Bid Evaluation
Knowledgeable review of the bids is vital to the owner as well as to the contractor. If owners don't properly understand the wording in the proposals, they may unknowingly agree to extras to the contract that are unanticipated.
Different contractors approach their bids with different business goals. Some contractors will try to anticipate everything that would be reasonably expected in the construction project and submit their bid accordingly. Many times these bids will be higher than the contractor who tries to "low ball" the bid to get their foot in the door. These "low ball" contractors will have scope exclusions and allowances that may not seem important at the beginning of the project, but can become very expensive at the finish.
Sometimes the differences between the bids is a legitimate misunderstanding of what is intended, so it is important to properly understand what scope of work that the different contractors are bidding on. Discussions with the owner, architect and contractor are facilitated by a third party that is trying to get an apples-to-apples comparison. A proper comparison enables the owner to make an informed decision on the project and allows the contractor to be treated fairly and not loose a job due to a misunderstanding about his bid.