HomeTech Advantage

1baltic

Is anyone using HomeTech Advantage estimating software? What are your experiences?

silvertree

I have used Hometech for over 15 years. First the books, then floppies, then the CD.
Don't use it anymore. Because 1. Not worth the money. 2. Better easier programs out there. 3. Don't like the look of the finished product. 4, Keeps getting more expensive.
There are a lot of good programs out there, the most important thing is to use one you can customize to your comfort level. Nothing wrong with Hometech, but I stopped using it 3 years ago.
Now I have my own price index and write a scope for each job. It's fast for me and I dont need to keep paying for inaccurate updates.
I bought Clear Estimates 2 years ago, but never got around to using it.

Tonkadad

Can you be more specific about what your requirments are?

1baltic

Maybe it works well for big time builders, i don't know. We have small kitchen and bath remodeling company. Price range is pretty stable. I could do without any software. Just wanted my proposals to look proffessionaly, have detailed job break down, ability to calculate material cost for uncommon tasks, save some time, also have scheduling reports. So I bought HomeTech. It seems to me that this program makes it even more complicated:
1. Although it has a pretty good database, some items can not be found. Find item button does not help very much. Maybe there is a bug in the program.
2. I have to review each line very carefully, can not trust software completely, because there is a huge difference between some costs.
For example there is no minimum charge for painting. Bathroom ceiling painting costs like $20.00. The opposite with tile work and plumbing. Remove a toilet for $100.00 !!!! Install a toilet for $250 + 50% markup !!!! Nobody in the world would hire us with such prices. It seems that I have to edit each line, adjust markup or remove it.
Tile work 15.88 per SF + 50% markup.

In short: it seems that I have to work hard to make the program work for me, instead of having the program doing some work for me.

Or am I wrong?

skylands

I also used Home Tech for 15 years. After the program moved from DOS, the whole system went straight down hill and never came back. At one point you couldn't alter the software to change the M/U levels. Everything was priced with a 1.5 M/U. I purchased it again about a year ago and am still editing every item. The finished product is still poorly laid out so I use the program for my own references and then do proposals on my own stationary. I wouldn't buy it again.

It's actually easier to develope your own spread sheet for each job and then refer back to them when similar jobs come in.

1baltic

Thanks, everybody for sharing information.
There is a new soft CompuTool, as they say "powered by Hometech Advantage". Although their web site does not look completely finished and I wasn't able to find the cost of that product. I ordered a demo. Maybe that's an improved version of HomeTech. We'll see.
I wonder if there is a program where I could enter allowance for a fixture cost and have it separated from materials that I need to install that fixture. And after, see it all on the proposal. That would be helpful.
For example: replace tub/shower faucet (all demo is done already)
I enter allowance $150.00 - faucet cost, program gives me like $30.00 for copper fittings and something like $200.00 for labor.
On the proposal I get: Total cost $570 ($150+$30+$200+ 50%markup), with faucet cost up to $150 and in a separete field.

skylands

That's exactly what I do with my " customer worksheet" that I designed from Excel.

Each page of the workbook is dedicated to a specific item

Page 1
Customer information.i.e. Name, address and on and on

Page 2
Job or project information
address of job, and all information needed to "Do" the estimate

Page 3
Item by item information
Item (2x4x16) cost, vendor, special notes and so on. This page is where I sit at my desk, study the photos, and plan the project from start to finish.

Page 4
Each item is assigned a "retail" price based labor, costs and M/U

Page 5 is the meat and potatos
Each afternoon when I come to the office I open this page and enter the information from that day's work. All I need to enter is the description, #of units and unit cost in their prespestive columns. I designed the program to take it from there. Once I enter 8 2x4x8 and hit enter, the program adds tax, M/U, retail, and total. All this information is in seperate columns so I can see it if I need to. Each column totals itself at the bottom so I can watch the difference between cost, M/U and profit.

Page 6
Everything "retail" is linked to this page. This is an invoice page that shows each and every item in retail form. I enter nothing on this page. It's automically posted each time something is entered in the retail column of the daily worksheet. Most of our work is contract so the invoice is for my own reference. But we do some T&M work so the invoice is ready for print at any time.

We do 90% restoration work so I have to watch daily activities very closely.

Bob Kovacs

The problem with Hometech is that you're pretty much stuck with the pricing they give you, unless you want to change each item manually yourself. There's no centralized location to enter a cost for a 2x4-8' and have every item that uses that 2x4 updated. The same for labor- if your labor rate changes from $30/hour to $35/hour, you can't make a global update to your labor costs.

With any program that relies on you using their canned pricing with quarterly updates (HomeTech, RemodelMax, ClearEstimates, etc), you're gambling with the law of averages- that enough items will be priced higher than your actual costs to cover the items that are priced lower than your actual costs. That's a gamble I'm not willing to take.

Bob