Should a handyman offer free estimates?
Free estimates work for jobs you can assess quickly or remotely from photos. For jobs requiring a long site visit, a paid diagnostic fee credited toward the work filters out price shoppers while still feeling fair to serious customers.
Free estimates are the norm in handyman work, and for a lot of jobs they make sense. The problem is drive time. An hour of unpaid travel and assessment for a job that may never book is the quietest cost in the trade.
A practical middle position:
- Free and remote for simple jobs. Ask for photos with the request. Many common repairs can be priced accurately enough from two pictures and a description, which costs you nothing.
- Free on site when you are already nearby. Batch estimates into a route rather than driving out individually.
- A paid diagnostic fee for complex jobs, credited toward the work if they proceed. This reads as fair to a serious customer and filters out someone collecting five prices.
- Flat pricing published for your most common repairs. This removes the need for an estimate at all on a meaningful share of jobs.
Whichever you choose, say it clearly on your website. Ambiguity about whether an estimate costs anything causes hesitation, and hesitation is what stops someone submitting the form.
Also be explicit about what an estimate covers. A quote that does not mention disposal, materials or what happens if the wall opens up worse than expected is where most disputes begin.
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