A quick question for those that hired a contractor to do home renovations...

[Anonymous]

What is the downpayment percentage that the contractor required?

Our contractor is telling us that he wants 50% up front (for us, this is $20K) before any work is done (but after the design phase) so that he can order all the materials. This is essentially the kitchen cabinets and counters, and some tile, and some materials to re-do a small guest bath. A 50% payment seems really high to me. (We will not have a construction loan, this is our liquid cash. Not sure that matters for this question.)

[Anonymous]

In our experience, I think it was a third, then a third, then the last third upon completion.

[Anonymous]

We did a 50% down payment up front, on a $16k job.

[Anonymous]

In md a contractor can't ask for more than 1/3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In our experience, I think it was a third, then a third, then the last third upon completion.

Yes agree, 50% is way too much up front. I would rewrite the contract to be 10% at starting, then equal amounts after certain completion milestones are met.

Make sure the last payment is substantial, like . That will motivate the contractor to finish the job. The money is your only leverage.

Also, if the contractor needs your cash to buy materialz, he may have cash flow issues. Dont be surprised if he doesnt do any work for you after taking your 50% initial payment.

[Anonymous]

We used the same contractor twice. For the bigger job (around $40k), it was 1/3 at a time. For the smaller job (more like $5k) it was 50/50.