Our Repair Cost Estimator is a pre-built with a database of 24 scopes of work & over 400 common repair items so you can create detailed repair costs estimates.

But there are other costs & factors that you need to consider when estimating your repair costs, which is why we created the adders module located in the upper left hand corner of the Repair Estimator.

The Adders module includes additional cost factors for your location, for building permit costs , Contractors Overhead & Profit & Estimating Contingency.

Location Modifiers
The Location Modifiers feature allows you to quickly adjust and modify your estimates based upon your location.  The Estimator includes a pre-built list of common locations and multipliers from across the country that can be used to adjust your cost estimates to fit your specific market.

Building Permit Costs
Our permits features allows you to include permit costs based upon a percentage of the project value.  Generally, permit costs will run about 1 to 2% of the project value, so you can plug in a % amount to quickly calculate your rough permit costs.

Contractor's Overhead & Profit
The costs included in the Repair Estimator assume you will be hiring, managing and subcontracting the work you self, so if you are an investor that is hiring a general contractor to manage your project, you need to include costs for the Contractors Overhead and Profit.  General Contractors generally charge 10 to 15% of the project value to manage the project, so plug in your % and the spreadsheet will calculate the General Contracts fee to manage the project.

Estimating Contingency
The final adder is for Estimating Contingency  which you can use to cover estimating errors or omissions or any unforeseen conditions on the project that can result in change orders and cost overages.  The contingency % can vary widely depending on your comfort level with the Scope of Work on the project, your experience estimating construction costs, and/or your experience rehabbing houses.

If you have experience estimating costs & rehabbing houses and have put together a detailed Scope of Work, you may be comfortable w/ as little as 5% contingency.   However, if you have little to no experience estimating costs &/or haven’t seen the condition of the property, you will likely need a much larger contingency to cover estimating omissions & unforeseen issues.

So plug in the amount of contingency % you are comfortable with, and the spreadsheet will add a contingency budget to your estimate.

Conclusion
​So as you can see there are many factors influence your rehab estimates, so make sure you are considering your market location, adding in additional costs for General Contractor management & contingency to cover any unforeseen omission and issues that can arise on the project.