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  1. #1

    Default An open letter to inspectors from Porch’s CEO

    Posted with permission from InspectionNews

    March 2, 2018

    Dear inspectors, For those I haven’t had the privilege of meeting yet, my name is Matt Ehrlichman and I am the CEO of Porch.

    We invited 12 respected and independent inspectors (see the list at the bottom of this letter) to create and serve on an Inspector Advisory Board to ensure Porch is forever a strong partner to inspectors and providing the right products to help your businesses grow. We had our first quarterly meeting at an industry event a couple of weeks ago, and these inspectors requested I write an open letter to all inspectors to provide an update.

    What you likely know:

    - Porch has made a strategic long-term decision to partner deeply with inspectors. We believe
    homeowners need help moving into their homes just as they do ongoing with home
    maintenance and repairs. Porch fills this void effectively and in doing so, helps our inspector
    partners in meaningful ways.

    - We provide Home Assistant Gold (usually priced for consumers at $350/year) for free to every
    inspector we are partnered with. You get to provide this service to each of your customers for
    free forever.

    - In addition, we will provide you with $100 of Porch Handyman Service coupons to provide to
    each of your customers to give them strong value. (We are seeing inspectors using this value as
    a long-overdue opportunity to raise their prices by $10 to $25.)

    - The Home Assistant will help your customer with whatever they need, from changing over their
    utilities (gas, trash, water, electricity), arrange service or mounting their TV, painting a room,
    security, or making repairs that come up from the inspection report.

    - If you are signed up for Home Assistant Gold, we create great marketing value for your business
    whether that is paying for ISG benefits such as RecallChek and/or 90 Day Warranty (and maybe
    even free ISN as well for qualified ISG customers), paying for InterNACHI's "We'll Buy Your Home
    Back" Guarantee, providing you with an Inspection Guarantee, paying for your full ISN fees (or
    $’s back to you), providing an extra $100 of handyman services (for $200 in total), or other
    options.

    What you perhaps don’t know:

    Homeowners like the experience:

    - We don’t harass your customer nor ever will. The Home Assistant who is assigned to make your
    customer’s move easier, will send an email to introduce themselves the day after the inspection
    is finished. If a customer doesn’t want to be called, they won’t be called. A day later, the Home
    Assistant introduces themselves and helps with whatever the homeowner needs.

    - Reasons calls are needed? For one, the first value the Home Assistant provides is as a 3rd party
    independent review service for your business. We want to cut off the bad reviews before they
    are posted online (we surface these to you to follow-up with the customer), and we encourage
    happy customers to post reviews online.

    - Another reason we want to speak with each homeowner is to find out exactly what help they
    need. We don’t do anything unless the customer tells us to.

    - Homeowners get called an average of 2 times. On average, 52% of homeowners are using their
    Home Assistant to help with service requests. On average, a homeowner uses their Home
    Assistant to help with 2 or more services.

    We provide more inspections to your business:

    - Based on feedback from members of our Inspector Advisory Board, as of the start of 2018,
    Porch is no longer selling leads to inspectors. We distribute leads, but notice at the bottom of an
    inspector lead that these are priced at $0. This will continue into the future. We are not here to
    charge the inspectors for anything, but to be strategic partners helping us both assist our
    collective customers and grow our businesses.

    - The Home Assistant stays in touch with your customers and will ask for an annual inspection
    each year. All of these inspections are directed back to you.

    - If your client wants an inspection of any repair or project, these requests are directed back to
    you also.

    - We provide you with $100 of Porch Handyman Services to provide to the Seller as well – a
    perfect way to get introduced to both the listing agent as well as the seller; hopefully resulting
    in working with them as they move into a different home.

    - There are many big Real Estate brokerages we are working with who are interested in using
    inspectors who are providing Home Assistant Gold to their customers given the improved
    customer experience. Some exciting things coming for those inspectors we are partnering with
    and more to come here.

    You are protected and in control

    - Porch does not sell the data, nor will we ever sell the data. Only Porch and our team of
    Assistants and Connection Specialists will call the customer. If a customer specifically requests
    help with a service, then and only then do we introduce them to others for help. Further, Porch
    never receives the inspection report – this is the customer’s property and only they get to
    choose if they want to provide their inspection report to their Home Assistant. Porch does not
    get the report from any source.

    - While Porch is the pro for small jobs and we have a large strong network of professionals for
    large projects, we have learned that many inspectors either offer certain services themselves, or
    have specific professionals they want to use. The Home Assistant experience is fully
    customizable per inspector. This means that you can identify a specific roofer you want used for
    all your customers, or that you want all of the pest control business routed back to you.

    - Porch assumes all liability from the inspector... when we send a Porch professional to the home.
    If you want us to use your recommended professionals, that is perfectly fine; however, we do
    not assume liability in these cases. Otherwise, if a Porch pro is used, you can know that you will
    not have any liability.

    Porch will always be an option for inspectors and greater than 800 inspection companies have take a closer look and turned on this offering.

    This includes some inspectors you likely know from the Advisory Council as well as others like:
    Axium, BPG, Champia, Mike Crow’s TexInspec, Home Team, WIN, Bentley & Associates, Liberty
    Inspection Group, and 800+ other inspectors. They have clearly done their research to make sure it will work well for their company.

    If you have any questions at all, please email me directly at
    matt@porch.com, call a team member who can help at 844-730-7359, or turn on Porch in ISN (and if not using ISN call and we’ll get Porch setup for you).

    Onward,

    Matt Ehrlichman (and signed with support and confirmation by our fellow Inspector Advisory Board members)

    Bill Compton, Champia Inspections, GA
    Chad Hett, Elite Inspections, CA
    Dave Klima, Aardvark Inspections, IN
    Randy Surette, Cornerstone Inspections, IN
    Jeffrey Donaldson, Ace Preferred Inspections, SC
    Jerry Linkhorn, Linkhorn Home Inspections, OH
    Mike Crow, Tex-Inspect, TX
    Preston Sandlin, Home Inspection Carolina, NC
    John Shishilla, Honor Inspections, FL
    Rob & Michelle Hopkins, Pro-tec Inspections,
    MD Scott Patterson, Trace Inspections, TN
    Wade Williamson, Axium Home Inspections, CO

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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
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    Default Re: An open letter to inspectors from Porch’s CEO

    I always get a kick out vendors trying to sound magnanimous when they really just want access to a long list of client data.

    Dom.


  3. #3
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    Default Re: An open letter to inspectors from Porch’s CEO

    Not only that, but Scott's name on there with John? At least from what I know of and have heard of and about John, I wouldn't want to be on the same list he is.

    John Shishilla, Honor Inspections, FL
    .
    MD Scott Patterson, Trace Inspections, TN

    From an inspection John did (I found it on the internet, third link down when I searched):
    http://www.fairwaymgmt.com/documents/Sunrise%20Landing/7180%20US%201%2027%201802p.pdf

    From page 6 of 6:

    "Clips ... "? Really, that is a clip? It looks more like a cut off piece of scrap, a "clip" has nail holes in it from the manufacturer.

    " ... with a minimum of three nails"? Really? Those nails, placed there?

    He marked that the roof deck was held down with staples, and he had a photo to prove it ... showing that the staple missed the truss ... and that holds the rood decking down how?

    ***IMPORTANT*** You Need To Register To View Images ***IMPORTANT*** You Need To Register To View Images
    Jerry Peck
    Construction/Litigation/Code Consultant - Retired
    www.AskCodeMan.com

  4. #4
    John H.'s Avatar
    John H. Guest

    Default Re: An open letter to inspectors from Porch’s CEO

    Hi,


    Our mission is to delight homeowners by getting projects completed. We aren’t in the business of selling data. We’ve built our name by connecting homeowners to vetted contractors. We want to help homeowners with their home, in any way possible. This isn’t a money grab for data. We want to gain the trust of the homeowners and build a relationship with them. We all know moving is stressful, and our goal is to streamline that process.

    If you still have questions or concerns about this, please call us at 844-730-7359, or we would be happy to reach out to you.

    Best,
    John H.


  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
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    Default Re: An open letter to inspectors from Porch’s CEO

    Quote Originally Posted by John H. View Post
    We aren’t in the business of selling data.
    I never said you were.

    But you are buying (or acquiring) data.
    From home inspectors, it now seems.
    And for profit, since you now match "vetted contractors" with this newly acquired data, so that you can "delight homeowners by getting projects completed".

    Dom.


  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Fletcher, NC
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    Default Re: An open letter to inspectors from Porch’s CEO

    Kinda resembles the old Brinks security program from years ago, except that it is not for security, it is for 'home repair projects'.

    Jerry Peck
    Construction/Litigation/Code Consultant - Retired
    www.AskCodeMan.com

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