The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs


Book Description

ENTIRELY REVISED AND UPDATED! Over 40,000 first edition copies sold. How much does it really cost to renovate your investment property? Learn detailed tips, tricks, and tactics to accurately budget nearly any house flipping project and investment property renovation from expert real estate investor and fix-and-flipper J Scott. Discover the tried-and-tested steps of his professional framework and methodology for precisely evaluating renovation costs in hundreds of his own successful rehab projects. Determine how to accurately estimate all the costs you are likely to face during renovation--and get all of your rehab questions answered in a single place! Whether you are preparing to walk through your very first rehab project or you're an experienced home flipper, this handbook will be your guide to identifying renovation projects, creating a scope of work, and staying on budget to ensure a timely profit! Inside, you will learn how to: -Inspect every aspect of a property to create your renovation scope -Decide which upgrade options provide the biggest bang for your buck -Identify the 150+ most common renovations you'll likely encounter -See big problems (like mold and termites!) and quickly fix them -Assign accurate prices to every rehab task to build a detailed budget -Determine which contractors are best for certain repairs or projects -Break down the top 25 basic components of a renovation -And so much more! You don't need to be a contractor to flip houses, but you do need to know the fundamentals of budgeting and pricing your renovation--including everything from cosmetic renovations to complex installations and upgrades. This book gives you the estimation tools needed to produce the income you desire on your first--or next--investment deal!




Software Estimation Best Practices, Tools & Techniques


Book Description

Almost every software project begins with the utterances, “What will this cost?” and “When will this project be done?” Once those words are spoken, project stakeholders begin to wrestle with how to produce an estimate. Accurately estimating the cost or time to complete a software project is a serious problem for many software engineers, developers and project managers who struggle with costs running double original estimates, putting their careers at risk. It is reported that nearly 50% of all software projects are shelved and that one of the major causes is poor estimation practices. If developing software for internal use, poor estimates can represent a significant drain on corporate profits. Worldwide growth in the number of companies specializing in the development of software for use by other companies is staggering. India alone has nearly 20,000 such companies. Intense competition has led to an increased demand for fixed-bid pricing in client/vendor relationships, and has made effective cost estimation even more important and, in many cases, critical to a firm's survival. There are many methods of estimation. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses, proponents and opponents. Knowing how and which one to use on a given project is key to developing acceptable estimates for either internal or external projects.Software Estimation Best Practices, Tools, & Techniques covers all facets of software estimation. It provides a detailed explanation of the various methods for estimating software size, development effort, cost, and schedule, including a comprehensive explanation of Test Effort Estimation. Emphasizing that software estimation should be based on a well-defined process, it presents software estimation best practices and shows how to avoid common pitfalls. This guide offers direction on which methods are most appropriate for each of the different project types commonly executed in the software development space and criteria for selecting software estimation tools. This comprehensive desk reference explains software estimation from scratch to help the beginner and features advanced techniques for more experienced estimators. It details project scheduling, including resource leveling and the concept of productivity, as applicable to software estimators, demonstrating the many benefits of moving from the current macro-productivity approach to a micro-productivity approach in software estimation. Software Estimation Best Practices, Tools, & Techniques: A Complete Guide for Software Project Estimators caters to the needs of all software project stakeholders, from novice to expert. It provides the valuable guidance needed to estimate the cost and time required to complete software projects within a reasonable margin of error for effective software development.




NRM1 Cost Management Handbook


Book Description

The definitive guide to measurement and estimating using NRM1, written by the author of NRM1 The 'RICS New rules of measurement: Order of cost estimating and cost planning of capital building works' (referred to as NRM1) is the cornerstone of good cost management of capital building works projects - enabling more effective and accurate cost advice to be given to clients and other project team members, while facilitating better cost control. The NRM1 Cost Management Handbook is the essential guide to how to successfully interpret and apply these rules, including explanations of how to: quantify building works and prepare order of cost estimates and cost plans use the rules as a toolkit for risk management and procurement analyse actual costs for the purpose of collecting benchmark data and preparing cost analyses capture historical cost data for future order of cost estimates and elemental cost plans employ the rules to aid communication manage the complete 'cost management cycle' use the elemental breakdown and cost structures, together with the coding system developed for NRM1, to effectively integrate cost management with Building Information Modelling (BIM). In the NRM1 Cost Management Handbook, David Benge explains in clear terms how NRM1 is meant to be used in familiar quantity surveying tasks, as well as a range of activities of crucial importance for professionals in years to come. Worked examples, flow charts, diagrams, templates and check lists ensure readers of all levels will become confident and competent in the use of NRM1. This book is essential reading for anyone working with NRM1, and is the most authoritative guide to practice available for those preparing to join the industry.




PDCA Cost and Estimating Guide - Volume II


Book Description

Estimating Guide Volume II - Rates and Tables is a must for all contractors bidding painting and related work. Production rates for surface protection, surface preparation, painting, gypsum board finishing, wallcovering, caulking, and decorative painting are included. Numerous charts and tables simplify the task of performing quantity takeoffs. A new window chart makes it easier than ever to price this important item. Material usage rates and the idientification of additional job costs are also discussed.




Software Cost Estimation, Benchmarking, and Risk Assessment


Book Description

Software effort estimation is a key element of software project planning and management. Yet, in industrial practice, the important role of effort estimation is often underestimated and/or misunderstood. In this book, Adam Trendowicz presents the CoBRA method (an abbreviation for Cost Estimation, Benchmarking, and Risk Assessment) for estimating the effort required to successfully complete a software development project, which uniquely combines human judgment and measurement data in order to systematically create a custom-specific effort estimation model. CoBRA goes far beyond simply predicting the development effort; it supports project decision-makers in negotiating the project scope, managing project risks, benchmarking productivity, and directing improvement activities. To illustrate the method’s practical use, the book reports several real-world cases where CoBRA was applied in various industrial contexts. These cases represent different estimation contexts in terms of software project environment, estimation objectives, and estimation constraints. This book is the result of a successful collaboration between the process management division of Fraunhofer IESE and many software companies in the field of software engineering technology transfer. It mainly addresses software practitioners who deal with planning and managing software development projects as part of their daily work, and is also of interest for students or courses specializing in software engineering or software project management.




PDCA Cost and Estimating Guide Volume I


Book Description

Practices and Procedures is the "how to" manual for estimating painting and related work. Quality takeoff procedures and estimating methods are thoroughly described and discussed. All elements of proper job pricing are described including the evaluation of labor, material, additional job costs, overhead, and profit. Working blueprints and sample estimates are a part of the manual. Job costing methods and their relationship to estimating is included.




The Complete Guide to Contracting Your Home


Book Description

Save 30% on home construction! Whether you want to take on all the responsibility of contracting your home or simply want to intelligently communicate with your homebuilder, The Complete Guide to Contracting Your Home can help you save 30% or more on the cost of home construction by teaching you the ins and outs of managing your construction project. Learn how to get your project off to a solid start. Get financial and legal details in language you can understand. Learn what to consider when selecting a lot and how to deal with suppliers, labor and subcontractors. Gain understanding of building codes and inspections so you can manage with authority, confidence, and efficiency. This extensive guide walks you through each phase of construction including preconstruction, foundations, framing, roofing, plumbing, electrical, masonry, siding, insulation, drywall, trim, painting, cabinetry, countertops, flooring, tile and landscaping. Completely revised and updated, this edition includes a new section on sustainable building as well as the most comprehensive building resources section ever compiled. You'll find schedules, order forms, control logs, contracts and checklists to help keep your project on track.







Guide to Capital Cost Estimating


Book Description

Known as the Blue Book this fourth edition continues with the endorsement from the Association of Cost Engineers. The guide is designed to be an aid for student engineers in the design activities undertaken during their course and help young engineers in industry to compile their own set of cost data. With much of the material in the third edition retained, the major changes are: new cost data; up-dated cost index information (which has been donated by industrialists); and short-cut estimating techniques up-dated.




Agile Estimating and Planning


Book Description

Agile Estimating and Planning is the definitive, practical guide to estimating and planning agile projects. In this book, Agile Alliance cofounder Mike Cohn discusses the philosophy of agile estimating and planning and shows you exactly how to get the job done, with real-world examples and case studies. Concepts are clearly illustrated and readers are guided, step by step, toward how to answer the following questions: What will we build? How big will it be? When must it be done? How much can I really complete by then? You will first learn what makes a good plan-and then what makes it agile. Using the techniques in Agile Estimating and Planning, you can stay agile from start to finish, saving time, conserving resources, and accomplishing more. Highlights include: Why conventional prescriptive planning fails and why agile planning works How to estimate feature size using story points and ideal days–and when to use each How and when to re-estimate How to prioritize features using both financial and nonfinancial approaches How to split large features into smaller, more manageable ones How to plan iterations and predict your team's initial rate of progress How to schedule projects that have unusually high uncertainty or schedule-related risk How to estimate projects that will be worked on by multiple teams Agile Estimating and Planning supports any agile, semiagile, or iterative process, including Scrum, XP, Feature-Driven Development, Crystal, Adaptive Software Development, DSDM, Unified Process, and many more. It will be an indispensable resource for every development manager, team leader, and team member.