Good point. In my other life, as a police officer, I was taught to anticipate what questions might be asked and answer them in my reports. I still do that with my home inspection reports. However, I encourage my clients to ask as many questions as they can think of, no matter how stupid they sound. Buying a home is one of the biggest purchases they will ever make and poor decisions can haunt them for many years. I have seen a few agents sugarcoat a safety defect, trying to make it appear inconsequential just to make a sale.

My other life, I was a police officer as well and boy do I miss it. I am actually thinking about going back.

Anyways, getting back to this thread. I have a website that allows Home Inspectors the opporutnity to promote their services for FREE. Go to www.RealEstateResourceCenter.com and provide your information. We are only allowing one Home Inspector per city.

Hope this helps to promote your services.

I wish I had a choice. I was medically retired and can't go back. That was the best job I ever had.

Thanks for the offer of a link from your new site. I submitted mine and it looks like I am the only home inspector so far. It did not ask for a city. That is better for me though. I cover a wide area of about ten counties. I live in a rural unincorporated area and would not benefit from being the only inspector in my "city".

hi guys,

moving along... what are some other helpful marketing tips for new inspectors trying to get refferals?

Well, it looks like you will see it in your lifetime. We market to the CONSUMER. They are paying the Fee, they should have the info available to make an informed decision. At HomeVendorsPLUS.com we are marketing Professional Inspection and Consumer Selection. ABSOLUTELY FREE! We are advertising online, home mag's, television. Any inspector who is qualified can list his business FREE, not only that you get to list your services in all the areas you service. We ask that if we send you a paying customer from the site, you must give them a 10% discount on services. Looks like someone is trying to turn the tide! Real Estate Agents and Sellers can display the HomeVendors PLUS "Certified Home" to market their Sale. Maybe we should consider an alternative to directly referring clients and sending them to a site that includes Qualified Professionals from many National Organizations and allow the Consumer the priviledge of determining how, who and where they will spend their money.

Why Buy the Unknown? Look for the Sign of a "Certified Home"

HomeVendors PLUS

There are many companies and home inspectors marketing to the general public; I do it through my Referral Rewards system. Unfortunately, until we educate the general public about home inspections, we're still at the mercy of Realtors and who they refer. If one bought a home every week like one does soap or toothpaste, it would probably be a lot easier. But considering the size and infrequency of the purchase, many people turn to Realtors because they are the perceived experts in all things real estate.

I do believe the Internet will continue to change things, and for the better, too, I might add, but it will be a long, slow process unless some home inspector steps up and builds a Zillow for home inspectors. That's not going to happen anytime soon because the fee for home inspectors is so grossly underpriced. If we commanded 3% like Realtors do, it would be no problem to have someone step up to the plate; I might even do it.

Russell,
I know exactly what you are saying. That is why we include the HomeVendorsPLUS "Certified Home", which is marketed to Real Estate Agents to offer their customers a means to select their Professionals personally (limit their liability as well) based on the information that is provided by the Professional and other National Website Resources. This also entitles the Agent and Seller a Yard Sign to market the home to Prospective Buyers.

If what you mean by a Zillow is that all are included! We are that for the Inspection Industry! We have included everyone (unbiased for the Customer to research) who is licensed and a member of a National Organization in their trade. All are included and in fact contractors are also included so that Consumers and Agents will also be able to locate those professionals as well. I invite you to review! Interested in what you may think of the site.

Today is the Day!

Heather,

I applaud your effort and wish you luck. I reviewed your site and found a few things that concern me. First of all, there is no sign up form for vendors (where you have home inspectors listed).

Second, reading your member agreement, it appears that you are a service like Service Magic which plays "middleman" between the consumer and the vendor. From what I have seen, this does not work very well. I would rather have control of the sale of my services.

Third, why the fax machine requirement? I forward my business line to my cell phone when I am out so I would be forced to pay for a dedicated line just for the fax machine. I would also be forced to buy a fax machine.

Fourth, forcing me to be a member of the board of realtors kind of contradicts your premise. Make me network with realtors in order to remove them from my marketing? Also, there is the cost. I serve 11 counties. The dues for my county board of realtors alone is $400 a year.

Lastly, is the discount demand. On occasion I will offer discounts for various reasons. In fact, I have a standing military discount. Like Russel said, we are grossly underpaid for what we do and the liablity we assume. Across the board discounts are detrimental to our business.

I would love to take realtors completely out of the mix but I have to live in the real world. They will always be there. Your well intentioned directory would cost my business hundreds of dollars a year that I can not afford to lose. I will have to say thank you but no.

Hey, Neil.

Although we consider ourselves Real Estate Professionals, I think for Heather's purposes we are vendors, meaning we would be required to be a member of an appropriate trade association or licensed, etc., depending on local and state requirements for home inspectors.

As I read it, "Real Estate Professional Members" basically means Realtors, so we as home inspectors would not be required to be a member of a local Realtor association.

I stand corrected. On reading it again, I see that. My appologies to Heather.

Neil,
Thank you so much for your response. (BTW) I have also forwarded separate e-mail to you.

First Russell is right, there is no requirement for Vendors to be a member of the Local Board of Realtors. I have corrected the difficulty with locating the sign up by making changes to the site today! (I experienced other who had the same issues with that today)

2nd - I have been reinventing some things after conversing and asking inspectors across the country what would work for their business, so the fax thing doesn't apply right now. I will correct this immediately in the Member Agreement.

3rd - HomeVendorsPLUS is definately not a "middleman" between the Customer and the Vendor. Our Services are automated and driven by the customer. We do not select any Vendor for Customers nor will we direct them to one or another. We will however, locate professionals in their area and add them to our site if need be, still up to the customer to initiate the transaction. The Customer has direct contact with the Vendor that they are ordering from. We are all for you running your own business. We offer a package that would include your services, I'm sure that if not an existing customer of your business the individual would inquire with you prior to ordering our package.

4th - We ask for the discount to the consumer as a means of promoting professional inspections and giving them a means of marketing their investment for the sale of their home. I might add that I have had an agreeable response from many HI's across the country with regard to the 10% discount. I require no fees whatsoever for HomeVendorsPLUS to market your business on the internet. I think that you have already made a substantial investment by having an existing website to provide the Consumer with information about your services. (if noone see it what is your ROI) I might remind you that several directories require a very generous fee just for you to list your services on a yearly basis. Not to mention that they will provide one link to your site and good luck to the Consumer figuring out if you serve their area. Our site is configured specifically for the real estate industry in that if a consumer is looking in any county that you service they will find you, also we allow you to list your all your services. So if someone is looking for Radon Testing and you do that even though you probably are listed only under Home Inspection on any number of other sites, the Consumer will locate you on HomeVendorsPLUS. So with that said, I think it is only fair that if you receive a paying Customer from our site, that you give that customer a 10% discount. Here is another take on that if you advertise your website on HomeVendorsPLUS and God forbid you never get any order from the site, What Have You Lost?

Here is a kicker for you and many other HI's and Contracting Professionals to think about. In many Home Magazines only realtors are allowed to Advertise (my area for one) We provide a means of marketing Homes for Sale and Advertise our site (where you can be found) so that you have more exposure and targeted exposure to Homebuyers and Sellers. Not to mention that we are rolling out advertising for TV and the Advertising that we do Online.

Once again, thanks for the response and comments, there are issues that I will address and I hope that you will reconsider your decision.

Thanks for the apologies!

Hi , This is just my 2cents. I am a Home Inspector in Tx. I work for the person who is buying my service. It is in thier interests that I am commited ,not a realtor , buyer ,seller,or whoever. We have codes to follow and guidelines from TREC. if its bad , or broke you call it.
I believe a little common sense works wonders.

As a Realtor, I would say that one way to market home-inspection services, would be to show agents just what type of work you do. A new inspector in my area (new to the area, not to home inspections) recently came in to introduce himself, and brought in a sample report for me to see. It shows that he is far more thorough than the inspectors we have been using. He gave me a price-list, including any "extras" that might be needed (water test, etc). Yes, he's more expensive than the most used inspector in the area, but his reports are far more detailed, comprehensive, and easier to understand. He offered to do my first client's inspection for free. What I want to see, as an agent, is the truth. If the house has major problems, THAT is what my client's need to know so they can choose whether to continue in the purchase, or to back out. I won't complain about losing a deal, if it was going to be a bad deal... Be nitpicky, as long as you explain (ie:"plumbing not up to current code, but no problems evident"). Getting the report in 1-2 days is fine with me (we have to wait for the appraisal, anyway), just get it to me before the inspection clause in the contract passes- which is MY responsibility to let you know. And let us know, before the inspection, if there's anything you DON'T check (HVAC, roofs, etc) so we can arrange someone else to check those things out and not lose the time of waiting for your report, them find out we need another type of inspection.
I cannot speak for ALL Realtors, but most of us are not the enemy- we all have to work together toward the same goal....
And bring flyers or brochures into the office for me to give my buyers and sellers, or they'll pick up your competitor's info instead.

Very good post zephyr. The above bears repeating as it is too easy to forget. Fortunately, the "enemy" are few and far between. The same applies to home inspectors.

As I no longer sell residential I do not have a dog in this hunt so take these suggestion as you will.

Instead of marketing directly to agents market to the buyers!

Most agents already have 2 or 3 inspectors that are on the top of the inspector list. What are you the inspector going to do differently than the 2-3 that are already on the top of the list. What is the advantage to the agent to put you at the top of the list?

I use to do first-time buyer seminars and first-time SFR investors seminars. On the FTB'er seminars I would invite a HI to participate and give a 20 minute presentation to the buyers on home inspections. They would have a packet of information to give to each potential client. I did these at least once a month. I had 4 inspectors that wanted to take part in these seminars and those 4 were the ones on the top of my list of inspectors. Average attendance was 12-25. Of those that attended and bought from me would always pick the inspector that was at their seminar.

Try marketing WITH some agents instead of to the agent. Split a postcard mailing with an agent or a homes guide ad. The possibilities are endless.