Rehab costs and contractors

[Alex Blonigan]

Is there any place, website etc where contractor bids, rehab or building costs from previous projects are stored by investors to compare/learn from? This info would be helpful and would be great in learning rehab costs in an expensive market vs. other markets.

Also, any recommendations on good information available regarding the costs of demo and building vs. costs of expensive rehabs in different markets?

[Zach Westerfield]

Check out the book Estimating Rehab Costs by J Scott. Its a great place to start. Prices can vary widely even in the same market. I have been trying to hone this down for a few years. The best way I have found so far is comparing multiple quotes. Even this isnt straight forward as every contractor splits line items differently, so there is a good bit of work involved to get apples to apples comparisons. Im a data nerd at heart so heavy excel work is something I enjoy. Im interested to see if your concept of sharing prices exists. This seems to be the one area of the real estate world where investors dont readily work together. Good contractors are so hard to find most investors tend to keep them close hold. I personally believe there has to be a better way of doing business.