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Bebe,

   I am new to all this and all I can say is do not take a one day class anywhere.  Xactimate is a big program with many features.  I took a one day class and it was a waste of money.  The instructor was great and he admitted that it was just an introduction but... it you are going to spend the time and money get more out of it.  I took the one day...150.00...now I am looking to take a 3 or 5 day

Good Luck....Jeff

Some classes really are better than others, but there is something that I think happens that we should all keep in mind when passing judgment on a particular class.

Classes have more than one student and all students come into it at different levels expecting to learn at their own level. Classes move fast to teach everyone something. The amount of information for a first time student can be so overwhelming that after it is over there will have been many things mentioned that did not penetrate a thick skull like my own. For a while I thought my first Xactimate class (which was three weeks long taught in conjunction with construction materials, scoping, and coverage....was not as good as it could have been. Later, I realize it was the student...not the teacher. I was familiar with construction materials and had studied some law ( I struggled with the coverage as well) but Xactimate was overwhelming.

I didn't learn all there was to learn, so I thought maybe the XM8 instruction was the weak point of the outstanding course.

When I took the second XM8 course, I was ready to move at the speed of the class and had time to digest new information (which I realized now had just passed right over my head in the first class I took while I was processing some earlier tidbit). I thought the 2nd class was just GREAT...and it was, but some of the first time students probably didn't rate it as high as I did. They were bumping into the wall as they went on breaks....just like I was doing at my first class.

On my third XM8 class, I was beginning to harvest the subtle tricks the instructors passed on. I'd hear this or that, and I'd seize upon it like a treasure because it was an easy solution to some time consuming problem that I had handled previously in some inefficient manner.

On my fourth, fifth and sixth class, I was now having to listen carefully to everything to hear some NEW thing I didn't know before. I now learn only a couple of new things with each class, except for the things that are new because XM8 changes with each update. Now I spend more time in these classes helping my overwhelmed neighbors than I do anything else...but I'll show them something, then I'll pick their brain for something about claims or adjusting that they know that I don't.

Between each new class, I'd scope my own house, my neighbors house, and I went out looking at tax auction properties and burn outs....scoping them when I could and writting them up in Xactimate. I got access to MLS listings in my community and I scoped and wrote up repo houses. It wasn't always convenient to climb roofs that belonged to other people..but with the help of a disto and a flashlight in an attic, and a pitch gauge, I could still do those roofs in sketch as well.

But this is not all! There are about 40 hours of instructive mini-videos on the Xactware website. Anyone who has a demo can get access to this site and go through all those instructions as many times as it takes to learn their content. Very similiar material is available on disk for $30 and a scenario disk is available for another $30. I don't have that one. I guess I'm just not as committed as I should be.

Now I'm going to write something that is not meant in a mean spirited way but just something to think about as we newbies take some of these classes to learn our new trade.

I'm offering a special three day journeyman electrician class. First day we will cover theory and National Electrical Code. Second day we will re-wire your house, and third day we will re-wire your office using concentric pipe bending, and fully automated robotic controls. Since I still haven't worked as an adjuster, I'm hoping to make a few bucks off these classes :-) $395.

Randy Cox

Thanks Randy for your thoughts and reply.  When I take this class, it will be my second Xmate class.  You are more than likely 100% correct that I will pick up more info than my original class as well as the future classes that I will elect to attend.  I also try to verify references of any type of education that I may take as well as understanding what my expectations from that training should or would be.  I do have 4 years experience with another estimating program, but also understand that the future predictions of the industry show that working knowledge of Xmate would open up other avenues for employment if I so desired to seek that avenue.  I don't expect to become a "journeyman electrician" on my first or second class or third class but I do hope that I will at least learn the "codes".

 

Sit up straight and pay attention when they are discussing the roof portion. If the carrier requires closing the complete claim through xactimate sketch, it could catch a lot of people napping, but that is the way of the future, with many companies making their assignments directly through xactimate