Multiple contractors to bid at the same time?

Question

I've heard of people inviting several contractors over at the same time to provide estimates.  Is this considered acceptable or does it make it too awkward for everyone?   I live in a small town and so there might be many familiar faces to one another, but it seems efficient!  And I also don't want it to appear that I'm intentionally forcing them to bid against one another...

Chris Mason · Answer

They're just going to be like "Hey, Bill, how ya doin!" - "Good Jerry, how about you?" - "Eh, same ole, busy as all getup, how about you?" - "Actually, not so busy, things are picking up slowly after the new kid was born." - "Oh, ok, I'll let you have this one and bid a stupid high price so you look good, go get that college fund going!" - "Cool, thanks!"

The consumerist entitled attitude of "everyone will fight for my business!" is not applicable to general contractors. Especially not if you self-identify as a "real estate investor." White collar professional that just purchased the home 3 years ago and has money burning a hole in your pocket to overpay for the finest and nicest looking everything, Tesla parked in the driveway next to a Corvette? Different story.

Tim Johnson · Answer

I'm a contractor and if I see a client is putting me in a bidding war, I don't submit a bid.  I personally want to a build long term relationships with people.  If your contractors are doing crap work, not completing on time, your going after the wrong type of contractor and need to build a relationships that benefits both you and the contractor.

Some of the best contractors I know are cheapest guys in town, but they are super selective with who they work for.  They also do the best work and its on time.

On large scale commercial jobs the process you are taking about is very common, but it's clearly land out that multiple people will be on site looking at the job at the same time.

Anthony Dadlani · Answer

I would assume competition would result in more aggressive pricing.

Best of luck in all your endeavors.

Clint G. · Answer

I did this recently with my mother-in-law who had a big interior rehab job to complete. I did this because we both run on a tight schedule and scheduling individual appointments would have been difficult. I also wanted to create competition between the contractors, although, who knows if it really did.

Some pros were we got almost all of the contractors in the house at the same time and also saw how they conducted themselves with their competitors. This gave me an insight on their professionalism more than anything. They were all fine with each other and it actually helped me weed out one contractor when I heard him tell another contractor "this job is too big for me, and I might be going back to jail anyway". No thanks!

We also got all bids in within a day or two of each other since they were all at the house together. This made it easier to keep track of who was who and which bid they made. Had we spread the bids out over a week or two because of scheduling, I may have forgotten some faces by then.

Overall it was a good experience. Something to note is I did give them all fair warning that I was scheduling multiple bids at once so they knew what they were walking into. All said they were fine with it ahead of time. If you move forward with this approach, I'd be up front with them about that.

Nothing but a positive experience for me, and I'd do it again.

Daniel Hansen · Answer

Afternoon Hen Ley, in my experience working with contractors its usually best to set up separate times for same-trade contractors to visit the property and give estimates. I work in a larger city than you it sounds like, but I typically like to have more in depth conversations about what the contractors schedule/approach is to a project. I think you'll get higher quality and more accurately detailed estimates as opposed to contractors simply trying to out bid one another - what good is the lowest initial bid if they end up going over budget just to get the job from the jump. Hope this helps!

Hen Ley · Answer

@Greg Dickerson, Thanks, that was kind of my thought as well-

Greg Dickerson · Answer

@Hen Ley I would not do that with the same trades or general contractor. It’s ok to have a different trade show up at the same time so you can help them coordinate if needed but never for competitive bid situations.