Home Construction instant estimate — Overview
Where to find it
In your dashboard, open the site and go to the Price tool card. Under Which price tool, choose New Home Construction. When you build a new site or a lead-gen batch, the Price tool picker lists this tool as New Home Construction price tool. See the price tools overview for turning a tool on and putting it on a website.
What visitors see
- Start screen. The business name, a headline and a button. Unless you change them, the headline is “Get a free instant estimate” and the button is “Get started”.
- Services. Under the heading “Which of these are you planning?”, the visitor taps one or more of the 6 services listed below, then Next.
- Questions. One question per screen, with the service name above it and a step count at the top. Questions that allow several answers say “(Select any that apply)”. Back and Start over are on every question.
- Contact details. The visitor fills in Name, Email, Zip and Phone. Name, Email and Zip are required; Phone is optional. Zip must be 5 digits. The visitor taps See your estimate.
- Estimate. A total range, one line per service picked, a collapsed “How this was figured” section and a note that the number is not a final quote. Below it are Book a free on-site quote and Change my answers.
No price is shown before the contact step. The estimate appears as soon as the visitor taps See your estimate.
Services and questions
This tool has 6 services. Each service asks its own questions, in this order.
| Service | Questions, in order |
|---|---|
| New Home Construction | About how big is the new home? What finish level are you picturing? What's the building lot like? How many stories do you want? Want to add any of these? When do you want to break ground? |
| ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) | What type of ADU fits your plan? About how big should the ADU be? What finish level do you want for the ADU? Will you rent out this unit? When do you want to start the ADU? |
| Second Story Addition | About how much space are you adding upstairs? What rooms are you adding upstairs? About how old is your home right now? What finish level do you want upstairs? When do you want to start the second story? |
| Garage Conversion | What size is your garage right now? What will the converted space be used for? What should replace the garage door opening? What finish level do you want in there? When do you want to start the conversion? |
| Room Addition | About how much space are you adding? What kind of rooms are you adding? Do you want usable space under the addition? How closely should it match your home's outside? When do you want to start the room addition? |
| Sunroom Addition | What type of sunroom fits your plan? About how big should the sunroom be? Do you already have a foundation or deck there? What finish level do you want in the sunroom? When do you want to start the sunroom? |
How the price is worked out
Each service starts at $0. Its questions are applied in the order above. Each answer does one of two things:
- adds a dollar range (a low and a high amount), or
- raises or lowers the running total for that service by a percent.
A percent applies to everything added before it in that service. A dollar amount added after a percent is not changed by that percent. When a question allows several answers, each one picked is applied, in the order the answers are listed.
Questions that allow several answers can be left with none picked.
Most questions include an answer labelled “Not sure”. It has its own price or percent, which you can edit like any other answer.
The timing question (“how soon” or “when”) does not change the price in this tool. It is passed on with the lead.
Then the tool puts the services together:
- Each service can have its own minimum. In this tool none is set until you add one.
- The services picked are added together.
- The total is not widened. You can widen it with How wide your range shows.
- There is no tool minimum until you set Your minimum job.
- The total is rounded to the nearest $10.
The line for each service on the estimate screen shows that service on its own, in whole dollars. It is not widened or rounded to $10, so the lines may not add up exactly to the total.
Worked example
This uses the tool’s default prices. A visitor picks Garage Conversion and answers:
- “What size is your garage right now?” — Two-car garage: adds $40,000–$90,000. Running total $40,000–$90,000.
- “What will the converted space be used for?” — Bedroom or guest room: adds 15%. Running total $46,000–$103,500.
- “What should replace the garage door opening?” — Wall with a window: adds $3,000–$5,000. Running total $49,000–$108,500.
- “What finish level do you want in there?” — Mid-range finishes: adds 15%. Running total $56,350–$124,775.
- “When do you want to start the conversion?” — As soon as possible: no change.
The total is rounded to the nearest $10. The visitor sees $56,350 – $124,780. The Garage Conversion line shows $56,350 – $124,775.
Your prices
In the Price tool card, open Your prices. The panel starts from the tool’s default prices. It has these parts:
- Your business: Subline, Button label, Logo URL and Booking URL. The business name, headline and color come from the card’s Business name, Headline visitors see and Your color fields.
- One group per service. Each starts with Minimum for this service, then one row per answer, labelled with the question and the answer. A row is either a low and high dollar amount or a percent.
- Your minimum job: the tool minimum.
- How wide your range shows: a percent from 0 to 50 that widens the total on each side.
Reset to defaults puts every row back. Click Save to keep your changes. A tool that is turned on shows the new prices the next time a visitor opens it.
If you switch Which price tool to a different trade, your price changes for the old trade are not kept. The business name, headline and color are kept.
With a Client pricing link, the business owner can edit these same prices without signing in. See the price tools overview.
Leads
A lead is saved when the visitor taps See your estimate. It holds the name, email, zip, phone (if given), every answer, the estimate shown and, when the browser reports it, the page the tool was on. Nothing is saved before that step.
Each lead goes to the addresses in Email new leads to, and to you as well when Send me a copy too is ticked. The email carries your agency’s name. When Text new leads is ticked, an Owner’s mobile is set and The business owner agreed to receive lead texts at this number is ticked, the owner also gets a text with the visitor’s name, phone and estimate.
The visitor is emailed a copy of their estimate under the business name. A reply goes to the first address in Email new leads to.
If the visitor taps Book a free on-site quote and you set a Booking URL, it opens that page. With no booking URL, the owner gets a second alert marked “Visit requested”, and the visitor sees “Request sent. [business name] will contact you.” When the site has a phone number, a Call button with that number appears under it.
Leads are listed in the card under Leads from your price tool, with the date, name, zip, contact, estimate shown and which alert went out.
Limits
The contact step can be sent 12 times per hour from one internet address. After that, the visitor still sees the estimate, but the details are not sent and the visitor sees “We couldn’t send your details just now — please call the business directly.” The same message appears if the details fail to send for any other reason.
Questions
Is the estimate a quote?
No. The estimate screen and the visitor’s email both say it is a ballpark range, not a final price.
Does a visitor have to give a phone number?
No. Name, email and zip are required. Phone is optional.
Can a visitor pick more than one service?
Yes. Each service gets its own questions and its own line on the estimate, and the total adds them together.
Can a visitor change an answer after seeing the price?
Yes. Change my answers goes back to the services screen.
What happens when I turn the tool off?
The tool stops loading. Anyone who opens it sees “This price tool isn’t turned on yet.” Your prices and leads are kept.
Is a visitor’s information sold?
No. See the privacy policy.