A lot has been written about outsourcing and shared on HN. I think one way that may help you outsource better is to start with a prototype built with the help o

A lot has been written about outsourcing and shared on HN. I think one way that may help you outsource better is to start with a prototype built with the help of someone who is local and available close to you. A wireframe with complete mock up flows of all pages or even better a static html website that mimics all user interaction for the web app you want to build. ( Refer - http://www.svproduct.com/high-fidelity-prototypes/ http://www.svproduct.com/high-fidelity-prototypes/ by Marty Cagan. He was previously VP Product Management at ebay) Of course you will still have to find out a good offshore development team, but you will be making it lot easier for the potential service providers to come up with better cost and time estimates.