How hard is it to install a water softener?

It can be fairly easy when a new home is built without a watersoftner the plumbing contractor generally leaves a "loop"� which is two pipes looed down usually next to the water heater the reason for this is to isolate the cold water to the kitchen sink(ice maker) etc as well as the outside slils the lines you don't want soft water two if there is a loop uming there is if a plumber only wants $250 dollars to install it) and you have sweat pipe before its not to bad if you have never sweat pipe before I would leave it two the pros water-softeners have plastic and rubber in there connections as well as electronic components that cant get hot or have solder drip on them sweating pipe sounds easy but trying to sweat pipe into a system that has had water in it already is a whole different ball game And for the record if the plumber is a licensed pro $250 is a very fair price