I’ve definitely been burned by those “average” online calculators too—one time I trusted a national estimator for concrete and ended up way off because our local supplier had a price hike after a storm. Now I keep a running list of supplier contacts and just call around every time. As for soft costs, I learned the hard way that city fees can change mid-project...had to eat the overage once, never again. I usually pad my numbers by 10-20% depending on how unpredictable the jurisdiction is. Excel’s great for tracking, but yeah, it gets messy fast if you’re not careful.
Estimating Building Expenses: What Tools Or Sites Do You Trust?
I get wanting to pad the numbers, but honestly, I think that just encourages the cycle of overestimating and then blowing the budget on “extras” because you think you’ve got wiggle room. I’ve started using a combo of local Facebook groups and neighborhood forums to crowdsource real-time prices—way more accurate than any calculator or even calling around sometimes. Plus, you get the scoop on hidden fees or weird local quirks. Excel’s fine, but I switched to Airtable for tracking—way less messy, and you can actually see trends over time. Just my two cents...