How To Update Xactimate Pricing For An Air

I just downloaded the August Price List from Xactware. Re-priced two recent estimates for claims that were primarily roof, both 30 year arches.

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One 35 SQ, the other one around 80 SQ. Was I ever SHOCKED! Despite price increases in the past few weeks of approximately 14% in shingles, the 35 SQ job went down around $650 and the 80 SQ job went down over $1,100. Due to the extensive damage in Alabama in April, labor prices haven't decreased in the least, they have clearly increased due to the supply and demand. I sent a rather flaming email to Xactware pricing department requesting an explanation, I wish I could say I expected a reasonable response.

On the contrary, given this travesty of an attempt to represent fair market pricing, I expect either no response or some BS spin which will most certainly be an insult to my intelligence. I am rapidly reaching the point where I can find little justification for paying (2) $1500 yearly licensing fees to Xactimate unless my objective is to achieve bankruptcy. Oddly enough, and completely unexplainable, I repriced an estimate for the Indianapolis market we just completed and got approved. This 61 SQ roof increased by over $600 with the new price download. While this hardly catches up the material price increases, it obviously is more desirable than the results I found with the Alabama pricing.

I'm somehow trying to understand how this could be??? The Alabama market has a surplus of work and a shortage of labor. The Indianapolis market is relatively flat with minimal storm activity this year aside from a hail storm in a community of 20,000 30 miles SE. The actual material price increases have been less in Indianapolis and the labor market is stable.

Now if I were an insurance company and I wanted to save money overall while attempting to make a token demonstration that my pricing is fair, I'd increase the pricing in markets with little activity and decrease it in the areas where the greatest number of claims are being filed. Who cares if you pay an increase of 5% on 10,000 claims if you can decrease the prices by 5% on 1,000,000 claims? FWIW, while it doesn't appear to have much of an impact, I would recommend that every contractor here who is paying Xactimate for one or more licenses should take the time to send an email to their pricing department complaining about their pricing practices and making them aware they are risking your future business if they continue along the path they've chosen over the past few months. I'm not optimistic about much coming of this but one never knows.

For those interested in doing so, the email address is. **** exactimate and programs like it. Nobody tells me what I should be charging. That's a job for myself and my accountant. The price goes down, because what? Some insurance exec says so? Because the insurance companies are getting hammered and want to save some dough?

It doesn't matter to me what they want to pay, my price is my price. You can easily come up with your own pricing program similiar to exactimte using excell, and it's be accurate which is more than I can say for exactimate. **** exactimate and programs like it. Nobody tells me what I should be charging. That's a job for myself and my accountant. The price goes down, because what? Some insurance exec says so?

Because the insurance companies are getting hammered and want to save some dough? It doesn't matter to me what they want to pay, my price is my price. You can easily come up with your own pricing program similiar to exactimte using excell, and it's be accurate which is more than I can say for exactimate. Good for you Grumpy, really.

It is spelled Xactimate BTW. We'll do over $6M this year in insurance work so for us our business model, there is an argument for using Xactimate with our business model in mind. I'm actually an expert Excel user, I can put together a program with that software as well. The task is negotiating the claim settlement however.

It's spelled bull ****, btw. WTF do I care how it's spelled? Ai Ready .env File Format. If you are charging what someone else is telling you what to charge, it's all bull ****. You do work based on what other people tell you to charge if you use 'Xactimate ' and programs like it. Free Fonts Download For Coreldraw X3.

I could do $6 mil too working for free. It's EZ being the minimum code low bidder, aint it? Here is my price take it or leave it. How's that for negotiation? My work will exceed what the insurance company is willing to pay for every time. And the insurance company should not be expected to pay for those upgrades. However my customers are more than willing to pay for the upgrades and the peace of mind that comes with it.

Will I negotiate with insurance companies to get my customers a larger settlement? Sure, but what the insurance company is willing to offer has zero impact on what I NEED to charge. That's where I have problem with exactimate, it's geared towards the minimum code low bidder. I'm not a minimum code kinda guy.

And what a legitimate company who has been in business and plans on staying in business NEEDS to charge has nothing to do with fly by night storm chasers and their corner cutting. YOU opened the door whining and crying that exactimate is short changing you. I didn't whine about that. That doesn't happen to me. If you are an excell expert my advise is to throw away exactimate and build something in excell with real world values, not made up fictional numbers some cigar smoking champagne drinking insurance executive thinks is good enough.

I got a guy in my area doing alot of insurance work. I've known him for years. Real European hill billy. He thinks he's the best because he has volume. I see what he charges, and don't know why he bothers workign for insurance company money. Yeah he does alot of work, yeah you see his signs all over, yeah yous ee his trucks up and down the roads, but his is giving away his trade for peanuts. I make double if not triple the gross profit per job what he is making per job, and have 1/10th the liability.

With each roof comes liability and with bigger volume comes more liability, if you plan on keeping the company name for any given period of time. Most storm chasers close up shop as soon as the warranty calls start coming in, after all you can't do a good job working for peanuts and can't make any money fixing mistakes. He'll do a gutter job and have $100 left over after paying his sub. One leak and you lost all that gross profit. Heck that gross profit leaves no net profit after you figure the administrative overhead.

You should be in the roofing HOF grumpy. You are right though, you have no business being in the insurance business. You have shown your true narrow minded limited intelligence approach to life time and again here. You obviously don't have what it takes to compete in the insurance restoration business.

'You know a guy. Blah, blah, blah' so you're now an expert and can make an accurate judgment about everyone. It would probably make you sick if you knew what our profit margins were. And BTW, every single roof we've ever installed exceeds the insurance guidelines and local building code by a substantial margin. Why did you even post on this thread?

You can't even spell Xactimate but you're suddenly an expert on the strengths and shortcomings of the program. I'd tell you to mind your own business and go do what you do well but I suspect that would be a real struggle determining what that is.

We also do some cash bid work when requested by referrals. We have never, ever been the low bidder.

We don't need to be. Thanks for sharing your profound ignorance, it was entertaining. Bender - maybe because he does (did - retired?) plenty of roofs and insurance work.

If you had read through past posts, you would know he knows all about this product & the 3 or 4 other ones out there. If you know how XactiMate gets it's pricing, I already answered your question on why it dropped so much, and it also deals with the 'negotiating' part Grumpy, while I fully agree with you on charging your own price, the DOI, the ABA, and the insurance companies have fully changed the rules down here. The insurance companies are balking at the prices even in XactiMate and don't even bother trying to whittle them down - they will just tell the HO's no - go find another contractor. 50k worth of damage, is now 35k, etc.

Oh well, I guess I will be plenty busy in a few years dealing with the repairs from all these repairs. Bender, You come in bitching abotu a program because some scum bag sitting in an office setting YOUR prices is now telling you that you earn too much money, then you get mad at me because I agree with you, you are using a scum bag program.

Learn what things cost in the real world and forget the going rate. LOL you complain about the program, I agree with you, then you spend post after post defending the program. It's like battered wife syndrome.

You think the world will end if you stop using exactimate? And 'I' am the one closed minded? LOL I'm way open minded always thinking outside the box always trying new things. I don't do what everyone else does, obviously since insurance work is the 'new' thing. It seems like so many people have forgot what selling is, forgot how to run a business not at the insurance teet. I don't know how long you've been doing this.

I've been roofing since 1998. I have been selling roofs since 2001. In that time since 2001, I have been through enough hail storms to know insurance work just aint for me, and I don't need it. In general, it brings out the worst in people on both sides, home owner and contractor are all looking for freebie. I don't need it. I don't need to 'compete' in the insurance business, I'll leave the scrapple for the pigs. I'm not going to do triple the paper work for half the gross profit then wait 60-90 days to be paid.

LOL that's just plain ignorant! What I am saying is you can do alot LESS WORK for alot MORE MONEY if you stay away from insurance work.

Sounds like enlightnment to me, not ignorance. Ever hear of working smarter; not harder.

SLS, I understand what you are saying. But that's why I don't work for insurance companies. I work for property owners. I can care less what the insurance company thinks something costs. I know what it costs me to do any given job, and so should every business owner and manager. I don't price my jobs by the going rate or what some one else thinks the job should cost.

If the insurance company doesn't agree with what I am charging I won't bend my price just to get a job. What good is getting a job and workign for practice? I have enough practice, it's time to work for profit.

If the insurance company is not offering real world value, file a complaint with the state insurance board. That'll get their attention. If a home owner has 2 or 3 quotes from established long-term businesses showing something costs more than the insurance is willing to pay, the home owner has a pretty good ground to stand on.

The home owner doesn't have to take what ever crap is offered, and the contractor shouldn;t work for crap because that's all that's being offered. A business manager can learn what things costs (or shouldn't be running a business) or forever complain that the going rate isn't enough, because let's face it, the going rate has never been enough and never will be enough.

That's why it's the going rate. Bender, You come in bitching abotu a program because some scum bag sitting in an office setting YOUR prices is now telling you that you earn too much money, then you get mad at me because I agree with you, you are using a scum bag program. Learn what things cost in the real world and forget the going rate. LOL you complain about the program, I agree with you, then you spend post after post defending the program. It's like battered wife syndrome. You think the world will end if you stop using exactimate?

And 'I' am the one closed minded? LOL I'm way open minded always thinking outside the box always trying new things.

I don't do what everyone else does, obviously since insurance work is the 'new' thing. It seems like so many people have forgot what selling is, forgot how to run a business not at the insurance teet. I don't know how long you've been doing this. I've been roofing since 1998. I have been selling roofs since 2001. In that time since 2001, I have been through enough hail storms to know insurance work just aint for me, and I don't need it.

In general, it brings out the worst in people on both sides, home owner and contractor are all looking for freebie. I don't need it. I don't need to 'compete' in the insurance business, I'll leave the scrapple for the pigs. I'm not going to do triple the paper work for half the gross profit then wait 60-90 days to be paid. LOL that's just plain ignorant!

What I am saying is you can do alot LESS WORK for alot MORE MONEY if you stay away from insurance work. Sounds like enlightnment to me, not ignorance. Ever hear of working smarter; not harder.

SLS, I understand what you are saying. But that's why I don't work for insurance companies. I work for property owners.

I can care less what the insurance company thinks something costs. I know what it costs me to do any given job, and so should every business owner and manager. I don't price my jobs by the going rate or what some one else thinks the job should cost. If the insurance company doesn't agree with what I am charging I won't bend my price just to get a job. What good is getting a job and workign for practice? I have enough practice, it's time to work for profit. If the insurance company is not offering real world value, file a complaint with the state insurance board.

That'll get their attention. If a home owner has 2 or 3 quotes from established long-term businesses showing something costs more than the insurance is willing to pay, the home owner has a pretty good ground to stand on. The home owner doesn't have to take what ever crap is offered, and the contractor shouldn;t work for crap because that's all that's being offered. A business manager can learn what things costs (or shouldn't be running a business) or forever complain that the going rate isn't enough, because let's face it, the going rate has never been enough and never will be enough. That's why it's the going rate. I simply don't need your condescending BS Chumpy. This thread is an attempt to get Xactimate users to be aware of what is going on and perhaps, to contact Xactimate as I did to complain about the price downloads.

Since you don't use the program, it really doesn't apply to you. Next time that I need advice from you, I'll get a frontal lobotomy in order that we can communicate on the same level and then give you a call. Until then, I think we'd be best served just ignoring each other. Oops, I did that with you until you started sending your caustic remarks my way.

I think it is rather clear, you aren't a fan of insurance restoration work. Now if you'll send me your address, I'll send you $.50 so you can call somebody that cares.

I got a guy in my area doing alot of insurance work. I've known him for years. Real European hill billy. He thinks he's the best because he has volume. I see what he charges, and don't know why he bothers workign for insurance company money. Yeah he does alot of work, yeah you see his signs all over, yeah yous ee his trucks up and down the roads, but his is giving away his trade for peanuts.

I make double if not triple the gross profit per job what he is making per job, and have 1/10th the liability. With each roof comes liability and with bigger volume comes more liability, if you plan on keeping the company name for any given period of time. Most storm chasers close up shop as soon as the warranty calls start coming in, after all you can't do a good job working for peanuts and can't make any money fixing mistakes.

He'll do a gutter job and have $100 left over after paying his sub. One leak and you lost all that gross profit. Heck that gross profit leaves no net profit after you figure the administrative overhead.

The larger local company here (about 200 houses a year) is just like that. The owner spouts off like he's the best salesman in the world and even puts down his own salesmen. He goes door to door saying, I will find damage, cover your deductible, and beat anyone's price. Tough sale, eh? They use the cheapest migrant sub labor and the cheapest materials. Ya, they have lettered trucks, nice signs, hairspray hair, and tons of advertisement.

Their work is crapola though. Looked at two of their jobs today.I think we have two new clients. They have to do storm work or they have no work.

You can't get referrals with the work they do. That's eactly what I am doing, getting exactimate users and people in general who price by the going out of business rate, to open their eyes and realize their faults. And this thread does apply to me because there are plenty of dinks in my area using exactimate to price their jobs and they are killing the market in the process. It's funny you are so ticked off, I obviously hit a nerve. The truth hurts, don't it? Boo Hoo cry for me storm chaser. Welcome to an open forum!

Opinions are like assholes, we all have them and they all stink. For as long as you insist on poluting this forum discussing insurance work I will feel compelled to polute yours and others threads denouncing insurance 'specialists', I giggle when I use those words.

That's ok, the way you are going arguing with everyone, you won't be here much longer, under this user name anyways. MJ, there are several of those in every market. It's EZ to let the ego get in the way. At the end of the day all that counts is customer satisfaction and gross profit. While I am ALL for volume, there is nothing wrong with it, so long as there is profit with that volume. It doesn't make sense to me to do alot of work for a little bit of money.

It's a recipe for disaster. Bender - maybe because he does (did - retired?) plenty of roofs and insurance work. If you had read through past posts, you would know he knows all about this product & the 3 or 4 other ones out there. If you know how XactiMate gets it's pricing, I already answered your question on why it dropped so much, and it also deals with the 'negotiating' part Grumpy, while I fully agree with you on charging your own price, the DOI, the ABA, and the insurance companies have fully changed the rules down here. The insurance companies are balking at the prices even in XactiMate and don't even bother trying to whittle them down - they will just tell the HO's no - go find another contractor. 50k worth of damage, is now 35k, etc. Oh well, I guess I will be plenty busy in a few years dealing with the repairs from all these repairs SLS, what was the bill # that became the 'no negotiating' law in AL and who were the sponsers?

Problem is that the 1099 Tax Cheats, Uninsured Roofers, lowballers, Chuck & Side Job Bob who are on the underside of Exactimate pricing get a HUGE pay raise when a storm hits. Those of us working legally, or on the upside of Exactimate pricing must take a pay cut to do insurance work. Now Grumpy it has gotten better for me since the HO now has about 12 estimates for a re-roof @ $220 a sq and the Ins.

Is paying much more than that. In the eyes of the Ins. Co I am legit, but they will punish me for it.

The HO many times simply thinks I am out of my mind. I guess they figure if everyone cheats, then it is not cheating.

It wasn't a bill, it was the ABA informing the DOI that seeing a public adjuster was negotiating on behalf of clients and only a lawyer could that. They pulled that original page & now all you will find is this under there FAQ Q. Does Alabama license/recognize public adjusters? Alabama does not license or recognize public adjusters. Contractors who negotiate on behalf of their customers are simply doing what they do best and have done for decades and they don't charge a fee.

Therefore (no fee), they are not 'practicing law' and not violating any rules. Enough already!

FAQs Frequently Asked Questions Listed below are some of the questions we frequently encounter at Assistimate Estimating Services, LLC (Assistimate). If you don’t find an answer here, please don’t hesitate to for assistance. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • What are the steps to ordering an Estimate?

Step 1: Print a Scope Sheet and fill it out by hand. The Scope Sheet is where you list all the information about your project, including the scope of work you want to appear in your estimate. Once you’ve filled out and completed the Scope Sheet, you will scan it and save it as an image file (i.e. PDF, JPEG or TIF). Step 2: Send us your completed Scope Sheet.

Upload your completed Scope Sheet along with the following documents (if applicable) to our online Order Form: Photos (if your combined photos total more than 11 mb, please upload them to the cloud and send a link instead) Insurance company’s estimate Any subcontractor estimates Step 3: Wait for our invoice and pay it. We won’t bill you anything until we have reviewed your order submission and made sure we have enough information to write your estimate.

Once we have that information, we will email you an invoice through PayPal. As soon as you have paid that invoice, we will begin writing your estimate. Our fees and billing processes are explained on our page. Step 4: Work with us to perfect your estimate. As soon as we have the first draft of your estimate ready, we will email you a link to a non-downloadable, non-printable preview version of your estimate.

If you requested that we look for potentially overlooked items in your scope of work, those items (if found) will appear in that preview estimate for your consideration. You can always request to remove these items if you decide you don’t want them.

You can also request to make any other changes to the estimate at that time. Our goal is to help you create an estimate that meets your exact specifications. If you find that changes are needed to your preview estimate, you can email us with a list of those changes. We will then repeat this step as many times as necessary to perfect your estimate. Step 5: Finalizing your estimate Once the preview estimate is to your liking, we will be ready to finalize and complete your order. If the total of your estimate is less than $9,999 for a Building project, or less than $6,666 for a Contents project, then your estimate has been paid in full via your initial payment. We will email you your finalized estimate as a downloadable and printable PDF document.

If your estimate totals more than $9,999 for a Building project, or more than $6,666 for a Contents project, we will email you a final service invoice through PayPal for the remaining balance. Our fees and billing processes are explained on our page. Once that invoice is paid in full, we will email you your estimate as a downloadable and printable PDF document. What is Xactimate?

Xactimate has quickly become the estimating tool of choice for most insurance carriers. Nearly all adjusters, whether trained in commercial or residential claims, use Xactimate as a tool to determine fair prices they will pay for covered damages. These prices vary for more than 470 geographic regions via monthly “Price Lists” issued by Xactimate. Nearly 10,000 line items are included in each Price List, including costs for time-and-material, labor productivity, labor-and-burden overhead, and equipment. In short, whatever you’re bidding on and wherever the project may be, Xactimate likely has a price for it. What is a Scope of Work?

(aka Scope of Repairs or Repair Scope) For purposes of an Xactimate estimate, a Scope of Work (aka a Scope of Repairs or Repair Scope) is a document or set of documents describing the damage to a structure or contents and/or what is needed to repair those damages. At its basic level, a Scope of Work is a detailed list of all work needed to complete a particular project. At a minimum, a Scope of Work should always include: • A floor plan, diagram, or dimensions of all affected rooms/areas (for Building a estimate) • A description and quantity of the damaged items • A list of tasks and/or labor hours needed to complete the tasks and/or repairs It is sometimes helpful when a Scope of Work also includes: • Photos Because Xactimate estimates costs in various units of measurement (i.e., per square foot, linear foot, board foot, etc.), it is rarely ever necessary to list material costs or labor costs in your Scope of Work.

After all, the whole point of submitting a Scope of Work is to have it converted to an estimate so you can find the costs. In rare cases, however, a task/item in your Scope of Work may not be available in Xactimate. If that ocurrs, it may be necessary to estimate the task/item by the time and material method (i.e., estimated labor hours plus estimated material costs). If this ocurrs, we will request further information from you to help accurately estimate the item. What items or tasks is Xactimate capable of estimating?