That $50 deposit rule I set after a client ghosted me on a $600 job

I was freelancing for a real estate agent in Dallas last spring and she begged me to start a website redesign ASAP. I put in 15 hours over two weeks, sent her the draft, and she just stopped replying to texts and emails. Now I don't touch any work over $200 without a 20% deposit upfront, no exceptions. Has anyone else had a client vanish mid project like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

evan_grant704d ago

Is it really that deep though? I mean, sure, getting ghosted on $600 stinks, but plenty of people eat that on a bad night out in Dallas. I've had clients flake on smaller stuff and it just cost me a few hours and some pride. @thomas.river has a point about running checks on people before you take their money, but you can't background check every real estate agent like they're applying for a mortgage. At some point you just gotta decide if the work is worth the risk of the client being a flake.

thomas.river4d agoOG Member

Wait till you can run a background check on their car's credit score before quoting them... should totally work out every time.

oliver_baker494d ago

Nah, you'd just get people lying about their driving history even more than they already do. The real game would be checking their social media for pics of crashed cars before they even walk in.