hello out ther in google land, I am looking for software for building
single family homes. I will do larger projects as time goes on
(mutipule projects, apartments, condos, subdivisions, etc.) so it
would be great to have an expandable program.
The program or programs that I am looking for need to:
- deal with the structure of the deal(financing, loans, investors,
roi,
& more)
- deal with the accounting of the project (estimates and track all
cost
& relationships) and generate a close out for the project for my
accountant and fed taxes.
- deal with the scheduling of the project, the contacts and
communications etc
from my research I am expecting a few different sources of the
software but an all inclusive progame would be nice.
I would like the cost to be under $900 ($500 or lower the best).
I will tip nice for a great answer and will ask some clairfications
etc.
Thanks, Hyram Williams

Dear Hyram, 

Thanks for your question! My father and brother are developers, so
I got a little help from my brother with this one.

So far, I have found one program that seems suitable.
The “Builder” version of Construction Office 2003, by UDA

http://www.uniteddesign.com/cos_uda.html

seems to meet just about all your requirements, including
the price. Here’s what it includes:

Construction Office 2003 Builder includes the five components listed
below:
·  UDA Contracts 2003 
·  UDA Specifications 2003 
·  UDA Estimating 2003 
·  UDA Financing 2003 
·  UDA Accounting 2003 

 The price is a reasonable $249-$349. Construction Office is designed
to be used in conjunction with Microsoft Office. As you grow your
business, you can add components. Or if you decide to start with the
Light Commercial, Professional, or Developer versions, the most
expensive (Developer) is still just $799. You don’t mention where you
are, but there are special versions for California contractors too.

If you go to the “Compare Versions” page, you’ll see just how much
each version costs, and what it includes:

http://www.uniteddesign.com/cos_compare.html

A company called CDCI, Construction Data Control
Inc, can do for you most of what you want to do.
They’ve been around for over 20 years, and you can find them at :

http://www.cdci.com/

But, I spoke to their rep on the phone, and they’re expensive. Their 
accounting module runs $1,500-4,000, estimating is $4-5 thousand, and
scheduling is about $600.



There’s a program called “Master Builder,” by Intuit.
It looks as though it meets your requirements, with the
exception of the “structure of the deal,” and it’s
expandable. You can find the homepage at:

http://masterbuilder.intuit.com/home_building/

However, this system is also expensive: $2,400 for the
“core system” and another $900 for the Estimating
Component you would need, so $3,300. They do give
you a year of tech support, so that’s part of the
big expense.

I have checked a number of other sites (below) and none actually
show their prices (always a worry!) I have e-mailed them with
your requirements, and will forward their responses to you. 

One is “The American Contractor,” by Maxwell.
Homepage is at :

http://www.amercon.com/indexac.htm

This one looks good because you can buy modules individually, so
definitely
expandable. Does not seem to include section for the initial structure
of
the deal: financing, loans etc. Will get back to you on the price.


ComputerEase construction software is at:

http://www.construction-software.com/thank_you.html

They seem more limited, but I e-mailed them to see if they can meet
your requirements, and at what price.

I hope this is a good preliminary answer to your question. Before you
rate it, please wait for the price followups, and please ask me to
clarify
or followup anything that’s missing.

Sincerely, cath-ga

Search strategy:

On Google:
“contractor software”
“construction software”

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Request for Answer Clarification by hyram-ga on 02 May 2003 17:18 PDT

Hey Cath,
I am going to check these out.  
I have been to the UDA site before, but for some reason I did not
catch the info.  I think it was at the end of a long night of
searching.  Thank you for your time and effort and I will get back to
you asap.  Thank you again, and I will see if these fit the bill and
let you know.
Hyram

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Clarification of Answer by cath-ga on 02 May 2003 17:50 PDT

Sure, let me know what you think. cath-ga