Could You Plan a Home’s Construction By Yourself?
Building a home is a very complex, and not to mention expensive, endeavor for anyone.
This was the harsh realization that brought Vineet Singh, co-founder and CEO of Buildzar, to invent the Beztimate home building tool, according to Tech 2 of FirstPost.
“After going through a bad experience during my home building journey, I figured out that there is a lot of information asymmetry prevailing in the domain. Hours of online research and fumbling through many home design magazines gives you nothing more than just theory,” explained Singh.
Buildzar, India’s online marketplace for home construction and improvement needs, designed the Beztimate to calculate quick cost estimates for any individual project.
The estimate includes detailed information about the required building materials and even the construction schedule.
“Building a new home might take between 6-12 months to complete, so if you’re considering building your home always check out your builder and make sure he is a legitimate contractor and has experience building homes in the city of your choice. On your list of things to check should be: local building codes, subcontractors your builder is using, materials used to build and finish your home. Don’t settle for the cheap stuff when it comes down to windows, roofing or siding. Use premium materials; builder grade exterior cladding will not last long,” said Peter Kiwior, owner of Pro-Home Services.
“Moreover, there is no price sanctity. Each service provider will give you a different ‘number’ and your entire home construction budget will go haywire,” said Singh.
The Beztimate’s estimations are based off input of commercial construction industry standards and the construction location, which includes the construction laws and bylaws in place in the region, such as floor area ratio (FAR), setbacks, and height restrictions.
The calculations encompass the costs of design, labor, and material.
With the United States housing market on the rise, the Beztimate could be an extremely useful tool in America.
As ABC News reports, construction spending in the U.S. rose to the highest level in eight years by the end of 2015.
Home construction peaked back in 2006, before continuously falling for the better part of the next five years. Come 2012, construction spending finally began to ramp up once again.
Overall, construction spending increased 0.1% in December, driven mainly by gains in home construction and government projects. In total, construction jumped 10.5%, up to $1.1 trillion this past year.
Home construction on its own rose a total of 12.6% over 2015.
