Prototype note. Two levels, not three. What separates them is not effort — it is whether the house gets measured. Listed is a board listing; Shell Tender is a full-house Bill of Quantities plus competitive tendering on the three packages that get the building wind and watertight. All prices are VAT-inclusive and shown with the subscription's minimum term and minimum total next to the price: CMA209 price transparency, and from January 2027 the DMCC subscription regime as well.

Before you start

A working prototype, and our thinking alongside it

Nothing here is connected — no payment is taken, no drawings are uploaded and nothing is saved. It exists so you can see exactly how a tender would run before we build it, and tell us where it is wrong.

The brass panels are our working notes

One sits at the top of every screen. They explain why each screen is built the way it is, what we think is still wrong with it, and where the commercial and legal risks sit. We would rather show you the reasoning than the polish.

Three views, top right

Client view is what a self-builder sees. Partner view is what you would see as a Trusted Partner. SBM admin is our side — fees, collection rates and the things that go wrong.

The comparison screen is the one to look at

Step 7. Three packages, three sets of bidders, three awards — switch between the tabs and award each one to see the totals build.

Best on a laptop

It works on a phone, but the tender comparison tables are much easier to read on a larger screen.

Choose your level

Know what your house costs. Get the shell priced properly.

Put your drawings on the board for £49 a month, or have a quantity surveyor measure the whole house and run a competitive tender on groundworks, frame and glazing — so you get a base cost for the build and a real price for the half of it that matters most.

You do it

Listed

£49/month including VAT · 3-month minimum, then monthly · or £449 a year

Your drawings, published to the Partner Board as they are
Vetted partners browse and request access; you approve
Appears in the weekly partner digest
Stays live and re-runnable while you subscribe
No measure, no pack, no pricing template, no comparison. Prices come back in each builder's own format.

We measure it

Shell Tender

£1,950 including VAT · one-off

The whole house measured — Bill of Quantities to NRM2, by our contracted quantity surveyor. Your base cost for the entire build.
The shell tendered — groundworks & foundations, superstructure, windows & external doors, each out to its own bidders
Fixed pricing template per package — every partner prices the same rows
Sealed returns, normalised side-by-side comparison
Network terms — longer price holds, extended warranties and surveys at no charge, committed by each partner as a condition of membership
Written tender review from your mentor
12 months live

What "shell" means, and what it doesn't

Tendered

Groundworks, drainage and foundations
Superstructure — timber frame, SIPs, ICF or oak frame
Windows and external doors

You end up with a priced, tendered route to a wind and watertight shell.

Measured but not tendered

Roof coverings and envelope completion
Mechanical and electrical
Internal finishes, kitchens, bathrooms

Measured in your BoQ so you can budget and borrow against a real number — and priced by tender in a later stage.

Before you buy — three things we tell everyone

Partners pay us if you pick them

A fixed fee per package, shown on every quote you receive. Banded by package value, not a percentage, so it cannot grow with your build.

You can't reclaim the VAT

The DIY Housebuilders Scheme covers materials and certain services. Professional fees, including ours, are excluded.

We are never party to your build contract

You contract directly with each partner you choose. We run the tender, we do not manage the project.

Pull, not push — and the moment that sells the upgrade. Listed projects go to a board partners browse, never to their inbox; only Shell Tender gets a direct invitation, which is what keeps an invitation worth opening. And look at the returns below: three prices, three formats, three different scopes. The client lives the problem Shell Tender solves, which converts far better than any feature table. The gap from £49 to £1,950 is deliberate in v1 — there is no middle rung, because the Bill of Quantities is not optional.

Entry level · £49 per month · you do the work

Listed

Your drawings, in front of vetted builders, for as long as you keep the project live. We publish and we gate access — we do not measure, we do not build a pack, and we do not normalise what comes back.

How partners see it

Board listing PH2 · Perthshire — new build, 248 m²

Timber frame, larch & render · planning granted 24-01887-FLL · budget £400k–£475k · target start March 2027

Client's own drawings · no measure · no pricing template · 1 of 3 access slots remaining

The completeness gate is automated, not a person. Planning granted or referenced, plans + sections + elevations present, budget range stated. That is what keeps the board worth browsing without costing SBM any labour.

What came back

Partner	Format	Price	Covers
Hartwell Construction	PDF, own template	£462,250	Full build, 16 qualifications
Craigend Homes	Spreadsheet	£401,800	Excludes windows, kitchen, external works
R&J Ballantyne	Letter + rate schedule	£455,000 "circa", subject to survey	Not stated

These three prices are £60,450 apart and you cannot tell why — because each builder priced a different job, on their own template, with their own exclusions. That is what Listed gets you, and we say so before you buy. Upgrade to Shell Tender and the house gets measured once, and every bidder on every package prices the same quantities.

Access log

Partner	Requested	Terms accepted	Drawings released
Hartwell Construction	21 Aug	21 Aug, 14:02	21 Aug, 14:02
Craigend Homes	22 Aug	22 Aug, 09:11	22 Aug, 09:11
R&J Ballantyne	26 Aug	26 Aug, 16:40	26 Aug, 16:40

This table is worth roughly £22,000 a year in the base case. A partner who browsed to a project has a far better "we found them ourselves" argument than one who was invited — so taking the drawings has to mean accepting the fee, the pre-existing-relationship declaration and non-circumvention, at that moment, logged.

On the board · not invited out

Board views34

Access requests3 of 3 slots

Prices returned3

Direct invitations sentNone — Shell Tender only

Key subscription information

What the DMCC subscription regime requires from January 2027 — all together, next to the pay button, more prominent than anything else on the page.

Price£49 per month inc VAT

Annual alternative£449 — saves £139

Minimum term3 months

Minimum total payable£147

After the minimum termRolls monthly

RenewsAutomatically

Exit feeNone

How to cancelOnline, in your account

RemindersEvery 6 months, by email

Cooling off14 days from today

Why this level exists

At £49 it is 13% of base-case revenue and takes 20 months to match one Shell Tender. It earns its place by converting — 20% of Listed clients upgrade in the base case — and by generating success fees on the ones that award straight off the board. The price was set on positioning, not revenue.

The compliance-critical screen. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 there is no bespoke exemption for services — a made-to-order BoQ still carries the 14-day cancellation right. Reg 36(6) means that if the two boxes below are missing, pre-ticked, or bundled into one, the client pays nothing even after the QS has done the work. Reg 31 extends that window to 12 months if disclosure was defective. This is the screen to get a solicitor to sign off.

Checkout

Confirm and pay

Your details

Full name

Email

Site postcode

Card payment

Card number

Expiry / CVC

Processed by Stripe. UK cards 1.5% + 20p. Self Build Mentor never holds money belonging to anyone else.

What you are buying

Two deliverables. A Bill of Quantities measuring your whole house, and a competitive tender on the three shell packages — groundworks and foundations, superstructure, windows and external doors. The rest of the house is measured but not tendered at this stage. That distinction is on this screen, in your confirmation email and in the terms, because anything we say becomes a contractual term.

Your cancellation rights

You have 14 days to cancel this order for any reason and receive a full refund. If you ask us to start within those 14 days and we finish the work, you lose that right on completion. If you cancel part-way through, you pay only for what has been delivered. Our cancellation form and full terms are linked in your confirmation email.

I expressly request that Self Build Mentor begins work within the 14-day cancellation period.
Leave this unticked and we will not start until day 15. I acknowledge that I will lose my right to cancel once the service has been fully performed.
Logged with a timestamp against your account. I understand that the Bill of Quantities covers the whole house, and that competitive tendering at this stage covers the shell packages only.
The single most likely misunderstanding in the product, so it gets its own box rather than a line in the terms. I have read and accept the Client Terms, including the drawings warranty at upload and the fee disclosure below.

All four confirmations are required.

Order summary

Bill of Quantities (NRM2) — whole houseincluded

Shell tender — 3 packagesincluded

Written tender review by a mentorincluded

VAT at 20%included

Total to pay today£1,950.00

There are no further charges to you. Nothing else is added later.

How we are paid by partners

If you select a partner through the portal, that partner pays us a fixed fee. The fee is shown on every quote you receive, before you choose. It is banded per package, on the measured value in your Bill of Quantities — so it is the same number for every bidder on that package, printed in the tender pack, and it cannot move with what anyone bids:

under £60k — £1,250
£60k–£125k — £2,500
£125k–£250k — £4,000
£250k–£500k — £6,000
£500k+ — £8,000

On a shell of this size that is about £5,000 in total, spread across the three winning partners. The fee reflects our work, not your contract value — so it is banded, not a percentage, and it cannot grow with your build. We do not rank, order or filter quotes by anything commercial.

Two risks handled on one screen. Copyright in architectural drawings sits with the architect, not the client who paid for them — and the platform copies, stores and transmits to every bidder, so it is a primary infringer if unlicensed. Hence the warranty, and the architect-consent request. Separately, the automated redaction pass strips metadata and title-block names — it reduces casual leakage but is not an anonymity guarantee, and the copy on this screen deliberately never claims one.

Upload

Your drawings

Drop files here PDF, DWG, DXF · up to 1 GB per project

PDF

1042-PL-01 Site & Location Plan.pdf

4.2 MB · metadata stripped

Clean

PDF

1042-PL-10 Proposed Plans & Sections.pdf

18.7 MB · metadata stripped

Clean

PDF

1042-PL-20 Elevations.pdf

11.4 MB · title block redacted

1 name removed

DWG

1042 Structural Package.dwg

142 MB · file path removed from properties

Metadata cleaned

PDF

SI-2026-118 Ground Investigation Report.pdf

2.4 MB · issued to groundworks bidders only

Package-specific

Your identity is not secret, and we won't pretend otherwise. Your site address has to be on the drawings or no builder can price groundworks or access. That address is searchable on your council's public planning register, which publishes applicant names. What we control is your contact details — we never pass those on. Partners are contractually bound not to approach you outside the portal.

Rights to distribute

I own, or hold a licence sufficient to grant, the right for Self Build Mentor to copy, store and issue these drawings to prospective contractors for the purpose of obtaining tenders for this project. My architect's or designer's fees are paid in full and no suspension notice is in force.

Architect or designer (we'll ask them to confirm consent — one click, one email)

Send a consent request to my architect. Recommended — it removes almost all of the copyright risk for the cost of an email, and most architects want their scheme tendered accurately.

Both warranties are required before we can issue drawings.

Project

Plot 3, Meadow Rise

LocationPerthshire, PH2

TypeNew build, 1½ storey

Floor area248 m²

PlanningGranted 24-01887-FLL

Target startMarch 2027

Budget range£400k–£475k

Every drawing issued is

Watermarked with the receiving partner's name
Marked with the copyright owner and a purpose limitation
Subject to a deletion obligation if the tender is unsuccessful
Download-logged, per partner, with a timestamp

Nine partners, not six

Three packages means three separate bidder sets, so a single project now issues drawings to roughly nine companies rather than six. Every one of them is a separate access log entry, a separate watermark and a separate deletion obligation. The admin load scales with packages, not projects.

This is the actual product, and here is where v1 differs most. One measure of the whole house; three tender packs, one per shell package, each with its own bidder set and its own pricing template. The Bill of Quantities below covers all £460,000 of the build — the client's base cost — while only the three shaded packages go out to bid. Building three packs instead of one is roughly 3 hours of mentor time per project, and it is the bottleneck at volume.

Review your tender pack

Measured. Ready to tender.

Your quantity surveyor has measured the whole house. Check the shell packages and shortlist sizes, then release them.

Bill of Quantities — whole house

NRM2 element	Measured	Tendered now?
Groundworks, drainage & foundations	£52,400	Package 1
Superstructure — frame, roof structure, sheathing	£113,600	Package 2
Windows & external doors	£52,200	Package 3
Roof coverings & rainwater	£34,600	Measured only
External envelope — larch & render	£41,800	Measured only
Internal finishes & joinery	£61,800	Measured only
Mechanical & electrical, ASHP & MVHR	£58,300	Measured only
Kitchen, bathrooms & sanitaryware	£32,400	Measured only
External works & landscaping	£18,900	Measured only
Preliminaries, overheads & contingency	£44,000	Measured only
Whole-house base cost	£460,000

£218,200 of that £460,000 goes out to tender now — 47% of the build. The rest is measured so the client can budget, borrow and hold the remaining trades to a number. It does not get re-measured when those packages are tendered later.

The three shell packages

Package	BoQ value	Bidders matched	Fee band
1 · Groundworks & foundations Regional — the only package that is	£52,400	3 in Tayside	£1,250	Ready
2 · Superstructure Timber frame · quotes UK-wide	£113,600	4 national	£2,500	Ready
3 · Windows & external doors Quotes UK-wide	£52,200	3 national	£1,250	Ready
Wind & watertight shell	£218,200	10 companies	£5,000

Bidders per package More than four on a package and partners stop bidding, because their odds are poor.

Tender return date — all three packages

The fee for each package is fixed here, before anyone bids. It is set by the measured value in the column to the left, printed in that package's tender pack, and it is identical for every bidder on that package. Nobody can move it by shaving their price, and no bidder is penalised for pricing honestly.

Groundworks is the package that can fail. Frame and glazing quote UK-wide; groundworks does not. If a region has fewer than two groundworks bidders the package goes out with the client's own groundworker invited alongside ours, no fee due if they win. That fallback has to be published before launch, not improvised on the day.

Progress

Paid15 Aug 2026 · £1,950
Drawings uploaded & redacted15 Aug 2026
Architect consent received18 Aug 2026 · Kenmore Architecture
Whole-house BoQ issued29 Aug 2026 · 10 working days · QS-signed
Release three packages to tenderAwaiting your confirmation
Tenders return18 Sep 2026
Compare and award, package by package

What this costs SBM

QS — whole-house BoQ£800

Mentor time — three packs~3 hrs

Mentor time — tender review~1 hr

Contribution£796

Net of VAT and card costs. The QS is now on every managed tender rather than 40% of them, so the rate and the SLA matter from the first sale.

Sealed means sealed — including from SBM. Bids are encrypted until the deadline and invisible to Self Build Mentor's own staff, audit-logged, with no editing after close. That is what keeps a multi-bidder platform on the right side of Chapter I of the Competition Act. Telling a bidder "you're a bit high" is the hub-and-spoke conduct that has produced eight-figure CMA fines in construction. With three packages running at once there are three separate seals, and no bidder on one package ever sees another package's returns.

Tenders live

Three packages out to tender

10

Invited across 3 packages

9

Accepted & downloaded

10

Returns received

Invited partners, by package

Partner	Package	Coverage	Status
Tayside Groundworks	1 · Groundworks	Tayside	Return received
Craigend Civils	1 · Groundworks	Fife & Tayside	Return received
Strathmore Plant & Civils	1 · Groundworks	Angus	Return received
Fleming Homes National Trusted Partner	2 · Superstructure	UK-wide	Return received
Tay Timber Systems	2 · Superstructure	UK-wide	Return received
Border Frame Co	2 · Superstructure	UK-wide	Return received
Lochside SIPs	2 · Superstructure	UK-wide	Return received
Glass Worx National Trusted Partner	3 · Windows & doors	UK-wide	Return received
Internorm National Trusted Partner	3 · Windows & doors	UK-wide	Return received
Norrsken Glazing	3 · Windows & doors	UK-wide	Return received

Tenders close in

4

days · Friday 18 Sep, 17:00

Prices stay sealed until the deadline. Nobody — including us — can see a figure before then.

10 of 10 returned

A 100% return rate is a prototype convenience, not a forecast. Bids per package is the number to instrument — below three on any package and it is not a tender, and the honest move is to extend the deadline rather than present two prices as a comparison.

The money screen — and the screen that changed most in v1. One comparison became three, each with its own bidders, its own rows and its own award. The fee line sits on every column, before any selection is made: undisclosed commission inside a quoted price is a misleading omission under the DMCC Act 2024, which the CMA has been actively enforcing since February 2026 with fines up to 10% of turnover. Disclosing it here is also a weapon — nobody else in the market shows their fee at all.

Compare

Ten tenders returned across three packages

Every bidder priced the same measured quantities for their package. Differences below are real differences in price and scope, not differences in how each company chose to present things.

What being in the network is worth

Priced against an independent measure

Your quantity surveyor put a number on this house before anyone bid. Every return below can be read against it, so "cheap" and "expensive" stop being opinions.

Three bidders, not one quote

Competitive tension does most of the work. The spread between the best and worst return on each package is the part you would never have seen by ringing one company.

Network terms, on top of price

Longer price holds, extended warranties, surveys at no charge — each partner commits to these as a condition of network membership. See the Network terms row on every comparison.

What we never do is set anyone's price. Network terms are each partner's own unilateral commitment, given to Self Build Mentor when they join. We do not agree a discount across competing suppliers, we do not tell one bidder what another has quoted, and every price below was arrived at independently and sealed until close. A platform that brokered a common rate between competitors would be running a cartel, and the fines start at 10% of turnover.

How we're paid on this package. The winner pays Self Build Mentor a fixed fee of £1,250, set by the measured value of the package (£52,400) and printed in the tender pack before anyone bid. It is the same for all three, so it cannot influence which is cheapest. Cards are shown lowest price first.

Priced against BoQ

Tayside GroundworksRegional · Tayside

Strathmore Plant & CivilsRegional · Angus

Craigend CivilsRegional · Fife & Tayside

Site set-up, access & welfare

£6,200

£5,900

£7,400

Excavation & disposal

£9,800

£11,200

£8,900

Foundations & substructure

£18,400

£17,900

£19,600

Below-slab drainage

£5,100

£6,300

£5,800

Ground floor slab & insulation

£8,400

£8,800

£9,100

Provisional sum — rock (fixed by BoQ)

£3,000

Tender total

£50,900

£53,100

£53,800

Against BoQ estimate £52,400

−£1,500

+£700

+£1,400

Programme

7 weeks

8 weeks

6 weeks

Earliest start

Mar 2027

Apr 2027

Jun 2027

Qualifications

Priced off the SI report. Rock beyond the provisional sum at daywork rates. Price held 60 days.

Assumes no dewatering. Price held 90 days.

Excludes site fencing. Price held 30 days.

Insurance & accreditation
checked by SBM, Jul 2026

Verified

Network terms
each partner's own commitment to the network

Price held 60 days (30 standard)
Pre-start dig survey at no charge
Deposit capped at 10%

Price held 90 days
Setting-out visit at no charge

Price held 30 days
Standard terms only

Fee this partner pays SBM if you select them

£1,250
2.5%

£1,250
2.4%

£1,250
2.3%

What the mentors recommend

All three are within £2,900 — which is what a properly measured groundworks package should look like, and a useful sanity check that the BoQ is right. The real difference is the start date. Craigend are the fastest on site once there but cannot start until June, and groundworks is the package that sets everything behind it. Tayside start in March and hold their price for 60 days. Watch the rock provisional sum — all three priced it identically because the BoQ fixed it, so if the ground investigation is wrong you will pay the same daywork uplift whoever you pick.

How we're paid on this package. The measured value is £113,600, which sets the fee at £2,500 for every bidder on this package, fixed before bidding opened. Shown on each column before you choose.

Priced against BoQ

Border Frame CoNational · closed panel

Fleming HomesNational Trusted Partner

Tay Timber SystemsNational · open panel

Lochside SIPsNational · SIPs

Kit supply — frame & joists

£66,900

£68,400

£71,200

£74,800

Roof structure & trusses

excluded

£12,500

£11,900

£13,200

Erect & crane

£21,300

£19,700

£18,400

£17,900

Sheathing, membranes & breather

£8,100

£8,800

£9,600

£10,300

Tender total

£96,300

£109,400

£111,100

£116,200

Like-for-like (roof added at BoQ rate £12,800)

£109,100

£109,400

£111,100

£116,200

Against BoQ estimate £113,600

−£4,500

−£4,200

−£2,500

+£2,600

Lead time to delivery

22 weeks

8 weeks

14 weeks

11 weeks

Erect duration

5 weeks

4 weeks

5 weeks

4 weeks

Qualifications

Roof trusses excluded — by others. No warranty offered on the roof/wall interface. Price held 30 days.

Includes own kit. Crane access to the north boundary assumed. Price held 90 days.

Timber subject to fluctuation clause above 5%. Price held 60 days.

Requires revised structural design for SIPs. Price held 45 days.

Insurance & accreditation
checked by SBM, Jul 2026

Verified

Network terms
each partner's own commitment to the network

Price held 30 days
Standard terms only

Price held 90 days
10-year structural warranty (5 standard)
Priority manufacturing slot for portal projects

Price held 60 days
Structural check of the architect's drawings at no charge

Price held 45 days
Design fee waived if awarded

Fee this partner pays SBM if you select them

£2,500
2.6%

£2,500
2.3%

£2,500
2.2%

What the mentors recommend

Border look £13,100 cheaper and are not. They have excluded the roof structure; add it at the BoQ rate and they are £300 under Fleming — inside any margin of error. Then look at lead time: 22 weeks against 8, which pushes your watertight date from July to October and means a winter finish on the envelope. And they will not warrant the roof-to-wall interface, which is exactly where a self-build leaks. This paragraph is the reason someone pays £1,950. A mentor writes it — the software cannot.

The screen that changed the fee rule. An earlier version banded the fee on the winner's own award value. Internorm at £60,900 would have crossed a boundary and paid £2,500 while the other two paid £1,250 — so a bidder pricing £901 lower would have saved £1,250 in fee. Banding on the measured BoQ value instead removes that entirely: one published number per package, fixed before bidding, identical for everyone. Modelled across the base case it is also worth about 3% more revenue, not less, because tenders land under the measure more often than over it.

How we're paid on this package. The measured value is £52,200, which sets the fee at £1,250 for all three bidders — including Internorm, whose price is higher than the measure. Fixed before bidding, shown below, and we do not order or rank these by fee.

Priced against BoQ

Norrsken GlazingNational · aluclad

Glass WorxNational Trusted Partner

InternormNational Trusted Partner

Windows — supply, 18 nr

£29,800

£31,400

£38,900

External doors — 3 nr incl. bifold

£8,700

£9,200

£11,600

Rooflights — 2 nr

£3,900

£4,100

£4,800

Installation & sealing

£4,400

£5,100

£5,600

Tender total

£46,800

£49,800

£60,900

Against BoQ estimate £52,200

−£5,400

−£2,400

+£8,700

Whole-window U-value specified 1.2 W/m²K

1.4

1.2

0.85

Lead time

10 weeks

12 weeks

16 weeks

Qualifications

Alternative profile offered — 1.4 W/m²K. Price held 30 days.

As specified. Survey before manufacture. Price held 60 days.

Passive-certified. Includes structural openings survey. Price held 90 days.

Insurance & accreditation
checked by SBM, Jul 2026

Verified

Network terms
each partner's own commitment to the network

Price held 30 days
Standard terms only

Price held 60 days
Structural openings survey at no charge
10-year seal warranty (5 standard)

Price held 90 days
Openings survey included
10-year installation warranty

Fee this partner pays SBM if you select them

£1,250
2.7%

£1,250
2.5%

£1,250
2.1%

What the mentors recommend

Norrsken are £3,000 cheaper and have quietly substituted a 1.4 W/m²K profile for the 1.2 you specified. Your SAP calculation assumed 1.2. Accept that price and you either fail the as-built assessment or make the difference up elsewhere in the fabric, which costs more than £3,000. Internorm at 0.85 are genuinely better and £11,100 more — a legitimate choice if you are chasing Passive performance, but it is an upgrade, not a like-for-like comparison. Glass Worx priced exactly what was asked for, which is the only one of the three you can compare against the BoQ without adjusting something.

1 · Groundworks

Not yet awarded

2 · Superstructure

Not yet awarded

3 · Windows & doors

Not yet awarded

Shell awarded

—

vs measured

—

Partner fees

—

Award each package to see the totals. You can award them one at a time — you are not obliged to take all three.

Two gates, and only one of them is technical. The client is never contractually barred from contacting a builder directly — a term like that is very likely unfair under CRA 2015 s.62 and unenforceable anyway. All circumvention protection lives in the partner agreement, where it is a freely negotiated B2B term. What v1 adds is three of everything: three selections, three stage-1 payments, three introductions, three chances for one partner to hold the whole thing up.

Awards

Three packages awarded

Your shell

Package	Awarded to	Value	Their fee	Status
1 · Groundworks	Tayside Groundworks	£50,900	£1,250	Awaiting £250
2 · Superstructure	Fleming Homes	£109,400	£2,500	Awaiting £500
3 · Windows & doors	Glass Worx	£49,800	£1,250	Paid — introduced
Wind & watertight		£210,100	£5,000

£8,100 under the measured estimate, and every price is against the same quantities. Your remaining budget for the rest of the house is £241,800 of the £460,000 measured — unchanged, because the BoQ did not need re-measuring.

What the network got you

Measured against	Amount	vs your £210,100	What it is
The independent measure your QS's own valuation of the same work	£218,200	−£8,100 · 3.7%	Evidence the tendered rates beat a properly measured estimate
The average return what you would have paid picking a compliant bid at random	£219,400	−£9,300 · 4.2%	The value of competitive tension itself — three bidders per package, not one quote
Network terms secured not price — each partner's own commitment	—	—	60–90 day price holds instead of 30 · 10-year warranties instead of 5 · openings and dig surveys at no charge · priority manufacturing slot

Two honest caveats, and they belong in the copy. The 3.7% is measured against our own QS's estimate, not against a price you were ever quoted elsewhere — it is evidence the tender worked, not a guaranteed market saving. And the 4.2% assumes you would otherwise have picked at random; a careful self-builder ringing three companies would land somewhere between. Neither number should ever be marketed as "we save you 4%". What we can say without qualification is that you have three comparable prices, an independent measure to read them against, and terms no single client would have negotiated alone.

What happens now

You award each packageDone — no charge to you
Each partner pays their stage-1 fee£250 · £500 · £250 — payable by them, not you
Contact details released, package by packageEach introduction is independent — Glass Worx is already through
You contract directly with eachWe signpost the SBCC Homeowner Contract. We are not a party to any of them.
Balance of each partner's fee falls due£1,000 · £2,000 · £1,000 on contract signature — their obligation, not yours

Three contracts, and nobody co-ordinating them. You are now the principal contractor for a multi-contractor project unless you appoint one. CDM 2015 duties are real and they are yours by default. This screen is the natural place to offer mentoring, and the honest place to say that a wind and watertight shell from three separate trades needs someone sequencing it.

Awaiting two partners

Tayside Groundworks

Iain Tayside · 07700 900318
iain@taysidegw.example

Fleming Homes

David Fleming · 07700 900412
d.fleming@flemingexample.co.uk

Released once each introduction fee clears

The new failure mode

Under one award, a partner who stalls on £750 blocks one introduction. Under three, a partner who stalls on £250 blocks a package the client has already chosen — and the client blames us, not them. The smaller stage-1 fee makes payment easier but the chasing more frequent. Automate the reminder and set a release deadline before launch.

Introduced

You're introduced to all three

All three partners have paid their introduction fee. Contact details have been exchanged and every party has been emailed.

Package	Company	Contact	Value
Groundworks	Tayside Groundworks	Iain Tayside · 07700 900318	£50,900
Superstructure	Fleming Homes	David Fleming · 07700 900412	£109,400
Windows & doors	Glass Worx	Morag Bell · 07700 900525	£49,800

Your sequence to watertight

March 2027 — groundworks start. Walk the ground investigation report with Tayside before they mobilise, particularly the rock provisional sum.
May 2027 — frame delivery. Fleming need 8 weeks' notice and crane access to the north boundary. That access assumption is a qualification in their tender, not a promise in yours.
July 2027 — glazing survey and install. Glass Worx survey the structural openings after the frame is up, not before. Twelve weeks from survey to fit.
Appoint a principal contractor and principal designer in writing. Three contractors on one site is a multi-contractor project. CDM 2015 duties pass to whoever you appoint, or sit with you if you appoint nobody.
Use an SBCC Homeowner Contract for each package. As a residential occupier you have no automatic right to statutory adjudication under s.106 of the Construction Act.

Also unlocked

Your project stays hosted for 12 months, and your Bill of Quantities already measures the rest of the house — roof coverings, envelope, M&E, finishes and kitchen, £241,800 of it. Tendering those is the v2 product, and it does not need re-measuring.

Upsell that writes itself

A client at this exact moment is the warmest possible prospect for mentoring — they have three contracts, a start date and a build to sequence. And they are the first name on the list when v2 opens, because the expensive half of that product has already been paid for.

This screen is the whole commercial argument for the Trusted Partner Network — and v1 changes its shape. Invitations are now per package, matched to what a partner actually does, so a frame manufacturer is never invited to price groundworks. That makes each invitation more relevant and there are more of them. Direct invitations stay pushed; the board stays pulled and carries the £49/month listings.

Partner portal · Fleming Homes · superstructure

Tender invitations

17

Invitations, 12 months

12

Tenders submitted

4

Won via portal

Direct invitations Pushed to you

Shell Tender projects only, matched to your package. A measured Bill of Quantities, a fixed pricing template, and a named invitation. This is what the Tender Access add-on buys.

Project	Package	BoQ value	Fee if won	Closes
PH2 · Perthshire 248 m² new build, 1½ storey · planning granted	Superstructure	£113,600	£2,500	18 Sep
AB39 · Aberdeenshire 190 m² single storey · Passive House target	Superstructure	£96,700	£2,500	25 Sep
EH41 · East Lothian 310 m² two storey · oak frame specified	Superstructure	£142,600	£4,000	2 Oct
DD8 · Angus	Superstructure	£88,400	£2,500	Closed	Not selected

Every one of these is a frame package. Under the previous design you were invited to price whole houses, most of which you would decline. Package-level matching is why invitations went up and decline rate went down.

Partner Board Browse · not pushed

Self-serve listings from clients on the £49/month level. Client's own drawings, no measure, no pricing template. Summarised once a week in your digest — never one email per project.

Project	Est. value	Fee if won	Slots
FK9 · Stirling 165 m² new build · planning granted	£290,000	by package	3 of 3 left
PH2 · Perthshire 248 m² new build · planning granted	£420,000	by package	1 of 3 left
DG1 · Dumfries	£340,000	by package	Full	Closed

Requesting access is not browsing. The same terms as a direct invitation apply at the moment the drawings are released — fee, declaration of any pre-existing relationship, non-circumvention, independent pricing — and the release is logged. On a board listing there is no BoQ, so the fee band is set on what you are actually awarded.

Your membership

National Trusted Partner

£5,000/yr · renews Mar 2027

Tender Access add-on

£1,000/yr · unlimited bidding, priority notification

Fees paid to date

£9,000 on 4 packages worth £389,700

What the partner sees, and what they don't. No client name, no phone, no email. But the site address is on the drawings — it has to be, or nobody can price crane access. So this screen never claims the client is anonymous. The enforceable control is the clause the partner ticks below, not the redaction. Note what is new: they can see the other two packages exist, but not who is bidding on them.

Tender invitation · closes 18 September, 17:00

PH2 · Perthshire — superstructure

Project

TypeNew build, 1½ storey

Floor area248 m²

ConstructionTimber frame, larch & render

PlanningGranted, 24-01887-FLL

Target start on siteMarch 2027

Bill of QuantitiesWhole house, NRM2

Bidders on this package4 maximum

Client statusPlot owned, funds in place

This project has a measured Bill of Quantities for the whole house. You are pricing the same superstructure quantities as every other bidder, so your rates decide the outcome, not your take-off. You can also see where your package sits in the wider build, which is what tells you whether the client can actually afford to proceed.

The other packages on this project

Package	BoQ value	Status
Groundworks & foundations	£52,400	Out to tender — 3 bidders
Superstructure — yours	£113,600	You are invited
Windows & external doors	£52,200	Out to tender — 3 bidders
Remainder of the house	£241,800	Measured, not tendered

You are never told who is bidding on the other packages, or what they have bid. Knowing the shape of the project is commercially useful; knowing the competitors is not yours to have.

Tender pack

ZIP

PH2-MEADOWRISE-P2-Superstructure-revC.zip

96 MB · 8 drawings, superstructure BoQ extract, scope schedule, pricing template, tender rules

Issued to Fleming Homes only. Every sheet is watermarked with your company name. Copyright remains with Kenmore Architecture Ltd. Use is limited to preparing a tender for this package on this site. If your tender is unsuccessful you must delete the pack. Downloads are logged.

Terms of this tender

Success fee — £2,500 fixed. Set by the measured value of this package (£113,600, £60k–£125k band) and printed in your tender pack before bidding opened. It is the same for every bidder here and does not change with what you bid or what you are awarded. Payable only if this client contracts with us for this package: £500 on selection, unlocking the introduction; £2,000 on contract signature. Declaration. I confirm Fleming Homes has no pre-existing relationship with the client or this project, and had not been approached about it before this invitation. Declared now, at bid stage — not later. Non-circumvention, 24 months. If we contract with this client for this package after accessing it here, the fee is payable whether or not the introduction came through the portal. The consequence is the fee that would have been due plus reasonable costs — never more, so it cannot be struck out as a penalty. Independent pricing. This price is arrived at independently. We have not disclosed it to, or received pricing from, any other bidder on this or any other package, and we are not submitting a cover price.

What this costs you

To view and bid£0

If you don't win£0

On selection£500

On contract signature£2,000

Total if won£2,500

2.2% of the measured package value — and it stays £2,500 whether you win at £96,000 or £120,000. VAT on our fee is recoverable by you as input tax, so the net cost is £2,500, not £3,000.

For comparison

Resi — 3–5% of tender value
on £113,600 = £3,400–£5,700

Percentage model at 4%
on £113,600 = £4,544

SBM banded fixed = £2,500

The honest objection

2.2% on a package is a higher percentage than 1.2% on a main contract, and a partner who has seen both will say so. The answer is that the work is the same either way — a measured pack, a matched shortlist and a real client — and the package is what they actually wanted to price. Expect this to be the first thing pushed back on at HBR London.

The fixed pricing template, now per package. Every bidder on the superstructure completes these same rows. This is what produces a comparable return, and it is the single thing that separates this from emailing three suppliers. Qualifications go in a structured field so they surface on the client's comparison rather than hiding in a covering letter — which is exactly how Border Frame's excluded roof gets caught.

Submit tender · closes in 4 days

Price the superstructure

Element	BoQ quantity	Your price
Kit supply — frame & joists	248 m²
Roof structure & trusses	214 m²
Erect & crane	item
Sheathing, membranes & breather	311 m²
Package total		£109,400

You are pricing four rows, not thirty. A package tender takes a fraction of the time a whole-house tender does, which is the practical reason a supplier bids on three of these a month and would bid on one main contract a quarter.

Lead time to delivery (weeks)

Erect duration (weeks)

Qualifications and exclusions — shown to the client on the comparison

Anything excluded from your price A structured field, not free text. This is what surfaces as "excluded" on the client's comparison and triggers the like-for-like adjustment.

How long you spent pricing this Asked deliberately. It is the evidence that the measure earns its price.

Your price is sealed on submission. It cannot be seen by the client, by other bidders, or by Self Build Mentor staff until 17:00 on 18 September, and it cannot be edited after that.

You will never be told

What anyone else has bid, on this package or any other
Whether you are high or low
A range, a benchmark, or a hint

Passing that information between competing bidders is hub-and-spoke conduct under the Competition Act. It carries fines of up to 10% of worldwide turnover and director disqualification. Three concurrent packages means three times the opportunity to slip.

The moment the whole model turns on — and it got easier in v1. The original design asked a builder for £750 to meet a client they had never met. Here it is £500 on a package they have actually won, which is a materially easier ask. The trade is frequency: three stage-1 payments per project instead of one, three chances for someone to sit on it. In the pilot, the number to instrument above all others is what proportion of the £2,000 balance actually arrives.

Result

You've won the superstructure

The client has selected Fleming Homes for the PH2 Perthshire superstructure package at £109,400, delivery 8 weeks from instruction.

Release the introduction

Stage 1 — introduction fee, payable now£500.00

VAT at 20%£100.00

To pay today£600.00

VAT recoverable as input tax. Stage 2 of £2,000 + VAT falls due on contract signature or first payment, whichever is earlier, and is subject to our right of audit.

Card number

Expiry / CVC

Contact details

Sarah & James Mitchell
07700 900118
s.mitchell@example.co.uk

If the client walks away

Stage 2 never falls due — it triggers on contract signature, not selection. The £500 is non-refundable. Decide and publish this policy before launch, because refund arguments are what generate the complaints that attract Trading Standards. With three packages, one client withdrawal now strands three stage-1 payments, from three partners who will all ask the same question.

Introduced

Over to you

Introduction released. Both parties have been emailed. The client has your details and you have theirs.

Sarah & James Mitchell

Phone07700 900118

Emails.mitchell@example.co.uk

SitePlot 3, Meadow Rise, Perthshire PH2 9RT

ArchitectKenmore Architecture Ltd

Groundworker on site fromMarch 2027 · Tayside Groundworks

Outstanding

Stage 2 success fee£2,000 + VAT

TriggerContract signature or first payment

Your reporting obligationWithin 14 days of signature

Right of audit. Self Build Mentor may contact the client to confirm the outcome, and may audit your records for this project. Non-declaration is a breach of the Trusted Partner agreement and grounds for removal from the network.

Your record

Invitations received17

Tenders submitted12

Won4

Win rate33%

Fees paid£9,000

Package value won£389,700

£9,000 of fees on £389,700 of work — 2.3%. Higher than the 1.1% a main-contract model would have shown, and this box is still the renewal conversation. The comparison that matters is not against a main contract, it is against £6,000 of membership for a year, which is the number on the invoice next to it.

The only number that decides whether this works. Just under half of base-case revenue is success fee — self-reported, hard to detect, and paid by the party with every incentive not to pay it. Down from two thirds under the three-tier plan, which is the single best thing v1 did. Collection rate is the metric to instrument from tender one, and to review at 10 awards, not 100.

SBM admin · pilot, weeks 1–14

Tender portal

11

Projects listed

5

Shell Tenders sold · 45% attach

15

Packages tendered

3.4

Avg bids per package

9

Package awards

61%

Fee collection rate

Fees, by package

Project · package	Partner	Award	Fee	Stage 1	Stage 2
PH2 · groundworks	Tayside Groundworks	£50,900	£1,250	Paid	Paid
PH2 · superstructure	Fleming Homes	£109,400	£2,500	Paid	Due on signature
PH2 · windows	Glass Worx	£49,800	£1,250	Paid	Paid
EH41 · superstructure	Border Frame Co	£142,600	£4,000	Paid	Paid
EH41 · windows	Internorm	£78,400	£2,500	Paid	Paid
AB39 · groundworks	Craigend Civils	£41,200	£1,250	Paid	Paid
AB39 · superstructure	Fleming Homes	£96,700	£2,500	Paid	Due on signature
KY16 · groundworks	Strathmore Plant & Civils	£58,300	£1,250	Paid	Client withdrew
IV2 · superstructure	—	£118,000	£2,500	Circumvention flag	Under audit
9 awards		£745,300	£19,000

IV2 Highland. Client did not select through the portal and told us they had "already been talking to" a bidder. The bidder declared no pre-existing relationship at bid stage. Audit under way. This is the failure mode to expect, and one in nine is roughly what the base case assumes.

KY16 is the more interesting failure. The client withdrew after awarding groundworks, so no stage 2 was correctly due — but the partner had already paid £250 and mobilised a survey. Under the old design that was one aggrieved partner per lost project. Under v1 it can be three.

Revenue, pilot to date

Listed subscriptions (11)£1,550

Shell Tenders (5)£8,125

less QS cost (5 × £800)−£4,000

Success fees collected£11,500

Contribution£17,175

Ex VAT, before platform and card costs. Success fee = 54% of revenue at pilot scale, against 47% at base-case volume once Listed builds. Denominator excludes the withdrawn project, where no fee was correctly due.

Instrument these from day one

Bids per package (below 3 = not a tender)
Groundworks bidder cover, by region — the one package that can fail
Listed → Shell Tender upgrade rate
QS turnaround against SLA
Days from release to award
Stage 2 collection rate
Cover-price watch (membership rewards token bids)

Resolved — the fee band rule

Bands are set on the measured BoQ value of the package, not the awarded value. One published number per package, fixed in the tender pack before bidding, identical for every bidder. There is no boundary to shave against.

On awarded value£116,730 / 58 awards

On measured value£120,275 / 58 awards

Effect+£3,545 · +3.0%

It gains rather than costs, because tendered prices land under the measure more often than over it, so the measured band is the higher one about three times as often. Board listings are the exception — no BoQ exists, so those stay banded on awarded value.