Solicit 3-5 GC bids from a normalized scope

Before you read any bids: the empirical reality

Industry surveys are consistent: more than one in three homeowners (37% per Houzz's 2025 U.S. Renovation Trends Study) end up spending more than they planned, versus 35% who finish on budget and just 3% under. Older houses hide more unknowns than new-build, finish-stage upgrades compound late, and corrections from the inspector add line items nobody priced into the bid.

Practical implication: budget the lump-sum bid + 10–20% contingency, separately. Don't fold the contingency into your project envelope and then "use it up" buying finish upgrades — that's how the contingency disappears and the real overrun arrives. Treat it as an untouched reserve for genuine unknowns (failed soils test, dry rot found at framing, code-correction work).

Before you write the RFP: are you carving out any trades?

If you're thinking about hiring one or two trades directly (appliances, finish hardware, post-CofO landscape) instead of running everything through the GC, read Splitting scope between your GC and trades you hire directly before you finalize the bid package. Oregon's ORS 701.010(6) is stricter than most owners realize about permit-bearing work, so the workable carve-outs are narrower than they'd be in WA — read it before you tell a GC their scope is going to be smaller than the full project.

Where to find good GCs

You're looking for builders who've finished a Portland DADU in the last few years. Three places to look:

1. Recent permit history. Portland Maps Permits & Inspections — filter recent DADU and "Residential, New" permits in your neighborhood. The contractor names that come up over and over are your local DADU specialists. Single best discovery channel.
2. Your designer's short list. Designers carry 3–5 GCs they've worked with on similar projects. Biased toward GCs who collaborate well, which is what you want.
3. Oregon CCB license search. Oregon CCB directory has search by city; less useful for discovery than for verification (you can't easily filter by "DADU experience"), but useful for finding adjacent work history once you have a name.

What to look for: 3+ Portland DADU permits in the last 3 years (verifiable via Portland Maps); active CCB residential GC endorsement; no recent disciplinary record on the CCB site; willingness to do a free walk-through before quoting.

Why normalized scope matters

If GC A bids $325,000 with hardwood floors and quartz counters, and GC B bids $290,000 with carpet and laminate, you're not comparing prices — you're comparing different houses. The job is to remove that variable.

How to normalize

Hand every GC:

1. The permit-cleared plan set (full architectural + structural + MEP)
2. A finishes schedule with brand and model numbers (e.g., "LVP flooring: Mohawk Provincial Hickory or equivalent; quartz counters: Caesarstone 3142 or equivalent")
3. Allowance items explicitly called out (light fixtures: $3,500 allowance; appliance package: $4,500 allowance)
4. Site access notes (driveway constraints, neighbor fences, tree protection, working hours)
5. A bid form with the same line-item categories across GCs

Send all of it to all GCs at the same time, with the same response deadline.

What you're actually looking for in the bids

• Completeness. Does the bid cover everything in the scope? Missing items come back as change orders.
• Schedule. When can they start? How long is the build?
• Subcontractor list. Do they name their subs (electrician, plumber, mechanical)? You can verify those CCB licenses too.
• Payment schedule. Aggressive front-loading is a flag.
• Change-order language. What's the markup? What requires written approval?

How to read the spread

When three to five GCs price the same set, the bids usually cluster within 10-15% of each other. An outlier 20%+ below the rest is almost always a different scope assumption — a missing allowance line, an excluded utility tie-in, a leaner foundation read — not a more efficient builder. Walk the outlier line-by-line against the median before treating it as a cost win. If the gap turns out to be real scope, fold the missing items back in and recompare.

What the good GCs do that mediocre ones don't

• Visit the site before bidding
• Ask clarifying questions (silent bids are usually optimistic)
• Provide a written, line-item bid (not "$310,000 total")
• Name an actual project manager who'll be your point of contact
• Carry workers' comp on their own employees (not just relying on subs)