How to follow up on an estimate

Why sent estimates go quiet

An unsigned estimate is a lead you paid for twice: once to get the call and once to send someone out. The evidence on what happens next comes mostly from software vendors, but it points one way.

• Few contractors follow up quickly. In ServiceTitan’s 2026 Roofing and Exterior Market Report, a vendor-commissioned survey of more than 1,000 roofing-focused companies, only 16% of contractors said they follow up with homeowners the same day on unsold estimates. The sample skews toward larger firms.
• Most in-home sales do not close on the spot. A ServiceTitan staff member said in a 2026 webinar recap that ServiceTitan data shows only 37% of in-home sales convert right away, which leaves most opportunities depending on follow-up. No sample or method is given, so treat it as direction.
• Homeowners notice the silence. In a 2026 Jobber-commissioned survey of 800 US homeowners who had bought a single-family home in the past two years, 15% said they had to follow up repeatedly with a service provider and 9% said they never got a response at all. The question covered service providers in general, not estimates. In the same survey, 42% named clear upfront pricing or a written estimate as the most important thing they wanted before hiring.
• Many owners do not know their number. In Jobber’s December 2025 survey of 1,050 US home service business owners, 69% reported winning more than half of the jobs they quote. Meanwhile 21% of starting businesses reported win rates under 30%, and many did not track the number at all.

The fix we recommend is not a cleverer message. It is a schedule that runs every time, one person who owns each open estimate, and a record of why the lost ones were lost.

Set it up before the next estimate goes out

Follow-up fails less from bad wording than from unclear ownership.

• One owner per estimate. Usually the person who walked the job, because the customer remembers that face. The office can send messages in the estimator’s name, but one person is accountable for each estimate reaching a yes, a no or a decision date.
• A log on the estimate. Every touch is recorded against it: date, channel, what was said, what came back. A spreadsheet works for a small shop; a CRM with pipeline stages and due-date tasks, GoHighLevel included, does it with less chasing.
• A decision date, asked at the visit. Before leaving, the estimator asks: “When do you think you’ll make a call on this?” Write the answer down. Every later touch then follows the customer’s timeline rather than yours.

The four-touch cadence and what each message says

This is the house practice we recommend: four touches over 14 days, each with its own job, then one reminder on the customer’s decision date. The timings and wording are practice. No independent study shows that a particular number of touches lifts close rates.

When	Channel	The job of the message
Same day	Text or email from the estimator	Deliver it, confirm it arrived, restate the problem in the customer’s words
Day 2	Phone call	Find out what is really in the way
Day 7	Text or email	Send something useful that was not in the estimate
Day 14	Text or email	Keep it open, update it for later, or close it out

Same day: deliver it and say it back

Send it within hours, with a link and one line proving you listened. Ending on “text me here” tells the customer a person will answer.

“Hi Karen, it’s Marcus. Here’s the estimate we talked about this afternoon for the shower leak that’s been staining the kitchen ceiling. I included the option to replace the valve while the wall is open. Any questions, text me here.”

Day 2: call and ask what does not make sense

Call rather than text, while the visit is still fresh.

“Hi Karen, it’s Marcus. I wanted to check whether anything in the estimate doesn’t make sense, or whether something you expected to see isn’t there.”

Then stop talking. Answers usually fall into price, timing, a partner who has not seen it, a competing quote or a scope question, and each tells you what day 7 should carry. If they are comparing quotes, ask what the other one includes rather than defending your number. On voicemail, leave the same line briefly and say you will text it too.

Day 7: send something useful

Pick one thing the customer did not already have:

• A photo of the problem from the visit, with one sentence on what happens if it waits.
• A similar finished job nearby, before and after.
• Your real lead times, if the calendar is filling: “We’re booking installs into next month now, so a deposit this week holds a spot before the holidays.” Only send dates you can hit.
• A complete financing example, if they asked about payments. What you may say, and where, is covered in the financing section below.

Day 14: close the loop

Give the customer an easy answer that does not feel like being chased, and make the last option respectable.

“Hi Karen, Marcus again. I don’t want to keep filling up your phone. Should I keep this estimate open, update it for later in the year, or close it out for now? Any of those is fine.”

“Later” gets a decision-date reminder. “Close it out” gets a thank-you and a lost reason. No reply closes the estimate as lost with “no response” as the reason, so it shows up honestly in the monthly numbers.

Repairs and emergencies run a shorter version

A customer with water on the floor usually decides within a day or two. Run the same day and day 2 touches only, and make the day 2 call the close: ask what would let them decide today. A replacement quote that grows out of a failed repair, such as a new furnace, goes on the full schedule, because that customer is now shopping a large purchase.

When to stop, and the texting rules that apply

This is not legal advice; confirm with counsel.

Stop at a clear no, an opt-out, or word that they signed with someone else, and close the estimate with its reason that day.

The opt-out carries legal weight. Under the FCC’s rule in force today (47 CFR 64.1200), a consumer may revoke consent by any reasonable method. A reply of stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel or unsubscribe is a valid revocation, and other words count if a reasonable person would read them as a request to stop. Revocations must be honored within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days, and a business may not designate an exclusive opt-out method. One confirmation text is allowed if it only confirms, carries no marketing and is the only further message; it is presumed compliant if sent within five minutes. Push every opt-out to every number and tool, including an estimator’s own phone.

The FCC adopted new opt-out rules in FCC 26-67 on September 30, 2026. As of October 3, 2026 they had not been published in the Federal Register, so they are not in force and have no effective date. Even once they are, keep honoring any clear request to stop.

Two habits keep the follow-up itself low risk:

• Keep texts about the estimate they asked for. CTIA’s messaging guidelines call a text informational when the customer gave the number for that purpose, and note that adding a call to action such as a coupon code may make it promotional, which CTIA expects written agreement for. “Sign this week and save” is the kind of call to action that can make it one.
• Mind the hours on automated sends. Florida bars commercial telephone solicitation calls before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. in the called person’s time zone, and more than three calls to a person in 24 hours on the same subject (Fla. Stat. 501.616); Oklahoma and Maryland have similar hour and three-call limits; whether any of the three states’ limits reach texts is untested or unverified. Sending automated follow-ups between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the customer’s time zone, one a day at most, stays inside those three states’ hour and call limits. It is not a national safe window, so have counsel check each state you work in.

Long planning cycles: follow the customer’s calendar

A quiet remodeling customer is often not a lost one. In the 2026 Houzz and Home Renovation Trends Study, homeowners on Houzz who renovated in 2025 reported spending longer planning projects than building them (vendor survey):

Room	Months of planning	Months of construction
Kitchen	9.5	5.8
Primary bathroom	8.4	4.8
Dining room	7.6	4.8
Closet	6.6	4.3
Home office	6.1	3.4

The sample is 10,176 Houzz users who renovated their primary residence, weighted to Houzz users rather than the US, and “planning” runs from the first idea onward, so these figures do not show estimates sitting unanswered. They do show your estimate may arrive months before the decision.

For kitchens, baths and other planned projects, run the 14-day cadence, but make the last touch ask for a date:

“Totally understand it’s a big decision. When do you think you’ll be ready to choose a contractor? I’ll check in then and leave you alone in the meantime.”

Set one reminder for that date and park the estimate in a “decision later” stage, not the lost pile. When the date comes, open with what changed: the price still stands, or a discontinued tile has been swapped and the estimate updated. A weekly “just checking in” for nine months risks getting your number blocked.

Presenting two or three options honestly

Offer two or three real options, mark one as your recommendation, and price each in full. That advice rests on general choice research, not trade data.

• Middle options tend to gain share. Simonson (1989) found that options tend to gain share when they become the compromise alternative in a choice set, and that the effect tends to be stronger when people expect to justify the decision to others, as a homeowner explaining it to a partner does.
• More options can backfire. A meta-analysis by Chernev, Bockenholt and Goodman of 99 observations (N = 7,202) found choice overload from larger assortments is more likely when the decision is difficult, the options are complex, preferences are uncertain or the person wants to minimize effort. Putting off the choice was one of its measures.
• Few contractors do it. Jobber’s 2026 report says only 16% of pros offer tiered good, better, best pricing, and cites unspecified Jobber data showing businesses offering optional line items see upsell rates of 25% to 50%. That is vendor data on add-ons, not a tested effect of tiers on close rates.

To build options that survive the day 2 call: make each one a job you would actually do, never a decoy; say in one line what changes between them (materials, warranty, scope); write your recommendation with its reason (“we’d pick the middle one because the 30-year shingle matches the age of your decking”); and keep add-ons separate so the customer can take the job without them.

Talking about financing within Regulation Z

This is not legal advice; confirm with counsel.

Most homeowners pay with their own money. Among homeowners on Houzz who renovated in 2025, 84% used savings, 34% used credit cards (up 5 points from 2024) and 13% used a secured home loan such as a HELOC (Houzz 2026 study, vendor survey). In the 2023 American Housing Survey, as tabulated by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, 76% of home improvement projects were paid for mainly with cash and only 2% with contractor-arranged financing, but projects paid with contractor-arranged financing averaged $10,600, against $5,000 for savings and $4,000 for credit cards. That is a correlation by payment method, not proof that offering financing wins bigger jobs or more of them.

The rules turn on one question: is this an advertisement?

An individual estimate or one-to-one follow-up is not. Regulation Z’s official comment 2(a)(2) excludes direct personal contacts such as follow-up letters, cost estimates for individual consumers and one-to-one negotiation of a specific transaction. When Karen asks Marcus for the monthly payment on her job, he can walk her through the lender’s numbers.

Websites, flyers, yard signs, social posts and letters sent as part of an organized solicitation are, and a financing promo sent automatically to every open estimate may count too. Under Regulation Z 1026.24, a closed-end credit ad that states a down payment amount or percentage, the number of payments or repayment period, a payment amount, or a finance charge amount must also state the down payment, the repayment terms and the APR, using that term or “APR” and noting if it can increase. Terms stated must actually be available. “No down payment” and a bare APR statement do not trigger it. A representative example is allowed if it includes the down payment (“$0 down” or the real figure) and, where it applies, that the rate may increase. If a flyer cannot carry all of that, say “financing available” and stop.

It applies to you, not only the lender. The official interpretation covers everyone who advertises consumer credit, naming home builders and merchants who are not creditors. The outlet that runs the ad is not liable.

“No interest if paid in full” has its own wording. For open-end credit ads other than home-equity plans, Regulation Z 1026.16(h) requires the deferred interest period to be stated clearly; “if paid in full” must come before the period wherever “no interest” or similar appears, and in written or electronic ads both sit in immediate proximity to each “no interest”, “no payments”, “deferred interest” or “same as cash” statement, never in a footnote. Close to the first such statement, the ad must say interest will be charged from the purchase date if the balance is not paid in full within the period. “No interest” also triggers the 1026.16(b) disclosures. A genuine 0% APR with no interest ever owed is not a deferred-interest offer. Use the lender’s approved copy, and ask whether the product is open-end or closed-end.

Regulation Z covers consumer credit, meaning a finance charge or more than four installments, so an in-house plan of four or fewer interest-free payments is outside it.

Kitchen-table paperwork: the cancellation rules

This is not legal advice; confirm with counsel.

When the customer signs at home, the paperwork decides whether the yes holds. The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule gives buyers until midnight of the third business day to cancel sales of $25 or more made at their home, including when they invited the salesperson, and $130 or more for covered sales made at other locations. For every covered sale:

• Tell the buyer about the right to cancel out loud at the time of sale.
• Give a dated contract or receipt and two copies of a cancellation form, with the seller’s name, address and the transaction date on the notices.
• Never write a waiver of the right into the contract.
• Count Saturday as a business day.
• Do not assign the buyer’s note before midnight of the fifth business day.

The rule does not cover sales completed after negotiations at the seller’s permanent place of business, or repairs and maintenance the buyer asked the seller to come and do. Extra goods or services sold on that visit are covered, so a technician who turns a repair call into a replacement sale needs the paperwork. The emergency exception applies only when the buyer initiated contact and gives a separate dated, signed, handwritten statement describing the emergency and waiving the right. Transactions with a Truth in Lending right of rescission, such as financing secured by the home, are excluded and follow their own rules.

California adds more, per the Contractors State License Board (Business and Professions Code 7159.5, Civil Code 1689.6):

• The down payment on a home improvement or swimming pool contract cannot exceed $1,000 or 10% of the contract price, excluding finance charges, whichever is less, with no exception for special-order materials.
• Seniors 65 and older get until midnight of the fifth business day, rather than the third, to cancel home solicitation contracts, including home improvement contracts signed at home.
• Service and repair contracts under $750 requested on short notice lose the three-day right once signed and work begins.
• Use the state’s statutory notice forms, not the federal text alone.

Log lost reasons and review win rate

Pick a lost reason from a fixed list the day an estimate closes. A free-text box fills with “price” and “ghosted” and tells you nothing. A list that works in practice:

• Chose another contractor on price
• Chose another contractor for another reason (timing, reviews, referral)
• Over budget, no contractor chosen
• Postponed past the decision date
• Doing it themselves
• Financing declined or not wanted
• Scope changed or job no longer needed
• We declined the job
• No response after the full cadence

Weekly, about 20 minutes: sort open estimates by age and give any without an owner or next-touch date both; close everything past day 14 with no reply as “no response”; check which decision-date reminders fall this week and who makes each call; confirm every customer question got a human answer.

Monthly, four numbers: win rate by count and by dollars; the share closed as “no response”, which the cadence exists to shrink; win rate by estimator, where in our experience the gap usually traces to the day 2 call; and the top two lost reasons. If price leads every month, look at how the options are built before cutting prices.

Numbers we left out, and why

Three claims circulate in contractor sales training without enough behind them to plan around: the popular figure for how many follow-ups a sale takes, credited to a sales executives’ association with no study, year or sample anyone has found; a set percentage by which financing supposedly raises close rates, which no independent study supports (the Harvard figure above is a correlation); and a measured lift from good, better, best pricing, which exists only in vendor claims for home services.

Questions about following up on estimates

How soon should I follow up on an estimate?

The same day you send it, with a short message confirming it arrived and restating the problem in the customer’s words. Only 16% of roofing and exterior contractors in ServiceTitan’s 2026 vendor survey said they do.

How many times should I follow up before giving up?

Four touches over 14 days is what we recommend: same day, day 2, day 7 and day 14, then close the estimate or move it to a decision date. Stop sooner at a clear no, an opt-out or news that they hired someone else.

What should I say when a customer goes quiet?

Ask whether to keep the estimate open, update it for later or close it out. Silence becomes a decision without pressure, and “later” becomes a dated reminder instead of a lost job.

Can I put monthly payments on my estimate?

Yes, an individual estimate or one-to-one follow-up can show a customer the payment for their job, because Regulation Z excludes cost estimates for individual consumers from the definition of an advertisement. The same payment on a flyer, website or mass promo triggers the full disclosures. Confirm with counsel.

Does the three-day right to cancel apply to every job?

No. The FTC Cooling-Off Rule covers sales of $25 or more made at the buyer’s home, not repairs the customer called you out for or deals completed at your permanent place of business, though extra work sold on a repair visit is covered. California gives customers 65 and older five business days on home solicitation contracts. Confirm with counsel.

How long do remodeling customers take to decide?

Often months: homeowners on Houzz who renovated in 2025 averaged 9.5 months planning a kitchen and 8.4 months planning a primary bathroom. Planning starts at the first idea, so ask when they expect to decide and follow up then.

Should I offer good, better and best options?

Offer two or three real options with one recommended, but expect no guaranteed lift. Choice research supports a middle option and warns that many complex options make people put off deciding; no independent study measures the effect on close rates in home services.

Sources

Checked on October 3, 2026. Rules and fees change, and many are set state by state or city by city: confirm the current requirements with the agency that issues them before you apply.

• ServiceTitan, 2026 Roofing and Exterior Market Report (press release, vendor survey)
• ServiceTitan, webinar recap: Follow-ups 101 (2026)
• Jobber, The Recent Homebuyer Reality Check (2026, archived copy)
• Jobber, Blue Collar Strong: The 2026 Home Service Trends Report (archived copy)
• Houzz, 2026 U.S. Houzz and Home Renovation Trends Study
• Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America's Housing 2025
• Simonson, Choice Based on Reasons: The Case of Attraction and Compromise Effects (1989)
• Chernev, Bockenholt and Goodman, Choice overload: a conceptual review and meta-analysis (2015)
• CTIA, Messaging Principles and Best Practices (2023)
• 47 CFR 64.1200, FCC telephone and text message rules (Cornell LII)
• FCC 26-67, adopted September 30, 2026 (not yet effective)
• Florida Statutes 501.616 (commercial telephone solicitation hours and limits)
• CFPB, Regulation Z 1026.24 (advertising closed-end credit)
• CFPB, Regulation Z 1026.2 and official comment 2(a)(2) (what counts as an advertisement)
• CFPB, Regulation Z 1026.16 (advertising open-end credit, deferred interest)
• FTC, Buyer's remorse: the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule
• California CSLB, what a home improvement contract must include