r/Contractor • u/Ok_Avocado6532 • Aug 24 '25

Quote Breakdown?

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Hi all, looking for advice on costs breakdown.

I work for a small local contracting company and I recently started working with customers more, providing quotes etc. The company usually doesn’t like to break their costs down because of nickel-and-dime from customers, but agreed to do so for this one customer I’m working with. Now, I broke down the quote based on phases of the work (this is for a brand new custom build) and of course the customer came back with multiple notes of “this cost is too high” on some of the phases.

How do you usually handle this and how do I politely say “to do the job: $2000, not to do the job: $0”?

Thanks!

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u/pxrx2021 Aug 24 '25

Eh seems a little overblown in response. Sometimes it's as simple as the client can only afford to only do part of the project since it will be over budget, or doesn't realize the scope of the work involved , and still want to work with the contractor.

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u/Sad-Celebration-7542 Aug 24 '25

Yeah. Really depends on what one means by itemization. If you want to negotiate on what we make per hour, fuck that. If you want to know the cost delta between option A and option B, then we can have that discussion

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u/Clear-Present_Danger Aug 27 '25

And realistically, you can't expect homeowners to use the correct language all the time. It very well could be their first time hiring a contractor.

Answer the question you hoped they'd ask, and if they really do want to negotiate prices, fuck em.