Estimate the Cost of Your Project: Preliminary Budgets vs. Final Project Budget
McSwain Builders is very experienced at creating budgets/estimates for new projects. In most cases, McSwain Builders uses its own proprietary database of actual costs on numerous prior projects to create preliminary budgets for new projects. McSwain Builders’s preliminary budgets normally fall between 7-15% of final, completed project cost. These budgets can be produced quickly. You will not have to wait weeks or months. Providing prospects and future clients with solid, realistic project cost data early in the construction/design process helps clients make intelligent decisions about the size and scope of their new projects.
When the preliminary budget has been reviewed and agreed upon by both Builder and Client, a Pre-Construction Services Agreement is usually signed and agreed upon between Builder and Client.This simple agreement gives the Builder a reasonable budget to secure formal bids for the project, and it formalizes the process for how the Builder is paid for their time for project specific estimating as well as project planning.
Once specific takeoffs have been completed, formal bids for each piece of the project have been obtained, and customer selections have been made, McSwain Builders takes this info, weaves it into the Preliminary Project Budget, and a Final Project Budget is born. This Final Budget becomes part of the Cost-Plus Construction Contract that formalizes and guides the relationship between McSwain Builders and our clients.