Business
Infographic: 8 Types of Clients to Avoid at All Costs
Everyone needs to work for somebody.
Whether you have a direct relationship with the clients that buy your services, or you get passed client feedback through other team members, getting frustrated with a bad client is an almost universal struggle.
Today’s infographic comes to us from GetCRM and it helps to make light of some of these tragic client experiences.
Clients to Avoid
Regardless of your industry or job title, there’s a good chance you can relate to these eight hilarious (but true) archetypes of clients to avoid:
What’s more dreadful?
The client that permanently disappears and never gives an ounce of feedback, or the client that is all over you 24/7 and claims to know your field better than you?
Whether you’re a tech entrepreneur or an investment advisor, it’s likely you’ve had run-ins with at least one of these larger-than-life archetypes.
The Eight Archetypes
According to the infographic, here are the eight archetypes of clients to avoid:
The Design Expert
They think that they have an eye for design, and think that their suggestions are vast improvements on whatever you’ve put together.
The Indecisive Executive
Their feedback could be useful if it didn’t always contradict itself. This client tells you to go one direction, and then to reverse in the exact opposite.
The Confused Commander
Reminiscent of Dilbert’s boss in the famous comic strip, the Confused Commander hires you for something they don’t understand and then provides advice on how to do it.
The Ghost
After dumping a load of work on you, they disappear – never to be seen or heard again. Hopefully they paid upfront.
The Client Who Cried Wolf
Everything is an emergency to this person. Heaven help you if there actually is an urgent problem, because it will likely be sandwiched between 10 other “issues”.
The Feedback Failure
This person has very specific feedback ideas and needs, but utterly fails in communicating them to you. Statements are general, subjective, and open to interpretation – and that doesn’t help move things along, at all.
The Penny Pinching Visionary
The Penny Pinching Visionary has a tiny budget, but massive expectations for your work.
The Workaholic
This person is seemingly awake and connected 24/7, and is wondering why you haven’t responded to their last email.
Markets
Ranked: 15 of the World’s Least Affordable Housing Markets
This map examines middle-income housing market affordability across eight major countries, highlighting some of the least affordable cities.

Ranked: 15 of the World’s Least Affordable Housing Markets
When considering where to live, big cities are attractive to people for a number of reasons, but affordability is usually not one of them.
This map, using data from Demographia, highlights the major cities ranked the worst for housing market affordability on a global basis.
Unaffordable Housing Markets
Demographia’s report looks at middle-income housing affordability in 94 cities in eight countries, many of which are known for having pricy housing markets:
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇳 China (Hong Kong)
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇸🇬 Singapore
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
For the 2023 report, it uses 2022 Q3 prices and income levels for evaluation, dividing the median house price by the gross median household income to find the median multiple for housing.
And for the first time in the history of Demographia’s reporting, not a single of the 94 cities scored below 3.0, the cutoff to be deemed “affordable.” Here’s a closer look at the least affordable markets in 2023:
Rank | City | Housing Median Multiple |
---|---|---|
1 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 18.8 |
2 | 🇦🇺 Sydney | 13.3 |
3 | 🇨🇦 Vancouver | 12.0 |
4 | 🇺🇸 Honolulu | 11.8 |
5 | 🇺🇸 San Jose | 11.5 |
6 | 🇺🇸 Los Angeles | 11.3 |
7 | 🇳🇿 Auckland | 10.8 |
8 | 🇺🇸 San Francisco | 10.7 |
9 | 🇦🇺 Melbourne | 9.9 |
10 | 🇨🇦 Toronto | 9.5 |
11 | 🇺🇸 San Diego | 9.4 |
12 | 🇬🇧 London | 8.7 |
13 | 🇺🇸 Miami | 8.5 |
14 | 🇦🇺 Adelaide | 8.2 |
15 | 🇬🇧 Bournemouth & Dorset | 8.0 |
For well over a decade now, Hong Kong has taken the top spot as the least affordable market globally. The only city to become even less affordable year over year was Los Angeles.
On the flip side, the most affordable city in the U.S. was Pittsburgh, with the median multiple sitting at 3.1. As people start to get priced out of certain markets, they may start to move to these more affordable cities.
Zooming out farther, here are the housing market affordability scores for all eight jurisdictions covered in this report:
Country / Jurisdiction | Housing Median Multiple |
---|---|
🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 18.8 |
🇳🇿 New Zealand | 10.8 |
🇦🇺 Australia | 8.2 |
🇨🇦 Canada | 5.3 |
🇸🇬 Singapore | 5.3 |
🇬🇧 UK | 5.3 |
🇮🇪 Ireland | 5.1 |
🇺🇸 U.S. | 5.0 |
Again, none of these countries are considered affordable, but within each there is a wide range of scores. Hong Kong is significantly less affordable than the second-place New Zealand and third-place Australia.
Scores across Canada, Singapore, the UK, Ireland and the U.S., however, are quite similar.
Better Cities for Housing Market Affordability
While many people flock to big cities, evidenced by the fact that many of the least affordable places are also among the most populous, others are opting to live somewhere more in their price range.
Here’s a glance at some of the most affordable housing markets worldwide:
Rank | City | Housing Median Multiple |
---|---|---|
1 | 🇺🇸 Pittsburgh, PA | 3.1 |
2 | 🇺🇸 Rochester, NY | 3.2 |
3 | 🇺🇸 Cleveland, OH | 3.5 |
3 | 🇺🇸 St. Louis, MO-IL | 3.5 |
5 | 🇺🇸 Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | 3.6 |
5 | 🇺🇸 Oklahoma City, OK | 3.6 |
7 | 🇺🇸 Buffalo, NY | 3.7 |
8 | 🇺🇸 Detroit, MI | 3.8 |
9 | 🇺🇸 Louisville, KY-IN | 3.9 |
9 | 🇺🇸 Tusla, OK | 3.9 |
11 | 🇨🇦 Edmonton, AB | 4.0 |
11 | 🇺🇸 Hartford, CT | 4.0 |
11 | 🇺🇸 Kansas City, MO-KS | 4.0 |
14 | 🇺🇸 Columbus, OH | 4.1 |
14 | 🇺🇸 Grand Rapid, MI | 4.1 |
14 | 🇺🇸 Indianapolis, IN | 4.1 |
14 | 🇺🇸 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI | 4.1 |
14 | 🇺🇸 Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 4.1 |
All of the top 18 most affordable cities covered in the report are located in North America.
While big, global cities will certainly continue to attract talent and residents from all over, the more affordable cities may gain new residents for more practical financial reasons.
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