Thread: Anyone market directly to home sellers?

Such as when a new home comes on the market, send a brochure to the potential customer, to let them know the benefits of the seller hiring a home inspector to find all the problems that they could disclose early and possibly fix now, to have a quicker sale, etc.

Or do you guys mostly stick with marketing to the home buyers and real estate agents like you have previously stated?

Andrew

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If a house is already listed, it's really too late for getting a home inspection. It's pretty hard to market to people who haven't yet put their home up for sale; the only real way is to have a good web presence so that when they search for "pre-listing inspections" or something like that, they'll find you.

Do you find that realtors in your area do suggest that the the home sellers do suggest a pre-inspection for the homes that they are trying to sell?

Originally Posted by Andrew Kling

Do you find that realtors in your area do suggest that the the home sellers do suggest a pre-inspection for the homes that they are trying to sell?

Not around here. They don't want to know anything, as they then have to disclose. Besides, most savvy buyers want their own inspection, not the sellers inspection.

I don't think the sellers we meet plan to show the pre-inspection report to potential buyers. The reason we do a pre-listing inspection is to let sellers know what issues a buyer's inspector could turn up, while there is still time to remedy the defect. A common one is toilets loose at the floor. It's a simple fix (usually), but taking care of it BEFORE a buyer's inspector flags it means one less item on their defects list.
Case in point: I did a pre-listing inspection last week and found several small issues (downspout problems, windows that wouldn't open properly, hot/cold reversed in one sink). Mostly it was what we call "deferred maintenance issues" -- no service tags on the HVAC, slow leaks in a few places -- and I told the owner that taking care of these small issues before she put the house on the market this summer would mean a shorter list of problems found by a buyer's inspector, which could translate to an easier sales process.
Edited to add: Besides, if there was a big "show-stopper" issue that would have to be disclosed, the first potential buyer's home inspector would uncover it, and the agent would tell the owner, and then the owner would have to disclose it anyway.

Ok, so they aren't getting the pre-inspection so they can try to hide things then, or would that do you think still happen.

Originally Posted by Andrew Kling

Such as when a new home comes on the market, send a brochure to the potential customer, to let them know the benefits of the seller hiring a home inspector to find all the problems that they could disclose early and possibly fix now, to have a quicker sale, etc.

Or do you guys mostly stick with marketing to the home buyers and real estate agents like you have previously stated?

Andrew

I did when I started out 17 years ago but not the way you are thinking.

I sent out about 2000 or so letters from a MLS list but I was marketing myself for the home they would be buying, not the one they were selling, or so my thinking went.

I did not get one lead.

Leave a nice letter to the home owner with a biz card when you inspect their house for a buyer. Sellers will be buyers.

Pre-listing inspections:
There are a few realtors who deal mostly in listings who will occasionally suggest to their client, the seller, to have a pre-listing inspection done. In that case, the report is left out for the buyers to look through. I sure don't get very many of that type of inspection, but I am good at them. There is no pressure to get er done, so they are easy to schedule. The home owner doesn't need a lot of verbal, they just want that report that says this house is pretty good.

I also sent letters to new listings with the hope of inspecting the home that they were upgrading to.
Spent a lot of money for a year with Zilch as the result.

As for pre-list inspections, I agree that many realtors do not want to know. However, the good ones that have been around for years and want to be around for more years DO WANT TO KNOW. Maybe my area is blessed with some good people.

I think the reason that we (HI's) do so few pre-list inspections is that sellers seem to think their home is perfect..... and they don't want to spend the money.

Originally Posted by Phil Houck

I think the reason that we (HI's) do so few pre-list inspections is that sellers seem to think their home is perfect..... and they don't want to spend the money.

Plus, agents, rightly, tell their sellers that you never know what buyers will ask for and so they might as well wait and see what the buyers ask for.

I leave a nice card explaining to the sellers what I inspected, etc and to date, not one seller has contacted me to inspect the house they are moving to. I think the reason is that listing agents know inspectors that they like and recommend them. (although I get calls from sellers asking me to explain what I found defective in their homes)

Originally Posted by Lon Henderson

Plus, agents, rightly, tell their sellers that you never know what buyers will ask for and so they might as well wait and see what the buyers ask for.

I leave a nice card explaining to the sellers what I inspected, etc and to date, not one seller has contacted me to inspect the house they are moving to. I think the reason is that listing agents know inspectors that they like and recommend them. (although I get calls from sellers asking me to explain what I found defective in their homes)

We've gotten quite a few sellers who have contacted us after we inspected their homes for buyers, and ask us to inspect the house they're moving to. The only thing we leave behind at the home is a tent card that says "Thank you for allowing us to inspect your home" on the kitchen counter.

The only time we tell the seller what we found during an inspection is if it's a life-safety issue (gas leak, broken vent pipe, etc.).

Lon, I get calls from sellers wanting inspections just like the one I did on the house they sold. What could you be doing to pee them off? Oh you're the guy that let the cat out and she got run over.

Originally Posted by John Kogel

Lon, I get calls from sellers wanting inspections just like the one I did on the house they sold. What could you be doing to pee them off? Oh you're the guy that let the cat out and she got run over.

LOL, sheesh, that might be part of the problem.

Actually, after that earlier post, I remembered a seller who booked an inspection with me, because he wanted me to "pick apart the house I'm buying like you picked apart my house." And I just did an inspection where the seller was present. She told me that she was going to call me for her inspection. But I didn't let her dogs get out, so I left a good impression.

And the fireman who responded when the smoke alarm I tested called them. He started out yelling at me for testing it and ended up asking me to inspect the house he was buying because he wanted a guy who checked everything.

To market to sellers, you could use a leave-behind piece or the Move In Certified program.

Originally Posted by Lisa Endza

To market to sellers, you could use a leave-behind piece or the Move In Certified program.

That was appropriate