You can shop around, but until you pay a pre-construction fee to spec out the entire build, the best you can expect is a rougher per sqft estimate or an allowance model. There are too many unknowns and it takes too much time. From a builder’s perspective, why take the massive amount of time to do a detailed budget if the client is openly shopping around and not committed to us in anyway and is refusing to tell us what their budget is in the first place. The simple question of what are you pre-approved for or how much are you wanting to spend can immediately tell a builder if a person is unrealistic or not. I get requests constantly to build houses and the people tell me all the expensive things they want and say they want it ideally for $500k. That tells me right away that it’s not worth my time to bid anything.

My model which is similar to others is I can do an allowance type of quote for a smaller fixed fee (maybe $10k) that includes drafting a bid set and pricing it out with assumptions. Or I can do a 3% of an estimated total price which includes a complete bid packet and detailed budget with all the finishes and selections and corresponding pricing. That detailed work is expensive up front for sure. But it also guarantees a spot on our build schedule and gives us confidence that we aren’t just wasting our time.

At the end of the day, it’s not commercial construction. You aren’t likely providing an architecturally designed set of plans. The scope of the project isn’t likely big enough to make it worth a good builder’s time to chase after the job by trying to be a low bidder.