scope of work-material list rehab questions

[Dell Schlabach]

We are in the process of setting up better systems to run our rehabs. Curious about how
do you rehabbers write up your scope of work amd material lists for your own crews or subs.

Do you walk through the house with your GC and tell him what you want and have him write it down.

Do you write everything up in an orgamized form and then walk through with you GC

Do you walk from room to room and write everything on a legal pad?

Do you have a checksheet for all the common items and check the items that need done, with notes?

Do you create your own material list when you do your scope of work?

Do you have a predesigned material list that you fill in the blanks by vendor? Or write everything up on a legalpad from scratch for each project?

We spend a couple days recently at Lowes scanning upcs of our commonly used materials. They are feeding them into an excell spreadsheet for us to use for ordering materials, should save me 4/6 hours per project from walking around lowes each project.

Have a hundred more questions about setting up better systems but will stop there for now.

[Aaron McGinnis]

Something I see investors do all the time... (inexperienced ones in particular)

(Yes, this is a bit tongue-in-cheek)

You may think that you can 'see' all the problems with a house and write down a 'comprehensive' check list of them. The truth is that you won't see nearly as much as a good contractor.

So here's what happens with a written scope of work -

You give contractor "A" a written scope. He sucks and doesn't see a bunch of things that you also missed, and gives you a price for only what is on your scope. Later on, you find all the things you miss and it's a cost-overrun (and change order) bonanza.

You give contractor "B" that same written scope - but he's really on his game and points out a dozen things you missed, writes an entirely new scope of work for a lot more money.. but you decide that all that other stuff doesn't matter, or you skip straight to the bottom line without bothering to read his bid, and hire contractor "A" anyway.

(At the end, you hire the inferior contractor and end up paying for all the things you missed anyway.)

And without a written scope of work, you might ask?

After a haphazard walk-through of the property where you confusedly try to explain what you want...

Contractor "A" from our above scenario will write a small scope of work with a tiny price tag, because he sucks (or is disingenuous) and misses a lot of things. Later on, you end up paying for all the things he missed.

Meanwhile, contractor "B" walks through the house and catches a dozen things that the first guy missed. His quote is much higher and you reject it after only looking at the bottom line number... and go with contractor "A"

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Materials: You can try and pick things like faucets, lights, tubs, toilets. This is a fairly good idea and won't annoy a good contractor very much... although a good one will want you to give him the SKU numbers and let him manage the logistics. (A poor one will let you mess up the logistics and will be willing to suffer the consequences because he's desperate and hungry for work)

(Do not confuse toilets, tubs, and faucets with things like lumber, fasteners, sheetrock, mud, deck boards, decking, or the hundreds and hundreds of other materials that go into a renovation. This is a path to wrought and ruin. Also, don't try and buy these things. Let the contractor get what he needs.)