An Important Decision For Home Inspectors

One of the most important decisions a professional home inspector makes is what type of inspection reporting system to use for his/her inspection business.   The inspection report you choose can have a major impact on whether you succeed or fail in the business. 

 

There are several types of inspection reporting systems on the market today, but basically they fall into two categories, electronic or written. 

 

With an electronic inspection report, the inspector usually delivers a memory stick also commonly referred to as a jump stick or a Internet website and access code.  With the memory stick, all the client's reporting information is stored on the stick and they leave the inspection with this in hand.  Once they have access to a computer, they can use the memory stick to access their inspection report.   When the inspector is using an Internet based inspection report, the client will receive the url address where they can go to enter their personal inspection report code.  This will give them online access to their inspection report.

 

With a written inspection report, like HomeReport, the client leaves the inspection with their full report in hand.  This makes it convenient and easy for home buyers to review their inspector's findings in detail so they can comfortably make their purchase decision within the confines of their purchase contract/agreement.  Not to mention the perceived value added by receiving a substantial physical report. 

 

There are also inspectors who choose different types of written reports or even do their own narrative written report following the inspection.  They write up the inspection report and then make arrangements to deliver it to the client, some 24-72 hours after the inspection.  The problem with not receiving the report at the inspection is that, often, clients must make purchase decisions before they actual have their report.

 

If you are new to the home inspection business, the choice of which way to go with regards to your reporting can be a bit confusing.   One of the main places that inspectors will get referrals is from Realtors because they are the ones working with home buyers on a regular basis.  We recently received some unsolicited feedback from a Realtor about home inspection reporting and we thought it was well worth sharing.

 

"With over 20 years in Real Estate, I have worked with many home inspectors. I have seen many different types of inspection reports but I had to contact you to tell you the reaction HomeReport received. My clients recently hired an inspector who delivered HomeReport to them at the inspection and I have to tell you their reaction to your report was amazing. They appreciated how well put together the inspection report was. They especially appreciated the value added sections on home maintenance, budgeting and even the envelopes in the back for keeping track of all their expenses. My clients were beaming when the inspector reviewed the report with them. I just don’t see this reaction from the inspectors I work with that hand over a jump stick or password to an electronic report. There is something about the value my clients see in your very detailed written reporting system. I will always try to refer inspectors who deliver HomeReport."
Sincerely JoAnne Muegge, RE/MAX Preferred Realty Ltd.

 

We want to close this post by saving again that we know you have a choice with what type of reporting system you use in your inspection business.  We just hope that, before you make a final decision, you check out HomeReport for yourself because we truly believe it's a system that has helped many inspectors build strong inspection businesses right from the start.

Wishing you continued success in all that you do,

Canspec Home Publishing

Get More Exposure For Your Home Inspection Business

Wouldn't it be great if, while on an inspection, you could be marketing your services to all the passers by?  There is a very inexpensive way for you to do exactly that!  

 

Why not consider an inexpensive lawn sign that can be placed on the lawn of the home you are inspecting during your time on the property?  Once you arrive you put up your sign up for all passers by to see and take it down at the end of your inspection.  One place you can get a sign is from a company called Vista Print (www.vistaprint.com).  It's convenient because it's all done online and at a great price. You can chose from dozens of already set designs or upload your own design and/or logo.  Personalizing the sign with your own logo and look is always the best option.  It helps keep it consistent with all your other home inspection marketing materials and reinforces your brand.   When designing your lawn sign, you'll want to ensure you don't over load it with too much information.  It's important that the key information is easy to see from the street.  Your company name, phone number and website are the most critical.  You'd simply say something like "This home is being inspected today by ABC Inspections"  Then add your company name, phone number and website.

 

A lawn sign is a completely reusable form of marketing so once you make the small initial investment into the sign itself you can reuse it over and over and over again.  You just never know how many people could drive by during the course of your inspection that may be in need of an inspection themselves.   Time to implement this idea: a minute to put it up as soon as you arrive onsite and a minute to take it down when you are ready to leave.  So, even the time investment to try this marketing idea is minimal.

 

The other form of onsite marketing that many inspectors already use is advertising on their vehicle.  Your vehicle is parked outside the property you are inspecting for somewhere between 2-3 hrs on average.  Depending on the area, there could be many passers by during this time and having your company name and contact information on your vehicle, just like on a lawn sign, is a great way to market while you work.   However, some inspectors prefer not to advertise on their vehicle.  In some instances, the seller may be trying to keep a low profile and has decided to list their home for sale without placing a sign on the lawn.  In this instance, an inspector with an unmarked vehicle may be perferred.  If you are inspecting a home that does not have a realtor for sale sign, you may want to ask before putting up your own inspection sign.  This is because, it may be one of those times when the seller is trying to keep a low profile.

 

So, what do you think?  Is a lawn sign something you might be willing to try to get more exposure for your home inspection business?  Is a lawn sign something you are already using?  Leave us a comment below, we'd love to hear your feedback.

 

If you are looking for more marketing ideas, why not consider Home Inspection Marketing For Success.  Many inspectors have already used the information in Marketing For Success to create very profitable inspection businesses. 

 

Happy Inspecting, Everyone!

Canspec Home Publishing home of HomeReport, your detailed, client friendly reporting system. www.canspechomepublishing.com

Book More Home Inspections. Have Your Home Inspection Company Stand Out From The Pack!

Our competitor claims almost 80% of inspectors today use an online or electronic type reporting system.  If that's true, that's great news for our home inspector clients!!  The incredible reaction our clients get when they deliver HomeReport™ at the inspection is why over a million dollars in copies have been sold and why clients stay with HomeReport™ year after year!

We've seen a few of our home inspector clients that have left HomeReport™ to go the electronic route and some who have come right back to us!  Those inspectors have told us the main reason they came back was they lost the “WOW” effect HomeReport™ gave them at the home inspection.   These home inspectors also told us that while going the electronic route sounded like it would be the faster reporting route, it actually took more time when they factored in the online work they still needed to do after the inspection!

One of the ways to book more inspections and to grow your home inspection business is to stand out from the crowd.  If it's true 80% aren't delivering a detailed and comprehensive report onsite, one that is more that just a few pages in a flimsy folder, then inspectors that use HomeReport™ already stand out! HomeReport™ clients have no other work to complete when they get home.  When the inspection is over, so is the reporting.   These inspectors also don't leave their clients waiting to hear when their full report is finally ready for download.

Standing out "is" the result you’re after when you are marketing your home inspection services.  If you market the same as other inspectors and do everything the same as 80% of the pack, you can't stand out!  Our HomeReport™ clients make up part of the 20% of inspectors who offer the “Wow” effect at the inspection with a great onsite home inspection report.

It's kind of funny because our competitor must believe that doing the same as the rest of the pack must be a good thing.  If they didn’t believe this, why would they advertise 80% of inspectors do this, therefore, you should too? Reality is, it's doing the opposite of the pack that's going to get you noticed.  It's kind of like stocks, when everyone else is buying, smart investors are selling and when everyone else is selling, smart investors are angling for great buying opportunities.

If you want to book more inspections, take more market share and really see your business rise above the pack of other home inspectors out there, you have to market differently, report differently and deliver differently!   Building a great home inspection business isn't about doing what 80% of inspectors are doing.  It is about standing apart, above the crowd and creating a different experience, one that home buying clients will stand up and take notice of.

On a personal note, after taking a break from the business for a few years to pursue other interests, like trying his hand at house flipping, my husband is retuning to his first love, home inspections.  Well, to be honest, he never really completely took his nose out of the game.  He has and will continue to help support my HomeReport™ clients.  He even set up and continues to act as moderator of our tech talk forum which is an informative and educational resource, exclusive to HomeReport™ users.  This forum helps inspectors connect with other inspectors, get questions answered, offer each other valuable support and industry specific information that is often difficult to obtain on your own.

He'll be stepping out again in the coming weeks after his website is up and marketing material is printed. We are located in a completely different service area than we were when he last built up a single inspector firm to a six inspector firm.  He did that rapidly by taking more and more market share through always delivering the wow effect!  You can be sure he won’t be marketing the same as the other inspectors in this area, nor will he be using an electronic reporting system and handing just a few pages to the clients at the inspection.

There was no thought given towards any other inspection reporting system.  He'll be setting himself apart from the crowd again as he steps out with HomeReport™ from his very first inspection.   I look forward to sharing how it all goes with you as he once again builds an inspection company from scratch.   His last company is still going strong to this day because he sold it to one of the very capable senior inspectors that was on his team.

This time around, He will be in a similar boat to many new home inspectors out there, trying to break into a new service area.  An area where there are already many established home inspectors, most who have been serving this area for many years. 

To ensure he brings the "wow effect", he'll be putting all the marketing tips and suggestions I make in my Home Inspection Marketing For Success CD's to work.  He will implement the strategies on how to successfully market a new inspection company and then continue to market with consistency, just like I teach on the CDs.   This will put him on his way to booking more, and more, inspections and growing a viable home inspection company from scratch.

If you would like to learn more about marketing your home inspection company or wish to check out our report, please visit www.canspechomepublishing.com.   You might even be surprised to see some of the celebrity personalities good marketing can reach :) Wishing you success in all that you do, sincerely Sharon Purtill, owner Canspec Home Publishing.

Marketing Your Inspection Company Through Email

While we're big believers in marketing through direct mail, at least a few times a year, we know marketing by email can also be very effective for home inspectors, if done correctly.  

First things first, every time you market your services to your target audience, the information you send MUST have value.   It's not enough to say "hi, here I am, you should hire us for your inspection needs".  You need to give them something that they find valuable.   Choose a topic that you are knowledgeable in, write a piece about it and send it to your target audience.  Some good examples of topics home inspectors may choose would be:  Pro and Cons of Energy Efficiency, Dating a Home, Insurance Issues, Basement Dampness, Protecting Your Investment, New Home Warranty, Termites, Radon, Thermography, Electrical, Plumbing, Older homes etc. etc. etc.   You get the idea.

You should also include a link to your website and contact information in your marketing piece.

It's helpful to design the piece you write in such a way that your target audience can easily share it with others they feel would benefit.  For example, if you are emailing your piece to Realtors, you should let them know it is ok to share the information with their clients.   This leverages the value of the information you send out and can result in increased referrals.

You'll want the overall look and feel of your piece to be consistent, polished and professional looking with minimal effort on your part.   One of the ways to accomplish this is to use a service that can offer you design templates, help you track your results and easily communicate with as many people as you need to and do it all efficiently.

Here's a link to a company that can help you do this.   The best part is you can try the service for the first month for only $1.00.   This removes the risk and gives you the opportunity to see the features and benefits of the service.       www.marketingforsuccess.aweber.com

Hope you have found this to be useful information you can benefit from.

Your friends at Canspec Home Publishing

Why delivering your inspection report on-site is so important

Many inspectors underestimate the importance of on-site reporting.    The home inspection industry is more and more competitive every year and staying one step ahead of your competitors becomes more and more challenging.  

The real estate game is fast paced!  Inspectors realize this knowing appointments are often scheduled within 48 hours of the taking the booking call.    Home buyers often leave the home inspection call until the last minute after all other important details fall into place, like their financing for example.   Clients don't want to spend money on a home inspection only to find out that their financing fell though so, as a result, usually wait until they can waive the financing clause to book an inspection.   This means there is now little time left to get that inspection done and make a final decision on the purchase of the home.   Any time wasted in getting the client their report is often stressful for all parties.

If you, as an inspector, can deliver your finished report in full at the end of the actual inspection and have your clients leave with report in hand you, your client, the vendors and realtors are put in a much better situation.

First you, when you deliver a report on-site you are done with the inspection at the inspection.   You don't have to worry about when you will be able to get home to finish and upload the report or email the report to the client.   You won't have to stress over the clients' deadline which is fast approaching and ensuring they have all the information they need prior to that deadline.    With on-site reporting, when you are finished your inspections, you are finished.  When you arrive home, your time is your own.  

I can tell you from first hand experience that waiting for an inspector to get home and deliver the report to me, the client, is stressful.    When my husband and I purchased an investment property, we felt it prudent to hire an inspector even though my husband was fully qualified to do the inspection himself.   We felt any problems uncovered by the inspector would be better negotiated if we were not the ones who actually did the report.   The inspection was over at 4:00pm and we had till midnight to make a purchase decision and sign off on the waivers.   At 9:30pm we still had not received our report, we were getting stressed and needed that report to finalize a decision!   At 10:00pm, we called the inspectors office and asked them to please get the report to us.   It finally arrived by email at 10:35pm.  It was forty something pages all in the same type set, no clear headings or big picture page.  It really was near impossible for us to read through it and feel like we were able to make a well educated decision prior to our midnight deadline.   Had we had the report since 4:00pm when the actual home inspection ended, we would have had ample time to properly review the report and even have had time to call the inspector for clarification, if needed.   With the delayed report delivery, neither was possible.    A horrible experience for us, and we know inspections!

The inspector we used was well known, very knowledgable, well respected with years of experience yet given the chance we would never recommend him for the sole reason of his lack of an onsite report.

With a delayed report, there is often not ample time for needed negotiations between the buyer and vendor, making both parties and their agents scramble to get the deal done.  Talk about pressure!

Delivering an on-site inspection report results in happier clients and more referrals from everyone involved.   When you make the decision to always deliver your inspection reports on-site, you set yourself apart from your competitors who underestimate this important service!

Happy Inspecting, Sharon Purtill, Canspec Home Publishing