How many bids — and how to compare them apples-to-apples

How many is enough

Three is the sweet spot for most projects: enough to see the market rate and spot an outlier, not so many that you’re wasting good contractors’ time. Two can do for small, well-defined jobs; past four, you’re collecting paper, not information — and the best builders may pass on a homeowner soliciting six bids.

Only solicit bids from contractors you’d actually hire. If a bidder wouldn’t survive your license check or reference calls, their number tells you nothing — an implausibly low bid from a weak contractor isn’t a data point, it’s bait.

Same inputs, or the numbers are noise

Bids are only comparable if every contractor priced the same project. Give each one the same plans, the same specifications, and the same written scope list — and ask them to bid it as drawn, with any suggested changes priced separately as alternates. If the plans are still loose, tighten them before bidding; vague inputs produce bids that differ mostly in what each builder guessed.

Ask every bidder to state their pricing structure (fixed price or cost-plus), itemize allowances, and attach an exclusions list — what’s NOT in the price. Exclusions are where low bids hide: one builder’s number includes the septic connection and the driveway, another’s quietly leaves them for you.

Reading the spread

Build a simple side-by-side: scope items down the left, one column per bidder — price, allowances, exclusions, schedule, pricing structure. Most “cheap” bids stop looking cheap in this table.

If one bid is far below the rest, treat it as a question, not a win: either they missed something (and you’ll meet that miss again mid-build as a dispute), their allowances are lowballed, or they’re desperate for work. Ask them to walk you through how they priced the big line items — a solid bidder can; a guesser can’t.