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Yep. And some carriers like Allstate could care less what Xactimate says - so it comes down to the customer and the local market reality.

With non-cat daily claims, the phone book is full of water-fire contractors that use Xactimate. Your example of roofing is a good one - they are not so directly tied with the insurance industry. Lots of their customers just need a new roof, and the price is the price. When I tweak a price to = a local vendor, I always put in a quick note under the line item with the contractor ID and phone, to CYA. Then if someone reviews the estimate they don't have the frustration Darryl is going through.

Maybe the adjuster didn't lower the prices at all- not everyone realizes that there are probably at lease 4 or 5 current price lists for any given area.

The "off the shelf" version of Xactimate is usually a few pennies higher on almost every line item than the major carriers' prices. The big boys input their own pricing, and even sometimes pick and choose the line items that will be in the program. Not every line will be lower, some might pay a few pennies more.

There are also independent pricing services, working for the carriers.

Anybody who leaves a large carrier and starts working for an independent or contractor will notice little differences in Xactimate- its the database used, not the estimator.

There are other people who know much more than I about this, please post if you are here.

Over the past 15 years of working with adjusters it is almost humorous that some think the "correct" price is in some canned pricing DB. As discussed there are different prices for the same item in the same region when comparing different Xactmate databases from company to company. Everyone seems to tweak this or that.

However on an average loss on an average day most all databases seem to get within the ball park for cutting the check IF the scopes are in agreement. When computer estimating software does a complete job of pricing out the damage then fewer adjusters will be needed and more adjusting techs can fill the bill for a smaller bill.

Amen.