Hello Flower,

been 'secretly' working from home for 6 months now and never ever any of my clients randomly rang my house bell or knocked on my door uninvited. I do have to be careful due to neighbours and so I am limiting myself to two clients a day maybe three the weekends when people are away from the house. Its all about being more careful in general and discriminating since you are working from your home where your belongings and valuables are. I wont work past certain hours to avoid anyone drunk/ abusive/ criminal ( not 100% but reduces the risk greatly ) and always make sure they leave the house in peace.
Also I never give out full address, always let them come to a certain spot where I can see them from window and then navigate them from there. Again by doing this you can avoid nasty people trying to find out where you live only or address collectors.
As to your old clients seeing where you live - if they are decent they shouldn't bother you in any way out of the blue but then again I am London based where everyone's too busy to loiter around one's house

Exactly, if you are for example a white mature English lady working from home it might be better to have only middle aged English men visiting as it will never draw attention as much, and if any neighbour ever raises the question just say it was my 'brother's friend', or it was my ex partner visiting etc. Having different nationalities/ ethnicities and different age groups visiting on a daily can draw attention. So just you must be a little more selective when working from home.

When I first started I was terrified that lads would stalk me or burglar me etc. and to date it never happened. Even when I made a few mistakes and misjudgements at the started and had rather odd people in my place they never dared to return back and harass me. I think these cases are rare although they certainly happen and that's why there is a warning forum here.

also, its worth investing into a good phone, like iphone  because it has the option to block numbers at least. I have about 30 numbers blocked since I started on AW earlier this year because I was pestered by intrusive texts and odd sounding individuals. Also, since you are working from home, if someone doesn't sound good to you on the phone ( never arrange anything solely by texts ), then don't be nasty to them, or tell them where to go, you never know who's on the other end.
My system is that when someone rings and they sound dodgy or 'there is something there vibe', I just say okay so you saying you wanna see me at 4pm right, alright let me just double check my diary and I will text you within 2mins, then text them and say oh so sorry unfortunately I am gonna be busy for the next couple of days, so sorry. they will mostly give up for that moment, afterwards just either save or even better block their number. x

Rosa, I agree with you that 6 months is nothing, however, I used to work for an agency before, on and off from the same place. The key is to have a good firm door, burglar alarm, at least two good locks on door,  also I never tell some of my clients I live in the place when they ask, I just tell them I am borrowing friends flat and have my own studio flat somewhere else so they don't assume there are heaps of cash in the flat. Always keep all the other doors closed in your house/flat during booking, apart from your bedroom and bathroom. I don't keep a lot of things in my bathroom, just the basic so it kind of looks like I don't live there.

The most important thing is to pick clients carefully, for example middle aged married men with professional jobs who are least likely to cause any nuisance. That's why I prefer everyone to email me first and introduce themselves before proceeding to a confirmation phone call. If they call me direct I am double careful and always let them talk a little and ask them about things from my profile, such as what nationality are you? How old are you, is it ok to ask? etc. etc.
 Believe me, you can tell a lot by the way people write, if they are polite enough to write Hello, Good morning, Kind Regards...
 or just are you free?! - don't go there x

Ladies thank you id kept all the numbers in my galaxy ace with call blocker just changed number profile name and look.
id had so many time wasters in phone but now hope clients come by that are ok.
its a good idea not to have too many men visiting.
Got to focus on getting sorted I have security in place and can give road location not door number.
shall start from fri
caroline  x