08/21/2026
A builder named David Gerstel stopped giving free estimates in 1977 - and never gave one again. His reasoning: a meaningful estimate takes real work, and doing that work for free just meant homeowners and architects were using builders' unpaid labor to shape their projects, then using those numbers to negotiate down whichever builder they'd already decided to hire. His original piece: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2022/05/25/why-i-stopped-giving-free-estimates.
We don't give free bids either, for the same reason. But we take it a step further than his model did.
Before we ever price a project, we sign a Feasibility and Construction Agreement (FCA): https://lockiehomes.com/fca/. Your architect reviews it first, so all three of us are aligned before anyone commits to anything. Instead of a fixed-price number, we use Open Book Cost-Plus: you see the actual, documented cost of construction, plus our overhead and profit as separate line items - not folded into a lump sum you can't see into.
The number we build toward is a Bid-Backed Budget: real bids from our licensed subcontractors and suppliers, not a general estimate. You review it, ask questions, and approve it before we break ground.
Paying for the planning phase isn't really about the fee - it's what that fee buys: a process where nobody's incentives point toward hiding anything from you.
Full breakdown on the blog: https://lockiehomes.com/blog/
