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Offline Business Website Quote Help

by bgan10
7 replies
Hey

I real estate agent I know is trying to land a development project in my town. He is accepting quotes from web designers for a main website for the development. I was wondering if you guys could help me out as to pricing for something like this. I will list some of the criteria he is looking for for the site. I live in a city with about 80000 people and it would be about 30 - 50 condos.

He wants it to be a flash coded site with:
Home/Overview
Floorplans (4 total)
Team
Register/Contact - would be full auto responder email list/ info and broadcasts.
Photo Gallary

He wants a complete package cost quote for design, hosting, email auto responder for a year.

I have no idea as I haven't done much price wise for offline businesses. So any ideas or simple just how much you would charge for something like this would be awesome. Thanks for all the help!

Cheers,
Brett
#business #offline #website
  • Profile picture of the author Adaptive
    My first impression is that this would be about a $2,500 project.

    You'll need to
    * Design about 5 different page looks within the overall theme
    * Scan the floorplans and clean them up
    * Import all the photos and clean them up
    * Set up autoresponder capture
    * Code everything in Flash
    * Set up domain name and hosting account, have minimal html to load the flash, and load up the autoresponder
    * Do project management

    Total is likely 50 hours - 10 hours each for graphic designer to create the layouts in Photoshop; Photoshop guru to clean up the pictures; Flash guru to do coding; server guru to set up the site and load the autoresponder; and your time with the client and keeping everyone on target. 50 hours at $40/hour is $2,000. 10% contingency and some profit gives you a $2,500 to $3,000, 5 to 7 week project (expecting to get only 10 hours a week of work from good freelancers who may have other client projects going too).

    Depending on your competition, you might be able to mark it up quite a bit more.

    And if you know how to do some of this work yourself, your costs will be less.

    Regards,
    Allen
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    • Profile picture of the author Kyle Tully
      Originally Posted by Adaptive View Post

      My first impression is that this would be about a $2,500 project.

      ...

      Total is likely 50 hours
      DO NOT quote based on time.

      That is how poor freelancers quote.

      I wouldn't even quote the guy until I sat down and spoke with him about the project.

      Unless you get into a discussion of value you cannot give an accurate quote.

      You said there are 30-50 condos. If he sells each one how much is that? Couple million bucks? That's how much this project is worth to him.

      He's already talking about this being a year-long project... worth a couple million bucks... I'd be looking at 5-figures if it was my project.

      Not only are you going to be happy getting more money but it will give you more room to hire the BEST outsourcers and give him the BEST results and the BEST value for his money.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adaptive
    Kyle, I was only talking in terms of hard costs if the whole thing was outsourced; the lowest possible rate to do the job reasonably and break even.

    I agree that it should be sold up to the value and on the competitive position, not down to the costs.

    An extreme of value-based pricing would be to do the entire setup for free, in exchange for a commission on condos sold faster than the developer expected.

    However, the real estate developer might have such a clear and limited vision of what is desired that the going rate for Flash code could be the determining factor.

    I agree it all depends on how much unique value can be added.

    By the way, I took the year long reference to a year's worth of hosting and autoresponder service, not a year's worth of ongoing development.

    Regards,
    Allen
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    • Profile picture of the author Kyle Tully
      Originally Posted by Adaptive View Post

      Kyle, I was only talking in terms of hard costs if the whole thing was outsourced; the lowest possible rate to do the job reasonably and break even.

      I agree that it should be sold up to the value and on the competitive position, not down to the costs.

      An extreme of value-based pricing would be to do the entire setup for free, in exchange for a commission on condos sold faster than the developer expected.

      However, the real estate developer might have such a clear and limited vision of what is desired that the going rate for Flash code could be the determining factor.

      I agree it all depends on how much unique value can be added.
      Right on, just making sure the OP understands as well.

      Originally Posted by Adaptive View Post

      By the way, I took the year long reference to a year's worth of hosting and autoresponder service, not a year's worth of ongoing development.
      Yup you're right, I was pointing out that the developer's mindset is that this is a website that's going to be generating leads for at least a year -- this isn't a quick-hit thing to sell condos this month... so the value in his mind is already high, which means you can charge more.
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      • Profile picture of the author Robert Matthew
        Great Point Kyle...

        Quote based on Value, not hours!
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        Professional CPV/PPV Testing, Tracking & Optimization for Experienced CPV Marketers (Not for Newbies).
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        • Profile picture of the author Blase
          Brett,

          I work with offline clients and I see quotes for sites that are all
          over the place.

          Recently I had a client that wanted an ecommerce site, not really
          that big of a deal. He showed me a quote for $16,000 for that site.
          Plus a monthly of $300!

          I can have it done to his specs for $500 and I quoted him $2500
          and he is one happy guy.

          I've seen offers to do a basic site for $100.

          I will give you a pointer. You have to sit down with the client and nail down EXACTLY
          what he wants. Then write up your proposal and make it very clear that any additions
          or changes will cost extra.

          I just built a very nice, very well SEO'd site for a client. He knew he wanted red and black as a color scheme.
          When he saw it he really thought blue would be better. Then the content started to change,
          now he wants a photo gallery so his son can put up pictures. On and ON it goes.

          They never really know what they want until they see it and customers will nickel and dime you to death.

          And yes that client of mine paid for everyone of those changes.

          Take care,
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          "Nothing Happens Until Something Is Sold"
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  • Profile picture of the author Adaptive
    Right on, just making sure the OP understands as well.
    Gotcha. And I'm very glad you're here, Kyle, because I knew that after costs are accounted for, the value is in what it's worth the buyer... but I completely left out that part of the answer this time. Thanks for jumping in with the missing piece from down under!

    Regards,
    Allen
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