The quote that looked $9,000 cheaper
1What happened
Three prices for the same job
A home builder had three prices in for the same framing package. The lowest was $73,600. The next one up was $82,790. Nine thousand dollars is a lot to walk past, so the low one was about to get the work.
It was not the cheapest. It was the shortest. That bid had not priced the engineered beams, the crane day or the tall wall details. Put on the same rows and priced like for like, it came out $2,750 dearer than the quote it appeared to beat.
The two bids, as quoted and priced like for like
Nobody was being dishonest. Three suppliers wrote three quotes the way they always write them. What was missing was anything that put them side by side.
2What to do about it
The version that costs you nothing
Take the longest quote and use its line items as your checklist. Go down the other two and write "not quoted" beside anything missing. Then ask each supplier one question: is this excluded, or are you assuming somebody else is doing it.
3When not to build anything
A spreadsheet is often the right answer
If you take three prices twice a year, a spreadsheet with the line items down the side does this properly. It stops being the right answer when you do it most weeks, or when someone else has to do it the same way every time.
4What got built
Shipped last month
- A board for a shop that takes special orders, flagging anything still unplaced two weeks after the deposit.
- A site checklist that keeps working on a tablet with no signal.
- An import screen that shows the rows it does not trust before it writes any of them.
You are getting this because you asked for it. One click takes you off the list.