Reader question: should a fence company charge for estimates?
A fence contractor tired of driving to free estimates that go nowhere asks whether to charge for them. A plain answer, and what to do before you start charging.
"I drive out to six or eight free estimates a week. Half of them are price shopping and I never hear back. Should I start charging for estimates?"
Probably not, at least not yet. Charging for estimates fixes one problem and creates another. In most markets, homeowners expect a fence quote to be free, and a fee will send many of them straight to the next company on Google. The better move is to make fewer wasted trips, not to charge for all of them.
Here is how to think about it, and what to try first.
Why a fee usually hurts more than it helps
A fence is not an emergency. Homeowners get two or three quotes and take their time. When they search "fence company near me," they call several. If your profile or website says "$75 estimate fee," and the next listing says "free estimates," most people call the free one. You save the drive, but you lose the job before you could make your case.
There is also a review risk. A homeowner who paid $75 and did not hire you sometimes feels they paid for nothing. That is the kind of person who leaves a short, sour review.
Fees can work in some cases, which we cover below. But for most fence companies, the bigger cost is not the drive. It is the drive to a lead that was never going to buy.
Fix the wasted trips first
1. Put price ranges where people can see them
Most price shoppers want one thing: a number. If they can get a ballpark before you drive out, the ones who cannot afford it drop out on their own. Put ranges per linear foot on your website and your Google profile, by material:
- Wood privacy: "most jobs $X to $Y per foot installed"
- Vinyl: same format
- Chain link: same format
- Aluminum or ornamental: same format
Use your own numbers. A homeowner who sees the range and still calls is far more likely to be a real buyer. The pricing and quoting guide walks through how to word ranges so they help instead of scare.
2. Qualify on the phone in two minutes
Before you book a visit, ask four questions:
- "About how many feet are we talking, or how big is the yard?"
- "What material are you thinking about?"
- "When are you hoping to have it in?"
- "Have you seen our price range per foot? Does that fit what you had in mind?"
If the answers are "not sure," "not sure," "someday" and "that seems high," you can offer a rough quote by phone instead of a drive.
3. Offer a remote quote
Many fence jobs can be quoted roughly from a satellite view and a few photos. Ask the homeowner to text you photos of the yard and the property lines, then send a range by text. Offer the in-person visit for when they are ready to sign. Online map tools and county parcel maps get you close enough for a first number.
4. Answer fast
The first fence company to give a clear quote often gets the job, even if it is not the cheapest. If someone calls while you are on a site and you call back the next day, they may have already booked. A missed-call text-back helps. The missed calls guide has the text, and the calculator shows what missed calls cost a company your size.
When a fee can make sense
There are a few cases where charging works:
- Far-away jobs. A trip fee for addresses outside your normal area is easy to explain.
- Design-heavy work. Custom gates, ornamental iron, or commercial jobs that need drawings. Charge a design fee and credit it to the job if they hire you.
- You are booked solid. If your schedule is full for months, a fee filters out the casual shoppers and you can afford to lose some.
In every case, say "credited toward your fence if you hire us." That turns the fee from a cost into a deposit in the homeowner's mind.
A hypothetical week
Say you do eight free estimates a week and close two. Each visit takes about 90 minutes with driving. That is about nine hours on six jobs you did not win.
Now say you post price ranges and qualify on the phone. You do five visits and still close two, because the three you dropped were mostly shoppers who would not have bought. You got back about four and a half hours a week without charging anyone.
Your numbers will be different. The point is that cutting bad trips usually saves more than a fee ever would.
Check your profile too
When homeowners compare you, they look at your reviews and how complete your listing is. The median fence company in our data has 16 reviews, and 46.3% list no hours. If you add price ranges and a "free estimates" line to a complete profile, you stand out. See how you compare in the benchmark report.
The short answer
Keep estimates free for most jobs. Post price ranges, qualify on the phone, quote remotely when you can, and call back fast. Charge only for far-away, design-heavy or commercial work, and credit the fee to the job.
If you would like help setting up price ranges, text-back or your profile, any one of those is a free 14-day trial, no card. Text or call (385) 334-3643.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, fence companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor