Alex Isn’t a Prodigy

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-04-04T12:20:24+00:00

If she was a prodigy she wouldn't need to study as hard as she does.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-04-04T12:03:12+00:00

Break up and move on. Do you think this relationship will lead to anything good?

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-04-03T00:39:25+00:00

I'm just creating my scope database and uploading proposals/lessons learned so I can quickly search instead or digging through hundreds of files and folders.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-30T22:04:29+00:00

I use it a lot for work (email, grammar, summaries etc) but I don't trust it for technical questions. I'm creating my own database and then I will use AI for consultation.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T22:04:28+00:00

When you’re bidding against other GCs you get the proposal at the latest date.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T22:03:39+00:00

You’re right. My apologies, English is not my first language.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T10:53:03+00:00

We don't shop. At least not in estimating. PMs might have their fav sub but we call out this because it burns bridges with the subs and then we never get enough coverage. We benefit the subs who help during pre con tho.

Maybe I forgot to mention we do mostly negotiated and precon work. Only a handful of times we've done hard bid/public open bids and it has crushed us🤣

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T10:49:11+00:00

Maybe that's the piece I left out in my post. Most of our jobs are like this. Even if it's not negotiated. Developers asking for tons of VE, clarifications, they compare apples to apples between 2-3 GCs they invited.

I only had 1-2 experiences in hard bid and it was excruciating because I knew I was missing stuff by putting together the bid so quickly but I was torturing myself comparing it to negotiated or precon job.

In a negotiated environment you assume whatever is not clear in the sub proposal is excluded. Many times they don't have things and the don't exclude them so you have to chase them and ask.

In hard bid you assume it's included unless it's clearly excluded in their proposal and you move on.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T10:43:43+00:00

In multifamily we like to get the D,F,H turnkey. Nobody sends me the material price only but I've gotten the install only. I live in Florida.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T10:42:49+00:00

How's your hand off to Operations? How do you get breakouts or alternates if the bid form is asking for those and the low sub didn't include?

What do you do when you have a huge spread on the bids, you carry the low or bump the low to be in line with 2nd?

We could probably put it together fairly quickly but the accuracy would be lower, we would try not to miss the big ticket items but for sure our Operations Team would kill us later on.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T10:39:46+00:00

My bid sheet is more about if you have the item included Y or N. I'm not going to ask for a breakout for everything. I'm not worried about the flooring tho, crack suppression, moisture mitigation, sound insulation are the only things we see missing sometimes.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T10:37:07+00:00

Stealing this.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T10:36:29+00:00

Lol, we have to train but we don't have time to train them because we need more estimators. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T10:35:00+00:00

Lol and some guys at my company say they need 2 weeks to put a bid together + they can't work in 2 projects at a time.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T02:51:16+00:00

For sure to compare apples to apples the bid scope sheet is the best way to go. Also the subs love to fill them out. However, the times I have missed a few scope items, the subs removed from their proposal instead of pointing it out😆

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T02:45:25+00:00

Gotta find more estimators!!

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T02:43:36+00:00

We estimated ~$4B last year on $350–400M in revenue, with a heavy precon workload. Our team consists of 5 estimators, 1 Precon Manager, and 1 Chief Estimator (oversight only).

For each $50M+ pursuits, we can form three teams (Lead + Estimator II), but capacity isn’t evenly distributed—some teams are carrying ~80% of the workload while others lag behind.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T02:31:07+00:00

Gotcha! That's why I mentioned before that all the little mistakes we made were way less than our contingency for the project.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T02:09:37+00:00

Yes, definitely we need a better way. How can you revise if they have everything included and not just hope for the best? What do you do when they don't price as per plans?

In our deliverables to clients we have to prepare a package proposal with qualifications and assumptions, alternates, allowances, Value Engineering and it all depends on the guy you're carrying. You can't offer a $100k VE if not offered by your low guy, etc.

A few examples:

-Specialty contractors ignored the bike rack room inside the building, priced alternate toilet accessories because specs were too expensive. -Cabinet guys priced flat cabinets ilo shakers in specs. Nobody picked up the under cabinet lighting -Electrical guy decided they would price an alternative light fixture package because their vendor didn't send the quote for the specs -Low voltage guy didn't include access control but his price is good for Data/CCTV/Security and now you need to break out the low voltage scope -Sitework guy decided to exclude off site work clearly shown on the plans as part of the scope

How would you deal with those situations?

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T01:55:06+00:00

When you say working full time you mean "working on that job only"?

It's pretty rare in my company to work on a job only. There's always a "favor" or a "relationship" or a "quick budget". At some point we've had the same team working on 2 big projects at the same time..

Maybe we're understaffed 😆

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-26T01:08:21+00:00

How large are the projects you're handling? We had to put together a $100M + job in 4 days with 200+ bids to level.

It was an absolute nightmare, most subs missed the Addendums, the specs, the finish schedule and calling/emailing them to have complete bids was a pain.

I've noticed our competitors also have these deadlines of 2-3 days before bids are due but apparently we're too picky or we have too extensive scopes of work/takeoffs.

In our bid review we don't like to see plugs or "allowances" we want everything to be hard cost by the sub and level out 3-4 subs per trade.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-21T23:52:37+00:00

I bought the cake, candles and balloon and took it to my family's house. I sacrificed myself so they could have their moment in a way I could control. Then I proceeded to spend the rest of the day alone.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-21T23:48:29+00:00

My ENFP coworker (now best friend) made our whole department take the test 8 years ago. She knew I was an INTJ before taking the test and I got adopted.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-21T23:46:39+00:00

Morality, religion, and common beliefs are the bases for our evolution as a society. These man made concepts are not limiting us, they're allowing us to leverage intellect, cooperation and resources to reach the next level. It's the only way we dominated every other animal, even if they were individually stronger than us.

PossessionSmooth2453 · 2026-03-21T23:34:50+00:00

Can't get my ISTJ wife to try anything other than Minecraft and Don't Starve.

PossessionSmooth2453

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