But, of course, the builders are wondering if YOU will be around or if their "Deposit" is your going out of business money.
RR,
Thom brings up an interesting point, in these economic times there's fear on both sides that the other party could vanish or misuse the funds. If I didn't know you well, I would have a very tough time giving you $xxxx.oo down. I've seen way to many homeowners get the shaft doing that. All too often the down payment goes to pay some old creditor and is not applied to the current job.
In the old days (60's, 70's) people used "escrow account" for various reasons. I haven't heard that term recently so I did a quick search... here's the partial answer:
An escrow also refers to a writing deposited with someone until the performance of an act or the occurrence of an event specified in that writing. The directions given to the person who accepts delivery of the document are called the escrow agreement and are binding between the person who promises and the person to whom the promise is made. The writing is held in escrow by a third person until the purpose of the underlying agreement is accomplished. When the condition specified in the escrow agreement is performed, the individual holding the writing gives it over to the party entitled to receive it.
Boiling all that down, ask your bank if they can set up an escrow account (if they say no, get a new bank) where you can escrow the down payment the general contractor gives you until a certain phase is completed. You may have to furnish a document for the contractor to sign, to release those funds to verify the event has taken place. On the other hand, you can just set up the account and tell the contractor you will escrow those funds until some agreed upon event takes place and handle the details yourself.
Done properly, this will resolve the fear of them losing their deposit and prevent you from losing jobs for that reason. In fact, if you present this as an advantage, it can land a few more sales because they will feel more secure with you.
Simply say something like ..."as you know, in these times a lot of small businesses are being stressed to the point of going out of business. When you do business with us you can feel really good because we escrow your deposit until x happens, so you know you'll have your cabinets without any worries. Make sense?"
This needs more work to fit your situation, but you can use the concept to take away fear of the general losing his deposit.
