Costing A Job For Profitability
I have several different potential projects and am really struggling with the cost evaluation in determining which one I want to pursue.
In a situation where either the job is different from whatever experience you have, and/or the location is outside your area, how have you (successfully!) estimated costs? I am not talking about a detailed budget, but sufficient comfort to do a reasonably quick profitability analysis to determine which project to go after.
A related question: do any of the various Marshall+Swift products help this process (and are they worth the money?) My understanding is that they are primarily aimed at appraisers rather than developers, but they might be one answer?
Or how about professional cost estimators? (Maybe worthwhile later, but not at the stage of filtering through various projects?)
Thanks in advance for any advice.
I personally tend to do deals that I have experience in or are within my area. If they are outside my area or outside my area of expertise I proceed with great caution and do a LOT of research. Usually if I think I am interested in a new market I will research for a while prior to even really getting serious about a property so that I will have looked at quite a few deals by the time I actually pursue one.
Professional estimators...I have mixed opinions on them. SOme are good but...they are like a computer program. You have to give them all the data and then they crunch the numbers. I do all of this myself b/c only I know what my plans are and what I am comfortable with doing.