Articles
Articles
Practical guidance on how service work gets quoted, scheduled, and paid for.
Is 50 Percent Up Front Normal?
Half up front is inside the normal range for residential construction deposits. The number matters less than what the rest of the payments are attached to.
Why Contractors Ask for Money Before They Start
A deposit exists because the job starts costing the contractor money before it produces anything visible. What matters is whether he can say what that specific money buys.
What to Do When a Contractor Takes the Deposit and Stops Answering
Build a written record of every date and payment, send a demand in a form that produces a receipt, and find out what your state says about deposits. The options narrow the longer the gap runs.
How to Ask a Client for a Deposit
A deposit lands when it is attached to something specific and stalls when it is attached to your reputation. Name what the money buys before you name the number.
When a Client Won't Pay a Deposit
A refusal is information about the job, not an obstacle to talk past. One question tells you which kind of refusal it is and whether the job is worth restructuring.
Why the Second Payment Is Harder Than the First
The first payment is agreement. The second requires somebody to decide whether enough got done, and a schedule that never defines enough leaves both people deciding it in the moment.
What Happens to Your Money After You Pay the Contractor
You pay one person and several people get paid out of it. When that chain breaks, people you never hired have worked on your house without being paid for it.
The Deadline Nobody Tells a Subcontractor About
The records that make a payment problem workable get created while the job is still friendly. Look up your state timing on a job you are not worried about.
Deposit or Down Payment: Why the Word Changes the Job
In ordinary use a deposit secures something and a down payment is the first piece of the price. Contracts use them interchangeably, and the argument about refunds starts in that gap.
What a Deposit Receipt Should Actually Say
A receipt that records an amount and a date proves a payment happened. What makes it useful later is the line saying what the money was for and what happens to it.
What a Prepaid Package Owes the Customer
Money collected in spring for work spread across a season is not income in spring. It is a list of visits still owed, and that gap is what breaks providers in the back half of the year.