I AM CURIOUS: Where does Exactimate find these local contractors for their pricing?

Has anyone here been asked for pricing? Has your local, regional or national roofing ORG submitted any data?

I think that the statistic is that 4 out of 5 "local" contractors will be out of business in 3 yrs. Most of which is due to low pricing.

Is there a stat for the lifepsan of traveling contractors?

Start policing your communities for illegal activity, Band together as a roofing group understand your licensed rules. Send out the posse checking every job going on in the area. B) :P :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

Tom we only had state licensing for commercial over 50 g at the time of katrina,because of the storm you are now required to have comp and be registered with the state for jobs above $7,500.00 now since 07 and they do try and enforce it.Mostly they catch them when they screw up and the customer complains

So....Ya say life's better with state contractor licensing? Funny how that works.... ;)

A heard the same crap and those katerina roofs are leaking due to nail placement,recent conversation from home inspector is a lot of vents roofed over and leaky roofs.

Since the insurance companies control the payments, you have a choice do the work or not. We were doing storm work in Texas when Hurricane Ike came rolling thru, We were yther about 8 months and the insurance industry decied that they were paying too much for roofing, after several conversations we said see ya around and went back to Florida, which I contend is the best state to work storms in. Since the construction licensing board does not allow jacklegs or so called roofers. They also have a building code in which they do not allow short cuts or inferior materials. We never had a problem with insurance work in Florida, but I can't say that for other states. I heard a statement after Katerina, where the claim was thank god for MEXICO and it roofers oh well

Thunder,

I am not sure how to take your BOY comment. I'll take it with a grain of salt and chalk it up to bad humor. :kiss: :woohoo: :silly:

Soldierboy A name given to me during my time serving our Country

And the thunder rolls! :laugh:

LOL you need to change your name if you can't take it like a soldier BOY

stop yelling at us THUNDER.. :laugh:

SHINGLE PRICES ARE USALLY INFLATED EXAMPLE HERE IN MY NECK OF THE WOODS THEY ALLOW 98 A SQUARE FOR 30 YEAR LAMINATE ROOF LOADED BUT IN THE REAL WORLD YOU CAN BUY AT 72. ITS ALL SPELLED OUT IN XACTIMATE COMPONETS TAB YOU CAN FIQURE OUT THE BURDEN RATES IN PRICE LISTS TOOK ME 2 YEARS TO FIGURE IT OUT PLUS READ THIER WHITE PAPERS ON HOW THEY ARRIVE AT PRICING (ROCKET SIENCE)I THINK.

That's the way I see it thunder: Either you're a one man band or cheating the payroll burdens. A tidy, profitable business is pretty much out of the picture.

keep in mind that xactimate pricing is without general contractors o&p unless needed due to multilple trades needed but cat team guys try to slip it in as much as possible so they get paid more (4k increments of claim i heard) the price is for the tradesman o&p the only way a roofing contractor can make it work is volume the smart ones figured it out and thats why thier national otherwise youll go broke doing it for trade pricing unless you cheat workmanscomp which is an whole other can of worms

FROM ANOTHER Roofer/ Forum:

I have had numerous indepth discussions and email exchanges with the Xactware/Xactimate pricing department people. I did a detailed comparison of pricing between IN, AL and SC for roofing and found that while my material and labor costs were near identical in all 3 states, SC Xactimate rates for roofing averaged around 10% less. I found this even more odd when WC rates in SC were the highest of all 3 states. I made it clear to the Xactimate pricing department people that I thought their roofing rates in all 3 states were substantially low.

I found out some things. Xactimate gets their pricing by conducting surveys. I was told they get the contractor's names they survey from sources such as the BBB and yellow pages. I was also told they make ZERO effort to determine if the Contractor being surveyed operates legitimately by being properly licensed and carrying the required insurance. The Xactimate person I last spoke with acted shocked when I informed him the BBB did little to nothing to vet a contractor for proper licensing and insurance.

I also found out the Xactimate representative conducting the survey doesn't identify themselves as an Xactimate representative when making the call. I was told they did it this way as an attempt to avoid "poisoning" the feedback with falsely inflated pricing. I was told they often don't reach the individual they're calling and a subsequent voice mail often isn't returned.

I explained that I'd never, ever been contacted for a survey nor did I know of anyone who had. I was asked to provide a list of contractors in every state whom they could contact for a survey. I responded that I didn't wish to waste my time when I knew they wouldn't call the people.

With that said, I got the following commitment from the Xactimate pricing person. They will commit to contacting every contact I provide within two weeks and conducting the survey. They would keep a log of the contacts to share with me. To be 100% clear here, the information Xactimate shares with me will only be the date the attempted contact was made with the person on the list I provide and whether or not the person provided feedback for their survey. The actual pricing information provided is considered proprietary, as it should be, and would not be shared.

With that background in mind, any contractors here from Alabama, Indiana or South Carolina who wishes or is willing to be part of the Xactimate surveys should send me a private message with your company name, personal name and cell phone number. I say cell phone number because I suspect that is the best way to make sure the Xactimate individual actually makes contact with you. I'm hoping for people from the Indianapolis, Birmingham and Charleston markets but will provide the names and contact info from anyone who provides it in those three states.

I would suggest people here from other states who do insurance work and use Xactimate do a similar thing. That is, contact Xactimate pricing at pricing@xactware.com to complain about their pricing levels and request that you be added to their survey list and also see if they would be willing to add contacts you provide to their survey list. You can request that you receive follow up from them on having contacted the people you provide.

People, don't sit back and simply bitch and complain. This is like complaining about your government and failing to go to the polls and place your vote on election day. While I don't control Xactimate, this could be a chance for you to make a difference. It isn't that hard to do and won't take much of your time. If it isn't worth 15 to 30 minutes of your time to send an email, voice your concerns/complaints and possibly increase your profits on insurance work, please don't ever complain again about the prices and dealing with the insurance companies.

Finally, show some integrity. To be blunt, don't be throwing out absurd numbers thinking this will falsely inflate the results. You will be asked questions such as "what would your price per square be for a ranch walker" or something to that effect. In my opinion, you should respond with what you would normally quote, in your market, that would give you some reasonable chance of winning the job while allowing you a comfortable profit margin.

Don't wait for other people to take action, take the initiative and give this a try. Thanks in advance for your cooperation and support

They call about every other year. I just tell them $500.-$600. base rate and it goes up from there. True market rate.

I was shopped about a month ago by exactaware on the houma louisiana market,i read it on the caller id and played along for about ten minutes. He was asking base cost as cost for removal and replacement with no drip or vents or extras,on shingle and metal.He asked how much to replace a 26 square walk on,i gave him some pricing and discussed it with him.Then i informed i knew who he was,and we talked some more, surprisingly he continued to communicate with me.I informed how most legitimate roofing contractors feel about how they come to thier pricing determination and that random calling in the yellow pages is not accurate reflection of the market.As most here have no insurance and improper licensing or how stormers use nothing but illegal crews and ruin the market also.