Latest Bid results - pretty bad

[CopperTone]

OK so maybe I over estimated this job - or over interpreted the prints but the results are still pretty bad - this job is right outside boston. 13 EC's

77888.00
80208.00
83600.00
91800.00
103390.00
104000.00
112000.00
114000.00
116000.00
124800.00
130000.00
157000.00 our bid
158000.00

 

[growler]

Unless you were planning on making a real killing I doubt that you over estimated the job that much. The low bid being less than 50%.

I worked on a job once where they bid less than 50% of the average bid and they ended up losing about a half million dollars on that one. This would have put many companies out of business but not these people. They were owned by some very rich foreign investors that were willing to take the hit. I'm really surprised but they are still in business and doing well so the must have learned from their mistake or just been so rich they could take it as a tax write off.

Note* there was a real house cleaning of management types after this loss but they did manage to finish the job and keep going.

 

[JES2727]

I'd be a bit nervous if I was the low bidder and was awarded the job.

 

[CopperTone]

I went over my numbers again and if I got lucky on a few things on the job that I bid as a worst case scenario and they were a lot easier and If I slammed them with change orders to make up for certain unclear things on the specs, then I could still have only gotten my bid down to the 120k range and still gotten beat by 9 other guys.

 

[hardworkingstiff]

The 103,390 guy probably had the right number.

 

[Mr.Sparkle]

.....and the 77888.00 guy probaly got the job.

 

[Fulthrotl]

OK so maybe I over estimated this job - or over interpreted the prints but the results are still pretty bad - this job is right outside boston. 13 EC's

77888.00
80208.00
83600.00
91800.00
103390.00
104000.00
112000.00
114000.00
116000.00
124800.00
130000.00
157000.00 our bid
158000.00

lessee... the cost of preparing the bid was, for purposes of argument, $1,500
the cost of winning the bid at $77,800, was the delta between that and
your cheapest $125 k price was say, $47, 000.

so, you spent $1,500 to save $47,000. that's a hell of a deal. congratulations.

think how much work you would have to do to get to right where you are
right now, if you'd had to do that job, and pay $47k for the privledge of doing
so.

on the battlefield, a soldier only hears the bullet that misses him. listen to the
ricochet, smile, and be glad.

it's also one less contractor who'll be bidding against you in the future.

 

[bbaumer]

Seen similar happen before on a bonded job only without such a close second bidder. The low guy forfeited his bid bond and moved on.

 

[CopperTone]

the one thing I can see happening is underbid the job to get it with full intentions of hammering them with change orders and extras.
I am starting to think that nice guys do finish last and you have to be a ruthless SOB and fight for every penny and hammer them with change orders to make the money up.
I never wanted to run my business like this and I won't with my regular GC's who don't bid shop me but for public prevailing wage jobs I think this is how I'm going to start to play it.

 

[electricmanscott]

I am starting to think that nice guys do finish last and you have to be a ruthless SOB and fight for every penny and hammer them with change orders to make the money up.

Unfortunatley the most successful guys I see are exactly as you describe. I'll be at the back of the pack with the rest of the nice guys.

 

[petersonra]

Place I used to work once lost a bid to a competitor by almost 1/2 a million dollars.

It was a large and prestigious project that management really wanted, and there were some very unhappy managers and salesmen. They had many meetings about it and repriced the thing over and over again and just could not figure out how they lost it by so much.

Several years later the end user's PA told one of our salesman what had happened. Our competitor that won the bid had undersized the very expensive PVDF pipe the project used, and ended up eating the cost of making it the right size.

 

[JWCELECTRIC]

Coopertone, Sorry to hear that you missed bid, What town MA was this project being bid, and what type of project was it (Water, Wastewater?)

- JWC

 

[CopperTone]

hvac replacement and main service replacement and new fire alarm system, new lighting , etc in a library - brookline, ma

 

[kbsparky]

I'd say your bid was good, there is no sense in paying them for the privilege of working.

I can stay at home for free.

 

[JohnE]

I'd say your bid was good, there is no sense in paying them for the privilege of working.

I can stay at home for free.

What's that saying? "I'd rather be hungry than tired and hungry"...

 

[CopperTone]

I just move on to the next one - I have 3 sets of prints on my desk right now to bid - I'll probably lose those bids too but I'm still trying to bid as low as I can go without getting into trouble