Paul, you've gotta understand that not everyone works in Santa Barbara. We've seen the houses you work on, that's not the case for many of us. Sure, your clients can do what they want with their money because they've got a lot of it, it simply doesn't matter how they pay you.

however, if you give the average middle class or upper middle class customer the ability to pay by card, its just another avenue for us to open the door for more work. Yep, I paid $4000 for 150k, and I was happy to do it. Even if I was able to get half of those customers without credit cards it still a good investment.

As far as sales tactics and clients seeing through them....when done properly its simply viewed as conversation.  They have no idea they're being sold, too many people think of sales as something unscrupulous, its not. It's what keeps the world spinning. Being good at your craft doesn't mean you're doing something underhanded.