman's compensation for injuries to the contractor's or subcontractors employees.​

Has The Contractor Ever Had Legal Issues?

1. Does the Contractor have any legal judgements, lawsuits, or arbitration proceedings pending or in the past?
   
2. Has the Contractor filed a Lien on a property?

There's a lot more than just "paint" in this estimate it appears.  Here's a few reasons I don't think $6k is unreasonable:

• Removing a popcorn ceiling and retexturing is generally about a $1/sf by itself (1,400sf x $1.00/sf) = ~$1,400
• Removing wallpaper can be labor intensive and can require additional wall prep.  If there is wallpaper throughout the house this could easily be a thousand dollars or more.
• Painting all trim, base and doors is very labor intensive work.  If the existing trim and doors have a high gloss lacquer coating the painter will likely need to sand and prep all of the woodwork.

If you were just painting walls and ceilings and touching up trim I would expect to pay around $3,000, but with the additional $1,400 for ceiling retexturing, and $1,000+ for wallpaper removal and additional labor to sand and prep all woodwork the $6k quote doesn't seem too unreasonable.

The only way to know if the quote is high is to get 2 other quotes from other painting contractors for comparison.

I have a estimating spreadsheet in my fileplace that is a similar framework to JScotts Book on Estimating Rehab Costs.  It has 24 categories and nearly 500 common repair items and prices that you can use to help you estimate costs, see link below:

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

Hey Justin,

Learning to estimate rehab costs is a process that takes time and experience.  Here is the process that I recommend for learning how to estimate rehab costs:

#1 Read 'The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs'

First, you need to build a foundational knowledge of construction, inspecting properties and putting together a detailed SOW.

JScott's 'The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs' is a great resource for new rehabbers to learn how to Estimate Repair Costs on 25 common rehab repairs.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/the-complete-g...

#2 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.

#3 Contact Local Contractors for Labor Pricing / Hire a GC to Consult

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.

Note: Some contractors will be reluctant to share pricing without seeing the property, but tell them you are just looking for a rough budget number you can use on future projects.

You can also pay a General Contractor a consulting fee of a couple of hundred dollars (per house) to walkthrough a few properties with you and provide a detailed estimate of prices that you can use as your 'menu for future projects.

#4 Compile Your Prices into 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.

The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs comes with a spreadsheet that you can use to help you populate your own database of labor pricing and material pricing. Or you can download my estimating templates I have in my Biggerpockets fileplace:

Simple Estimate Spreadsheet

Detailed Estimating Spreadsheet

There are other Estimating Softwares available as well which can help you manage the Estimating process as well...

#5 Practice, Practice, Practice

Walkthrough potential rehab properties (or find properties virtually online) and practice creating detailed scopes of work, quantifying repairs and estimating rehab costs for the projects.

You don't necessarily need a software, but you need knowledge and experience to estimate rehab costs which unfortunately is something that is learned over time. 

Here's the process I recommend for learning how to estimate rehab costs.

#1 Read 'The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs'

First, you need to build a foundational knowledge of construction, inspecting properties and putting together a detailed SOW.

JScott's 'The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs' is a great resource for new rehabbers to learn how to Estimate Repair Costs on 25 common rehab repairs.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/the-complete-g...

#2 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.

#3 Contact Local Contractors for Labor Pricing / Hire a GC to Consult

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.

Note: Some contractors will be reluctant to share pricing without seeing the property, but tell them you are just looking for a rough budget number you can use on future projects.

You can also pay a General Contractor a consulting fee of a couple of hundred dollars (per house) to walkthrough a few properties with you and provide a detailed estimate of prices that you can use as your 'menu for future projects.

#4 Compile Your Prices into 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.

The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs comes with a spreadsheet that you can use to help you populate your own database of labor pricing and material pricing. Or you can download my estimating templates I have in my Biggerpockets fileplace:

Simple Estimate Spreadsheet

Detailed Estimating Spreadsheet

There are other Estimating Softwares available as well which can help you manage the Estimating process as well...

#5 Practice, Practice, Practice

Walkthrough potential rehab properties (or find properties virtually online) and practice creating detailed scopes of work, quantifying repairs and estimating rehab costs for the projects.

#6 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!

Hi Miles,

I just uploaded my latest spreadsheet which has an analyzer to calculate the maximum purchase price and a repair estimator tool for estimating rehab costs:

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

The estimator tool has a database of nearly 500 repair items and prices that you can use to help you get started and adjust to fit your specific market and materials you are using on your projects.

Yes, if you aren't comfortable estimating costs on your own then you need to team-up, partner, or hire a GC as a consultant that can help you estimate your first few projects.

Since you don't have a property under contract, and GC's are extremely busy right now you are probably going to have a hard time finding a GC that will give you an estimate for free, so be prepared to pay them a few hundred dollars for their services.

Be upfront with the General Contractor and tell them your situation that you are a new investor that is trying to learn how to estimate rehab costs and that you need a detailed "menu" of prices that you can use to help budget in the future.

You should give them a detailed list upfront of everything you would expect them to price so they can easily put together a SOW and estimate for the project.

Ultimately, you need to learn how to estimate rehab costs on your own so you don't have to rely on a GC to put together an estimate.

Here is the process I recommend to learn the basics so you can start to feel more comfortable estimating rehab costs and putting together budgets:

#1 Read 'The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs'

First, you need to build a foundational knowledge of construction, inspecting properties and putting together a detailed SOW.

JScott's 'The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs' is a great resource for new rehabbers to learn how to Estimate Repair Costs on 25 common rehab repairs.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/the-complete-g...

#2 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.

#3 Contact Local Contractors for Labor Pricing / Hire a GC to Consult

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.

Note: Some contractors will be reluctant to share pricing without seeing the property, but tell them you are just looking for a rough budget number you can use on future projects.

You can also pay a General Contractor a consulting fee of a couple of hundred dollars (per house) to walkthrough a few properties with you and provide a detailed estimate of prices that you can use as your 'menu for future projects.

#4 Compile Your Prices into 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.

The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs comes with a spreadsheet that you can use to help you populate your own database of labor pricing and material pricing. Or you can download my estimating templates I have in my Biggerpockets fileplace:

Simple Estimate Spreadsheet

Detailed Estimating Spreadsheet

There are other Estimating Softwares available as well which can help you manage the Estimating process as well...

#5 Practice, Practice, Practice

Walkthrough potential rehab properties (or find properties virtually online) and practice creating detailed scopes of work, quantifying repairs and estimating rehab costs for the projects.

#6 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!

I'm not sure what Brandon uses, but I use Snagit (by techsmith) which allows you to quickly take screenshots or screen recordings of your computer.  Might be worth looking into.