Ive been contemplating charging for these for soem time.

they want to challenge the estimate with a professional quote so they don't get beat out of money from the insurance company for repairs they wont make or will do themselves.

same goes for the landlord with tenants moving out..it always about the security.

in fact you just solidified it for me.

charging $50 for now on for these types of estimates

Ive done maybe fifteen of them. Not one turned into work. My typical close rate for on site bids is 30 percent. I just tell them its a hundred dollars and Ill apply to the invoice if they hire me. Saves me five hundred dollars a year in time and gas.

It is common for adjusters to leave out many steps of a job. The program they use is called xactimate. For the case of the drywall the 45 is for a drywaller already on site with mud rock tape and screws doing many of these repairs. You need a drywall minimum which is closer to 300.

Same for the trim. There are minimums that come into play.

Rather than learn the super complex program. Just make a bid at your regular rates with a clear scope of work. They are trained to look at the job piece by piece

Bonus info. If three trades would be involved then you can also bill for overhead 10% and profit 10 % of the subtotal b4 tax. Just make it a line item at the end of your bid. They see it all the time and are willing to pay it. If you aren't making up extra stuff to do then you should be fine

If you need more help you can email me

try to find and read up on.

Preparing an insurance loss estimate.

when you do one , call it that right on the 1st line.

You have to list each item or repair, the sq ft or lin ft of item.

the cost for each, labor & material .

then at bottom of estimate have a sub total , labor & material

then 10% fee for overhead
then 10% fee for profit

then depending on job size, add for permits, supervision, Porto john, etc. etc..

Once you get it figured out you'll understand what they want and it works smoother.

You'll also learn where you can cheat the numbesr higher to make
it more profitable. It's not easy money but it is money.

I did one for a house destroyed by fire.

insurance offered homeowner 135K

By doing the estimate I got them $210k

and we built a cape instead of a ranch

Check the video on my website.

www.newimage-construction.com

my 15 minutes of fame.:tt2:

When i was first in business i did a lot of insurance restoration for one company (won't work for them anymore, they actually tried calling me about work last year after 7 years of owing me $500 and saying that I stole a fan????) Anyway, the point is that they paid really well. I'd throw out crazy numbers and they were always accepted. Too bad they were such incompetents