Why Getting a Sixth Bid Doesn't Save Phoenix Business Owners Money

Written by:

Heather Hook

Date:

08 Sep 2026

KeyCrew Studio

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When a Phoenix, Arizona business owner does not like the numbers coming back from a bid, the instinct is often to go out and collect a few more. Mike Marden, a registered architect and licensed general contractor and founder of WDS, a Phoenix-based integrated design-build firm, says that instinct usually backfires, and the extra round of bidding tends to cost more than it saves.

What Actually Happens When a Project Gets Rebid

Rebidding does not happen in a vacuum. Marden explains that most trades work through the same small pool of suppliers, and those suppliers talk to each other. “The supplier is going to tell electrician A, or electrician B, oh, we gave this number to electrician A last month,” he says. Once a trade knows a project has already been priced and is being sent out again, interest tends to drop. Contractors do not want to spend more unpaid time re-estimating something that has already circulated, and any bidder who does look at it a second time knows they are not the first, which changes how seriously they treat it.

Meanwhile, material and labor prices are moving every quarter regardless of what an owner does. Marden puts a number on the real cost of going back out to bid: “It could be 10 to 20% more.” That number does not even include the carrying costs an owner absorbs while waiting, such as an idle lease or mortgage payment on a space that isn’t generating revenue yet.

The Advantage of the Contractor Who’s Already Priced the Job

A contractor who priced a project early and stayed engaged usually has more room to negotiate than a business owner realizes, according to Marden. The problem is that most owners go quiet instead of pushing the conversation forward. “Owners are, I think, most of the time, silent. They don’t want to say, hey, that was out of my range,” he says. Rather than negotiating with the contractor who already understands the project, they move on to someone new, who then has to catch up from scratch.

Marden also points out that contractors juggle multiple pending projects. If an owner waits too long to respond to a bid, the contractor may already be committing capacity elsewhere, meaning the best team available at the time the bid was submitted may not still be available once the owner is finally ready to move.

When a Competing Bid Actually Makes Sense

Marden is not arguing that owners should never look at a second number, but he draws a clear line between the two situations where it does or does not make sense. If the decision is purely about price, a lower number from a new bidder will always be tempting to consider. But if the relationship with the current contractor has been built on trust and transparency, Marden says both sides typically have room to work out a compromise before an owner needs to walk away.

Before comparing numbers at all, Marden suggests owners ask a few direct questions of any new bidder: how many other projects are they currently juggling, what personnel will actually be assigned to this job, and can they share a schedule? A contractor who has a genuinely faster or more efficient plan, rather than just a lower number, may be worth the switch. One who is simply underpricing to win the job is a different story, and often a riskier one.

Vet the Bidders Before You Vet the Bids

Marden’s broader point is that most of this confusion could be avoided earlier in the process. Before an owner starts comparing five sets of numbers, he says they should first confirm that all five contractors are actually qualified to build the same type of project. A group of contractors who have all recently completed similar restaurant or medical office work will naturally land closer together on price, because they are pricing the same level of complexity. Mixing in a bidder who has never built that project type is often what creates the wide spread that tempts an owner to rebid in the first place.

WDS is an integrated design-build firm based in Phoenix, Arizona, comprised of WDS Architecture PLLC and WDS Commercial LLC, subsidiaries of Marden Companies LLC.

This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.

Disclosure: Individuals or companies mentioned may have a commercial relationship with KeyCrew.