Rough Estimates

Making Rough Estimates

You can use the BidMagic construction estimating software as a 'quick and dirty' rough estimator, when all you need is a ballpark price. This is especially useful for:

• Budget prices on Spec houses and other projects where all you need is a planning price.
• Pre-qualifying clients or projects, when you want to make sure the clients are really serious before putting in the time for a finished bid.
• Talking to clients in the design phase, when a ballpark estimate is useful for planning and budgeting purposes.

To make a rough estimate with the BidMagic construction estimating software program, follow these steps:

1. Start on the Basic Costs card. Click the Rough Estimate button (at upper left).
2. Use the cycle button to adjust the Locality Factor to suit the project conditions (see page 137).
3. Drag the house to adjust the Quality Factor to suit the conditions of the project (see page 138).
4. Enter fudge factors and wage rates for the project.
5. Enter your basic costs on the Overhead & Profit and Soft Costs card.
6. Go through each of the Dimensions cards and fill in all appropriate measurements from the project.
7. Go through each of the Specifications cards and fill in the actual construction items you'll be using on the project. HINT: When you make a rough estimate you won't need to be quite so careful about getting every item into Specifications. Just make sure that you get the most basic and most expensive items.

How long will it take?

Using the BidMagic construction estimating program, you should be able to put together a rough estimate in 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the complexity of the project.

HINT: To speed up the rough estimating process, create templates that are already set up with your 'standard' types of projects (see page 71).

How Accurate will it be?

When rough estimating with BidMagic (or using any other method), most people are happy to hit within 10% to 20% of the final actual cost. For preliminary ballpark estimates you may be willing to accept even less accuracy than that, for the sake of speed.

HINT: The longer you take to enter unusual conditions, the more accurate you can make a rough estimate.

To maximize the accuracy of BidMagic for rough estimating, calibrate it against projects that you've already done, or or against a project you have at least estimated using your current methods (see pages 102-113).