HELP
Plan with your own estimates
Simple remodel estimates
Use Simple mode to enter the renovation area and choose your planning presets. Remodel rates are None $0, Minor $10, Moderate $20, Major $30, and Extensive $40 per square foot. Material additions are Tenant $0, End-user entry $5, End-user middle market $10, and End-user high end $20 per square foot. Remodel and material rates add together. None always means zero renovation cost and leaves materials inactive.
These are user-defined planning allowances. They are not verified local market averages or contractor quotes. Copying the selected building's area is optional; adjust it to the actual work area. The preview includes the existing contingency once. Choose Apply to replace the budget's line items; switching between Simple and Detailed does not change costs. Detailed edits and unapplied previews are labeled separately in reports.
Enter a project and compare scenarios
Create a project, add line items, and enter your own low, typical, and high estimates. These are your assumptions, not HomeCost market rates or contractor quotes. You can add a contingency percentage to see how it changes the planning total.
Fill supported costs automatically
Open Automatic costs to choose one of 20 supported scopes. Enter the measured area or item count and any required product specification. HomeCost fills low, typical, and high material prices plus the source-modeled installation allowance. Review the preview, then create an estimate or add the scope to the current project. These calculations use the bundled library on your device; no price request is sent to a server.
Where verified Texas prices are unavailable, the library uses clearly labeled U.S. residential benchmarks in 2023 dollars from the DOE/NREL National Residential Efficiency Measures Database. These are published model estimates, not observed Texas averages or current contractor quotes. No local or inflation adjustment is applied. Installation allowances may already include labor, equipment, and removal. Do not add those costs again without checking the source scope. Unsupported jobs still require your own prices.
Each generated line retains its source, model parameters, price year, and original rates through saving, saved versions, JSON backups, CSV export, and the estimate report. If you edit the price or rate unit, HomeCost marks the benchmark as edited. The original reference remains available. Source data is adapted under CC BY 4.0; the source and attribution appear with the benchmark.
Use an unpriced starter scope
Open Job library to search 12 starter scopes or filter by category. Choose a job, enter its measured area, length, or count, select a material grade, and choose preparation, removal, and cleanup work. Material overage changes only the material quantity. Grade and ZIP describe your project; they do not change prices. Enter your own supplier prices or contractor quotes for every line before using the estimate.
Create a new estimate starts a separate project and asks before discarding an unsaved draft. Add to current estimate keeps the existing line items and prices and adds the new scope. Review the generated quantities and notes; the library is a starting checklist, and you can edit every line.
Review the itemized estimate
Budget shows separate materials, labor, other work, and contingency totals. Estimate report includes your scope notes, location, quantities, unit prices, and low/typical/high line totals. Print estimate opens your browser’s print flow. The overall estimate remains unavailable until all quantities and prices are valid. Reports, exports, and calculations are generated on your device.
Find and review property details
Enter a complete Texas street address and city including TX or Texas, then press Enter or choose Find property. One matching county record automatically fills an empty project's property fields. Refreshing the same parcel preserves manually edited facts; selecting a different saved property asks before replacement. Multiple matches need an explicit choice. Review the parcel ID, county, available facts and source dates. Lookup does not run while typing.
HomeCost uses available county-contributed public parcel records across Texas through TxGIO, with a direct Tarrant source for additional home facts and a 2026 HCAD annual-file index for Harris County. Harris results separate residential buildings; choose the building you mean. Heated area is labeled as the living-area proxy, while appraisal values cover the whole parcel. Unlisted fixture counts remain unavailable. Coverage and completeness vary; not all 254 counties or every requested field are guaranteed. County market/appraised, land and improvement values, tax year, land-use code and source dates are shown only when supplied. Missing facts stay blank. County values are not an after-repair resale value, actual tax bill or purchase price. HomeCost does not infer monthly taxes, mortgage assumptions or renovation quantities from them. The data-acquisition date and the time HomeCost retrieved it are different dates.
A geocoded point is approximate and is not a survey or proof of parcel ownership. HomeCost requires a matching parcel street address before presenting its facts. A missing fact stays blank. The home’s total square footage does not automatically become a renovation quantity. Manual property fields, saved details, and all budget calculations work offline. Only an explicit property lookup sends a network request.
Sample values are illustrative
The sample project exists only to demonstrate the interface. Its values are fictional examples, not recommendations, local prices, or estimates for your home. Replace them with quotes and assumptions relevant to your project.
Save and back up
Projects are saved in this browser on this device. Use Export → Download full backup to save all projects and saved versions before switching devices or clearing browser data. Keep the downloaded JSON file somewhere you control. Import backup adds the backed-up projects as new copies.
Prepare a buy, renovate and sell proposal
Price an itemized renovation, open Deal analysis, and enter purchase price, your after-repair sale value and hold period. Add acquisition, monthly holding, financing and selling costs. Blank optional numeric fields count as zero and are listed for review; zero is not a verified quote. Record valuation and quote evidence, exit and fallback plans. Investor proposal includes the financial case and the renovation appendix. Save a version before sharing and export a backup.
Interest uses the entire loan balance for the full hold, with simple interest and no amortization or staged draws. Equity required is modeled pre-sale cost less the loan, floored at zero. Net sale cash is sale proceeds less selling costs and principal repayment; it includes returned owner capital and is not profit. Returns are pretax and not annualized. Peak cash, taxes, maturity extensions, program eligibility and lender approval are not modeled. Maximum purchase holds current loan terms and other assumptions fixed.
Downside illustrations reduce sale price by 10%, increase renovation including contingency by 10%, add three holding months, and combine those changes. These are illustrations, not probabilities or predictions. County property facts are not an appraisal. Replace dated public cost benchmarks with documented current quotes where appropriate. A saved proposal does not verify your evidence.
For background on itemizing charges, see the CFPB overview of closing costs and Loan Estimate explainer. These explain common terms; they do not establish a particular investor loan's terms.
Planning limits
HomeCost organizes estimates you enter. It does not inspect a property, verify contractor pricing, assess structural or code requirements, provide financing or tax advice, or guarantee the final project cost. Confirm scope, permits, and pricing with qualified local professionals.
Clear local data
To remove all saved projects from this browser, clear this site’s data in your browser settings. Deleting a project inside HomeCost removes that project only. Export a full backup first if you want to retain your work; clearing site data also removes the local data needed to use HomeCost offline until the app is visited online again.