Free tools
Small, honest utilities that support the hiring process: shortlist candidates before outreach, then sanity-check the bid math before you sign. No paywall, no signup, and every number is a planning range, not a promise.
Free to use. No hidden ranking auction.Tool directory
Use the shortlist builder when you are choosing who to talk to, and the markup calculator when the numbers start arriving. Both are decision aids: they narrow and frame, and they leave license checks, references, and contract review to you.
Estimate what a Bay Area general contractor is likely to add on top of hard costs, or reverse-check a bid you already have for implied markup and margin against typical residential ranges. Includes a plain-English markup-vs-margin explainer.
Best when bids are arriving and you want to know which questions the numbers should trigger.
Pick a city, project stage, and budget range, and the tool ranks the current seed directory by general contractor fit, city coverage, permit communication, and verification quality. A first-pass decision aid, not a final recommendation engine.
Best at the start, before outreach, when you need three serious candidates instead of ten random tabs.
Every output is a typical planning range built from public industry norms, not a quote and not a claim about any specific contractor. The tools are here to make your next conversation with a contractor sharper, not to replace verification: check CSLB license status, insurance, references, and comparable local projects before deposits or signatures. Our methodology explains how we weight those signals across the site.
