Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 5:40 pm
by Ken Larsen, CR, WLS
Motige,

This is a good topic because there is such a wide range of estimating protocols out there. We have all heard of the "clean any box of contents in 4 minutes" (or whatever the time frame is), and the potential ramifications of such a performance claim can darn near kill the contents restoration industry!

It is my hope that marketing campaign is duly squashed so that it will never arise from the ashes ever again!

From what I have seen, most restoration estimates for contents are displayed in either of two ways: time and materials.... and unit costs.

The time and materials estimating process is (in my humble opinion) the lazy man's way of estimating, but clearly the most accurate. It can be backed up with not only time cards and materials usage reports - but in the most extreme cases, I have seen restoration companies actually video tape the staff working on the contents to back up the time cards. There is no way that the insured / adjuster can argue with the invoice. It is all fully documented! However... it is the least profitable estimating process. (the reasons are obvious. The only way around the profitability problem is to raise the hourly rate of the techs).

As for unit costs - well - the faster the techs work - the more profit is to be made. The only problem is that the estimator has to REALLY do their Xactimate data entry diligently so as to charge a line item for every item restored.

As a personal beef... I HATE it when I see estimates that have the Xactimate line item: "Clean knick-knacks; bric-a-brac"... 4800 units @ $1.48 = $7104.00 Man! that just looks so darn hokey. It is a common practice in the North Eastern States to enter that line item like that, and adjusters apparently pay it without question.

Good question. I look forward to everyone else's comments / perspectives.

Ken Larsen