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Lesson 3 of 3

A letter
to your investor.

This page is written to the person funding the build, and it ends in a tool for the person building it. If you are the money, read the next three sections. If you are the builder, hand this page over, then go to the bottom, tick the lines you upgraded, and print the letter that says why.

Build the Letter (615) 792-5156
A corner cutaway of a clad wood window showing the extruded cladding, the wood frame, and the glass unit
What the extra money on a window line buys, in a cutaway you can hold at our counter. Every line in the letter has a sample like this behind it.
To the money

Your builder is asking for more than the lowest number. Here is why.

You have two bids, or a bid and a number in your head, and your builder's is higher. Before you say build it cheaper, it is worth knowing where the difference went, because most of it went to the days after closing.

A house is bid once and paid for by the year. The bid shows what the first day costs. The lowest price and the cheapest house come apart on three other days: the callback in year two that comes out of the project and the schedule, the second job in year ten that is done with the house occupied and at that year's prices, and the closing statement, where a buyer's inspector turns fogged glass, soft trim, and a tired roof into a repair credit. None of those are lines on the bid, and all of them are your money.

The lines your builder upgraded are, almost always, the ones that are expensive to reach later: windows, the roof, siding, doors, the frame, what is in the wall. Those are the lines where the second job costs the most and where an inspector looks first.

The arithmetic

Per year of service, not per unit.

Divide what a line costs installed by the years it will do its job, add what it asks for in upkeep each year, and you have what it costs per year of service. A material that costs a third more and lasts twice as long is cheaper by the year, by a lot. That is the number the bid does not show and the one that decides what the house costs you.

Your builder can run this for every line on the whole-house calculator, with your hold, your callback history, and your cost of money. It is honest in both directions: on a short flip it will often say the cheaper bid is the cheaper house, and the letter below will say so too.

When the builder is gone

What the warranty says.

Two words in every warranty matter to an investor: years and transferable. Years tells you how long the maker stands behind the product and whether the coverage steps down every year. Transferable tells you whether the warranty follows the house to the buyer. A warranty that dies with the first owner is worth nothing at your sale, and a good buyer's agent knows it.

The better spec on most of these lines carries the longer table and the transfer clause. That is a real part of what the extra money buys, and it is the part that shows up on the day you sell.

Everything in this letter can be checked. Every product your builder named is on a sample at our showroom, with the maker's warranty next to it. Bring the other bid; the counter will show you both.

For the Builder

Build the letter.

Tick the lines you upgraded, add names and numbers, and the letter below writes itself. Nothing is sent anywhere. Print it, or save it as a PDF from the print dialog.

Who

The numbers

Leave the numbers blank and the letter argues the lines without them. Run the whole-house calculator and press "carry" to fill them in.

The lines you upgraded

In your own words (optional)

See the letter

The Letter

One page, in the investor's language.

Your name
Re: the bid

To whoever is funding this build,

On this house my bid is above the lowest number you have seen, and I want to show you where the difference went before you decide.

Where the money went

Each line below is a place where the lowest price and the cheapest house come apart.

Tick the lines you upgraded and they will appear here.

The arithmetic

A house is bid once and paid for by the year. Divide what each line costs by the years it will last, add what it asks for in upkeep, and the better spec is usually cheaper per year of service. The numbers for this house are on the worksheet I ran on the whole-house calculator.

When I am gone

Two words in every warranty matter to you: years, and transferable. The better spec on these lines carries the longer warranty table and the clause that lets it follow the house to your buyer. A warranty that dies with the first owner is worth nothing on the day you sell, and a good buyer's agent knows it.

Every claim in this letter comes from the maker's own published literature, and every product I named is on a sample at Midway Supply Co., 119 Cumberland St, Ashland City. Bring the other bid; the counter will show you both. The lessons behind this letter are at midwaysupplycompany.com/products/before-you-buy/.

Your name

Prepared with the Before You Buy tools at midwaysupplycompany.com. The site carries no prices; the numbers in this letter are the builder's own.

Before You Price the House

Know what the house costs, not what the window costs.

Three short reads for the builder who has to answer to the money, and for the money. The whole-house math, how to read a bid, and a letter you can hand to your investor.

Lesson 1 The cost of the house Investors buy houses, not windows. Roll every upgraded line into one number: what the better spec costs on the bid, and what it costs over the years you will hold the house. Your own quotes, your own hold. Read it → Lesson 2 Read the bid the way the money should Four questions for every line on a bid, the two words that decide a warranty, what "or equal" lets a low bid do, and where the cheaper choice is honestly the right one. Read it → Lesson 3 The letter to your investor Written to the money, not the trade. Tick the lines you upgraded, add your numbers, and print a one-page letter that says why the bid is higher and what it saves. You are here

Frequently Asked

The investor letter, answered.

How do I explain to an investor why my bid is higher than the cheapest one?
Line by line, in writing, in their language. Investors think in the house, the hold, and the sale, so show each upgraded line as what it buys over those years: glass that stays clear, a roof that stays on, and a warranty that follows the house to the buyer. Then give the two numbers: what the better spec costs on the bid and what it costs over the hold once upkeep, replacements, and callbacks are counted. The letter on this page does exactly that from your own numbers, and it prints on one page.
Is the letter sent to Midway or to anyone else?
No. It is built in your browser from what you type and what you carried over from the whole-house calculator, and it goes nowhere unless you print it or save it. Midway does not see it. There are no prices on this site and none in the letter except the ones you enter.
What if the numbers say the cheaper spec wins on this house?
Then the letter says so. It is written to be honest, because the builder who tells an investor the truth about a short flip is the builder who gets believed on the house they keep. The lessons on this site are clear that the cheaper choice is sometimes the right one. The letter argues for the better spec only where your own numbers do.
Can the investor check any of this?
All of it. Every claim in the letter comes from the maker's published literature and can be checked on a sample at our showroom in Ashland City. The letter says so and gives the address. Bring the other bid too; the counter will show you both products side by side.

Visit the Showroom

See it set up, in person.

Browse the displays and talk it through with our team, face to face.
119 Cumberland St, Ashland City. Y’all come by.

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