I understand the issues of complexity of the project requiring a GC, but how do you draw a line at a dollar amount? 

That is not a concept I can apply to the files on my desk.

Sure, there are big claims that come through, but the day to day water pipe leaks that get attended to by the national companies like ServPro, or ServiceMaster will often range $5,000 to $15,000.  I've lived and worked in the same area doing claims for many years, and see these guys subcontracting out the larger drywall repairs, a different vendor for flooring, and of course there are lot's of things they will do with their own laborers.  And they have a GC license.

I say choice #2 if the lower estimate will put the insured back in a pre-loss condition. And yes I would turn in both estimates, using mine as a comparative to show that the contractor's bid is reasonable when compared to unit pricing costs. You see estimates like this a lot with contractors that don't do insurance work. They walk in a room and say "$400 for paint" "$450 for drywall" without calling out the exact SF.

Yep. Per Xactimate, the BSC is their solution to "economy of scale". If it is a big job, lots of Sf, you are supposed to "factor in" the BSC.

If it's a small job, your are supposed to "break out" the BSC, but many carriers don't like to see them, and so they get cut anyway.

BSC's are the couple hours (usually) of trip charges associated with the trade, and have zero materials whatsoever, it is pure labor.  When the BSC is "factored in" those couple hours of labor get sprinkled into the unit cost, so the cost per Sf goes up a little bit.

People refer to Base Service Charges as Min Chg, but a typical Min Chge would allow for 1/2 sheet of drywall or whatever to get a small job done. The BSC's are pure labor, and when you look at the estimate summary window in Xactimate and click on the Base Service Charge icon you can see how many hours they are allowing, and even change the number of hours, turn it off, factor that BSC into the unit costs, etc.

Personally, to avoid grief with claims examiners that don't REALLY understand BSC's and just look at them as fluff (they aren't intended to be), I just always set Xactimate to "factor in" BSC's, and if a trade needs more time due to small area of repair I put it right in the estimate with a note explaining why they need 2 hours or whatever.   Otherwise, the examiner is reading your estimate, OK, this room looks reasonable, OK, we allow that for paint, OK, then they hit the last page with $100's of dollars of Base Service Charges all grouped together, and they tend to protest them.

If someone does a fresh install of Xactimate, and the default BSC settings are not changed, it will often create more Base Service fees than are needed.  If your estimate has the right combination of repairs, Xactimate can spit out a bunch of overlapping BSC's like for the cleaning trade, plus for a general laborer, if not inspected by human eyes.

I get claims from a semi-large carrier in California that has a flat rule: no more than 2 Min Chge per estimate, and they really don't want to see more than 1 - it sets off red flags for the very reason you stated (they figure the same restoration crew will do most of the trades anyway).

If it is a small 5 x 8 bathroom with multiple trades, and you are only paying the SF of paint, flooring, baseboard - nobody gets out of bed for those prices. It can be a challenge, and that is the "nut" that Xactimate was trying to crack when they gave birth to BSC's with the 2002 version.

I think it was a good concept, but they should have applied some lubricant and education for a year before releasing it - as the BSC's have been rejected by most clients I work with.   People that "don't have time to read the manual" do not fully understand BSC's and they got a bad rap.

2.