Just want to toss a bone out to SoftList and in case some of you are not using it or hesitant. I had a builder ask me if I could do some sort of take off with a project that I had done for him (ranch house). I said I could and would look at it. I had played around with it before but I decided to give it a try on this house as it was only framing and roofing take off. I completed the job and sent him the report. I was nervous wondering if I had hit the spot or if he was going to call me up and tell me I was horrible at estimating. Got a call today and he said he wanted to let me know about the roofing take off. He got his numbers in from his roofer and he had to take some shingles back (over-order due to waste, damage, etc.) . They calculated the amount and checked it against my numbers. Softlist estimated 59 square of shingles (this was a gable roof with three hips along the back and a three gables on the front-so a decent roof). They used 58.66 square. Softlist hit it within one bundle. He then went on to tell me that my (Softlist) take off was 20% less than what he had crunched the numbers for. And mine was more accurate. 20% is a make or break deal on whether a builder can get a job or not. He told me that I better be marketing myself as being able to save a builder 20% off his take off price even before starting a job. I think I just found me a new income source. :-)
So I said that to say this. Play with it. Give it a try. Follow a job or two or give a builder a free one to watch the numbers. Softlist does a great job if you spend time to set it up correctly and think it through. And now is it is a simple go to adder on my contracts that builder want. Thank you Softlist.