San Francisco, CA
SMART HOME / AV ESTIMATING.

## AV Estimating in San Francisco Moves Fast — Your Bids Should Too San Francisco's housing stock runs from 1890s Victorians in the Haight to glass-and-steel condos in Rincon Hill. Every job type demands a different scope. A whole-home automation install in a Pacific Heights Edwardian means fishing wire through balloon-framed walls and coordinating with historic preservation guidelines. A boardroom AV upgrade in SoMa means DSP programming specs, Crestron or Savant control systems, and a building manager watching the clock. Estimate.Pro handles both. You walk the job, capture measurements with AR on supported devices, and the platform builds a scope-of-work draft from what you found — not from memory after you get back to the truck. ## What Makes SF AV Bids Different **Permit requirements are real here.** The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection requires electrical permits for low-voltage work that involves new circuits or panel connections. If your install touches a breaker — whole-home lighting control, motorized shade systems, dedicated AV rack circuits — you are pulling a permit. Budget time and fees into every bid from the start, not after the client pushes back. **Labor costs are among the highest in the country.** San Francisco AV technicians with CEDIA certification and commercial experience bill out at $95–$135/hr depending on specialization. If you are subcontracting rack programming or custom DSP work, that rate climbs further. Your estimate needs to carry those numbers accurately or you eat the margin. **Condo associations and HOAs add scope.** High-rise installs in Mission Bay or the Embarcadero require access coordination, freight elevator scheduling, and sometimes third-party insurance certificates before you touch anything. Those are billable hours. Build them in. **Seismic mounting is not optional.** Equipment racks, display mounts, and ceiling-hung speakers in San Francisco must be braced for seismic loads per CBC Chapter 16. Inspectors enforce this on commercial projects. Residential clients increasingly ask for documentation after the 1989 Loma Prieta anniversary coverage resurfaces every few years. Specify your seismic hardware and include the labor. ## How Estimate.Pro Works for AV Integrators You open the app on-site. Walk each room. The AR measurement tool — ONNX-assisted on supported devices — captures dimensions and flags structural elements. Camera and photo measurements are marked as estimates so you know what to verify. The AI scope engine converts your walkthrough into a line-by-line draft: rack units, cable runs, speaker placements, control system licenses, programming hours, permit allowances, and commissioning time. Median time from walkthrough start to a sendable bid is 8 minutes. You keep your own material cost workspace. SF distributor pricing for Lutron, Sonos, Crestron, Snap One, or any other line you run — entered once, available on every estimate. No platform markup on your costs. **Estimate.Pro supports 25 trades.** If you also bid structured cabling, security, or low-voltage for your clients, those scopes live in the same account. ## Pricing That Fits a Boutique Integrator or a Larger Shop - **Free tier** — no credit card, no time limit. Start bidding today. - **Pro — $39/seat/mo** — full estimating, AR measurement, saved cost workspace. - **Elite — $79/seat/mo** — adds Stripe Connect invoicing (0% platform fee), invoice exports, and advanced workflows. - **Crew — $399/mo flat** — covers the whole shop regardless of head count. The Free tier carries a 3% Stripe Connect fee on payments. Pro and Elite drop that to 0%. ## San Francisco AV Work You Can Scope in Estimate.Pro - Whole-home automation (lighting, shading, HVAC integration) - Home theater — acoustic treatment, projection, 4K/8K display - Multi-room audio (Sonos, Control4, Savant, Crestron) - Commercial boardroom and huddle room AV - Outdoor AV — coastal-rated enclosures are standard in SF's marine layer climate - Structured cabling and network infrastructure - Security camera and access control integration You do the work. The estimate should take care of itself.