Since we sell mostly flat rates, you’d expect this post to trash hourly billing. It won’t. Both models are honest in good hands and ugly in bad ones — the real difference is who carries the risk. Here’s the inside view, so you can price any vendor, including us, with clear eyes.
What does flat-rate pricing really mean?
A flat rate says: this defined job costs this much, no matter how it goes. The vendor absorbs the surprises — the stripped screw, the extra coat, the fitting that fights back. You buy certainty; the vendor prices in their average. That’s why defined jobs suit it so well: a faucet swap (from $129), a fan install, a drywall patch. The failure mode is vague scope: a “flat” price that keeps discovering billable extras mid-job is hourly billing in a trench coat. The protection: price and scope stated before work starts, and any surprise re-quoted for approval before continuing. That’s our standing rule.
When is hourly genuinely better?
When the work is honestly open-ended: a list of small oddities, exploratory fixes, “tighten and tune everything in this house.” Pricing each two-minute task as a flat job would over-charge you; an honest hourly format — ours is the multi-task visit at $99/hr — lets one tech burn down the list efficiently. The failure mode is the unmotivated meter: no estimate, leisurely pace, a mid-job parts safari. The protection: an estimated range up front, a stocked van, and a vendor who volunteers which model is cheaper for your list. (Most real honey-do lists are a hybrid.)
The questions that expose a bad version of either
- “What exactly is included in that price?” — vagueness here is the tell.
- “What happens if it turns out bigger than expected?” — the answer should involve your approval, not their discretion.
- “Do you charge a trip fee, and when is it waived?” — ours is $39, waived with a second task; hidden versions hide in the first hour’s rate.
- “Roughly how long does this usually take?” — anyone who does the work weekly knows. A shrug means the risk is yours.
The bottom line
Flat rates put risk on the vendor; hourly puts it on you and should cost less for it. Good companies offer both, say plainly which suits your job, and put every number in front of you before a tool comes off the van. Anything else is a pricing model doing an impression of one.