TOPIC: Deposit made for Inspections

That makes sense Will. Price shoppers I suppose you're not going to get to put a deposit down most times anyway, until they call back, right?

I checked into doing holds on the credit cards like hotels and motels do.  We cant do those they said. 

What I have started doing was if they want to pay at closing, I require a hold on a check, or the Realtor holds a check for me, or I get all the credit card info up front and just not run it until closing day.

I have thought about trying a deposit type system but I just don't think it would work in our industry unless we could get everyone to do it.  Heck, if I could do that, I would get em to raise their prices!!!  lol

For me its cash or cheque Visa Master card at thime of inspection.

No exceptions-- only had one bad cheque but it got fixed on the first call.

Short notice cancellations happen sometimes Just the cost of doing bus. IMHO

Cheers

Interesting points here. I see Doms' point, but I can see doug and Wills' points as well. My have to look into this further.

I get at least 2-5 cancellations a month. It is mostly due to the utilities not being on in time. They schedule a week in advance and then call an hour or so before the inspection to cancel.

It upsets me for awhile then I get over it. I raised my prices about 2 weeks ago and I booked 6 in 2 days.

The price shoppers that call I end up either educating them on hiring an inspector and I shop them. If they do not know the address of the house and other pertinent info I do not waste my time.

It would be nice to charge a cancellation fee. I like the idea of using the credit card feature.

So I could obtain the card # when they call. Have like a signed agreement for a cancellation fee.
And they would think twice if they were going to lose 50/100 dollars. My chiropractor charges if you do not call within 24 hours.

So having a 24 hour cancellation fee charged on a credit card. I am going to do it on the next vacant home with utilities not on. I am not spending an hour of my time wasting on printing.phone anymore.

Another problem I thought of is we don't meet most of our clients before the inspection.  So we cant really get them to sign an agreement for a cancellation fee before we meet them! 

How could we work past this problem?