Hey, Len!

Although we don't do a lot in the way of commercial searches, on the rare occaision that we take on a special project, we try to give a rough estimate of the total cost, and how long we think it will take, of course with the standard disclaimer that we will notify the client if that changes.

As far as payment, I've learned from experience the best way to handle that is to require at least 50% of the estimate up front before we'll touch it. We had a dispute with a client for some tax sale searches we performed, (about $3500.00 worth of work), and I had a hard time collecting (after we had put out expense money for copies, labor, gasoline, etc.)

You may want to consider this approach as well, unless this is a client that you trust implicitly to do the right thing. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Scott

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