Understanding the Bid Fee

BidMyCommunity charges contractors a single, straightforward fee: 2.5% of every payment you collect on an awarded project. There are no setup fees, no monthly subscriptions, no per-bid fees, and no fees on losing bids — you only pay when you get paid.

The TL;DR#

• Free to create your profile and submit bids
• You're charged only as you get paid — the fee comes out of each payment request, not in one chunk at the start
• You connect a Stripe account (one-time setup), and from then on payments flow automatically
• The customer pays the full quote — there's no markup on top of your price
• 2.5% comes out of each payment as you collect it — not as a single charge upfront. Collect a $5K deposit? 2.5% comes off that one. Request $7,500 for a milestone next month? 2.5% comes off that one. Same for every payment until the job is complete

How payments work end-to-end#

You connect Stripe once. After that, for every payment you collect on the project — deposit, each milestone, final — the same flow runs:

1. You request a payment for a deposit, a milestone, or final completion via Payments → Request Payment
2. The property manager / community approves the request
3. Stripe processes the payment — the customer pays the full amount you requested
4. BidMyCommunity's 2.5% is automatically deducted from that payment at processing time
5. The remaining 97.5% lands in your connected bank account via ACH (2–5 business days)

So if a project has 4 payments, this happens 4 times — the 2.5% comes off each one individually as you collect it.

Worked example — a $25,000 project with 4 payments#

Say you win a deck-resurfacing project for $25,000, structured as a deposit + 2 progress milestones + final completion.

Payment 1 — Deposit on signing ($5,000)#

You request $5,000 to cover materials and mobilization.

• You request: $5,000.00
• Community pays: $5,000.00
• BidMyCommunity 2.5% fee (auto-deducted): – $125.00
• You receive in your bank: $4,875.00

Payment 2 — Demo and prep complete ($7,500)#

You request $7,500 for the next milestone.

• You request: $7,500.00
• Community pays: $7,500.00
• BidMyCommunity 2.5% fee (auto-deducted): – $187.50
• You receive in your bank: $7,312.50

Payment 3 — Surface coating complete ($7,500)#

Same math as payment 2.

• You request: $7,500.00
• Community pays: $7,500.00
• BidMyCommunity 2.5% fee (auto-deducted): – $187.50
• You receive in your bank: $7,312.50

Payment 4 — Final completion ($5,000)#

You request the remaining $5,000 after final walk-through and approval.

• You request: $5,000.00
• Community pays: $5,000.00
• BidMyCommunity 2.5% fee (auto-deducted): – $125.00
• You receive in your bank: $4,875.00

Project totals#

• Community paid (sum of all 4 payments): $25,000.00
• Total BidMyCommunity fee: – $625.00
• You received across all payments: $24,375.00

The total fee on a $25,000 project is $625 — same as if you'd taken one lump-sum payment. Splitting into milestones doesn't add anything; it just spreads the deductions out as you collect.

Where the fee shows up in the app#

You'll see the 2.5% in three places:

• Submit Proposal page — the Bid Fee field shows the 2.5% as you type your Project Cost Quote, and the You will receive field shows your expected net at the end of the project (assuming you collect the full quote)
• Payments → Request Payment — each time you request a payment, the page shows the amount you'll receive with the note "After the BidMyCommunity 2.5% fee" so there's no surprise
• Payments → Payment History — historical view of every payment showing what was requested vs what you received

When the fee does NOT apply#

You pay zero fees if:

• Your bid is rejected
• The project gets cancelled before any payment is made
• You never submit a bid

The fee applies to every payment for any project you won through BidMyCommunity.

Stripe ACH fees (separate)#

Stripe charges a small ACH transfer fee for moving the money — currently 0.8%, capped at $5 per payment. This is Stripe's processing fee, not BidMyCommunity's.

You don't pay this fee either. It comes out of BidMyCommunity's margin on the 2.5%, not yours. The "You will receive" amount in the app already accounts for everything — what you see is what lands in your bank.

Practical pricing strategy#

Three common approaches:

1. Don't think about it. Price the job as you normally would. 2.5% is small enough that on most jobs, the time saved finding work through BidMyCommunity vastly outweighs the fee.

2. Bake it in. Add ~2.5% to your normal quote. On a $25K job, that's ~$625 — usually well within your normal bid variance.

3. Adjust on big jobs only. For small jobs (under $5K) just absorb the fee. For larger jobs ($25K+), bump your quote slightly to cover it.

There's no right answer — pick what fits how you price work.

What you DON'T pay for#

To be clear about what's free:

• Creating and editing your company profile — free
• Browsing Projects Search — free
• Submitting unlimited proposals — free
• Asking questions on projects — free
• Booking site visits — free
• In-app messaging — free
• Verification and approval — free
• Account access for your team — free (no per-seat fee)

The 2.5% fee on payments you collect is the entire pricing model.

Comparing to alternatives#

Most lead-generation platforms in this space charge per-lead (you pay whether or not you win), monthly subscriptions, or both — typically 10–30%+ effective rates depending on your win rate. BidMyCommunity charges 2.5% only on what you actually collect, which usually works out to less than half of what comparable platforms cost over the course of a year.

Still have questions?#

If your situation is unusual — international payments, multi-contract projects, large enterprise deals — contact support and we'll walk through the math with you.