How FairCost prices are set

1. Where our prices come from

Every category baseline is built from three layers, in this order of priority:

1. First: real submissions from Australians who actually paid.

   People in our community submit what they were quoted, what they paid, and where they live. As of May 2026 we've received over 150 submissions across 23 categories. Submissions are reviewed for legitimacy before they affect any displayed price. Suspicious entries (extreme outliers, duplicates, obvious test data) are excluded.

2. Second: operator quote ranges from licensed AU tradespeople.

   We cross-reference submissions with publicly published rate cards from licensed operators across NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, ACT, TAS, and NT. This catches submission outliers and surfaces the realistic top and bottom of each market.

3. Third: established AU pricing aggregators.

   We sense-check against published cost guides from hipages, ServiceSeeking.com.au, Service.com.au, Yellow Pages, The Quote Yard, and HIA / Master Builders industry data. These are useful as a sanity check, not as a primary source — aggregators inherit each other's errors, and FairCost is built specifically to break that cycle.

2. What “low”, “average”, and “high” mean

These are not vague descriptions. They are statistical percentiles.

Low (25th percentile)

75% of quoted prices for this job are at or above this number. Often achievable with sole operators, off-peak booking, or smaller jobs. Quotes well below this are not a deal — they're a red flag.

Average (median)

The middle quote. Half of submitted prices are above this; half are below. This is what a typical person in this market actually pays.

High (75th percentile)

Only 25% of quotes go above this number. Usually larger operators with admin overhead, premium service, urgent timing, or complex job specs. Not automatically a rip-off — but worth a second quote.

“Likely rip-off” verdict (Rip-Off Check)

Triggered when a quote is more than 40–70% above the high band (varies by category — wider variance categories like plumbing and tree removal need a bigger threshold to avoid false positives). When this fires, we tell you and link to comparable submissions so you can verify.

3. What our prices include (and don't)

GST

All displayed prices include GST unless otherwise noted on the specific job type. Important caveat: sole operators turning under $75,000 AUD per year are not required to register for GST, so their quotes legitimately exclude it and will look ~10% cheaper. This is most common in handyman, lawn mowing, and small-job categories. We flag this on relevant job types so you understand why one quote is lower than another.

Materials

The biggest pricing variable across handyman, electrical, plumbing, and painting jobs. Some quotes bundle materials; others charge them separately at cost-plus markup. Our Quote Check tool asks “Did the quote include materials?” with three options (Yes / No / Not sure). We adjust the comparison band based on your answer — typically ±20–30% — because comparing a labour-only quote to a labour+materials quote without adjustment is misleading.

Call-out fees

Where call-out fees are typical (electricians, plumbers), they're shown separately. Most AU tradespeople charge a flat call-out covering travel + the first 15–30 minutes, then bill hourly after. After-hours and emergency call-outs typically run 50–100% above standard rates.

City adjustments

Sydney metro is our baseline (multiplier 1.00). Other markets are adjusted using a multiplier we publish openly in our codebase. For example, Adelaide tradies typically run ~22% below Sydney, while Canberra runs ~7% below. These multipliers are reviewed quarterly against fresh submission data.

4. How often prices are reviewed

• Submissions: continuously. Every legitimate submission affects the displayed median for its category and city as soon as it's reviewed (typically within 48 hours of submission).
• Category baselines: quarterly. The low/avg/high bands and CITY_ADJ multipliers in our codebase are re-audited every 3 months against the latest operator rate cards. Last full review: 25 May 2026.
• Job types: as needed. When a new category or job type emerges (EV chargers, heat-pump hot water, etc.) we add it as soon as we have a defensible price band — never speculatively.

Every category page shows a “Last reviewed” timestamp and the name of the person who reviewed it. If the timestamp is more than 90 days old, treat the price as indicative and submit your own quote.

5. Editorial independence

This site has commercial features — Featured Provider listings, paid submissions on the API tier, an affiliate rewards layer — that I'm honest about up front. None of them are allowed to influence the displayed prices. Specifically:

• Featured Providers don't affect prices. A tradesperson paying to be featured does not move our published price ranges. Their listing is clearly marked as sponsored.
• No submitter pays. Submitting your quote is free and always will be. We do not accept paid submissions, and we don't weight a submission more heavily based on who submitted it.
• No affiliate distortion. Where we earn referral fees, the recommendation logic does not influence any pricing displayed on category pages.
• MaidForYou disclosure. I (Delah) also own and operate MaidForYou, a Sydney cleaning business. Cleaning prices on FairCost are sanity-checked against my own operational data — but the displayed bands are the AU market median, not MaidForYou's rate card. If MaidForYou prices its services above or below the FairCost median, that's a fair comparison for users to make, and I'd rather you know about the conflict than have me hide it.

The full editorial independence policy spells out the structural protections in detail.

6. Found a wrong price? Tell us.

If you think one of our published prices is wrong, send the evidence — a quote, an invoice, a real-world comparison — and we'll review within 7 days. Either we update the number, or we publish the reasoning for why we're holding firm. Both outcomes get added to our public correction log.