Paying contractor for bids?

[Matt Bell]

Hello BP Crew,

We recently had a contractor in Montgomery, AL go look at some potential properties we were going to bid on and one we had a contract on.  He never mentioned charging us for anything and we just asked him for an initial ball park estimate on the houses that were not under contract so we knew if it might even be worth our time to bid.  The house we had a contract on fell through after which the contractor sent us a bill for $1,100+ for the time he spent preparing the bids.  Granted, we only received 2 bids but he claims he worked on 7 (we sent an initial list of 7 properties).  He is charging $65/hr to put bids together.  Has anyone else encountered this?

I spoke to two other contractors in that town and they said they never get to charge for bids.  If someone doesn't hire them after a few bids they might decline to give future bids but they never get to charge.  I finally got the contractor on the phone and he admitted that he normally doesn't charge for bids but "we are different."  The only difference we could identify is that we are remote investors.  I think he is just trying to take advantage of the situation.  

If I am way off and some contractors do charge for bids - please let me know what a standard rate would be.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Matt