Stop Arguing About Fixed Price. Price It Once and Let the Client Decide.

Every builder has had the conversation.

An architect or a client calls, the project sounds good, and then comes the question: will you do it fixed price?

Most of us have a rehearsed position. Some builders swear by fixed price because it wins tenders. Some refuse it because they’ve been burned.

Either way, you’re now defending a contract format instead of talking about the build, and the relationship has started as a negotiation instead of a partnership.

After twenty-five years running an architecture and construction business, here’s how we killed that argument, and why it wins better clients.

Price it once, the same way, every time

We estimate every project with the same rigour regardless of what contract it lands on.

The costing is the costing.

The contract format is just how the risk gets allocated afterwards.

Once you separate those two things in your own head, the conversation with the client gets much easier.

Offer both, and disclose the risk margin

We present every client with two options.

Fixed price, where we tell them openly that the number includes a risk margin, because guaranteeing a price means we carry the unknowns, and carrying risk costs money.

Or cost plus. Open book, actual costs plus our disclosed margin, with the flexibility that comes with it.

We spell out the benefits and drawbacks of each honestly.

Certainty versus flexibility.

Then the client decides.

What happens next surprised me

When clients can see what price certainty actually costs, almost no one chooses fixed price.

In the last two years alone, we’ve presented both options to roughly thirty projects.

One client took fixed price.

All the rest went cost plus.

But offering the fixed price is what does the work.

It tells the client you’re confident enough in your numbers to guarantee them. That builds more trust than any fixed number ever did, and it lets the client decide which risk they’re prepared to carry.

That’s a much better conversation than arguing about contract types.

The honest budget conversation

The same principle applies before tender.

If a client thinks it’s a one million dollar build and you know it’s two million, there’s no point tendering, and no point being the low number that wins it.

They’ll pull scope out to fit the fantasy budget, then pull it back in as variations during the build, and everyone loses.

I’ve stopped playing that game entirely.

I tell them: I think you’re going to spend two million. You chose that stone because you love it. You’re going to install it. So let’s face the real number now.

Some clients don’t want to hear it.

The ones who do are the clients you want.

The catch: you need tight numbers

You can’t disclose a risk margin you haven’t calculated.

You can’t run open-book cost plus if your books aren’t in order.

And you can’t tell a client their budget is unrealistic without cost data backing you up.

Transparency is a competitive weapon, but only for builders whose numbers are tight enough to survive being looked at.

That’s the whole reason we’re building Buttress: to give small builders live, accurate project financials so that pricing honestly, disclosing margins and running cost plus with confidence is straightforward instead of terrifying.

If your numbers are solid, transparency becomes an advantage.