Part 3 · Proposals, comparing, signing
Getting three comparable proposals
Three proposals are only comparable if all three priced the same job. That does not happen by itself — it happens because you made it happen.
A common homeowner question at this point
How do I get quotes I can actually compare? And am I even allowed to ask for a breakdown of the costs?
One scope, sent to everyone
Here is the problem this chapter is meant to head off.
Three contractors visit. Each has a good conversation with you. Each goes away and writes a proposal based on what they understood — and each understood something slightly different, because they heard slightly different versions of the same story. Three numbers come back. They are far apart. You cannot tell why.
You cannot tell why because they were not answering the same question. The numbers were never comparable, and no amount of staring at them afterwards will fix that.
Give the same core requirements to every contractor, and make sure the homeowner clearly communicates the expected quality and finishes. They may still propose genuinely different professional solutions — that can be completely legitimate. But they must all be solving the same stated problem, to the same stated standard.
You already have most of what you need. Your Chapter 2 brief said what you want and why. Chapter 3 settled the quality level. If drawings exist, Chapter 4 said everyone prices the same ones. This chapter turns that into a single document you send out — the scope sheet.
How many proposals
Three good bids are usually enough. Get more only if none of them feels right.
The word doing the work there is good. Three proposals from contractors who all passed Chapter 6’s checks and had a real conversation with you are worth more than six collected indiscriminately. Collecting many more can also add delay while you are still gathering.
Ask AI Mickey about this chapter
Not sure what to send out, or what to ask about a proposal? Ask — it explains inclusions, exclusions and allowances in plain words. It will not evaluate a specific proposal you have been given. It knows the homeowner research and Lior’s experience behind this guide, and the complete 15-chapter guide — and it knows you are on Chapter 8. There is nothing to sign up for and no email required.
“Can I ask for a breakdown?”
This deserves a straight answer rather than a comfortable one, because the honest answer explains something that would otherwise feel like rejection.
A homeowner in one discussion described receiving a single lump sum for a large project with no breakdown at all, and said she had no way of knowing where to cut back. She was not trying to nickel-and-dime anyone; she wanted to make decisions.
In the same forum, a contractor said that requests for labor and material breakdowns were a serious warning sign to him, and that if you ask, the two of you are not right for each other.
Both of them are being reasonable
She needs to understand what she is buying so she can adjust it. He has learned that line-by-line pricing invites negotiation over his own business rather than over the work, and that it often precedes a difficult client relationship.
The one technique homeowners have for comparing bids is a behavior that can cost them the bidder. Homeowner caution here is understandable — in the contractor discussions read for this guide, that is exactly how contractors described treating the question.
The resolution is to ask for what you actually need, which is not their margin. What you need is scope, inclusions, exclusions, finishes and allowances. Those tell you exactly where the money is going and exactly where you could cut — without asking anyone to open their books.
Everything important belongs in writing — inclusions, exclusions, scope, finishes, and where appropriate a labor and material breakdown. He is not against breakdowns. The point is that the four things before it matter more, and asking for them costs you nothing with anyone.
Exclusions: the section that decides what the number means
It is easy to go straight to the number. The section that decides whether that number means anything is the one listing what is not in it.
Exclusions matter, because missing scope becomes a change order later. Work that was never in the price does not disappear — it arrives as an extra when the job reaches it, at a point where your options are narrower.
An exclusion list is not a contractor being difficult. A detailed one can be a sign of someone who has done this many times and knows where scope differences tend to surface. What you are looking for is not the absence of exclusions — it is whether you understand each one, and whether you have a plan for it.
Things commonly excluded that homeowners assume are included:
- Permit fees, and the cost of drawings or engineering.
- Anything discovered inside a wall, floor or ceiling once opened.
- Upgrades to existing systems that the new work turns out to require.
- Appliances, fixtures and hardware — or their installation, which is a separate question from their supply.
- Painting, final cleaning, and putting the house back together.
- Landscaping or hard surfaces damaged by access.
- Temporary facilities, protection and waste removal.
You do not need to argue about any of these. You need to know which list each one is on, for each proposal, before you compare them.
Allowances: how a complete-looking price can mislead
If exclusions are the section people skip, allowances are the mechanism people do not know exists. A builder explained it better than any marketing page:
“Inadequate allowances are one of the biggest reasons for budgets being blown… It’s an easy way to shave money off the bid… It makes the bid price appear complete, even though in reality it’s not.”
An allowance is a placeholder. Where a selection has not been made yet — tile, flooring, fixtures, countertops, lighting — the proposal carries an assumed sum instead of a real price. That is legitimate and often unavoidable. It becomes a problem in two ways.
- 1The allowance is set too lowThe total looks competitive because the placeholders are optimistic. You choose real materials later, they cost more than the placeholder, and the difference is yours. The bid was never complete; it only looked complete.
- 2Nobody said what the allowance coversIs that flooring figure the material only, or material and the labor to install it? The same number means two very different things, and the gap between those readings can be large on a whole-house quantity. The builder above described exactly this misunderstanding as a source of significant surprises.
Two questions that clarify this
“Which items are allowances rather than fixed prices?” and “For each one, does the allowance cover material only, or material and installation?”
Neither is confrontational. A contractor should be able to explain clearly what an allowance covers — and both questions are on the never-asked list from real homeowner discussions.
A third question is worth adding, because it is where scope differences can surface later: “If I choose something above the allowance, how is the difference calculated, and does your markup apply to it?” Ask it now, while you are still choosing between contractors, and Chapter 13 becomes far less painful.
What a proposal you can work with looks like
Formats vary enormously and there is no standard layout. These are the elements that make one usable, whatever the shape.
When one of them refuses to give you a price
This looks like a failure and is often the opposite.
In one discussion, a homeowner asked three contractors to price moving a toilet a short distance. Two gave numbers that were far apart. The third refused to quote at all, saying a wall would have to come out before anyone could know what was involved. The most experienced voice in the thread endorsed the refusal.
The two who quoted had guessed. The one who refused had understood the job. Homeowners read a missing number as a missing bid; sometimes it is the most competent answer in the pile — and worth listening to carefully, because it can be the first warning that your scope contains an unknown that will surface later anyway.
Practical things that go wrong at this stage
- Some bidders stop responding. Do not assume every bidder will respond. Send your scope sheet to more people than the three proposals you want, and keep the Chapter 5 list.
- Give everyone the same deadline, and a realistic one. Allow time for a thoughtful proposal.
- Do not pass one contractor’s proposal to another. Asking someone to beat a number is how you get a number that is beaten rather than a job that is priced — and it is the fastest route to the lowball problem in Chapter 9.
- If you change the scope mid-way, tell everyone. One person pricing a different version makes the comparison unreliable.
- Keep every version. What you sent, what came back, and when.
Your free scope sheet
Fill this in once. Send the same one, unchanged, to every contractor. It is built from your Chapter 2 brief and your Chapter 3 quality decision, so most of it is transcription rather than new thinking.
The Scope Sheet I Send To Every Bidder
Free, complete and yours. Nothing is saved and nothing is sent anywhere — if you type into it, print or copy it before you close the tab.
1. The outcome, in one sentence
Straight from your Chapter 2 brief.
2. The work I am asking you to price
Room by room or area by area. What changes, and what stays as it is.
3. Quality level and finishes
From Chapter 3, in ordinary words. Include any product or material you genuinely want.
4. Drawings or documents attached
If plans exist, everyone gets the same set and the same revision. Note the revision here.
5. What I am asking every proposal to state
6. Things I specifically want priced separately
Optional extras or “can wait” items, so you can see them as choices instead of losing them inside a total.
7. Access, timing and constraints they should know
Parking, pets, working hours, a date you must be finished by, anything about the household.
8. Who I sent it to, and when
Names, dates sent, deadline given, and who has replied.
Still not sure about something? Ask AI Mickey — it knows this guide and where you are in it.
The whole guide, on one page
Part 1 — Before you talk to anyone
- 1Where do I start?The first move is not choosing a professional. It is getting clear on what you want.
- 2Turn your wish list into a clear project briefA clear brief everyone receives, so each professional starts from the same requirements.
- 3Budget and quality levelWhy early budget expectations can miss, and how to build a more useful budget.
- 4When you need plansWhat to do first, when plans come in, and how to avoid spending heavily too early.
Part 2 — Finding the right contractors
- 5Finding contractors with no referralWhere to look when you do not have a referral, and how to write an inquiry that gets answered.
- 6Researching and narrowing the listHow to check someone properly, and what a license does and does not prove.
- 7The first call and the first meetingWhat to ask, what to watch, and how to get useful answers.
Part 3 — Proposals, comparing, signing
- 8Getting three comparable proposalsYou are hereSend the same scope to each contractor and compare what is included, excluded and allowed for.
- 9Comparing bids apples to applesHow to compare the scope, allowances, exclusions and assumptions behind different totals.
- 10Before you signThe second check, the contract, and the payment rules California law requires.
Part 4 — Building and finishing
- 11Preparing for constructionLead times, dust, living arrangements and the decisions to make before work starts.
- 12Communication during constructionLior’s communication method for keeping the project clear and documented.
- 13Change orders and the unforeseenHow to distinguish a hidden condition from scope that was missing from the original bid.
- 14When it starts going wrongHow to document a problem, lower the temperature and know when to get professional advice.
- 15Finishing, and the file you keepHow to close out the job, handle the punch list and keep the records you may need later.
Before you go on
When the proposals arrive, resist the urge to look only at the totals. You now know that the total is the least informative number in the document.
The next chapter is how to read three of them side by side — where the gap between them can hide, and why the lowest number is neither automatically wrong nor automatically right.