This is the question behind almost every call I get. Someone has a bid in hand, the number is bigger than they expected, and they want to know whether they are being taken. Here is the uncomfortable answer: you usually cannot tell from the bid alone. And that is the actual problem worth solving. Why comparing bids does not workSay you call three contractors and two of them get back to you. One says three hundred and ten thousand. One says four hundred and fifteen thousand. Yo

If you read one thing about how construction budgets fall apart, make it this. Allowances are the single most common mechanism by which a bid you agreed to becomes a number you did not. What an allowance isAn allowance is a placeholder. When a contractor prices your house before you have picked the specific tile, the specific lighting, or the specific appliances, they insert a dollar figure to stand in for those decisions. The contract is written against that figure. When you

Most residential bids price the house. Very few price the project. The gap between those two things is where owner-builders run out of money, and it is almost always the same handful of items. 1. Site work beyond the building padExcavation for the foundation is usually in the bid. Clearing, grading the rest of the lot, drainage, and hauling spoil off site frequently are not. On a sloped or treed parcel this can be a substantial number on its own. 2. The drivewayOn raw land, t

Colorado is one of the states where this question has a surprising answer, and the answer matters if you own land and are thinking about building on it yourself. Colorado has no state general contractor licenseThere is no statewide general contractor license in Colorado. Licensing happens city by city and county by county, and each jurisdiction writes its own rules, its own exam, and its own insurance and bond minimums. Denver runs its own contractor classes. Colorado Springs