I Saw The Other Bids!

fourcornerhome

I went for a deck estimate yesterday.12x16 deck ,7 feet high and 4 feet wide stairs.Guy appears to be middle eastern descent . Said that if I am low bidder,I would get the job,plus more work around the house (including kitchen remodel). Also included in the two higher bids are to finish up the drywall in the garage and texture the ceiling (for now it just has first tape coat).This is a new house,2 car garage,10 feet ceiling.Then he shows me the bids so I can beat them.....$1600.00,..$2300.00,...$2500.00..The last guy is going to include sealing of the deck,5 year warranty on labor, and 40 years on material.Is the reason I have no work because my bids are too high ,or because all my potential clients go only for the lowest bidder?

Danno6102

I couldn't even do material on that deck for $2500. Find new clients, ones who appreciate quality & value. That guy will be a pain in your ass, watching over your shoulder & asking for the screws that were left over from the deck seeing as how "he paid for them" etc. Let the lowballers get the job & the headache & eventually go out of business.

Jdove

That's absolutely ridiculous!!!! Fourcornerhome is correct, let these fly by night companies deal with PITA customers, that warranty means nothing when the contractor is out of business in two years!!!

Jason Whipple

$1600?!?!? Thats like $8 per s.f. are you nutz? Walk away, or better yet, run. Unless your just bored and feel like giving away your time and most likely reaching in your pocket to finish the job.

P/T Decks here go for about $20 per s.f. and thats on ground level.

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Cole

It would help to know where you are located!

Please fill out your location in your profile!

I agree, I wouldn't touch that job.

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Bone Saw

you'd be better off having him get the materials and providing free labor
walk my friend (roll of the toung), those other 3 bids fall grossly short of even remotely coming close to covering materials for a plain jane pt jobber, just laugh it off and forget about it
40yr warrenty keep em coming

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Danno6102

Those prices are so low I almost wonder if the Homeowner modified them, or made them up to try to get you to lower your number.

DavidC

We had completed (and thankfully been paid ) the first phase of a large remodel for an out of town investor once. I had stopped back to pick up the rest of our tools and met a guy walking around with an open folder. He said he was asked to bid the next part.

I looked at his folder and saw a copy of my quote for the same. I asked if that was his bid, he said no. He didn't know who this guy was but he was outrageous. His guy gets paid $8.00/hr. and he charged $12.00. Between him and the helper he was going to knock down$16 bucks himself and under bid this gouger. And he was successful.

I haven't seen this guy around in years. I'll bet he moved to your area.

I would much rather work for a client that is secretive about his real budget than one that shows me every other proposal while hoping I'll be motivated to be his next victim.

Good Luck
Dave

Mike Finley

40 year warranty on material

I'm guessing he's going to keep the homeowner updated for the next 40 years on his next 32 phone numbers and 20 addresses so he can find him.

I can only guess with guys with prices like that how well they stand behind warranties.

40 years! Why not 400?

fourcornerhome

I don't intend to beat those prices.I'm in south east suburbs of cleveland. Another area hit hard buy the housing crunch.I'm starting to think that remodeling is saturated with these lowballers and it is getting harder and harder to make a sale.

novicepro

"if you give me a good deal I have other work for you around the house" The biggest lie I've ever heard from a client. This is just to get you to do it cheap. Next time they need something done they'll say the same thing to some other sucker. I felt really betrayed and used after I called my client and asked about his next project ( master bath remodel). He said that he found someone else to do it. Never again- Try to make your money on the first deal- that's what I learned.

Bone Saw

better yet, why not on every deal

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Garrett

I did a deck for a customer you described to a point. He paid well for his deck and got a top notch job but when i went for the final payment he got weird on me and questiond EVERYTHING! the only thing that shut him up was talking to the inspector and he told my customer "i dont know the guy who built your deck but it is one of the best he has seen" I can laugh at it now but at the time it drove me nutz. he thought his deck was going to move like his old one did. I told him his old deck wasnt on footers and only on the dirt about a foot down then told him that is why he watched me dig 3' deep by 22" holes poured full of concrete and the post spacing for the beams were only 4' apart with a 2x12 beam notched post and bolted through with 5/8 bolts i turned to the guy and finally got fed up and told him"I DONT KNOW HOW TO BUILD IT ANY BETTER" and he was only happy when the inspector told him it was ok. Talk about not trusting who you hired or not being able to see the diff. between the old and new

Stone Mountain

Let's see. a 200 sq ft deck, 7' high, with steps to grade. All pressure treated. Material alone here in Toronto would be $12-1500.00 plus labour. I would pay my menat least 1500 to build it, so my sale price would be around $5000 or so. The prices he showed you are either faked by him, or for labour only. Walk away. When there is that much discrepancy, don't even bother to try.

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AtlanticWBConst

We see, or hear of some very ridiculous prices every now and then. I just chuckle.

Let them go after the "inexpensive contractor". I just wish I had the time to check back on "what" the HO ended up with....

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BuiltByMAC

This is a joke, right?

4 corner, are you fishing for price info here in a roundabout way?

You're not REALLY asking us if you're charging too much by being higher than those "bids" you "saw," are you?

My initial thought after reading this thread is - why weren't you offended enough to walk out of the meeting when he showed you the other bids? Knowing any bid you give him will be shown to every other contractor walking through his door...
I would've stopped it right there. I don't need to see other bids 'cause I'm not concerned with how they run their company (into the ground)...

Bone's got it - make money on every deal!

Mac

John Hyatt

Not some of the time..All the time...every single time.. If the Wallet shows you the other Bids Run Away. Say anything at this meeting yada yada but get the Hell away from there. J.

Stewy

You are entitled to earn a living for you and your family and a good one if you do good work and offer a fair shake, give him a quote that reflects that (no matter what the other quote are) and move on to the next job.

firemike

RED FLAG #1................

Maybe you could get the kitchen remodel too, for $6,400 - including cabinets, installations, granite counters, painting, etc.

The rest are right, don't sell yourself short. Give him your regular price, discount it a little if you really need the work, and either tell him in person or in a letter with your bid that you are a professional and cannot compete with the uninsured, underexperienced, and probably unlicensed hacks that gave the other bids.

I have had that happen a couple times, I would go to give a bid, and on a counter or table would "convieniently" be two or three other "bids" for what I was bidding on. I would give them my normal price, and explain the experiance, licensing, and insurance issues. Most times I would not be the cheapest, but half the time I got the job because of the higher standards, licensing, insurance, and experiance that I explained to them.

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rbsremodeling

Has this ever happen to you in the reverse??? I bid a Kitchen at 80k and everyone else was 90K and up. I lost the job because I was the lowest bidder and the homeowner did not think I could do it for that price. They showed me the other estimates and I felt like an ass.

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