The Perfect Estimate

About this course

Welcome to The Perfect Estimate, your ultimate guide to mastering the art of creating a profitable estimate. In this course you will learn what it takes to build the perfect estimate.

A journey from start to finish on how to put together all the components required to prepare an estimate that is guaranteed to make you money.

This course provides you with not only the education, but the downloadable asset used by Kyle Zanetto to price every project that Zanetto Builders deliver.

What you’ll learn

• Tender requests: how to send out a tender request letter that protects your project and keeps your contractors competitive.
• Knowing the true cost of your team: how to determine the TRUE cost of your team and charge them out correctly.
• Estimating labour: accurately calculate labour using a pre-built spreadsheet developed over years of custom home building, removing the greatest risk to your project with labour blowouts.
• Understanding and factoring overheads: master the process of accounting for overheads to avoid miscalculated profit reduction.
• Mark-up vs margin: understand the crucial difference between mark-up and margin to set prices that guarantee profits.
• Outsourcing material take-offs: efficiently outsource material take-offs to specialised teams, saving you time and effort.
• Tips and tricks: understanding when and where to place contingencies in your project.

Resources included

Below, you’ll find the key tools that will help you implement the strategies from this course effectively.

Contractors Suppliers Register

A simple spreadsheet used to store and rate all of your supplier details, making bulk quote requests simple. Central to the estimating process used by Kyle Zanetto at Zanetto Builders, it streamlines bulk quote requests and keeps the estimation phase efficient.

Invitation to Tender

A meticulously crafted document designed to secure fixed pricing for your building projects while minimising risks for both the builder and the client. It lets you clearly outline project requirements such as nil rise and fall clauses, tender deadlines, key person information and build timelines, and invites contractors and suppliers to submit their best offers with signed acceptance.

Team Cost Calculator

An essential resource for understanding the full financial impact of employing full-time staff. It provides a detailed breakdown of the overhead costs associated with each team member, so those expenses are accurately factored into your charge-out rates.

Labour Estimating Spreadsheet

The powerful, intuitive tool built and used by Zanetto Builders to estimate the total labour required to run a project. Break complex projects into pre-filled micro tasks, input staff numbers and hours, and the sheet totals every category, ready for cost tracking on site and in your project management tool.

Example of Overheads

A clear picture of what overheads can look like in a building business, with a detailed breakdown of typical overhead costs and the insight to price them into your projects effectively.

Project Profit Calculator

The Markup vs Margin = Profit calculator shows how adjustments to overhead percentages and mark-up rates impact overall net profit, in both dollars and percentages, so you can fine-tune your pricing strategy to consistently hit your targets.

Outsourced Estimating

The service details for Price a Plan, the team used by Zanetto Builders to delegate the time-consuming process of cost estimation, with direct import into project management platforms like BuildXact, Wunderbuild and more.

Estimating Cheat Sheet

A curated checklist of contingencies and commonly forgotten areas of estimating, the one percenters that can be the difference between financial success and failure on a project, designed to protect your profit margin.