After a loss, your carrier issues a settlement based on an Xactimate estimate, and you go collect bids to do the actual repair. The trap: treating the settlement as the budget. It's not a budget — it's an anchor, and the gap between it and the real bids is your out-of-pocket exposure.
RCV vs. ACV
Know which number you're holding. Replacement Cost Value (RCV) is what it costs to replace the damage new; Actual Cash Value (ACV) is RCV minus depreciation, and it's often what's paid up front, with the depreciation released after the work is done. Bidding against ACV when you'll recover RCV can make a perfectly good bid look unaffordable.
Scope alignment is everything
The most important comparison isn't bid-to-bid — it's bid-to-carrier-estimate. If the carrier paid for tear-off, disposal, and code upgrades and a contractor's bid omits them, you're looking at paid-for-but-not-included work: money the carrier released that the contractor plans to pocket or supplement for later. If a bid adds items the carrier didn't approve, that's out-of-pocket unless you can get a supplement approved.
Watch supplement risk
Some contractors bid low, start the job, then re-open the claim mid-project with supplements. That's not always bad — hidden conditions are real — but a bid full of 'pending inspection' language is telling you the final number is a moving target. Favor contractors whose scope matches the carrier estimate and who price firmly.
The number ownership reacts to
Ownership doesn't react to the bid total — they react to out-of-pocket exposure: bid total minus the carrier's net settlement. Frame every recommendation around that figure, and keep it inside a defensible band (many managers hold to roughly 10% over settlement) unless there's a documented reason to exceed it.
BidsScores scores insurance jobs against the carrier estimate specifically — flagging omitted-but-paid scope, supplement risk, and the exact out-of-pocket number you'll defend upstairs.