Contractor not paying himself?

[Amanda Sokol]

Has anyone ever seen this? I'm getting bids for a project now and there is no management fee. The other ones I am getting have contractor fees of $20-30k. Is it that he has low overhead? Thanks! Amanda 

[Manolo D.]

Amanda Sokol You can't question how a contractor how he presents his bid, however you can question his capacities on job performance. We normally have a detailed bid out the door. We have different rates per trade (plumbing rate is different from electrical trade), our price is measured in hourly basis, so it is simply plugging in the hours and material costs for a line item, however, our price has already our profit, overhead, gas, meals, management fees and etc. I designed it this way so it's easy to modify and for change orders, also it's easy for me to calculate my costs because workers compensation varies a lot in CA (7-57%). I spell out in my bid that change orders cost this much per hour and charge a certain % on handling materials.

Luke Texidor That is a bold and unnecessary move, when you did an interview/walk the contractor, you should have a paper that will spell out what you want done, per room or per line item or both, that way, you will simply have him sign it and incorporate it to the contract. That should cover him and you, all verbal is dangerous as one contractor might miss a lot, one might expect more work, then you'll have apples and oranges bid.