Updated Oct 2022
As real estate wholesalers, we know the pain of estimating rehab projects, determining value vs cost, and comparing contractor bids can make or break your spirit. The pain is real, as they say.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Technology has, as always, provided us with the means to work smarter and not harder. And that’s where Homewyse comes in.
In this quick 10 minute tutorial, I’m going to go through a few aspects of this platform, including:
What Homewyse actually is
How real estate wholesalers and investors use it
Using Homewyse to estimate rehab property costs
Let’s jump in!
Homewyse is a little bit of a platform and a little bit of a service.
Jamil, what?
Homewyse can be confusing because there are so many ways to describe it, as it doesn’t have a true definition for what it does. Homewyse calls itself a “cloud-based project estimating and cost information platform.”
For what the tool does, it’s more of a large database that has gathered the costs related to home construction, improvements, and maintenance. It’s designed for professional service providers who are looking for a simple, reliable, and accurate method to generate job estimates.
Homewyse offers both a free and a paid version, with their Lists Pro version providing saved job lists, daily data backups, the ability to add a logo or business info, and more. The paid version is $8.25 a month, which isn’t bad for the use of lists.
What’re lists?
Great question!
Lists are essentially what Homewyse is all about. Lists are a fast and dependable way to help estimate costs, material quality, and labor requirements for any type of service job.
Using the latest US pricing data, Homewyse is able to provide the quantities and costs of labor and material options for each job. This is actually a great way to figure out which materials to use for an upcoming rehab.
The best part about Lists is that you can customize and edit them for whatever project you’re working on; maybe you use the same materials for every kitchen you do or you have a particular painting list for bathrooms and one for bedrooms, etc.
The point is, you have a good deal of control to build a list to your specifications.
Here’s a great video on how to get started:
How to Use Homewyse as a Real Estate Wholesaler
As wholesalers, Homewyse actually does offer a number of different features outside of their Lists that cater to wholesalers:
Calculating the maximum allowable offer (MAO)
Estimate rehab costs
Calculate maintenance
Now, being able to calculate MAO and after repair value (ARV) is essential to making sure that you have the funds for the rehab. And trust me, guys, I’ve seen what happens when new sellers don’t take these things into account.
Homewyse luckily makes it easy to do this, especially for those of you who hate having to do math.
We actually cover how to find your MAO and ARV within our AstroFlipping course.
When it comes to rehab costs, Homewyse has a fairly detailed option for doing home modifications, kitchen remodels, and bathroom remodels.
Within each of these, you can calculate costs based on prices within your zip code or the zip code of the property you’re rehabbing:
You can adjust the size of the area (in the image, we’re using a kitchen as an example), the grade of materials, the type of labor, and the layout.
The fantastic thing about this is the ability to customize as best as you can to get an idea of what your rehab will cost. Another thing added is maintenance.
Guys, you would be surprised at how many investors, whether they’re doing fix and flipping, wholesaling, or creative financing, don’t account for maintenance costs, especially on properties they might be holding on to.
Maintenance is anything from carpet cleaning to landscaping, so you need to consider those when rehabbing. And Homewyse does a great job of giving you an idea of those costs.
And there you go!
If you need a quick way to calculate costs, you can’t go wrong with Homewyse, especially with their choice of free or paid options. The free version can help you through in a pinch, but as you would expect, you’ll get even more features with the paid version.
Homewyse is a great way to work your rehab costs, but it shouldn’t be the only way. To ensure you’ve got your numbers right and make those needed connections, join us in AstroFlipping!