How a fit-out company wins the ELV line in a villa tender

Every villa tender has one line that fit-out companies price on hope. Joinery you know, and stone you know, but the ELV line, covering the automation, WiFi, cameras, intercom, locks and audio, usually goes out to a supplier and comes back three weeks later with a number you cannot check and a brand you did not choose. Then you either pad it and lose on price, or trim it and absorb the variations. There is a third way, and it starts with pricing the line yourself.

Price it yourself, the same day

Send the floor plans and go through the questions with your client: dimming room by room, which rooms get a screen, where the cameras look and whether the curtains are motorised. The engineered bill comes back in hours, room by room, at MSRP, with your own rate applied inside your Studio account. You know your cost before the tender closes, and you know what each room's choices cost, so when the client asks what happens if the study screen goes, you can answer in the meeting.

Submit a design, not a quote

The client page is yours to present, and it reads as though your own engineer wrote it: what is in each room and why, package prices by room and by system, no part numbers and no brand pitch. Set beside a competitor's PDF carrying a supplier's logo and one large number, a room-by-room design with its reasons is not a comparison the competitor wins.

Your margin, and your client, stay yours

Your rate against MSRP is private. The client sees MSRP, and the difference is your margin on the ELV line, on top of whatever you add for managing it. If your client contacts us directly, we do not serve them around you, because the account that holds the villa owns the relationship. That is simply how we work: a supplier who goes around fit-out companies soon has no fit-out companies left to work with.

Stop the variations before the site starts

Many ELV variations are simply gaps in the first-fix documents: "keypad, majlis" with no height, no back box, no conduit and no cable, and an electrician who puts it where the socket is. Our contractor documents give your site team a schedule of every point, with its location, height, gang, back box, conduit and cable. They show the distribution boards with their spare ways and the rack with its switch sized in watts and ports, and nothing is marked "by others" only to turn out to be yours.

The full contractor and engineer documents open once the job is yours, either on the hardware order or on a design retainer of AED 3,500, including VAT, that is credited back in full. Until then you see two rooms at full depth, so you know exactly what your team will be building from.

We supply, the installer builds, and the boundary is in writing

We do not install. The first fix is done from our documents by the ELV or MEP subcontractor you already rely on, or by an installer from our approved list if you would rather we suggested one. Hardware ships only once the wiring is done and the client's second payment is in, so nothing sits on site waiting to be damaged. We supply the parts, coordinate the delivery and carry the product warranty, while the installer carries the workmanship, and that boundary is written down before anyone starts.

The habit to break

The ELV line gets priced on hope because the trade grew used to a supplier's design desk being the only way to get a number. It is not the only way. The rules that design a villa's ELV are known, software can apply them in hours rather than weeks, and there is no reason for a fit-out company to submit a tender with a line it does not understand.

Open your Studio, or send the plans for the tender you are pricing now and time it against the desk.