WHAT EVERY PROPOSAL SHOWS
01
PROPOSED BY THE CONTRACTOR
Price for the defined scope
Every bidder prices the same documented project, so you and your client compare like for like.
02
PROPOSED BY THE CONTRACTOR
Promised completion date
The date the contractor commits to, visible before your client chooses.
03
$1,000 per day if they finish late
Owed to your client for late completion under the agreement.
Once accepted, these commitments become part of the agreement, including its conditions and exceptions. The $1,000 per day concerns late completion of the project; it is not triggered by every missed milestone or unanswered message.
DESIGN AUTHORITY
Unauthorized substitutions are the fastest way to lose a design. The agreement identifies which selections, substitutions and design changes require your approval, and keeps that approval distinct from the homeowner’s decision on cost and timing.
Design approval: yours
The agreement names the selections, substitutions and design changes that need your recorded approval. A product swap or a revised detail waits for that approval before anyone orders or installs it.
Cost and timing approval: the homeowner’s
Related cost and schedule changes are approved by the homeowner before the affected work proceeds. Your approval confirms the change matches the intent; theirs confirms they accept what it costs and when it lands.
Independent verification is separate from both. An independent verifier identified in the project agreement checks completed work against the agreed requirements. Your design review does not replace that check, and a verification result does not release payment. The authorized person approves payment after the agreed release conditions are satisfied.
RECOMMENDING A CONTRACTOR
Review project history and references alongside the price, completion date, and $1,000 per day owed to your client for late completion under the agreement. Then weigh qualifications, relevant experience and verified past performance where available.
Two different remedies, kept distinct. The $1,000 per day concerns late completion of the project under the agreement. Deficient or incomplete work is addressed through correction, rechecking and the milestone-payment conditions. A missed update or an unanswered question is a documented responsibility, not a financial trigger.
Five concerns, one agreement
Budget. Contractors price the same defined scope. Changes to scope, price or schedule require documented approval before the affected work proceeds.
Schedule. Each contractor proposes a completion date. If they finish late, they owe your client $1,000 per day under the agreement.
Communication. The agreement documents who provides updates, who answers questions and who approves decisions, so you are not chasing information or explaining silence to your client.
Design integrity. The agreement identifies which selections, substitutions and design changes need your approval before they are ordered or installed.
Reputation. Your recommendation goes out with the contractor’s own commitments beside it. An independent verifier checks completed work, and the affected milestone payment stays pending until the agreed release conditions are met.
COMMUNICATION AND PROBLEM RESOLUTION
Most project friction is a question nobody owns. The project agreement should identify who provides updates, who answers questions, who coordinates corrections and who handles escalation, so a problem has an owner the day it appears rather than a designer fielding it by default.
Those responsibilities are also what give back the hours a practice loses to prompting for sign-offs and status. Decisions are made at documented approval points and recorded once, and purchasing and billing follow the agreement rather than a thread of messages.
When work needs fixing
Record the issue. It goes into the project record, not a text thread.
Assign responsibility. The person the agreement names owns the correction.
Correct the work. A punch item is a task with a path, not a dispute.
Independently recheck. The independent verifier confirms the correction against the agreed requirements.
Authorize payment. The authorized person releases the affected milestone payment once the agreed release conditions are met.
INTRODUCING PRICELOCK TO A CLIENT
Most clients have heard a renovation horror story. PriceLock is easiest to introduce as the answer to the question they are already asking: how do I know the price and the schedule are real?
The fear this removes: watching the intent get value-engineered away in the field, then wearing the blame for the overrun.
Three things to tell a client
The scope, price, schedule, and payment conditions are agreed and signed before construction starts, including the contractor’s completion date and the $1,000 per day they owe if they finish late.
Any change is priced and documented, and it waits for approval before it is built.
Completed work is checked by an independent verifier identified in the project agreement, and payment is approved separately once the agreed release conditions are satisfied.
TRUSTED CIRCLES
When a client is deciding whom to trust, the real question is how you work. As part of Trusted Circles you have a specific answer: a defined scope, documented decisions, independent verification of completed work, and commitments backed by agreed consequences. That is easier to trust than a portfolio alone, and easier to explain than a promise.
It protects the relationship you have already built, and it gives back the hours that go into chasing decisions and updates. It does not remove every risk in a recommendation. It puts the process, and the contractor’s own commitment, on the record beside your name.
Project fit, responsibilities, fees, and the availability of referrals are confirmed before participation. Project volume is not guaranteed.
What participation gives you
Recommendations with the commitments visible. Every contractor proposal shows its price, promised completion date and the $1,000 per day owed for late completion, so you and your client compare like for like.
Design decisions on the record. Approval points and responsibilities are documented in the agreement, so your intent is protected and nobody has to reconstruct who decided what.
A verification story you can tell. You can show a client exactly how completed work is checked by an independent verifier before payment is authorized.
Professionals who share the expectations. Contractors in the network have agreed to the same definitions of scope, change, verification and release before they meet your project. Realtors in the network can introduce homeowners and connect them with you, with a clear handoff and the client relationship kept intact.
Education and support. Practical education in running a project under PriceLock, and ongoing support while you do.