All Forum Posts by: Aaron McGinnis

This is a pretty involved question. You should first contact your local building department and ask them what's involved in getting a permit. Most of the time, you can't get one as a homeowner unless the house will be your primary residence.

Will -

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. 

For years I used Excel, with spreadsheets of ever-increasing size and complexity. About 5 years ago I bought into a program called Planswift and spent about 2 years modifying and customizing it until it did what I wanted. Unfortunately, it's not really in any condition that i could hand it off to someone and let them run it. More like the custom car that you have to pump the gas 3 times, hit the brake, pump the gas again, then turn the key to get it to turn over. Also, it's a 12 year old program that will likely not be updated ever again.

I'm evaluating moving over to a program called Square, which is being run by expats from Planswift. It has a lot more potential for scalability, but I'll have to start over on building assemblies, inputting parts, and generating useful reports for ordering and quotation presentation. I found them a few years ago at the build show and met with them again this year; the program has really come a long way and is looking like it could finally be a viable alternative. To wit - 84 Lumber recently switched from Planswift to Square.

Other programs that are commonly used are Timberline, RS Means, and Xactimate. These programs are extremely expensive to implement are commonly aren't see outside of insurance claims and industrial/commercial applications (Think skyscrapers for Timberline)

The problem with all forms of on-screen estimating is -

1: Setting up the program so that it is accurate to your business and the way you do things (Assemblies, parts, labor)

2: Getting reports that are useful (For ordering and quotation)

3: Getting pricing information inputted

4: Actually having a system easy enough to use that someone doesn't have to spend 4 years learning it

It's so very easy to underestimate the difficulty in setting up a system. When you really think about how many parts are used in a typical house, it's mind-boggling. Depending on what you control, it can really be a challenge to get things set up for accuracy. Out of the box, most on-screen estimating programs are basically just measuring tools. You have to customize them in order to make them do something useful.

For project management we run Buildertrend. Been using it for about 10 years now and am so thoroughly tied in at the hip that I couldn't imagine not using it. 

Use a reputable firm for the VA, obviously. (We use mytasker) but otherwise... horrible things can happen in life and at some point you must accept that you have to trust people. Take reasonable precautions obviously.

Right now we pay about $11/hr for help doing things like data entry. An accountant will charge about 6 or 7 times that for data entry. Hiring a local person would be 2 times that minimum. When we off shored this job we reduced our cost for this work by 90 percent as we no longer needed someone full time in the office.

Key to staying in business... dont pay more for things than you have to. In the new global economy this means aggressively off shoring for repetitive tasks. Another thing we off shore is drafting work where we reduced our hourly rate for drafting from $150 to $15.  

Things I wish someone had told me early on -

1 - as soon as you have money to count, get an accountant to do, at minimum, monthly reconciliations and year end taxes

2 - use quickbooks. It is a virtually universal skillset and will grow beyond what you will likely ever need it to do

3 - put quickbooks on a remote server

4 - use a bank that allows for employee log in to view transactions

5 - hire a VA to do day to day data entry. We have a guy in India who does a fine job and is so inexpensive I would literally be stupid to do it myself.

Set these systems in place early. I failed to do this as a young business owner and fixing the many problems that inevitably arose cost me tens of thousands to pay someone else to fix. Learn from my mistakes!

Edit to add: if you already have several concurrent projects, have your accountant also give you a monthly job sheet and move to a basis of completion or accrual method of accounting directly... do not screw around with a cash basis as it will bite you early on!

I am currently in Japan. I flew here with my wife, business class. We are going to stay at some top notch absurd hotels and then fly back home, business class. We do this... well, we do it 3-4 times a year to various international locations (This year we spent part of May in France, Thanksgiving in Italy, etc.)

The transit for these trips cost me less than it would for me to drive from Atlanta to any beach.

We are doing this with credit card points made off the business credit card account. We pay everything we possibly can with that account, and rack up huge points doing so. (For example, our lumber yard takes credit card with no additional fees.)

Needless to say, I am a huge fan of using credit cards for this reason. 

However, if you are going to use the credit card in lieu of being able to actually pay for renovation costs, it can be a terrible plan. Credit cards are high interest propositions and can easily cost you a fortune if you don`t use them responsibly.

Research carefully before getting a card, as some have better benefits than others and some will have benefits that are better for YOU than others. There are plenty of websites that are like biggerpockets, but for credit card reward programs. We researched heavily before getting a card and re-evaluate about once a year to make sure we are still getting the best we can out of it.

I'd be more concerned about asbestos than lead.

 Yes, yes, and yes.

Correct. I'd add that in Atlanta going without someone who knows the ropes is going to be very hard to do right now. The city is making things increasingly absurd in terms of requirements. That may not need to be a licensed GC, just someone who has been through the process a time or two. 

Right now vertical costs at the moderately low end in the atlanta jurisdiction are going to be $115 to 120. 

In my experience investors are mostly looking for a capable, fast, professional contractor who is willing to bleed to death so the investor can make money. Wash, rinse, repeat as needed. The investor wont even say thank you when you run out of money and have to sell everything you own.

Focus on being the best business you can be. be capable, timely,  and honest. Also keep your guard up at all times and charge appropriately. Remember that the going rate is often the "going out of business" rate and do your best to avoid the race to the bottom.

You will find investors who appreciate this and will pay appropriately. You will find many more who wont accept honest rates. Accept that early on and plan accordingly.