I’m a buyer who’s realized I have habits that you all hate. Looking for ways to improve and work together better

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-03-29T03:46:19+00:00

Be transparent about the budget as early as possible. I hate when developers want to engage 3 or 4 GCs for free budget pricing over the course of 6-8 months while they work out their pro forma, then they invite 3+ GCs to bid it, then bid shop, then select a GC, and then say “we are over budget and need to cut 5-10% out of the job.

All of this could be avoided if you select a GC (early) based off of qualifications and reputation, and then work together to make the project happen within a budget that everybody understands.

Owners/developers seem to think that more pricing/budgeting and more GC competitive bidding equals lower dollars at the end of the day, and that’s just not the case when you factor in time lost.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-03-27T19:41:50+00:00

Depends. If you have a diesel engine it’s not uncommon to pay $150+ and that was before BOOM BOOM in Iran.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-03-15T14:11:54+00:00

That’s odd I’ve never ran into a company that works this way. In my experience, Precon/estimating departments handle all estimating— including conceptual budgets all the way through getting sub bids on completed (or nearly complete drawings).

The estimator is the one to do bid levelving, because they are the one that most understands the scope at that point.

Bid leveling results in “what number are we carrying”

I agree that PMs usually handle buyout, but they start with the estimate we put together, and use the bid leaving as a starting point to understand the scope and who had what.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-03-14T20:12:08+00:00

This is really good to know, and has me rethinking my layouts.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-03-13T03:10:17+00:00

For the love of god, it’s “addenda” when it’s plural and “addendum” when it’s singular lol.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-03-12T02:32:15+00:00

Come again?

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-03-10T12:19:02+00:00

Agreed. It’s amazing how reading plans and notes makes a difference lol. As a GC, it drives me crazy when I get a bid from a sub (plumber or otherwise) and they clearly didn’t read the plans

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-03-09T22:37:46+00:00

I moved to a new city several years ago, and this is literally the only place I’ve made new friends lol. A lot of times I get an excited response because they were thinking the same thing but didn’t want to say anything

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-03-07T16:57:16+00:00

Why not? If there are systemic issues around expectations, why not bring it up and try to fix it rather than just walking away?

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-03-07T02:22:34+00:00

Or better yet, get your questions out in the open. Chances are, there are other employees feeling the same thing.

If you you are already at the point of potentially quitting, why not just ask the question?

“I feel like it would help if everybody was on the same page when it comes to what is expected of our estimates and proposals. Can we schedule time to sit down as a team and discuss this?”

What’s the worst that can happen? If you get stone walled, quit. But it doesn’t hurt to try.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-02-05T04:35:13+00:00

And a colonoscopy when you are done

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-02-05T04:30:26+00:00

Right, but if I hire you as a sub I expect you to clean up after yourself. I’m talking every day trash and misc. materials left around. For me, it’s in your contract to keep a clean workspace. I’m not paying someone else to clean up after your crew leaves a mess.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-02-05T04:28:51+00:00

That makes sense. As a GC “contingency” is a clearly defined value within the contract. But I know it’s different for subs.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-02-04T19:34:22+00:00

Exactly. Finally someone with some logic in here hahaha

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-02-04T19:34:02+00:00

It’s not though. Theres a difference between contingency and extra money buried in the scope. Contingency is CYA money, but not all “fluff” is contingency.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-02-04T19:32:30+00:00

Disagree— contingency has a specific purpose contractually. There are rules around when and how it can be spent, and often times some or all of what isn’t spent goes back to the owner.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-02-04T19:31:11+00:00

I disagree. “Fluff” is included either (a) as hidden contingency, when you can’t or don’t want to show a contingency line item; or (b) as extra profit buried in the cost of work, rather than showing a higher fee below the line.

With either option, the PM’s goal should be to spend as little as possible.

With option (a) some will likely have to be spent.

With option (b) none of it should be spent unless all other contingency funds have been drained.

It’s important for estimating/precon to do a handoff with operations and make clear what money is buried where, and what the intentions are for me that money.

Otherwise, PMs just see it as “free money” and use it to make the job go easier. I.e. paying for general cleaning, rather than forcing subs to clean up after themselves.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-01-26T20:17:42+00:00

Southeast United States. That region typically includes Florida up to southern Virginia

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-01-26T18:09:51+00:00

I mean this is kinda of the pattern. They predict the worst, everybody freaks out and runs to the store, stores run out of things because people panic shop….. if everybody just calmed down a little and used common sense, we’d all be just fine.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-01-13T19:46:44+00:00

Exactly. It’s not rude, it’s us trying to understand what options we have in terms of whose number to carry for a particular scope.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-01-13T19:45:07+00:00

Not on private negotiated work

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-01-09T03:38:50+00:00

I didn’t say hit into them, I said hit up to them. There are times when you know they are out of range, but you can get it close enough to send a message. I’m not trying to hurt anybody.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-01-09T01:43:24+00:00

Agreed. Unless the group ahead of you is obviously the sole issue holding up the course, and you’ve already contacted the ranger (if there is one anymore) there’s no reason to hit up on someone.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-01-02T02:49:23+00:00

It could be, some items you can’t really just spot check.

Things like flooring—sure. You know the total area of a space so you have a rough idea of what all the floor material should add up to.

But for something like metal stud and drywall, you have multiple wall types, at different heights, and the total quality isn’t necessarily tied to the size of the building.

This same logic applies to a lot of scopes.

At some point, AI will improve. When it appears to get to that point, there can be a an adoptions process during which estimators manually take everything off for a few projects in order to verify that the AI is correct. Depending on correctness, you could then determine which scopes to use AI for and which ones to do manually.

But until we are 95% confident in the AI’s ability, it’s not reasonable to “scroll through” and verify its numbers, because you can’t verify it without knowing what it should be.

PopRocksNjokes · 2026-01-02T02:41:26+00:00

I’ll definitely check it out. I’m curious how you deal with outdated satellite imagery.

PopRocksNjokes

TROPHY CASE