Do you just pick the bid you like from the company you like or do you try to negotiate a better price?

 

During the bidding process.... it's normal to pick a "favorite". Typically you'd pick the lowest bidder.
The reason for bidding is to make sure that the prices all fall in a similar range. It's protection for you.
You could approach a "favorite" bidder and ask if he could match a certain price.

 

And if the prices don't fall in a similar range, there's a chance to find out why. They might be fleecing you, or there might be a good reason for the difference.

When bids are done on a corporate, government, etc. basis, there's usually a person or group who writes a specification and says, "This is exactly what we want -- how much do you charge to meet our requirements?" For a lot of homeowners, the process is more like, "I need a roof -- how much do you charge?"

The first time I dealt with roofing, the bids were wildly different. When I asked the high bidder why his was so much higher, he looked at the other bids and told me exactly where the differences were. Architectural vs. 3-tab shingle, synthetic underlayment vs. 15# felt underlayment, 50-year vs. 10-year warranty, things like that. It's important to make sure that you're comparing apples to apples with the bid.

That said, I really haven't tried to negotiate down the price of any home contractor work. I hate haggling, yes, but I also look at it like this: I'm getting three bids to make sure the pricing is competitive. If all of them are in the same ballpark, then I assume they're asking a fair market price, and I'm not going to try to work them further down from there. But that's just my opinion.

 

The roof is a very important component of your house. I would choose the roofer with the best reputation for good quality materials and proper installation.

 

I would not pick any roofer simply based on their bid or quote. Too often I have made a surprise inspection during installation to find that they are not putting in the proper number of nails or cutting corners some other way. Once the roof is on even a shoddy job can look good from the ground. I would only consider contractors with a reputation for quality work and standing behind any issues or repairs.

 

I believe I have found good contractors.....I have never negotiated with contractors either, but my husband has decided he wants to negotiate. I don't care for the idea. Bids run from 24k-28k.

I screwed up 4 years ago when I first replaced the roof. I don't want another screw up.