First Preston

[Anna Melton]

Hey all,

I am writing to see if any of you have heard/worked for First Preston? I know they do HUDs and Bank owned properties, and I place a bid, but I want to know how user friendly they are and if those types of properties are worth it to do while I am trying to get my business going. If they are, what would you suggest charging for an initial inspection and the others? How long would you take on these?

Any info would be appreciated!

Anna Melton TREC# 10264

[A.D. Miller]

Hey all,

I am writing to see if any of you have heard/worked for First Preston? I know they do HUDs and Bank owned properties, and I place a bid, but I want to know how user friendly they are and if those types of properties are worth it to do while I am trying to get my business going. If they are, what would you suggest charging for an initial inspection and the others? How long would you take on these?

Any info would be appreciated!

Anna Melton TREC# 10264

AM: No personal experience, just a word of advice. Management companies, like insurance companies and lenders are notriously untruthful when dealing with real estate professionals. They are all about making money off of your hard work. Be careful.

[Ted Menelly]

Hey all,

I am writing to see if any of you have heard/worked for First Preston? I know they do HUDs and Bank owned properties, and I place a bid, but I want to know how user friendly they are and if those types of properties are worth it to do while I am trying to get my business going. If they are, what would you suggest charging for an initial inspection and the others? How long would you take on these?

Any info would be appreciated!

Anna Melton TREC# 10264

Don't mind Aaron. Heat got beat up by three young lads that eventually became a Mortgage Lender, another, and Insurance man, and the third, a construction management company owner.

He has vowed to get them all in the end :p

[Nolan Kienitz]

Anna,

Be careful. I agree with Aaron.

HIs tend to be easy marks for the big companies that are 'slow pay' or 'no pay' or whatever.

Current market in starting HI work is extremely tough. Many folks out there selling themselves for $200 an inspection. They will eventually disappear and/or end up in court and thus making payments to someone for a very long time.

Noted on another thread where you had done the Judge Fite C21 and CB banker deals ... That was not an especially great move. It's all about $$ and they got yours for that "special membership". You 'may' get some referrals from it, but I certainly would not hold my breath.

Echoing what others have said ... get your website built and work your buns off to get a good 'organic' listing in the DFW market. It will take time and patience, but it will pay off. Hopefully you can build your own site and tweak it for good SEO and ultimately good visibility. It won't happen overnight.

Biz cards and talk and communicate at every chance you can with "everyone" you see, meet, greet ... that will build your base of referrals "over time". Again ... patience.

We (HIs) all work differently and have different personalities and different things work for each of us. I'm not one of the HIs who can hob-nob with the RE Agents at their meetings and be all things to them to make 'em feel good.

I provide a good, detailed, objective inspection for my client and do my darndest to stay clear of the RE Agents whims. It is tough in our business, but one has to dig in their heels and do the "right" thing on behalf of their clients.

I've had more than one agent say they would ruin me or close me down unless I would "do something" to modify a report or whatever ... Guess what ... I'm still here and my clients love my work. I'm not tacky ... I'm just honest and I can sleep pretty good at night.

Don't hesitate to message privately if you like or give me a call. I don't have any magic ... just straight forward observations.

I'm honored to be part of the "no B.S." school that Aaron is part of.

[Markus Keller]

I would steer clear of those types of companies. They tend to be notorious slow pay. Sometimes you get lucky though, especially the first few check.
I have a Corp. client that I am going to court on soon. They me owe $2110. They aren't refusing to pay or have a problem with the work. As is typical, they just won't commit to when they will pay. The money is already lost just based on the amount of time I've spent so far trying to collect. A lot of guys would have just blown it off by now and THAT is exactly what they hope for.

[Scott Patterson]

We have several good and well established "jobbers" that use home inspectors.

Granite Construction
Digital Draw
Trinity Inspections
Nationwide Inspections
Fidelity Inspections

All have been around for several years and pay on a regular basis. They all have gotten into other types of inspections (other than draws) when the market went South! I would try and contact the above before I worked for an unknown.

[A.D. Miller]

We have several good and well established "jobbers" that use home inspectors.


SP: Just my opinion, but I believe the operative term in your statement is "use".:rolleyes:

[Anna Melton]

Thanks all for the info! I was rather leary of it when I read about it, but I have had several people mention them so I wanted to ask what other inspectors thought! I do not want to jump int:) o anything that would be stupid, and I definitely do not want to deal with having to collect anything!

Thanks for all the info!!!

Anna Melton
TREC# 10264

[Ted Menelly]

I would steer clear of those types of companies. They tend to be notorious slow pay. Sometimes you get lucky though, especially the first few check.
I have a Corp. client that I am going to court on soon. They me owe $2110. They aren't refusing to pay or have a problem with the work. As is typical, they just won't commit to when they will pay. The money is already lost just based on the amount of time I've spent so far trying to collect. A lot of guys would have just blown it off by now and THAT is exactly what they hope for.

Exactly.

Anyone working for any company doing any type of work MUST have it written out more clearly than you could ever try to accomplish as to when the check is mailed or handed to you and anything late can have upwards of 31% put on it. Not that anyone wuld sign it but if you are acting as a private lending institute then you could put about anything on there for a fee for every week it is late.