All Forum Posts by: David Robertson

I'm seeing the same thing here in Kansas City...we are on mandatory stay at home orders, and yet I had 11 on-site showings on our house we listed this morning 😲...there are definitely still plenty of buyers out there that are looking!

The problem right now is there is a shortage of labor which results in increased demand and increased labor costs.  

With basically everything grinding to a halt right now and a bunch of renovation projects temporarily on hold, there will be a pent-up demand for labor later this year (hopefully when the virus is contained).  

So I wouldn't necessarily expect labor costs to go down in the Summer because contractors could be busier than ever (if things get back to normal).

However, if this thing continues to escalate, a lot of people could be looking for work which you might see some benefit of that...but I wouldn't count on it...

Hard to say, unprecedented times!

Learning to estimate rehab costs is a process that takes time and experience.

This is my boilerplate response to people for learning how to estimate rehab costs:

#1 Read the Book on Estimating Rehab Costs

JScott's 'The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs' is a great resource for new rehabbers to learn how to Estimate Repair Costs on 25 common rehab repairs.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/the-complete-g...

#2 Explore Lowes and Home Depot to Learn About Material Pricing

Take a tour through Lowes and Home Depot (or their websites) and look at finishes materials and fixtures that you will consider using in your rehab projects. This will help you get a better idea of what tile, hardwood, carpet, plumbing fixtures and light fixtures costs for your rehabs.

#3 Contact Local Contractors for Labor Pricing

Call local Subcontractors and get budget pricing for common repairs on your typical rehab project.

For example, call a roofer and ask what their average cost per Square of Architectural Asphalt Shingle Roofing would be on a 1,500 sf house, with a 6/12 pitch.

Note: Some contractors will be reluctant to share pricing without seeing the property, but tell them you are just looking for a rough budget number you can use on future projects.

#4 Compile Your Prices into a Spreadsheet or Estimating Software

Once you start to get a better understanding of Labor and Material costs you will want to store this data into a spreadsheet or software that you can use to help you streamline the estimating process.

The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs comes with a spreadsheet that you can use to help you populate your own database of labor pricing and material pricing. Or you can download my estimating templates I have in my Biggerpockets fileplace:

Simple Estimate Spreadsheet

Detailed Estimating Spreadsheet

There are other Estimating Softwares available as well which can help you manage the Estimating process as well...

#5 Practice, Practice, Practice

Walkthrough potential rehab properties (or find properties virtually online) and practice creating detailed scopes of work, quantifying repairs and estimating rehab costs for the projects.

#6 Get Your First Rehab Project

You can practice all you want, but ultimately you will learn the most about estimating rehab costs by actually rehabbing a house. Getting your first rehab project will require you to create a SOW, talk to contractors, compare and review bid proposals, review budgets, & make countless trips to Home Depot.

​You will inevitably make mistakes and underestimate things, but you will learn 90% of what you know by just doing your first rehab!

If you aren't comfortable estimating costs or aren't willing to put in the work to learn how to estimate rehab costs then you need to Team-Up, Partner, Or Hire Someone Who Can Help You Estimate Rehab Costs.

Pay A GC For A Consultation And Property Walk Through

You can hire a General Contractor to provide a consultation to walk the property for you and provide an detailed estimate breakdown of what they would charge for the repairs to the property. Expect to pay between $200 to $500 to have a contractor provide a consultation.

Partner With Someone That Has Construction Experience

To get your feet wet, you could partner with another house flipper, contractor or construction professional that could help with Estimating Costs.

Hey Greg,

Thanks for the info on NOLA!  I've been to New Orleans a few times and have always had a good time!  I consider myself a Gumbo connoisseur, so I enjoy trying different places while I'm down there.  Which local gumbo places would you recommend?

I've always liked Homestyler.  It's free, easy to learn and user friendly.

I recently tried MagicPlan so that I could theoretically scan a room to auto-generate the floor plan, but I honestly didn't have much luck...every time I would try to 'add a room corner' the corner would be offset the wall by several inches so I didn't have much confidence in it's measurements...For that reason, I don't think I'd ever use MagicPlan for actual construction documents or measurements.  MagicPlan gets good reviews and I have heard good things, so I suppose I could be doing something wrong 🤷‍♂️...

The House Flipping Spreadsheet will not work in Apple Numbers.  You will need Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011 or newer.  Otherwise we have a Google Sheets compatible version which can be opened and utilized out of your web-browser.

Hey Jessica,

I'm the founder of the House Flipping Spreadsheet.  We do have over 300 hundred reviews online in various places on SoftwareAdvice, Trustspot.io, Trustpilot.com, etc which are all verified, un-moderated reviews from our customers.

I agree, Canva is amazing!  Just started using it a couple months ago and they have hundreds of templates you can use to help you build marketing materials.

@Eli Gilbert

Desired profit is not a calculated amount.  Desired profit is how much profit you want to make on the deal.

When analyzing a deal you should never allow the amount the seller is asking for a property determine what you offer.  You should always be utilizing how much profit determine what you should offer.

Generally, I shoot for around 12 to 15% of the After Repair Value for profit.  As an example, if a property is reselling for $200,000, I would want to make $24,000 to $30,000.

And as Bob mentioned I would recommend getting The Book on Flipping Houses which goes way more in-depth into the analysis process.