Best estimating software for new residential; Homes and renovatiobs

[Fine Finish]

I've been using Excel for the last 12 years for estimating purposes. I created my own spreadsheet with formulas for adding across and down as well as calculations to ensure that I have a 15% gross profit margin, to determine the number of hours translated to weeks for two guys, sub profit, materials profit, etc.

The biggest issue I have with the estimating programs out there is the time involved with learning them and then having to translate my "style" to the new program. I would love to find a program that is easy to use which doesn't require a week to learn in which time, estimates either are not getting out or I'm pulling double duty working the old system while working to learn the new system. My time is at a premium and I simply don't have the time available or the bandwidth after a 12 hour day in the field to sit down and learn a new program.

I do think that Excel is the "bees knees" and love the program's versatility and adaptability. The only limitation is your imagination.

In terms of estimating, I've developed a list of short cuts which lists the tasks and how long they should take so that I can say, for instance, this much time for door install with lockset. This much per foot for base, shoe and cap (craftsman style). This much time per square for "rake shake" siding install, etc. These lists save time and make it much easier to ensure that you don't shoot yourself in the foot.

Additionally, it is a great idea to send a list of materials to your local lumber yard and have them supply pricing for the items on your list. This way, you can reference the list when doing take offs and ensure that you have up to date costs for lumber, trim, flashing, insulation, roofing, etc.

Mark S.

[Sergey G]

Take a look at CostMiner. Many of our customers are either residential home builders or doing renovations. The system has quantity take-off, estimating and progress claims, and it is on-line.

[adamluke450]

If you need something regarding your project management in overall then i would recommend go for Procore and try it. I have heard some good things about this software.

[dixonpeer]

Try Planswift for takeoffs.

[Rocket Takeoffs]

We do construction takeoff and estimating. We have tried many types of software. The very best for this type of work is Planswift.

[Allan Edwards]

We do construction takeoff and estimating. We have tried many types of software. The very best for this type of work is Planswift.

My understanding is Planswift is one of the best software packages for estimating. I see you are in Houston? I've used Trophy Estimating before, very good estimator.

[Amara Lynch]

First - you have to define what you really want to do. "Estimating" as builders/remodelers think of it is really a multi-headed snake... there is the quantity take-off/estimate so you know how many/much of this or that is required... then there is cost estimate. Two separate things. Then, you have to define whether you're looking for a rapid pre-sale estimate, something good enough to get you a job while protecting your margins... or a line-item estimate where you can take a bill-of-materials to the supplier and have it be correct. That's a very wide waterfront.

I've been doing this now for over 30 years - since VisiCALC in DOS.

My advice- first, you need to learn to do plan take-offs. You'd be shocked at how many builders doing 100s of homes/year cannot do this, and rely totally on others (subs, suppliers) to get material quantities. That is insanity IMO. If you do the type of work that requires drawings but can't yet mark-up a set of plans manually with markers (or digital markers) and come up with the basic project metrics - volumes, lineal feet, square feet, etc. then no computer software is going to help.

Next, I would learn how to use Excel effectively, and that includes learning how to set up VLookup and HLookup functions. (more on this later). Unless you're doing 100s of projects/year, you really don't need anything else. Get your head around building simple estimating templates in Excel (or Google sheets, or Smartsheet- whatever) before wasting money of dedicated "estimating software".

The absolute BEST online resource I've found to learn Excel is "ExcelisFun" on YouTube- a college prof who has put all of his coursework up there for the past 5-6 years. Do a search on "Excel Basics" once you're in his channel -it's 25-30 videos and supporting examples. Will take you a few hours to work through.
https://www.youtube.com/user/ExcelIsFun

Next, buy Jay Christofferson's "Estimating with Excel" it teaches all the basics Jay and his programmers used to create Estimator Pro . https://builderbooks.com/estimating-...oft-excel.html
Note - I wrote the forward to the 2nd edition - The 3rd edition is now out - it's a lot bigger and 2x the price, and it gets slammed on Amazon for being error-ridden. The 2nd edition is a quick read and gives you the background you need, so I'd just start there. If there are bugs with the 3rd edition they will be corrected by addenda online so it's not the end of the world.

Once you do that - next step might be to move from plain old Excel, to an Excel-based system like Jay's Estimator Pro (NAHB sells this) or better yet - look into Madera Estimator by Lorin Boyer, who is a participant here. Lorin worked on the NAHB product but has taken it miles ahead. Before jumping into this - I still think you need to know the basics of using Excel, you'll do much better if you work through the YouTube stuff above first. http://www.maderasoft.com/

If you already use a CAD product to design your projects - or even SketchUP- you can leverage your drawings by extracting bill-of-materials out of them. Some CAD vendors incorrectly call this "BIM" but it's really "CAD-Assisted Estimating". BIM is even bigger and more complex use of building data - CAE is really a subset of BIM. We've used SoftPlan's SoftList for 20+ years - and it's tweaked to report exactly like I need it to report - but getting there literally took years, and we still use Excel at times to do the finishing 'bits'.

There are also onscreen takeoff systems that give you the advantage of CAE without actually needing the CAD part. OnCenter is one - it dumps your take-off quantities into Excel, or the estimator of your choice. Again - this won't help you at all if you don't already understand how to do a manual take-off on a set of plans.

Ok - now... recap:
You've learned to take off a set of plans... you've learned the basics of Excel and learned to build some HLookup and Vlookup tables . You may be using SoftList or SketchUP or Envisioneer to generate a bill-of-materials. And you may have purchased an advanced Excel-based estimator like Madera. If you still need more - the next stop is something like PlanSwift, a database-backed estimator. Note that many of our clients wind up using PlanSwift plus Madera because one does some things better, etc.... https://exporthub.co/must-read-books...art-up-owners/

One word about "Database-Backed Estimators" They absolutely DO have many advantages over Excel -but IMO you have to be doing one s-pile of estimates monthly to really see those benefits, and there is a pretty steep learning curve required to set up and master database-backed estimators. Up until that volume it's more for convenience than necessity. I wouldn't discourage anyone from buying into a dedicated estimating product once they understand take-off basics and using spreadsheets effectively, but understand there is a steep investment of time/money required that might be better-spent doing something else. But manual plan take-off and basic use of Excel are still the two pre-requisites for any greenhorn estimator IMO, whether you're 18 or 88.

Also note that BuilderTREND now imports directly from several key estimating products, including SoftPlan and PlanSwift, and soon Chief Architect and a few others.

You wanted real-world - this is real-world. 80%+ of our clients use Excel and nothing else to do estimating. All of the other estimating products in existance fight for the 20% of the market that needs something more. One last thing - there are no magic wands or silver bullets. There is no product you can buy that will take you from not having ever done a real takeoff/estimate on Friday to an accurate complex bid and proposal on Monday. Believe me - plenty of contractors have asked me to do that for them over the years - but it is impossible. The people on this forum who use Excel will tell you they've spent years tweaking their estimating templates. The key to getting better over time is continuous improvement- you have to constantly compare your actual results to your estimates and update your templates and formulas as-required. There's no other way I know of other than to literally go out there and do "stud counts" - all materials not just the studs - which is another thing we have our production builder clients do- regardless of the estimating system they're using.

Hope this helps
JLS

shared your comprehensive information really easy useful...

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