How to write a job brief that gets comparable quotes

Short answer

Write down what you want done, what the constraints are, what you are supplying, and what a finished job looks like — then give the identical text to everyone you ask. Most of the time people conclude a tradesperson is overcharging, the real problem is that each was quoting a different job.

This is the highest-return fifteen minutes in the entire process, and almost nobody does it.

What to put in it

  1. The problem, not your proposed solution. "The bathroom floor is damp near the shower" invites diagnosis; "replace the shower waste" pre-commits you to a fix that may be wrong.
  2. What you want at the end, described so an outsider could judge it. "No damp after a week of normal use" is testable.
  3. Constraints: access, parking, hours you can allow noise, pets, whether anyone is home, strata rules.
  4. What you are supplying versus what they supply. Fittings and fixtures are the usual ambiguity.
  5. Timing: when you would like it started, and any hard deadline with the reason.
  6. Photographs. Two or three, including a wide shot for context.
  7. How you want to be quoted: fixed price or estimate, and by when.

What to leave out

  • What the other quotes were. It anchors the price and helps nobody.
  • Your budget, at least initially. You want to know what the job costs before you say what you hoped it would.
  • Instructions on method. You are buying their judgement; constraining it usually costs more, not less.

What comes back tells you something too

A business that reads the brief and asks two sharp questions has engaged with it. One that returns a number with no scope has not, and that is a preview of how the job will be run. The quality of the response to a clear brief is one of the better predictors available before anyone starts work.

Once quotes are back, compare exclusions before totals — that is where the difference usually is. And check the entity: only 9.8% of the 36,230 businesses measured here publish an ABN a customer can confirm, so it is worth asking for on anything substantial.

Common questions

Should I tell a tradesperson my budget?
Not with the first request. Get the job priced on its merits first. Once you have comparable numbers, sharing a budget is genuinely useful — it lets a good tradesperson tell you what can be staged or substituted to fit, which is a conversation worth having.
Is it rude to get several quotes?
No, and it is expected on anything substantial. What is unreasonable is having several businesses attend site visits for a job you have no intention of proceeding with, or using one quote purely to beat down another. Be straightforward about where you are in the process.
What if the quotes come back wildly different?
Put the exclusions side by side before assuming anyone is wrong. Large gaps almost always mean different scopes — one includes making good, rubbish removal or scaffolding and another does not. If the scopes genuinely match and the numbers still differ sharply, ask the outlier to explain; the answer is usually informative either way.

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