Information About BuilderQuotes.com
Information for Users Requesting Bids (Looking For Contractors)
Information for Building contractors Submitting Bids (Looking For Projects/Work)
What's The Catch? How Can It Be Free?
About BuilderQuotes.com Back To Top
BuilderQuotes.com was created to bring together building contractors, and residential/commercial clients. The concept behind BuilderQuotes.com is simple: clients submit a project for bidding, and builders respond with their bids. It is designed to help both sides during the selection process. It helps clients get their requests processed sooner by automating the process of collecting estimates. It helps building contractors find more work faster by automating the process of submitting quotes to clients. Detailed information about both sides of the system is outlined below.
Residential/Commercial Users Requesting Bids Back To Top
Users have three ways to collect bids from contractors on the system. Of the three ways, the third option is the most popular, powerful, and effective.
- Selectively browse through our directory guide of listings, and send email requests to individual contractors one at a time.
- Submit a project, and wait for contractors to send you bids via email. The more information you enter about your project, the better your bids will be from the contractors.
- Submit a project, select a group of contractors to send the project to, and receive bids. Users, who enter the necessary information concerning their project, will receive bids instantly from those contractors who have filled out their automatic bidding information. You can also login to the system to edit you project(s) and manage the bids you receive.
In order for option 3 to be truly effective, both clients and contractors must enter the necessary information. While we would like to say you will receive perfectly accurate bids which won't change, we obviously can't. What we can say is this: we can automate the process of submitting your project description to multiple contractors so you can receive useful, comparable bids which you can use to do your initial pre-screening of contractors, and, hopefully, find the right contractor for your job. Our goal is to keep the process simple, quick, and effective. While using the system, please keep the following in mind:
- Contractors are NOT legally bound to the bids they submit. All contractors will want to come out and adjust their initial bids. Contractors will want to verify measurements, amount of prep work, and generally review the project in person before committing to an estimate. No matter how much information we request from clients, something about the bid will always change.
- The accuracy of what you enter when submitting your project is not as important as entering something. Even if you enter the wrong measurements, that is ok because all contractors will receive the same wrong measurements, and at least you will receive quotes you can compare against each other.
- Please be honest when entering your information. If you are looking for a quick, inexpensive job so you can sell your house, then select that option and work with an appropriate contractor. If you are looking for a long lasting, high quality job for your dream home, then select that option and work with an appropriate contractor.
- After you receive your bids, review them and invite some of the contractors out. Regardless of how much you wish to pay, we recommend inviting out at least one high priced, one medium priced, and one low priced contractor. At that time, you can discuss your project in greater detail, and get a better idea of which contractor is best for the job. In addition to the job and pricing, things to discuss include insurance, licensing, workmen's compensation, bonded, etc.
- Login and make your project unavailable once you have selected a contractor, or you will continue to receive bids. You can turn the availability of you project off and on as much as you like. If you choose a contractor, make your project unavailable, and things don't work out, you can always make your project available again (and resend it if necessary). Since we keep all bids you receive in the system, you can also just contact a contractor from one of the other bids.
Privacy Statement: during this entire process, your email address is never given out. You do need to enter it when submitting your project so you can receive bids, but the building contractors never see your email address. They merely see your project number.
Building contractors Submitting Bids Back To Top
Contractors have three ways to submit bids to clients on the system. Of the three ways, the third option is the most popular, powerful, and effective.
- Enter your free listing into the system, and wait for clients to send you emails requesting bids.
- Browse through the list of available projects, and submit bids on those which interest you.
- Enter your automatic bidding information in your user profile, and automatically send out bids instantly. The automatic bidding information is like your typical estimate worksheet. Plug in the numbers you use to figure out an estimate, and let the system send your bids out automatically without any intervention required by you. With BuilderQuotes.com doing the work for you, you may never have to write up another estimate! Sign up today, and let BuilderQuotes.com start working for you 24 hours a day!
In order for option 3 to be truly effective, both clients and contractors must enter the necessary information. While we wish we could say every project will have perfectly accurate measurements, and every bid you send out will result in a sale, we obviously can't. What we can say is this: we can automate the process of submitting useful, comparable bids to multiple clients so you can get your name in front of them and, hopefully, make a sale. Our goal is to keep the process simple, quick, and effective. While using the system, please keep the following in mind:
- Contractors are NOT legally bound to the bids they submit. We realize you will want to visit the project site, adjust the initial bid you submit, and simply can not submit a legally binding bid via this system. And we make sure the clients, who are requesting bids, understand this also.
- Even though project descriptions will not be 100% accurate, they will be the same for all contractors, and accurate enough so you can submit a useful, comparable bid.
- Please be honest when entering your information. If you specialize in doing inexpensive jobs so a client can sell their house, then put that in your Company's Description and search out those types of clients. If you specialize in doing high quality, long lasting jobs for clients who will be in their homes for the next 30 years, then put that in your Company's Description and search out those types of clients.
- Please don't lowball just to get the customer's attention. You will just end up wasting your time when you go out to meet the client and surprise them with a much higher priced bid. Keep in mind, clients don't always go with the least expensive bidder. Many go with higher priced contractors expecting to get better quality work. Most are just looking for good work at a good price.
Contractor Account Types Back To Top
Below is a table which summarizes the 3 account types:
| ACCOUNT TYPES | |||
| Free | Basic | Paid/Preferred | |
| Cost | $0 | $0 | $99 |
| Can Bid On Projects | Y | Y | Y |
| Days To Wait Until You Can Bid | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Preferred Listing | N | Y | Y |
| Listed In Other Cities | N | 15 miles from their zip | 50 miles from their zip |
| Description Length | 250 letters | 500 letters | 5,000 letters |
| Pictures | N | N | Y |
| Link To PainterBids | N | Y | Optional |
Click here to see example listings for all three types of accounts - Free, Basic and Preffered
Please notice the Preferred Contractors displayed on the above link are listed in many nearby cities.
Free Account - Can send out bids, gives you a free listing with email and website links to you. Good way to try out the site and see if you would like to upgrade to a Basic or Preferred account.
Basic Account - Just like Free account plus you get a more prominent listing displayed in more cities. All you have to do is setup a link to us on your website. If you need help with that, please contact us. Best way to try out the site for free.
Preferred Account - Costs only $99 a year, and maximizes your exposure on the site. It has the following features:
- Preferred accounts ALWAYS have their listing displayed before Basic and Free account listings. Place your listing at or near the top of your city page in the more prominent Preferred Contractors section. We will also place your listing at or near the top of other city pages which are within 50 miles of your zip code. Those who pay first, will be listed first. The sooner you subsribe, the closer to the top you will be listed.
- Allow you to upload sample photos of your work. If you only have photographs from a regular camera, we can scan and upload them for you.
- Increase the size of your Description field to 5,000 letters.
- Preferred accounts do not have to link to BuilderQuotes.com, but, if you do, we will extend your annual subscription 3 more months.
What's the catch? How can it be free? Back To Top
The Free account costs you nothing, but the catch is Free accounts are displayed less prominently on the site. They are listed last on the city pages, in a smaller typeface, and are listed in only one city. The Basic account is also free, but the catch is you have to setup a link to us to get the Basic account. Basic accounts are listed more prominently than Free accounts, but not as prominently as the Preferred account.
Why is the Basic account free? Because we want to get lots of links into the site so it will maintain a high ranking in the search engines. Therefore, we created the Basic account to encourage you to link to the site. You still get the benefit of using the site for FREE, and all you have to do is setup a link on your site back to BuilderQuotes.com. The link does not have to be on your home page, and it doesn't have to be really big or anything like that. Just place a normal, readable link to us on your "links page." If you need help setting up a link, please contact us. Below is sample html code of what you would add to your site.
<A href="http://www.builderquotes.com" target="_blank">BuilderQuotes.com</A> - submit your building project to contractors and receive FREE instant bids from builders in your area.
And below is what it would look like on your site.
BuilderQuotes.com - submit your building project to contractors and receive FREE instant bids from builders in your area.
In return for linking to BuilderQuotes.com, I will do the following for you:
- Basic accounts ALWAYS have their listing displayed before Free account listings. Move your listing into the more prominent Preferred section. Display your listing in other cities which are within 15 miles of your zip code.
- Increase the size of your Description field to 500 letters.
How To Pay Back To Top
Please click on PayPal button below:
- OR -
Please make your check payable to Scott Whetzel and send it to:
Scott Whetzel
BuilderQuotes.com
14414 Castle Cove Ln.
Houston, TX 77044
Please put your ID number on your check. Checks without ID numbers are processed last after all checks with ID numbers have been processed. You can find your ID number by logging in and selecting "View/Change My Account Info".
How are we different? Back To Top
In general, when it comes to bidding/sales lead referral programs, the clients win and the contractors lose. The clients end up with a bunch of inexpensive bids, and the contractors end up wasting their time writing up estimates. So how are we different? What do we do for you, the contractor, to make this service worthwhile?
- We let you try us out for FREE. The Free account and the Basic account both let you try out the site for free.
- We keep the price of the service very low. At only $99 a year, it only takes one bid to come through for you to make the service pay for itself.
- We make it quick and easy for you to send out bids so you don't waste all your time writing up estimates.
- We automate the estimating process for you so you don't waste all your time writing up estimates.