Deposits required on residential work?

Mike Hughes

Mike Hughes

Former Board Administrator
Do you require deposits on residential work?

Currently, I do not require a deposit. On house washing, payment is due at time of service......sometimes I'll bill them if they are not home.

Decks, one half is due at time of cleaning, and the other half upon completion (sealing).


Those of you that do require deposits.........do you meet much resisitance?? What % are you getting up front?

Thanks.
 
So far I haven't required a deposit. I weed out the customers that I think I will have collecting payments from. I pick and choose who I do work for. I don't have time for the price shoppers, I give them the name of someone local that buys chemicals from us. This helps them out since they are trying to build their customer base. Besides when he has someone ask about paying with a credit card he tells them to call me so it works both ways.
 
Mike,

We also use 50% down and balance on completion for deck jobs.
(to cover the cost of chems, sealer and any special supplies.)

Have not gotten any resistance up to now, but it's a new policy for us. Might have some problems the more quotes we do.
 
I didnt say 50% down...........i get 50% at time of cleaning, and the rest at sealing. No deposit prior to work at all. I might change that, although overall I'm happy with the way it is.
 
Part of my sales pitch is that I don't charge for the job until it's completed to the customers satisfaction. THat line alone has won me alot of business. It shows the customer that I really do care that the job is done correctly.

Now, if a job requires a large amount of specially mixed stain, I may ask for money down to cover the materials, since I can neither return it, or likely use it on another job. I also tell the customer that once they choose a custom color, if they decide they don't like it, they will still have to pay for the materials. For that reason, I don't get invloved in choosing colors. That is a very subjective area, and everyones taste is different. I will say things like....cedar tone is my most popular color, and this is what I use at home, and it is very nice looking when done,..... but I try to avoid making any choices for them.

Only one time I have been stiffed, and in retrospect I should have seen it coming in advance, but it was back in my early days, and customers were harder to come by. I was just too eager to make the $$ rather than see the big picture. I only hope that today I have become wiser, and would maybe see a scammer before I got burned.
 
One third down with the balance due upon the date of job completion.

Beth
 
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