TRUSTED BY 3,500+ CONTRACTORS & DEVELOPERS
We work with:
General Contractors
- Subcontractors
- Remodeling Contractors
Homebuilders
- Developers
Architects
“Most contractors are missing out on over $200,000 per month in project contracts and they don’t even know it. They are busy, have no time for takeoffs, and they are leaving money on the table. A lot of money.
We designed our construction takeoff service with the goal of helping our clients win projects and ultimately be successful.”
-Daniel Quindemil
Founder, I AM Builders
WHO IS I AM BUILDERS?
I AM Builders is a National Construction Estimating Firm in the business of helping contractors win projects.
With our construction estimating and takeoff services, we’ll help you prepare a budget for your new project.
Most contractors are so busy running their job sites that they NEGLECT their bidding. You’re supervising jobs, making deliveries, going to jobsite meetings, and the only time to work on bidding is NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS.
It doesn’t have to be that way!
HOW CAN WE HELP YOU WIN MORE PROJECTS?
“I have NO TIME to estimate projects”
– Every Contractor in America
The enemy of every contractor is the lack of time. Most contractors are busy working IN the business rather than working ON the business. If that’s the case, you’re not alone. We’ve worked with over 1,400 contractors nationwide estimating and consulting, and that’s normal.
But you’ve probably tried doing it yourself, working at night after work…. probably even on the weekends on the kitchen table. We’ll find your leads for you and can even takeoff your complete construction project after so you can focus on running your business and getting your nights and weekends back.
Stop missing out on bids because of time.
You’re probably MISSING OUT on $200,000 per month because you’re busy
We did an analysis and more contractors are missing out on several projects per month that they can actually win because they are so busy they just pass them up.
Depending on what your average contract value is, most contractors are missing between $200-500K per month in sales because of being busy.
We’ll prepare your entire estimate for you so can keep bidding those jobs.
We can estimate your entire project for you based on your LOCAL PRICING so the numbers will be accurate
I AM Builders is US Based and a licensed General Contractor, so we have actual building experience.
We use a combination of a cost database and our experience to price your projects based on the zip code of your project (Note: Everyone at I AM Builders has actual field experience in construction, not just theory or “paper estimating”).
Pricing for labor and material varies by area and zip code, so we make adjustments for local labor rates, material pricing, and even look at the area’s property value to determine accurate pricing. That’s what makes our construction estimating service a great option for busy contractors.
We even back our estimates with a $1 MILLION ACCURACY GUARANTEE which covers all of our clients by our Errors and Omissions Insurance.
We can help you NEGOTIATE AND CLOSE based on proven strategies
Estimating is only a small part of what it takes to win a job. We like to see this as a TEAM EFFORT.
What do you do after the estimate to give yourself the best chance of winning? We can help you work the numbers when you’re negotiating, and even jump on a conference call with your client (as your estimating team) to help you close.
We can even advise you on EXACTLY WHAT TO DO to have them wanting to USE YOU instead of your competitor.
Over the last 10 years, and after speaking and working with THOUSANDS of Contractors, we get to see what WORKS and what DOESN’T. We have some clients landing 50% of their bids by implementing some of the strategies we can easily show you.
These aren’t strategies we made up – we listened to our clients and created our blueprint based on what they are doing right, and avoiding what they were doing wrong. Best of all….. it works for ANY CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS.
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
You Send in Your Plans
You can upload your plans here or email us at info@iambuilders.com. Whichever is more convenient for you.
Be sure to let us know your scope of work and any details regarding your project.
We Send you a Quote for Our Services
Before starting, we’ll send you a detailed quote for our services. Every client is unique so we take the time to review each situation individually. We’ll factor in things like project range, difficulty, trades, and more.
We Estimate and Deliver Your Cost Estimate
Our team will takeoff and estimate your project. When we deliver you’ll receive a PDF and an Excel file of your estimate. We can also offer construction lead generation services for the jobs you’d like to pursue further.
What makes a Mississippi bid different
Mississippi doesn’t have one building code. It has whatever the city or county in front of you decided to adopt.
There’s no mandatory statewide code here. It’s home rule. Every city and county picks its own edition and enforces it with its own staff, and the editions in circulation right now are the 2021 IBC, the 2021 IRC, the 2021 IECC and the 2023 NEC. Jackson, the coast cities and DeSoto County get there first. In the smaller towns you can find an older edition, or no building department at all. That doesn’t make the job cheaper. It means the drawings and the engineer are the only things holding your number up, because nobody is going to catch it for you at plan review.
Then there’s the tax, and the tax is what people get wrong in this state.
Mississippi charges a 3.5% contractor’s tax on all non-residential construction when the total contract price is over $10,000. It’s assessed on the whole contract, not on your material invoices. Once you’re paying it, the component materials and services you buy for that job don’t pay sales or use tax. Residential work runs the other way: it’s out of the contractor’s tax and pays 7% sales or use tax on materials and services instead.
The trap is the word residential. Apartments and condominiums aren’t in it. A 40-unit apartment building is non-residential for this tax, so it carries 3.5% of the whole contract. If you price a multi-family job the way you price a house, you’re going to hand back the difference out of your own margin.
Two more mechanics that belong in General Conditions on day one. Over $75,000, you either pay the sales and use taxes before you start work or file a surety bond. Out-of-state contractors have to bond or prepay above $10,000. That’s cash out the door before the first load of dirt moves.
And under a good part of the state is the dirt itself. Yazoo clay runs through the Jackson metro, and the state’s own Office of Geology has a circular on it. It’s expansive. It swells and shrinks with moisture, and it’s why a foundation detail in Madison County looks nothing like the same house in Hattiesburg.
Four things that get missed on a Mississippi construction estimate
Every one of these has cost somebody real money.
1. The contractor’s tax on the wrong side of the line. 3.5% of the contract on non-residential work over $10,000, and apartments and condos count as non-residential. On a $6M apartment building that’s $210,000. It isn’t a line you find later. Put it in the estimate, and say in the notes which side of the line you priced it on.
2. The certificate of responsibility. Private work of $50,000 or more can’t be awarded to a contractor who didn’t hold a current certificate from the Mississippi State Board of Contractors when the bid went in. There’s a carve-out for a commercial building not over 7,500 square feet and not more than two stories, and private fire-protection work under $10,000 sits outside it too. Check the certificate before you spend three days on the takeoff.
3. The coast is a different building. Six counties — Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Stone and George. The state’s Strengthen Mississippi Homes program only pays in coastal jurisdictions that have adopted and enforce codes meeting or exceeding FORTIFIED, and it covers up to $10,000 of a FORTIFIED roof upgrade, paid straight to the contractor. Fastening, sealed decking, edge metal, openings — that’s a real quantity difference. If you price a Gulfport roof like a Tupelo roof, you’re going to lose the job to somebody who priced the coast.
4. The permit math is local, and it’s not small. Gulfport charges $2,020 for the first $500,000 of valuation plus $3.20 for every additional thousand. A $5M building is $16,420 in permit fee before plan review, before utilities, before anything. Forty minutes up the road the schedule is different. Pull the actual schedule for the actual city.
Mississippi projects we’ve actually priced
We don’t ask you to take our word for it. Sixteen real estimates are on this page — four in each of the four categories we work in. $197.1M of construction value across 141 pages of takeoff and pricing. Thirteen are Mississippi jobs. Three are next door, in Louisiana and Tennessee, and they’re labelled that way. Open them. Read the line items.
Commercial Buildings — ground-up retail, institutional and care facilities.
- High Performance Computing Center, Starkville – $36.3M (39759)
- Hyundai – Homer Skelton, Olive Branch – $8.2M (38654)
- Beehive Assisted Living Facility, Diamondhead – $2.3M (39525)
- Coahoma HS Gym, Clarksdale – $887K (38614)
Multi Family and Apartments — apartments, condos and multi-unit housing.
- 609 Jackson Ave Multi-Use Apartments & Retail, New Orleans LA – $130.1M (70130)
- Orchard Project, Diberville – $8.4M (39540)
- Columbia 4-Plex – $2M (Columbia 39429)
- Sevierville Housing Authority, TN – $389K (Sevierville 37862)
Residential — custom homes, pool houses and whole-house builds.
- English Lake Residence, La Follette TN – $4.9M (37766)
- 1533 US 49, Magee – $1.1M (39111)
- House Plan BB-1875, Saltillo – $362K (38866)
- Polhouse, Starkville – $136K (39759)
Tenant Buildouts — interior fit-outs in existing buildings.
- Dual Tenant, Hernando – $975K (38632)
- Oxford Dunkin – $525K (Oxford 38655)
- Academy Sports, Pascagoula – $440K (39581)
- Autozone Auto Parts, Biloxi – $179K (39532)
Four building types, from a $136K pool house to a $130.1M multi-use tower. That range is the point. Most shops price one lane and call it a service.
Look at the Starkville computing center. $36.3M and nineteen pages, concrete through electrical, because a data-heavy building is mechanical and electrical work wearing a building as a coat. Then look at Coahoma HS Gym — $887K, four pages, public school work in the Delta, where the wage rate and the school district’s schedule are the constraint, not the finishes.
And look at the two Hernando jobs, the Dual Tenant shell fit-out and the Oxford Dunkin down the road. Same corner of the state, same month, different tax treatment and different code path. That’s the part a national average can’t do for you.
Where we work in Mississippi
We estimate statewide. Here’s where the volume is.
Jackson metro. Jackson, Madison, Ridgeland, Brandon, Pearl, Clinton, Flowood. Yazoo clay country — the foundation line is the one to argue about.
The Gulf Coast. Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula, Bay St. Louis, D’Iberville and Diamondhead. FORTIFIED detailing, wind fastening and an insurance desk that reads your roof section. Three of the sixteen estimates above are coast jobs.
DeSoto County and the Memphis suburbs. Southaven, Olive Branch, Hernando. The fastest-permitting corner of the state and four of the sixteen estimates on this page.
North Mississippi. Oxford, Tupelo, Saltillo, New Albany, Corinth and Clarksdale. University work, retail rollouts and custom homes.
The Golden Triangle. Starkville, Columbus and West Point. Institutional and industrial work around Mississippi State and the Columbus corridor.
The Pine Belt and southwest. Hattiesburg, Laurel, Columbia, McComb, Magnolia, Natchez, Vicksburg and Port Gibson. Small-town work where there may be no inspector and the drawings carry the whole load.
Who our Mississippi estimating service is for
General contractors bidding hard-bid and negotiated work. Subs who need a takeoff that survives a scope review. Developers who want a real number before they commit capital. Architects who’d rather price a design now than explain a surprise at bid day.
Mississippi had 54,700 construction jobs in July 2026. It’s a small market where everybody bids against the same eight people, and the one who turns numbers around fastest gets the invitations. That’s what our Mississippi construction estimating services are built to fix. You send the plans. We send back a priced estimate with the quantities shown, in a format you can hand straight to an owner.
We’re not a lead service and we’re not a software subscription. A person does the takeoff. Another person checks it. You can call and ask why a number is what it is, and get an answer.
What you’re hiring is a cost estimator who has already priced work under your city’s code edition, on your soil, with the contractor’s tax on the right side of the line. Not a national square-foot average with the word Mississippi written on top.
Send us your plans. We’ll tell you what it costs.
