Let’s Get Digital
by Brooke Smith | 30 April 2024 3:00 pm
Custom builders face many challenges when serving clients in today’s housing market. The cost to finance and build a home, along with a fluctuating supply of materials and labor, can prove daunting to homeowner and contractor alike. Still, new construction often presents the most affordable option, considering that previously owned homes remain relatively in short supply.1
Successful home builders know market opportunity exists as owners turn to building and even remodeling homes. In fact, an Association of Professional Builders (APB) survey found that 77 percent of its respondents say they will generate more revenue in 2024 than in 2023. The key, they say, is properly qualifying new customers.
Increasingly, builders turn to construction technology to prepare the detailed bids that do this very task. A well-prepared bid empowers clients to make informed choices, ensuring builders are working in a collaborative customer relationship that can navigate the many costs and phases of a home build.
Using new construction technology software, builders have the tools needed to include materials, labor, and the sufficient markup to cover those hard-to-track indirect costs. Detailed bids also include detailed specifications and material selection options that keep customer change orders to a minimum. With a detailed bid in hand, projects stay on time and on budget, freeing the home builder to think about other jobsite issues, such as worker safety.
Working in this way, builders display the professionalism and expertise that helps to create a loyal customer base that powers future client referrals. Both are critical to growing a home construction business in today’s economy.
In the past, a traditional method of creating detailed bids often required the work of an estimator—a luxury many smaller custom builders simply cannot afford. Estimating and bidding for them is something they must do at night or on weekends. However, construction management software is changing this frustrating paradigm that has kept builders sleepless and stressed out.
Tools galore
Builders using software is not necessarily new; many have used spreadsheet software for years. What is new, however, are the kind of affordable online software platforms that builders can adopt with affordable subscriptions. These platforms represent true technological advancements in the construction process. Data is stored online and accessible from any Internet-connected device, and it often pairs with online material and labor pricing from a favorite dealer or subcontractor.
These software platforms have many tools, including tools for doing material takeoffs, filling out detailed estimates, sending bids, and managing customer communications with online customer portals. The more sophisticated software packages also include project scheduling, budgeting, and bookkeeping.
Ease of access
Often, the use of construction management software can be seen in the generational changes that are taking place at smaller family-owned businesses. One such change is taking place at Marcella Building & Renovation.
Ron Marcella III started working in his father’s construction business at a very young age. Today, he approaches his administrative tasks, like estimating, using construction estimating software. Working from a computer in this manner is something his father would never do, Marcella says.
His father’s office is filled with paperwork. Marcella, a computer information systems major, says he cannot work like that.
“I need things to be cleared off. Having everything in a browser that you can access from any computer with an Internet connection gives you peace of mind,” he says. “I don’t have to go to my office to check on things. I can check on things wherever I have Internet access.”
Of course, builders on the move are increasingly using cellphones and tablets to check on-site progress. The ability to connect construction management software with daily logs is becoming increasingly popular.
Timely team updates from the jobsite offer up the information builders need to make schedule changes, and with modern software, those changes can be made and communicated back to the project team on the same software platform.
Great communication
Once builders start using software to manage their projects, they find it helps them with not only project management, but also customer management. Online client portals give builders the ability to communicate to customers without always having to use text or email. A missed email or one lost in a spam folder usually delays a critical decision that can upend a builder’s schedule.
Builders and construction professionals using modern construction management software can invite customers and their subcontractors into a port with a simple setup email. Once connected, builder and customer communicate about all home construction topics.
The best customer portals allow builder and customer to text back and forth as they would on a cellphone, but here, on the portal, everything specific to the project is captured in one place. Customers can make material and appliance selections and review and approve change orders. Builders can also review and accept quotes from their subcontractors.
Simple to use
As with any new technology in construction, its consistent use lies with not only its function but also its simplicity. Modern construction management software increasingly takes advantage of common computer skills to which many have grown accustomed. Point-and-click mouse gestures and completing easy-to-follow forms are usually all that is needed.
However, the most valuable software not only is easy to use but comes with service and support to get builders up and running quickly so they can spend more time on their construction sites.
Jordan Copeland, president and co-owner of Norse Ironworks, found learning construction management software straightforward and worth the time investment.
“I was able to crank out four or five estimates in a day, and everything looks professional,” Copeland says.
Project preparation
As construction management software becomes easier to use, builders find they can better negotiate a changing construction sector that, at times, can be very unpredictable due to the high cost of materials and labor.
Too often, builders lose money out of their own pockets because they do not have the time to estimate complex projects accurately. Builders often do not pass pricing mistakes to their customers for fear of losing client trust. Fortunately, software is helping builders put this challenge behind them while freeing up more of their time for site work.
When builders modernize their building practices using affordable, Internet-based software, they find they can be more competitive and more responsive to their customers, all while focusing on what they do best—building homes.
Technology for builders’ needs
A construction estimate platform helps contractors improve accuracy and efficiency so they can run a profitable construction business.
An estimating tool can improve builders’ and remodelers’ accuracy in just a few steps while reducing the time it takes to produce professional, up-to-date estimates. It can also include digital takeoffs, real-time regional material, and labor pricing, streamlining the bidding process and making customer communication a snap.
Note
1 bankrate.com/real-estate/existing-home-sales/
Greg Perliski is the content marketing manager for Buildxact. Since 2011, Buildxact has offered construction management software that makes residential construction simpler, more efficient, and more profitable. Book a demo or set up a risk-free trial account at buildxact.com.
Source URL: https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/articles/lets-get-digital/