If I shop for a house, I'm going to tell the seller what my budget is before they ask.
I don't want to waste time being shown houses that are way out of my range or so
far below my budget that it's trash.
I will do research of market rates for what I'm looking for and therefore have a reasonable
idea of what I need to spend to get it.
If I want a job done, I'm going to already have a good idea of what it will cost me to get
the quality that I want.
$100 budget = Wordpress install on Hostgator
$5000 budget = Super fast Custom code on fully managed dedicated server at Mojohost.
"How high are you trying to fly?" is a valid question.
If you don't know how high you want to fly then you can't present a clear picture to the seller.
So they have to ask you "Do you want a hang glider, glider plane, helicopter or Learjet?"
Do you know which one, and the market rate for each in your area?
Disclaimer : The $5k budget is mostly code. Mojohost has decent prices.
.