how do you budget and select finishes efficiently?

[Rick Baggenstoss]

I'm hoping there are some tips or tools out there to help:

- more accurately budget for finishes during deal analysis phase

- more quickly translate budgeted/preliminarily selected finishes to a 'key list of finishes"

- select specific finishes down to sku level

I'm struggling to quickly and move from allowances at the deal analysis phase to more detailed selections.

I'm imagining having some pre-packaged selections which ultimately link to skus that I can select when doing my deal analysis or refining the budget with a GC. It would include , cabinet skus/colors, counter sf, # of interior paint colors, door knob selection(s), lighting fixture selections, tile selections, etc. ... more detail.

How and when do you do this before or after you hire your GC? I'd like to get to this detail before finalizing the contract with the GC, but without delaying the project so a tool and pre-packaged selections seems like the right approach.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Rick