Thread: Phone has been Ringing

The last couple of days, the phones are ringing again. I've booked up all this week and a few into next week.

I've also had a few calls from mortgage companies wanting a third party inspector to look at some things that appraiser's have called out on some refinance loans. Easy money right there to be made.

Sitting here at this inspection waiting for this agent to show up to let me into this palace. 25min. late already.
Go figure.

rick

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Rick

Not for nothing but the first week of the month was DEAD. Last two weeks at least one a day and a couple for next week, hope it holds up.

Not for nothing I am here in south Florida Nov and Dec it started to pick up but after new years it has been dead. What is your secret. Will take any ideas on how to generate business.

Still fairly slow here in Oregon. I still get startled everytime the phone rings. I'm downright amazed when it's somebody scheduling an inspection. Usually, it's a guy with a great new plan for my long distance.

I'm not expecting any miracles but it should pick up a bit just becasue we're heading into spring.

Slowness here in Mass as well. Insurance inspections (interior anyway) have all but dried up. The lower fee exterior jobs are fair in amount but, I couldn't make a living doing them. Actually considering going back to a 2nd job to make a weekly paycheck. Too bad as I started doing inspections to get myself out of that rut.

That's great but my question is......

You are sitting there posting on the road?

Are you mooching a wifi signal or do you have mobile internet access?

You wanta hear about slow? So slow I even considered a site with Service Magic in spite of all the horror stories. Then I woke up.

In reality have had three jobs and another scheduled for this coming Thursday. A near two hundred mile round trip but is for one of my more aggressive brokers.

Hang tough all of you.

Looks like we will have over 30 for this month, which is good for Jan. I think your location is going to play a big part. In my area we have Oklahoma University and Tinker AFB, so there are always people buying homes for their kids while at college and air force people moving in and out. has helped us be more recession proof. Also the prices of homes here never skyrocketed out of control like other areas, so there is still value and the lower interest rates are bringing some buyers into the market. We did have the worst fall since I have been in biz (7 years). But who knows, you can't really predict what is going to happen right now. Just keep doing what you can to garner work and improve your services. Or get another job, which is what many of us have had to do. I haven't yet, but was getting close in Dec.

Home Rite Home Inspector, York, Pa - Real Estate Inspection in PA and Maryland

I have had an increase of 12% this January from the last. I know it's rough for many of you, but the worm will turn as it always does.

Well, I don't track percentages but the phone has been ringing more with folks asking questions and pricing information. I have an inspection everyday this week and two weeks ago I had zip.

So I would say that folks are starting to look and buy if they have the down payment and good credit. Also every single job this week is on a home over $400,000. The lower price homes are the ones that are not selling in my area.

A word of advice; Don't get lured into paying for listings on sites like Service Magic or the likes. Put you money into building a good website and having good business cards printed. Whenever you can, hand a business card to anyone that will take it. This is what will get you business over time. Work you own contacts of friends and neighbors. Word of mouth is the best advertising you can get. Join a local group like the Rotary, Elks, etc., network with them and you will see an increase of referrals.

Originally Posted by Frank Bombardiere

Looks like we will have over 30 for this month, which is good for Jan. I think your location is going to play a big part. In my area we have Oklahoma University and Tinker AFB, so there are always people buying homes for their kids while at college and air force people moving in and out. has helped us be more recession proof. Also the prices of homes here never skyrocketed out of control like other areas, so there is still value and the lower interest rates are bringing some buyers into the market. We did have the worst fall since I have been in biz (7 years). But who knows, you can't really predict what is going to happen right now. Just keep doing what you can to garner work and improve your services. Or get another job, which is what many of us have had to do. I haven't yet, but was getting close in Dec.

Shoot If I had half of that 30 this month I would have been happy. Slowest month in 4 1/2 years that I have lived here. Including my first month I started here.

My phone is not ringing for home inspections. My secretary has not booked one home inspection for this week.

I have one 203K underway I am working on and several code enforcement projects that are under construction.

Real estate appears to be dead although the mortgage bankers I talk with are up to their ears in applications. Must be a lot of rejections.

I did one this afternoon and I have one for tomorrow afternoon. So far nothing else. Yes. I am getting a little worried. No, nothing yesterday.

Please send your year old cars, extra food stores, boats and motor cycles this way Oh yeah, those extra homes as well.

Originally Posted by Ted Menelly

I did one this afternoon and I have one for tomorrow afternoon. So far nothing else. Yes. I am getting a little worried. No, nothing yesterday.

Please send your year old cars, extra food stores, boats and motor cycles this way Oh yeah, those extra homes as well.

Ok

Enough is enough. Now three companies are openly advertising fo 200 dollar inspection. I know of more that are doing the same thing with pricing in my area. I just cancelled my account with service magic because their policies changed to 8 times the inspectors being referred in groups of threes than when I originally started with them. Yes they only send leads out to 3 inspectors but there are 8 times that amount of inspectors the the leads get rotated to.

Update on my last post is I already said the one for Saturday fell thru. The one for tomorrow just dropped as well. They are going to look for a less expensive home because the taxes alone were 6500 a year.

Enough is enough

For the folks in the greater Tarrant county area of Texas. Enough is enough. There is absolutely no sense continually dropping prices. There is only so much work to go around so you might as well keep the price stable. I just received and email for prices starting at 190.00. Where is it going to stop. I had a Realtor that called and said she was calling around for her client for prices. I told her outright that I would not be hearing from her. She said "you never know' I said "oh yes I do if all you are going by is bottom price"

I have done countless inspections thru this realtor. The client knows times are tough and asked the realtor to call around and get the lowest price.

I am about to throw up.

Guys are starving and getting desparate. I would guess most of us HIs are self employed which means that we are not elligible to collect unemployment if the business folds. For those that are the sole provider in the house, they're probably just trying to stay afloat and doing whatever they can to get work, albeit very cheap underpriced work.

I have a friend who bought a real estate office in my area about 1.5 years ago. He and his wife have 2 kids and he recently decided to drop their benefits. They were paying $1,200 out of pocket per month.

Desparation all around.

Had two jobs set up for this week when this day started and now I'm booked for every day but Thursday morning (I can only do two inspections a day).

Is this going to continue or is this just a teaser? Time will tell.

I have not had any info about price drops in my area.
Holding at $ 350 to $ 395 for homes under 2500SQF. I did have that one inspector do a 5200SQF. Home for $ 400 a few months back... Don't drop your prices guys. just get out a market your company as the best around. thats what people want. the best of the best of the best. I think that was in some flick. about bugs.

Best

Ron

Home Rite Home Inspector, York, Pa - Real Estate Inspection in PA and Maryland

Some info I pass on to prospects. Tell me what do you guys think?

Disclaimer

HomeRite Real Estate Inspections DOES NOT guarantee to offer the "lowest prices" on a professional home inspections in the area. When promoting your business, quality should come first. After all, it is your organization that you are promoting. At HomeRite Real Estate Inspections, quality is our main concern and we won’t cut the corners required to offer the “cheapest price”. Our prices are competitive and we are certain you will be pleased with our quality and professionalism. Call us today to see how we can empower you by providing a superior professional home inspection that is highly effective and informative.

** WARNING TO CONSUMERS **

Consumers should be very careful when shopping for a home inspector. The industry on the whole is unregulated and many unqualified people offer home inspection services at seemingly low prices. A typical quality professional whole home inspection should take 2-3 hours and cost $275-$350 for this market.

Each of must face the challenges before us. There is not a single answer that fits everyones situation. I offer the following for inspiration.

ATTITUDE

by: Charles Swindoll

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

Originally Posted by Richard Thacker

Some info I pass on to prospects. Tell me what do you guys think?

First, I think you are severely limiting YOUR OWN inspection fees by doing that (the section on prices).

Second, you need to edit it for missing words (the part below the inspection prices part).

I know we all have a thing about low-ball fees but I agree with Jerry in putting a range on "acceptable" fees. The range of acceptance is up to the consumer. If they don't want to pay much, they aren't going to no matter what we tell them or no matter how much we try to warn them of "the possible pitfalls of low fee inspectors". Unless you have knowledge of other inspector's quality-of-work and the fees they charge, the whole "beware the low price inspector thing" really doesn't mean anything. I look at this as more of a scare tactic than anything. Think about what would grab you as a consumer. Are you going to hire somebody because they say they are professional and because they say this is how much an inspection should cost? To me, a professional company tells me about themselves and what they do as opposed to going out of their way to disparage the competition. I'm not saying this is what you're doing Richard. It's just my own perception when I read things worded like that.

If you want to grab a buyers attention, you need to tell them something that nobody else will and most other inspectors will not. Just as an example, I personally do not market to realtors. I do not visit their offices. I have no brochures in their offices. I do not chat them up for work. This is what I advertise........"I Do Not Work For Realtors......I Work For You, The Buyer". That grabs people and gives them something to remember. This approach alone gets me work from people I have never spoken to and were not referred to me by anybody. This is because I captured the attention of a niche of buyers who don't trust the realtor referred inspector relationship.

I don't know about giving prospective clients the ATTITUDE thing Richard. I'm trying to figure out how it relates to inspections and what it means to them.

I don't know about giving prospective clients the ATTITUDE thing Richard. I'm trying to figure out how it relates to inspections and what it means to them.

I'm sorry the attitude thing is only for this thread and for my fellow inspectors. I only advertise my disclaimer and warnings.

Originally Posted by Nick Ostrowski

This is what I advertise........"I Do Not Work For Realtors......I Work For You, The Buyer".

I use to say the same thing until somebody held it against me so I changed the wording a little. Now I inform people that "I provide a service for you. Not for your Realtor or anyone else".

The woman I had the problem with was trying to tell me that she paid me to work for her as a home inspector and that I needed to do what she wanted me to do (like I was her employee). I tried to inform her that I provided that service and what she was asking me to do is way outside the scope of what a home inspector can do (that's a longer story but it deals with a divorce in progress).

Overall I don't think it would have mattered what wording I would have used. That situation just made me think a little different.

If you want your phone to ring...

These are the facts.

The stuff= no work= no inspection.

1. in the good times you did not think about any of this stuff.
2 the good times are gone for a time and now we are thinking about this stuff.

3 join the club. everybody is thing about this stuff.

4 bottom line you need to get you phone to ring and some one to give you your stuff.

Now think about this. you known that there are inspection going on in your area. may be not 100 but there inspection going on. what is your place in the market? this is the problem each of us must face.

If you want that phone to ring you need to make it ring.

OK. Ron how do we make the phone ring.

If you do this your phone will ring. or I will buy you a cup of coffee...

Every day for the next 30 days you put on a clean shirt. and a hand full of cards. and you HIT 10 real estate agents desk
just spend 5 minutes. and past out your cards. no flyer's. no pens just your cards. 10 agents every day for the next 30 days Guys. this works every time in any market. Ive been doing this for 30 years now and it works every time... stop looking at that phone you must become a salesman. and sell your self. you are not an order taker any more this is a new day... and another market. keep your prices up. yes you will say the wrong things. yes you will make a boob out of your self. and best of all your phone will ring...

Every day guys 10 agents 10 cards every day... even if you are inspecting... 10 agents. 10 cards every day...

thats the way it is. you must be a sales man in this market. its not the best inspector that is going to last in this market its the best salesman/inspector thats going to last.

I just wanted to help Guys. This works!

Best

Ron

Every day guys 10 agents 10 cards every day... even if you are inspecting... 10 agents. 10 cards every day...

thats the way it is. you must be a sales man in this market. its not the best inspector that is going to last in this market its the best salesman/inspector thats going to last.

Don't get lazy and tell yourself you will start tomorrow..Start doing now and you will be amazed!