Thank you 👏for such valuable information

Free estimate (IMHO) came out of the fact that Remodeling was born out of the DIY mindset. After WW2, homes we built at an unprecedented rate. Trades people were working track developments and no one was doing remodeling. Repairing your home was something you did yourself. Just as the original owners of the first automobiles did most of there own repairs on their cars. There was not any repair garages originally. Time crunch on working families gave rise to auto repair garages. Americans love of leisure became a new thing. Have my car ready for the weekend so I can hit that new ribbon of asphalt. And as cars became more sophisticated, the tech gap and tools required separated the car owner from the DIY car mechanic. Back to remodeling. Remodeling in the 50's 60's and 70's was fairly easy. You had a buddy who was a carpenter in the union, framing up commercial buildings and was looking to make a few extra bucks, so he studded out your basement. Then the same thing happened... Leisure pursuits and more sophisticated materials and techniques hit the building market. Companies started focusing on the business of remodeling. It (in the grand order of things) is a fairly new industry. I would say less that 60 years old... although I have not done the research. But I do believe this statistic is true...There are roughly 500K remodelers in the US and and less that one fifth of those are full companies having employees greater then 5. It is a fragmented group. So I believe that free estimates came out of the fact that the industry was created as an after thought and that giving your time away was really just going over to your buddies house to look at his basement, and the trend just continued from there. Time to stop the trend. Paid for Planning. @shawnvandyke and some SHINFU....