Introduction: Estate management involves valuation, leasing, management, taxation and utilization of land and resources including buildings and other structures. Specifically, Estate management involves the planning, directing supervising, coordination and control of land resources with the goal of achieving a client's objectives as they relate to the ownership of land and/or buildings.
Estate management often begins with construction. A builder or an investor is not in the "construction business." All builders are specialists. For example, they can be builders of new homes, or they can remodel houses. They can specialize in building custom houses, or specialize in low cost housing such as apartments. A building can avoid homes building all together and focus on commercial projects such as office complexes or manufacturing facilities.
According to Warren Fees in his book "Accounting", the competition in the construction industry often results in low profit margins. While it is possible for smaller construction firms to compete with larger firms because the smaller firm has lower overhead, chances are good the larger company will prevail because the larger organization enjoys economies of scale the smaller company does not. Competition in construction is largely price based; however a reputation for quality and on-time completion can partially offset any price differential. Nevertheless, large construction companies have a significant advantage over smaller competitors.
Many of the more successful investors in property and buildings attribute their success to their ability to estimate cost and time - meaning the cost to build and the amount of time it will require. Successful investors often create a detailed description of the project on paper before they ever submit a bid, or solicit a proposal. In order to accomplish this, professionals break jobs down into work units and material costs. Combin...