11
Old contractor told me 'never take a deposit over 10%' back in 2015
Ignored that advice on a small kitchen reno for a friend-of-a-friend and they vanished after I bought $800 of tile with my own money. Has anyone else learned the hard way that some old school rules exist for a reason?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
miaprice1d ago
It's funny how the old school rules that sound too simple to matter end up being the ones that bite you. I've noticed this pattern with everything from paying for car repairs to hiring movers - when someone asks for a big chunk up front, it's usually because they need it to cover their own problems, not yours. That 10% rule was probably born from someone getting burned back when a handshake meant something, and now we're all just relearning the same lesson. I've started applying it to other stuff too, like never prepaying for a full season of yard work or putting down more than half on custom furniture. Your mileage may vary, but I've found that when people won't work for a small deposit, it's often a red flag they're not planning to finish the job.
4
And you know what's wild, this whole thing with deposits reminds me of the time my uncle hired this guy to paint his house back in 2018. He gave him like 50% upfront because the guy seemed real honest and had a nice truck. Turns out the dude just took the money and used it to buy a used boat off Facebook Marketplace. My uncle was livid and ended up painting the house himself with his buddy over a weekend. So yeah, that 10% rule is basically like a universal shield against people who see your cash as their personal credit card. I swear some folks out there treat deposits like they're winning a lottery ticket instead of doing actual work.
1