Xactimate & XactRemodel

[Terry Portier]

Anyone have any experience with this software? ALOT of insurance companies and contractors use it as an estimating tool. Claims are it can accurately estimate any rehabs, material (“according to local pricing and labor”). XactRemodel lets you sketch it, rendor in 3D views, drag and drop in virtual tours, you can even estimate the replacement cost of an entire home or design and build one. Has line items for fire and flood restorations etc…

We have the demo but they have locked out the estimating tools, just wondering how accurate it is? Once you buy this there are no refunds.

[Cooper B.]

I use xactimate extensively in my day job. J Scott is correct about the retail costs. Basically it will give you the cost to call up a big general contracting firm and have them take care of everything; this will be significantly higher than finding a smaller independent contractor or handyman.

For instance, in the above example for the garbage disposal, that $400 price likely includes a base fee for both a plumber and an electrician to do the disposal. But of course the job is so simple that it doesn't really require either a licensed plumber or a licensed electrician, much less both of them.

However, it is really impressive software and can be useful for an investors purposes. For example, you can use the labor and materials pricing to get a pretty good idea of what materials will cost for a job. In general, it is more accurate as the size/scope of the job increases. Smaller jobs can be very skewed.