Construction Cost Checklist

[Robert Palladino]

Hello All,

I recently lost a good deal to someone who moved faster than me. Without getting too far into the weeds, this particular deal involved turning a single family home into a duplex. The property was set up in a way that this would have been a relatively easy transition, and it was on a multi-family lot. It was in decent shape, but did need some work. All-in-all, it was a great value add opportunity. Before I finished the construction take-offs, someone else went under contract. The lesson that I learned from this is that I need to develop a system to analyze construction costs on the fly. 

My thought is that I would need a checklist of sorts. It would list all of the major components of a home, along with their estimated associated costs per unit. I would add a contingency multiplier to the total for added cushion. The idea would be to take this checklist on all of my property walk-throughs, and check items off as I see them. If I make this in Excel, I could have it on a tablet, and generate my construction estimate in real time. Obviously it would only provide a rough estimate, but I think it could be a really useful tool for making quick decisions. 

So, I am asking a couple of things here:

1) has anyone made something like this that you would be willing to share?

2) Do you have any suggestions for making it more efficient or accurate?

3) Is this a terrible idea for reasons that I'm not seeing? 

4) Any advice at all would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Rob