First, it’s important to understand the difference between a bid and an estimate. A bid is a firm number based on a defined scope of work and specific product or material selections. An estimate is nothing more than a rough guess.
We might estimate a price for you just to get “in the ballpark” and keep the conversation moving forward, but we will caution you as to the estimate’s reliability. We’d never want you to go to the bank with it or to make a builder decision based solely on comparing estimates. There are simply too many unknowns and too many assumptions being made about a project that lacks definition. Homeowners who hire a builder based on a rough estimate that is, say, $75,000 less than his competition may end up spending way more to complete the job than promised, or worse, end up with an unfinished project because the builder they hired was going broke and walked off the job.
Oh, it happens.
The only way to get accurate pricing is to have a bid package prepared for your project. This starts with a complete set of building plans that are engineered to specify the necessary footings, foundation, and framing members required to support the structure. After that, you will need to meet with siding, roofing, window, door, cabinet, countertop, plumbing, lighting, flooring, tile, glass, paint, and appliance suppliers — just to name a few — to select the products that will go in your home. Once all our suppliers and trade partners know the complete scope of work and the specific products you want, they can return detailed pricing to us. We compile all of this and share it with you.
Bid completion is a time-consuming process that involves a lot of people. When done properly, it provides the most accurate pricing possible. You should expect to pay something for this service.
Look, you can get as many bids as you like. But if all builders are using the same plans and product/material selections, then their prices are probably going to be pretty close.
We don’t want to discount the importance of cost here but we’d like to suggest that instead of simply seeking out bids from builders, consider interviewing a few instead. Go see examples of their work to get a feel for their build quality and talk to them about the steps they take to construct a home that functions as it should and that you will be proud to live in. Ask them for references and spend a little time getting to know them. Building a house is a long and expensive project so you’ll want to work with someone you connect with.
