Service pricing calculator: build a quote from your costs
Enter your own time, job costs, quote-based fees, and target margin. The result is a cost-based quote for the scope you entered.
House sitting pricing calculator
How much to charge for house sitting?
Separate brief drop-in checks from an overnight stay and describe what availability is included.
Three nights with defined property checks and plant care, rather than an undefined all-day obligation.
- Editable example assumptions
- Cost-based, not a market rate
- Before tax
Your assumptions
Editable example inputs. Replace them with your own numbers.
Work and time
Overnight occupancy duties
Plant and property visits
Owner delivery time: 6.00 h
Job costs
Home-care supplies
Goal, fees, and billing
Your quote result
Based on the assumptions you entered, before tax.
Exact minimum target price$272
Suggested rounded quote$275
Operating profit at suggested quote$71
Based on your inputs, not a market rate or after-tax take-home pay.
Cost breakdown
- Owner labor
- $175
- Other labor
- $0
- Direct job costs
- $7
- Travel, equipment, overhead & other fixed costs
- $22
- Total fixed cost
- $204
Show calculation and assumptions
(6.00 delivery + 1 other hours) × $25/h + $0 other labor + $7 direct costs + $22 other fixed costs = $204. $204 ÷ (1 − 0% fees − 25% margin) = $272 after rounding up to the cent.
Cost coverage: $204 ÷ (1 − 0% fees) = $204.
Owner pay is included as labor cost. Quote-based percentage fees are subtracted in the denominator.
Suggested equivalent: $91.6667 per night across 3 nights. Total quote comes first.
Review your assumptions
Compare your own scenarios
Enter and confirm your low and high total owner hours and material costs. These are planning assumptions, not market ranges.
Low scope
Add both values to compare.
Expected: current inputs
$272 exact · $275 suggested
High scope
Add both values to compare.
$
Enter a positive quote to see its profit and margin.
How to scope this house sitting quote
Start with the actual deliverable and billing unit: 3 nights in the editable example. If the customer’s scope differs, change task quantities, hours per item, and billable unit count before relying on the result.
Costs to check
- Overnight occupancy duties: estimate the quantity and the time each one takes.
- Plant and property visits: estimate the quantity and the time each one takes.
- Home-care supplies: enter the amount you expect to pay for this job.
- Include your owner pay, travel, equipment use, overhead, and any helper or subcontractor costs that actually apply.
Worked example
Illustrative inputs, not observed local prices.
6.00 delivery hours + 1 other hours at $25/hour = $175 owner labor. $7 direct job costs, plus $22 other fixed costs, gives $204 fixed cost.
With a 25% target margin and 0% quote-based fees: $204 ÷ 0.75 = $272 exact minimum target price.
Where this estimate can change
If the stay prevents other work, include the committed availability in your own scope and pay target; the example counts active duties, not every hour on site.
The result covers only entered costs and the owner pay target. It is a before-tax operating estimate; it does not establish a local market rate or legal requirements.
Before quoting
Confirm the scope
Does the client expect overnight presence, daytime availability, property checks, plant care, or pet tasks?
When work changes
Revise the estimate
A new duty or stricter availability can change the hours committed even if the number of nights stays the same.
Billing unit
Price the full task first
The example covers 3 nights. Divide the full quote by this count only when it matches what the customer will actually buy.
Source and method
This page uses the QuoteForProfit cost-based formula and explicitly labeled, editable example assumptions. It does not use an external market price table. Method updated 2026-11-06.
Related guides
Billable hours and nonbillable time in service pricing
The hour a customer sees is often only part of the time a job occupies. Count work that enables the deliverable.
Flat rate vs hourly pricing for service work
Both methods start with an estimate of the work. The difference is how the customer sees and accepts time risk.
Margin vs markup for service pricing
Margin measures profit as a share of the selling price. Markup measures profit as a share of cost.
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