The honest answer is that it depends on the building, but the reason two quotes for the same job differ by a factor of two is usually structural, not competitive. Here is what sits underneath the number.
The three pricing models
Time and materials. You pay an hourly rate plus parts. Fair for unpredictable work, hard to budget against. Ask what the minimum call-out charge is and whether travel time is billed.
Flat rate per job. A written price before work starts. Better for anything well defined - a fixture swap, a lighting retrofit, a floor strip and wax.
Contract or per-square-foot. Recurring services like janitorial and grounds. Cheaper per visit, but read what is excluded; many contracts price the routine work low and bill everything else as an extra.
Where the variance comes from
- Subcontracting. A vendor who subs out plumbing adds a margin on top of the sub’s margin. In-house crews remove that layer.
- Minimum charges. A one-hour job billed at a four-hour minimum is not a cheap job.
- After-hours multipliers. Nights and weekends are commonly 1.5x. If your building can only be worked on outside business hours, that is your baseline, not an exception.
- Trip charges per trade. Five separate vendors means five trip charges. One crew handling a punch list in a single visit does not.
Questions worth asking before you sign
- Is the minimum call-out charge per visit or per trade?
- What is excluded from the recurring contract?
- Are your technicians employees or subcontractors?
- What is the after-hours rate, and when does after-hours start?
- Will I get a written quote before work begins on anything above a set threshold?
None of these are unreasonable questions, and how a vendor answers them tells you more than the headline rate does.