What to do if you want to advance payment

Occasionally, you find a good contractor you want to work with that doesn’t have the money to get everything they need to start work.

If you absolutely feel you want to pay the contractor something up front, my suggestion is to verify the materials and quantities are really for your project and either:

• Pay for the materials and arrange delivery yourself.
• Limit the advance to some reasonable amount that equates to a small percentage of the overall contract amount.

Remember to deduct the advance payment from the base contract amount; and if you pay suppliers directly, make sure you properly adjust percentage-based overhead and profit contractor fees.