The 60-second self-check
Before any price comparison, a quote has to be checkable. Hold the document and answer these in order. Every "no" is a question to put to the contractor or shop before you sign, and two or more is a reason to get a second bid even if the total looks reasonable.
- Is the scope written down? The job described in enough detail that a second company could bid the same work: the square footage, the unit model, the number of windows, the parts list. "Roof repair" or "fix leak" is not a scope.
- Are there line items with prices? One lump sum cannot be checked, negotiated or compared. Ask for the breakdown; a company that will not provide one is telling you something.
- Do the labor hours match the task? Most trades have standard times for standard jobs. Labor billed at double the usual time for the task is the single most common way a quote inflates without any one line looking wrong.
- Are materials near retail? Some markup is normal and fair. A fixture, a part or a unit billed at three times its shelf price is not, and it is the easiest line to push back on because you can look the price up yourself.
- Are the fees specific? "Miscellaneous", "shop supplies", "job setup" or "environmental fee" as a meaningful share of the total. Legitimate versions of these are small and the company can say what each covers.
- Is the permit on the quote? Roofing, HVAC, electrical, plumbing and structural work need permits almost everywhere. A quote that omits one is either hiding a cost or planning to skip it, and the second is worse for you.
- Is the warranty written? Workmanship warranty separate from the manufacturer's, with a length. A verbal promise is not a warranty.
- Is the deposit proportionate? A deposit that covers materials is normal. Full payment up front, or a large cash deposit before anything is ordered, is the pattern behind most of the complaints consumer offices publish.
- Can the price wait a week? A discount that expires today is a sales tactic, not a price. Real quotes hold for days. This one is not a pricing signal by itself, but it travels with the others.
The self-check tells you whether the quote can be trusted as a document. It cannot tell you whether $4,800 is the right number for your water heater in your ZIP code. That is what the score below is for, and it is why the form on this page sends the text straight to the analyzer rather than to a generic price table.
What real quotes show, by trade
These are the trades with at least five scored quotes in the pool, sorted by the share that scored under 50. A row links to the trade's own page when there is one, with the same numbers and the lines that trade pads most often.
| Trade | Quotes scored | Average score | Scored under 50 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleaning | 7 | 52 | 71.4% |
| Kitchen | 18 | 47 | 61.1% |
| Appliance Repair | 10 | 41 | 60% |
| Auto | 276 | 48 | 57.2% |
| Chimney | 9 | 48 | 55.6% |
| Plumbing | 109 | 53 | 45% |
| Flooring | 25 | 60 | 44% |
| HVAC | 99 | 56 | 43.4% |
| Collision | 28 | 55 | 42.9% |
| Construction | 96 | 55 | 41.7% |
| Landscaping | 94 | 58 | 41.5% |
| Siding | 17 | 53 | 41.2% |
| Roofing | 164 | 55 | 39.6% |
| Bathroom | 33 | 55 | 39.4% |
| Other | 59 | 57 | 39% |
| Restoration | 22 | 58 | 36.4% |
| Windows | 46 | 55 | 34.8% |
| Fencing | 15 | 60 | 33.3% |
| Concrete | 37 | 62 | 32.4% |
| Drywall | 25 | 59 | 32% |
| Painting | 41 | 66 | 31.7% |
| Electrical | 61 | 64 | 27.9% |
| Decks | 32 | 61 | 25% |
| Paving | 20 | 61 | 25% |
| Insulation | 8 | 73 | 25% |
| Garage Door | 8 | 62 | 25% |
| Pest Control | 9 | 71 | 22.2% |
| Gutters | 23 | 61 | 21.7% |
| Pool | 13 | 71 | 15.4% |
Data as of October 23, 2026, 1,418 quotes counted. Counts exclude the February 2026 seed batch, so they run lower than the site-wide total on the data page; the full field dictionary is on the dataset page.
Lines flagged above the fair range most often
Across the same pool, these line items were flagged HIGH or RED FLAG on the most separate quotes. If one of them is on yours, it is the first line to ask about.
- Brake fluid flush: flagged on 4 quotes
- Labor: flagged on 4 quotes
- Head gasket replacement: flagged on 3 quotes
- Diagnostic Fee: flagged on 3 quotes
- Painting: flagged on 3 quotes
- 1/2 Horsepower Sump Pump - (3) Yr Warranty: flagged on 3 quotes
What the score means
QuoteScore reads every line item, matches it to a benchmark range for that job in your region, and marks each line GOOD, FAIR, HIGH or RED FLAG. The overall score from 0 to 100 is a fixed function of how far the quote sits above its fair total, so the same quote always gets the same word: 80 and above is a Great Deal, 65 to 79 a Fair Price, 50 to 64 Slightly High, 30 to 49 Overpriced, and under 30 a Red Flag. The result page shows the fair range next to each line, the dollar gap between the quoted total and the fair total, and the lines worth negotiating first. If the upload turns out not to be a quote at all, a photo of the damage for example, you get a plain "we could not read a quote" card and no score, because a score of zero for a missing document is not information.
Two things the score is not. It is not a judgment of the company: the same shop can hand out a fair quote on Tuesday and a padded one on Friday, and the public pages on this site never attach a business name to a score. And it is not a substitute for a second bid when the job is large. It is the fastest way to decide whether a second bid is worth the week it takes to get one.
Check a specific trade
Each of these pages answers the question for one trade, with that trade's live numbers, the lines it pads most often and the things its quotes should always state.
When the answer is "no"
A low score is leverage, not a verdict on the person who wrote the quote. Take the two or three lines the result names, ask the company what each covers and whether it can be matched to the fair range, and say you are getting one more bid. Most of the time one of three things happens: the line comes down, the line turns out to include scope that was not written on the quote and the document gets corrected, or the company holds its price and you now know what you are paying extra for. All three are better than signing blind. If the quote fails the self-check as well, especially on the deposit and the deadline, the right move is usually to walk, and the storm repair page has the license lookups for the states where that pattern shows up most after a disaster.