Houston, TX
SMART HOME / AV ESTIMATING.

## Smart Home and AV Estimating Built for Houston's Market Houston is the fifth-largest city in the country and one of the most active markets for residential smart home integration and commercial AV work. New construction in the Energy Corridor, high-rises in Midtown, and estate builds in Memorial and River Oaks keep project pipelines full. But a full pipeline does not mean a profitable one if your estimates are slow, inconsistent, or priced against contractors who quote faster than you can pull numbers. Estimate.Pro is built for AV integrators who need to price control systems, whole-home audio, surveillance, structured wiring, and motorized shading without spending half a day on a spreadsheet. --- ## What Makes AV Estimating Different in Houston **Square footage scales fast here.** Houston's luxury residential market skews large. Properties in Tanglewood, Cinco Ranch, and the Heights regularly run 4,000–8,000 sq ft. A scope that covers 15 zones of distributed audio, a lighting control system, and a 4K projection room in a single bid has a lot of line items. Missing one category — cable runs, rack gear, commissioning labor — kills your margin. **The heat load matters to your equipment specs.** Houston summers push HVAC systems hard, and that affects AV equipment rooms. Rack ventilation, UPS sizing, and cooling loads for media rooms are real line-item considerations that affect your material cost. Your estimate needs to account for that before you close the job. **Commercial AV is active in the Medical Center and downtown office corridor.** Conference room AV, digital signage, and video walls for corporate clients require a different takeoff than residential. Line-item clarity matters when your customer is a facilities manager who will compare your quote against two others. **Houston has no state income tax but Texas does require an Alarm Systems Installation license** through the Texas Department of Insurance, Private Security Bureau, for integrators who install surveillance, access control, or monitored systems. Verify your license category before bidding monitored scopes. --- ## How Estimate.Pro Works for AV Integrators You walk the job. You open the app. You use AR measurement on supported devices — ONNX-assisted live measurement that captures room dimensions and zone counts as you move through the space. Camera and photo measurements are marked as estimates so you know what to verify. The AI scope builder reads your walkthrough notes and generates a line-item scope of work: control system hardware, distributed audio zones, display equipment, cable and conduit, rack build, programming, and commissioning labor. You review and adjust against your saved material cost workspace, which holds your preferred brands and negotiated costs. Median time from walkthrough to a sendable bid: 8 minutes. --- ## Pricing That Fits Your Operation - **Free tier:** No credit card. No platform fee on bids. Start estimating today. - **Pro — $39/seat/mo:** Covers most single-operator integrators. - **Elite — $79/seat/mo:** Includes Stripe Connect payments and invoice exports. Pro+ tier means 0% platform fee on client payments. - **Crew — $399/mo flat:** Covers your whole shop, no per-seat math. Free users pay a 3% platform fee on Stripe Connect transactions. Pro+ and above pay 0%. --- ## Built Across 25 Trades If you sub out HVAC, electrical rough-in, or low-voltage to other crews, Estimate.Pro covers those trades too. Your subs can price their scopes inside the same platform. One job, one organized bid package. --- ## Start Without Risk The free tier has no time limit and no credit card requirement. Build your first AV estimate for a Houston project today and see where your current process loses time.