Hi,

I'm new to the board and would like to ask agents how they feel an inspector could best market his services to the agents. What works, what doesn't, and what are your turnoffs?

I look forward to the discussion in this thread.

Here is what would perk my interest from martketing materials of a Home Inpsector:

Qualifications - present experience, past related experience, education.

Noted as local mls memember or associate member.

Website address where one can find knowledgable articles and testimonials

Make clear of use of technology.

Reports generated on-site

Make clear the different types of inspections done either as standard or special inspections.

$ Discount for a time period or for first time customers. I have used these before from inspectors I did not have knowledge of. The $50 - $100 off of normal inspection charge was very helpful, especially for first-time, cash strapped home buyers.

I am sure others will add more.

Good list. Thanks.

I'll just address the on-site reports.

I think you'll eventually find that all home inspectors who carry E&O insurance (and do you really want a home inspector who does not carry E&O insurance?) will be using 24-hour reports because it is quite obvious in reading the various court cases that the great supermajority of cases involve on-site reports.

With 24-hour reports, one has the opportunity to go back to the office, review materials, look at pictures, and sometimes put 2+2+2+2 together and get 8. Sometimes an individual crack in the foundation or a wall or a ceiling doesn't mean anything in and of itself because the crack was small enough to be considered a "minor" crack. However, back at the office, when noting that there were "minor" cracks in the walls and ceilings in areas close to that minor foundation crack, now the clues could add up to something much more significant.

Additionally, it's very useful to be able to go back to the peace and quiet of the office to analyze things as opposed to people at the inspection "When are you going to be through?" "How much longer?" "Have you found anything yet?" "Can you give me a piggyback ride like my dad does?" "Whatcha doin'?"

I don't do on-site reports because the liability is too great for us as home inspectors, and I carry E&O insurance. When my liability increases, so does that of the Realtor, so I can pretty well assure you that if I get sued, the Realtor and a lot of other people are going to be named in the lawsuit as well. So I do everything I can to not only protect myself, but to protect my Clients and the Realtors who refer them.

Additionally, I'm one of the few home inspectors who actually does CPSC recall research on all the appliance in the home. That comes from personal experience in my own home burning down because of a defective microwave. It doesn't do any good if the home is structurally sound but burns down due to a defective dishwasher, microwave, etc. Doing that research requires me going back to the office to log on to the CPSC web site and, if necessary, the manufacturers' web sites. Ultimately, I might be able to do that on site, but since my cell phone still doesn't work in the mountains (and cell phones have been around since at least 1980 that I know of), I suspect it will still be quite some time before we have WiFi in the mountains.

If there was not a single person at the inspection to bother me while I was doing my job, then I wouldn't have any problem doing an on-site report. Of course, who would I present it to then?

I cannot think of one time where a home inpsector did not generate an on-site report for my clients. It is very important for buyers to review each item on the report and be able to ask questions and if necessary go back to the area on the property for further clarification.

Immediately after the home inpection, my client(s) are comfortable with the inspection items and will instruct me how to proceed with the transaction based on the inpsection results.

I know there are different protocols for different areas of the country, and obviously (hopefully) Minnesota isn't quite as litigious as California. Nevertheless,

Can't they do that anyway, regardless of when they get the report.

Out here no one even wants to go to the home inspection, so when they are there, they sure don't want to stay any longer than absolutely necessary. Quite often they come, take some measurements and pictures, and then leave us on our own, to turn everything off, lock up, etc.

Sometimes I feel like I should be asking for a small percentage of the Realtor's commission for taking care of the property for them.

Good string of comments!

I personally don't mind as a Realtor if the inspector gives an on-site report or not. My desire as the buyer's agent is that the report provides more particular and useful information about the property than I am qualified to provide. Even if I can see a crack the size of the San Andreas fault in the foundation, I prefer to have those subjects treated by a qualified inspector. Otherwise, they are just empty real estate agent promises--and we know how reliable some agents can be! (said very facetiously and with a reminder that I AM an agent)

If the inspector doesn't give an on-site report (which can be convenient, but may become tedious) then what I like to see is a "Return Guarantee." I have found a few inspectors that will schedule and come back for a follow-up visit if something seems amiss or different from the report for a certain period after the initial inspection. I must say, this instills much more confidence in the inspector's abilities and character, especially if no extra fee is required for the follow-up visit!

Hope this helps.

Oh, and to reply to Russel Ray's earlier comment:

I fully agree. In fact, perhaps there should be a little extra charge if the agent isn't present. You can list it as a line item on your invoice: Proxy Realtor: $40 lol I have always felt that if I expect someone to pay me a commission as an agent to oversee a transaction, that I had better darn well be present for every major event during that process. I find it very informative to be present during inspections and appraisals--if anything, just to know what they are looking for so I can offer better advice in the future. And any agent that doesn't attend closings (without a REALLY good excuse...like they died or something) probably shouldn't be hired anyway. Sometimes I think people forget that they are they boss, and the agent is the employee...and employees that don't pull their own weight get canned!

Home inspection pricing is a delicate balancing act. Our fees are substantially lower than appraisers, realtors, lenders and everyone else involved in the real esate process. Our expenses are substantially higher. For example, my insurance is almost 35 times that of an agent.

I have and will occasionally offered discounts for marketing purposes. Once in a while, a particular client will tug at my heart a little more than others and I will offer to cut my price. Most people who buy houses will be living there for many years so almost everyone will be a "first time customer" to me.

All but the filthy rich are cash strapped when buying a home. We cannot offer across the board discounts. Unless you think your client will still hire me if I raise my prices $50-100.

The inspector I used recently offered a discount to the client of any Realtor who would be a first time "customer". The goal then was to do such a good job, that that Realtor would then recommend him to future clients.

That's a common tactic. Unfortunately, the term "good job" is what creates the problems. Is a good job one that doesn't cause many problems for the Realtor, or is a good job one that really documents everything, even the "nitpicky" stuff that would then cause the Realtor not to recommend him to future clients? It's deep water and could require a lot of treading.

I'm continually amazed at the listing agents that I run into occasionally who used to use me when I offered discounts to first time customers, hoping to do such a good job that the Realtor would then recommend me to future clients. Seems I did too good of a job and never got any more referrals from that Realtor. One even told me so to my face a couple of weeks ago: "You were too nitpicky and nearly killed my deal" to which I replied, "Did you ask your Clients if I was too nitpicky?" He smirked, turned around, and walked away. That answered my question. Of course, home inspectors don't kill deals; they just document the condition of the property at the time of the inspection. Agents refusing to address those problems, even with help from the home inspector, sometimes kill deals. And sellers who have refused to take care of their properties, for whatever reason, kill deals, especially if they are not willing to work with the sellers in addressing those problems. And, of course, there are some houses that simply committed suicide.

This is the only industry where home inspectors market to people who do not pay us, hoping that those people will refer their customers to us. When they don't, then many times we have the best home inspectors going out of business due to lack of referrals. My own personal opinion is that we need a federal law similar to what Massachusetts has: Either refer all home inspectors or no home inspectors. Let the Client decide. No Realtors saying, "This is my favorite," "This is who I use all the time," "Here's three brochures, pick one," or "Here's three brochures; the one on top is the one I use all the time." Etc.

Home inspectors need to step up and take control of their industry by marketing to the general public. However, I don't see that happening to any great extent during my lifetime, and I'm only 51 (of course Elvis, John, Jimi, Janis, and others died well before the age of 51. LOL).

Like Russel said, this is a tactic used to introduce the realtor to our services and try to entice him into referring us in the future. What you, as an agent, are failing to understand is that the realtor is rarely our customer.

How about we turn this around just for giggles. I would like to have more business. The realtor that gives out the most referrals for the month or quarter gets a handful of discount coupons to give to future customers. (I can't ethically give you cash) What do you think?

Russell,
Your blanket statement that Home Inspectors do not kill deals is not always true. "nitpicky" is ok when you fully explain your report to the client but when you fail to fully explain your report then "nitpicky" is bad.

I know of one inspector who has a problem with failing to explain what are the future maintainence issues. He put roof will need to be replaced if it gets hit by another bad storm. The roof was less than 5 years old and was a single layer roof. He also said that some of the plumbing should be replaced as it does not conform to current code. The are no leaks in the plumbing in question and it was installed under a different building code. The buyer asked if I would recommend asking the sellers to replace the roof and plumbing. I said no and called and got 2 different roofing contractors and plumbers who all said the roof was fine and they would not recommend replacing the plumbing because it was not leaking. All 4 contractors recommended that the inspector should look for a different job. I suggested the buyers should get another inspection they chose an inspector and I paid for it. The new inspector was a real professional and fully explained the report to the buyers.

I want to add this before your fire back that I should not have disputed the inspectors report. I am also a custom builder/contractor and have a construction background so I am within my area of expertise. Replacing functioning plumbing just because it was installed under a different code is just plain stupid. Needless to say this inspector has been added to my do not recommend list.

Now who's being nitpicky? Unfortunately, there are a few bad home inspectors just like there are a few bad cops and contractors and *shiver* even a few bad real estate agents. We all must do our part to weed them out.

I think you handled that incident very well. You called in experts and helped the client obtain a real inspection. You did what was right for the client. That inspector was not nitpicky, he was wrong and needs to find another career.

Fully agree with that.

The other point is, how often do Realtors and/or their Clients call if they have questions about something, for clarification, for further review, etc. Very, very rarely.