Well if that’s the case none of us, home inspectors or buyers/clients, are giving them any permission to have access to the inspection reports. In fact HG employees have denied that many times.
Now if the buyer opts-in to accept a quote from American Family there may be something in fine print that gives them access to the report. But of course HomeGauge hasn’t disclosed that to us yet. Though that has been my suspicions all along. And if so I see legal trouble down the road.
But they are indeed also trying to sell them Insurance, along with many other things.
This is part when folks say… just put in the inspection agreement, you know the agreement they thought was relevant to hiring a home inspector, a bit disingenuous I’d think.
Do you object to AmFam asking the consumer if they want to be contacted about insurance AFTER the consumer gets smooth, fast access to their inspection report?
They are intercepting/ capturing my clients email (and other info most likely) and then marketing to them.
And it’s MY client, not theirs. It’s BS!
I’m receiving NO compensation from AmFam for capturing this client, in fact we are paying out the ASS to get this client initially and then paying out the ASS to use the software.
They want me to bring them qualified leads, provide their personal info and sit back and say “oh, this is good business practice”
Indeed. Additionally, the information can also be used to determine the cost of the insurance as well as deny claims.
American Family does not need access to your reports to sell insurance and did not buy this software company for that purpose … and the assurances of protecting the privacy of the client is a ruse to gain access to the much more valuable data.
Do you think it’s good business practice to place verbiage in a Home Inspection Agreement giving a HI permission to give away a customer’s data/information, and are home inspection customers really expecting that their inspector would give away, sell or exchange their personal and the subject home’s data when all they thought they were doing was hiring someone to take a look at their purchase? I don’t.
Looking at this from a consumer’s standpoint… no, I don’t think the general public would have expected to receive offers for insurance based on having a home inspected, some people might even feel slighted, I think most of us can relate.
As a new inspector close now to certification, license, and official business launch I have been actively researching reporting software and am now doing ‘test drives’ on a short list of top selections for purchase. I listen to the concerns and comments by the inspector community pro and con here closely and have concluded that HG will no longer be considered. I am not comfortable putting my future customers in this position with respect to their or their house information, nor do I want my business to participate directly or indirectly in this data harvesting scheme, all I want is quality report organization and processing.
Insurance companies don’t make any extra money by denying claims, FYI. They make money by paying out on claims. The reason is that the money used to pay out on claims isn’t the insurance company’s profits. So they have zero financial incentive to deny claims.
We don’t use HG but looking at this new format of theirs my first reaction is a vibe of sketchy, car salesman, and unprofessional. You would think HG was a free app, that makes money off advertising, ala Facebook. Forcing Your client to turn down a third party sales pitch is not a good look for an independent inspection company. The home buyer just paid you for the inspection and report and, then from their perspective you turn around and try to sell them HO insurance before they get to see the report? That is a bad look, just like having banner ads on your website because you’re too cheap to pay for real hosting and a real site. I can imagine a lot of buyers agents will be unhappy at the look as well, plus some are trying to get kickbacks for the home warranty and insurance pitches they put out…
What sort of client/agent blow back results from these click throughs to view the report will of course depend on your market. Around our area, with lots of smart tech savvy clients, there would be a lot of push back to anything that looked like this, and lost referrals. You better be getting paid for that risk and those losses.
It’s probably wishful thinking that there isn’t lots more of this to come for the industry. Everyone is trying to make a buck off home inspectors, but fewer and fewer companies are offering real, quality services to them.
Yet, in another way, it presents a marvelous marketing opportunity for home inspectors who do NOT exploit their clients’ home and personal data.
Savvy marketers will set themselves apart from other home inspectors by advertising how they do NOT use gimmicks and/or report generating software used by lead brokers and insurance companies to harass and otherwise harm prospective homebuyers.
Instead of convincing others not to use it, perhaps it would be wise to educate prospective clients of the advantage to them of hiring inspectors who don’t.
Well, a 12.2 billion dollar company doesn’t buy home inspector reporting software to sell home inspector reporting software. We’ve known this for a few years now.
I bet that’d generate some hate or a complaint from a competing inspector via the COE faster than a Home Inspector who exchanges an unknowing home buyer’s data with verbiage buried in their Home Inspection agreement. I think this was an easier problem to avoid than it is now to fix… gosh, didn’t we say that years ago?
