Color Houses: Building accurate proposals in half the time with takeoff software
Discover how this historic renovation company used Change Orders and Buildertrend Takeoff to get more organized, create new processes and increase profits.
Their challenge: Losing money due to a lack of financial organization
Color Houses is a historic renovation company in Houston, led by two men with a passion for restoring a home’s original beauty and character. What started as a few small jobs here and there is now a successful firm fully gutting and renovating about seven historic homes per year with the help of their trusted in-house team.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
Eric Pierce and Zach Haines joined forces in 2013 to establish Color Houses after living in and renovating each of their own historic homes. Like many other new construction businesses, they didn’t have organized processes in place or effective ways to communicate with each other.
“We were using QuickBooks for accounting but didn’t have a project management software. The Google Suite tools just weren’t cutting it. We needed something to compile our information, help us better understand our finances and communicate with our clients,” Eric said.
“We were losing a lot of money by not charging for most of our change orders,” he added.
Eric and Zach looked at several non-construction-based tools that were cheap, but they knew their business was big enough that it required a top-tier solution to solve their frustrations.
Company name
Color Houses
Industry
Historic home renovations
Location
Houston, TX
Favorite feature
Change Orders and Takeoff
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The benefits of Buildertrend
Their solution: Using construction software to create more organized processes
Just before COVID-19 hit, Color Houses found Buildertrend and jumped in with both feet. Through the extensive training available, the two co-founders started to find peace with their new organization tools and began cleaning up their in-house processes.
Up until that point, both men were highly engaged in every aspect of every project. But with Buildertrend’s solutions, they were able to take a step back and delegate some duties, allowing them to focus on their specialties. Zach took on the role of onsite manager, while Eric became the full-time office and client-facing liaison.
Change Orders, Selections and Daily Logs quickly became Eric’s favorite Buildertrend features – and he realized how essential they were for keeping the business organized.
He used each of these features to clean up their day-to-day processes and create an easy way for everyone to communicate. Before Buildertrend, managing their change orders and selections was a struggle. But now, having everything in one place allows for better quality control, which reduces unnecessary work.
“For custom builders like us, it helps bring in all the stakeholders of a project to reduce miscommunication and rework. Clients, architects and subs can all be informed. Everyone’s always in the loop,” Eric explained.
The platform became a one-stop shop for the Color Houses team as they continued to implement more of Buildertrend’s features into the business.
“Online payments with subs has been awesome,” Eric continued. “They love receiving checks via email and direct deposit. It also helps keep our purchase orders organized and the bookkeepers love it.”
Happy subs + happy bookkeepers + happy clients = the road to success.
Their success story: Using takeoff software to build accurate proposals in half the time
Eric and Zach were using as much of Buildertrend as they could, but at the time, takeoff was not part of the equation. They had been using Square Takeoff before Buildertrend acquired the company – and the guys were thrilled when it became part of the platform.
“It’s a really intuitive program,” Eric said of the new takeoff solution. “I didn’t love the navigation design in takeoff, but that has pretty much been solved with the Buildertrend integration. I don’t have to search for takeoff plans. I can access them directly in my Buildertrend proposals, and it’s very easy to figure out how to use.”
Buildertrend Takeoff is a digital estimating solution that allows construction pros to calculate material needs and costs. Users can upload digital blueprints, record measurements and create more accurate estimates quickly and efficiently.
Eric estimates that using Buildertrend Takeoff has reduced the time to build an accurate construction proposal by half, from when they were doing them manually. It also ensures they have the correct data to explain to customers why prices have changed throughout the project, making change orders a more seamless process.
Having everything in one place has allowed for better quality control, less rework, accurate data and much better financial reporting. Their clients now have full knowledge of what’s going on with the schedule and what payments are due. The architects can easily access selections. With less back and forth, it’s become a better experience for everyone involved.
“Buildertrend has made us an overall better company. It’s been instrumental in helping us create our own processes and get the data we need to be transparent with clients,” Eric said.
What are Eric and Zach most excited to see in 2023?
“We can’t wait to see how Buildertrend continues to expand and develop their takeoff software in the future,” said Eric.
Want to hear more about how Buildertrend Takeoff has helped Color Houses renovate historic homes in Houston? Tune in to the podcast to hear more about their decade-long journey and how our project management software helped them simplify their processes and scale their business.
Or follow in their footsteps and become a master of Buildertrend Takeoff for better construction estimating in your own business.
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