Get three contractor quotes without playing phone tag

Six phone calls, minimum

Everyone tells you to get three quotes. Nobody mentions the arithmetic. You ring three contractors, and because contractors spend their days on roofs and under sinks, you reach none of them. They ring back while you're in a meeting. You ring back while they're driving. By Thursday you have one number scribbled on an envelope, one voicemail you can't quite make out, and one who never called.

There's a shorter way. You describe the job once. An AI phone assistant rings the three businesses, explains what you need, and leaves its own number for the callback. When each contractor rings back, the assistant answers and puts the same four questions to all of them: the price, what it includes, when they could start, and how long the price holds. You end up with three written notes you can lay side by side.

Ask once

The quality of the quotes depends on the description, so spend two minutes on it. Picture what the contractor will want to know before naming a number.

• The job, with sizes. "Replace a 50-gallon gas water heater in the garage" beats "water heater problem".
• Where, and any awkward access. The town or zip code, the second floor, the narrow side gate.
• When you'd like it done. This month, before the holidays, no rush.
• Who to call. Three names and numbers you've picked, from someone on your street or from a listing site.
• When you're home. In case they need to come and look.

What a phone call can and can't price

Be realiztic here. For a like-for-like job (swapping a water heater, servicing a furnace, cleaning the gutters) plenty of contractors will give a figure over the phone. For a kitchen remodel they'll want to see the room, and they're right to.

In that case the assistant's job changes. It arranges the three visits, around the times you said you'd be home, and that's its own round of phone tag you didn't have to play. You can hear a contractor's call being taken on the demo page.

Price

The number, and what kind of number it is. Fixed price, estimate, or an hourly rate plus materials? "About four thousand" and "$4,200 fixed" are different promises, and the assistant asks which one it's hearing.

It also asks about payment terms, meaning how much up front and when the balance is due. It never pays anything itself and never gives out a card number. If a contractor wants a deposit to hold a date, that comes back to you as a decision, with the amount written down.

What's included

This is where quotes differ most, and where the cheapest one often stops being the cheapest. Does the price cover taking the old unit away? The permit, if the job needs one? Parts as well as fitting, or fitting only? Cleanup? A warranty on the work, and for how long?

Asked of one contractor, these are just questions. Asked of three in the same words, they become a comparison. It's the main reason to have one caller do all three calls.

Start date

When could they begin, and how long will the job take once they have? A contractor who's cheaper but can't start for six weeks may not be cheaper at all if the water heater is already leaking.

The assistant writes down what was said, in the contractor's terms. "Week of the 21st, two days" goes in as that, not tidied into a promise nobody made.

How long the price holds

The question people forget, and then regret. Material costs move, and a quote from the first week of the month may not stand in the last. So the assistant asks: is that price good for a week, two weeks, thirty days?

It matters for comparing, too. If one quote lapses on Friday and the third contractor hasn't called back, you know how long you have to decide.

Side by side

Now you have three notes in the same shape, and comparing them takes five minutes over coffee. Read across, not down. Price against price, scope against scope, date against date. The gaps jump out, like the quote that never mentioned removal.

If the decision belongs to two of you, any call in your dashboard has a Share button. It makes a card with the outcome, the summary and the details, with phone numbers hidden. Send it to your partner and argue about it properly.

The assistant doesn't pick for you, and it doesn't give advice about the work itself. It won't tell you whether the wiring is safe or the roof will last. It reports what each contractor said. For how the summaries are put together, see how an AI phone call works.

The two you don't pick

Tell them. It costs you one instruction, and contractors remember the people who bothered to let them know. The assistant can ring both with a polite no, thank you, so nobody is left holding a date for a job that isn't coming.

The yes is different. Ring the one you've chosen yourself, agree the date, and sort out the deposit between the two of you. They're going to be in your house for two days. It's worth a proper hello.

Common questions

More on everyday use

• Let an AI wait on hold for you
• How an AI books a restaurant table by phone
• Using AI to schedule and move appointments by phone
• AI call screening: what happens when a stranger calls your line