When is it okay to ask for a free estimate?

It’s always ok to ask for a free estimate in my opinion. Every contractor has their policy on this and none of them are wrong, it’s just a matter of business. I for one offer free estimates, whether it’s for insurance purposes or just the basic comparing estimate prices, that’s just the nature of our business. What I don’t do is let a customer tell me they want to use me but another contractors price was lower and if I can do it for his price I have the job…that’s a bad business move. But again, nothing wrong with asking for a free estimate.

We provide free estimates every time, even if we get a call from someone who does not own the home yet. Very frequent, the prospective buyer or the real estate agent will contact us to find out more information about the house they want to purchase. They are worried about its structural intergrity or hidden issues so they want us to come over and give them a good idea if there is a potential structural issue that can jeopardize their inventment.

In this situations, we give an estimate but we insist that both the buyer and the seller get our bid.

Our complimentary in-home process includes preliminary design and estimating services to define the project scope and establish a reliable detailed budget.

Free estimates are a valuable resouce for a homeowner contemplating a remodeling project. However, designs are an integral part of the remodeling equation necessary for projects that are more than cosmetic. Comprehensive designs, schematics, renderings, and specifics can be an additonal initial cost but can save money in the long run.

Giving estimates is just another cost for finding new business and we never charge for ours.

As long as you have intent of doing the work in a reasonable amount of time, estimates should always be free. There are exceptions. For example, in my industry (Foundation) homes in escrow will ask for an estimate or report with no intention of doing the work. Its not always the case, but it happens frequently.

I believe for the last 30 years I have given residential estimates for free!

The only time we do not provide a free estimate is when the lead specifies they are are just price shopping but don’t have any real intent to move forward.

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We always offer free estimates http://everlast-construction.com/, the idea is to go to clients try to win some business that way. The industry standard is free estimate for construction projects.

Never hurts to ask. In a business filled with free quotes, most will agree to a free quote.

It is always ok to ask for a free estimate. Think of it as trying an ice cream flavor before getting a scope. Most business owners provide a free estimate to begin with, if you’re not sure, just ask, most likely you will not be told no.

It should always be free. Clients come first! I’d only request payment for a bid if it was over a certain mileage away.

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it is OK to ask for all services in our company for free estimate
make sure that it is not for insurance purposes because then we need to wright a lot more and then we charge for that
go to our web page to see what we do

With today market and competition I’m offering free estimate for potential customers, I have family to feed and business to run, so I always find time to meet future clients.
Over a time and experience you learn how to filter calls and requests, yes we can’t win every bid but more I bids more my schedule is always booked 4-6 months ahead.

Personally at Dhe Best Construction we always provide a free estimate no matter the job you are looking to do. However, that is our policy and every company has its own. It is always ok to ask, but don’t expect every company to provide you one. Keep in mind the distance between you and the company offices and the travel time a representative will spend getting to and from you many times plays a role in free vs paid estimate.

Free Estimates Are Okay if you have done qualified the client,

but sometimes there are clients who ask for an estimate for at the time of closing a property, and those ones i normally decline or so because it is a waste of time or so, writing up an estimate for something would be used in closing

We provide free estimates on all projects we bid. There’s no reason a homeowner or business owner should be charged to receive a estimate.

We provide free estimates for all our work. Unless it is far out in a different part of the state if we choose to go out there. If we win the job, if we charge customer price for estimates there will be a credit back to them.

Yes. It’s best to have specifics of what your looking for and even better if you have plans for bid, but all bids should be free to customer.

It is typically expected that a Contractor will provide a free bid. We do this as well. However, there are rare exceptions. For example, If a customer is only getting a bid for material cost so that they can try to do the project themselves and is not actually considering your company for the project, we would charge them a small fee. A lot of work goes into giving a good bid, especially for contractors in charge of a whole remodeling process. Therefore, as long as we are not dismissed as the client’s final option before they ever see the bid, we will provide a free estimate.