Good morning to my fellow interNachi members,
Recently and in the past I’ve been contacted by a company Secure 24, many of you may have been too. This is where an authorized ADT vendor wants us as home inspectors to peddle alarm systems to our clients, if the clients make a purchase Secure 24 will pay the inspector a $200 referral fee. They contact the customer according to their website with a low pressure approach, the buyer has the option to opt out of receiving future calls/harassment from Secure 24. The issue I have with is this is giving the client’s email or phone number to them. I feel that that’s an invasion of the buyers privacy and I don’t want to upset the client or my realtors. The second issue is it ethical? Have any of you been approached by Secure 24 and what are your thoughts of being an ADT sales representative?
I’ve been approched by many different alarm companies through the years and have declined all of them.
For me, the bottom line is I’m a home inspector and not an alarm leads or a home warranty broker.
A possible option could be, if the ADT rep would be willing, is for you to give your client his/her information if they want it.
I see this as selling client data and I don’t do it. They have approached me numerous times over the years. I don’t pimp out my trusting clients.
I too have been approached by a number of alarm companies and turned them all down. I do see that quite a few realtors will bring ‘their alarm company rep’ to inspections though.
Recently, I read an inspection report which included alarm company solicitation. It was off-putting to say the least. It would be even worse if they were to contact the client directly. Ughh.
Interesting choice of words.
Shouldn’t it read something more like…?
OR…
I just flip it back at them. “If I have someone ask, I will have them get ahold of you. What is your personal phone number, home address, and email address?” This gets them stuttering and defensive. They refuse to give out their personal information but are more than willing to have everyone else’s. This gets them off the phone rather quickly.
Also runs against many SOPs since you’re receiving compensation from more than one party without the consent of all parties.
This is the same type of scheme that a Home Warranty company offers. In order to participate, you are required to include a clause in the inspection agreement that the client agrees to the inspector giving their contact information to a third party. They use your client’s contact information to soft sell cable, phone, and internet services to the client. If the client purchases services through this third party, they’ll send the inspector a kickback.
I get those and hang up or delete. One of the promises I advertise to clients is to never sell trade or reveal their personal information to other businesses. Privacy is paramount. In this day and age, home buyers are capable of researching and finding services and goods that they need entirely on their own.
The money genie is out of the bottle and there will be no putting it back. The corporate world realizes that there is big, very valuable data in home inspections. Data is all the rage nowadays.
You home inspectors are too hard-headed the real deals now go on without your participation or consent as long as you use their magic home inspection software and scheduling tools. Looks like the state screwed up again… It’s the software guys who need to be licensed, bonded and insured and then forced to pass an ethics exam. Hey, don’t forget to recycle. 
The report itself had the solicitation in it? Wow, that’s a whole new level over just being solicited while trying to access the report. Did it look like it was placed by the inspector, or was it somehow built into the report by the software provider?
Looked like it was placed by the inspector. It was mentioned twice. Once in the body of the report in the electrical section and again near the end as some part of a mumbo jumbo “now that you have had an inspection” filler paragraph. In fact, there was an additional solicitation in the filler section which included an HVAC service coupon.
Spectora has it in their partnership section. So the client can click on the link, but only if they want to, and you get a commission if sold. Otherwise, no information is shared.
So far they are giving us the option to turn “partnerships” off, which is what I have done.
I have reviewed it and I do like the way Spectora is doing it, compared to others out there. But I’m just not ready yet to get on this bandwagon. Even if you use it though, the client has to opt in to making contact with the partner, and it is presented in the dashboard fairly low key, at least the last time I checked.
I hope Spectora keeps letting us be in charge of what we show the client. Spectora makes money on the partnership program too, so I fear if they start to see it as a significant revenue generator, they may take away our options. I’m hoping not though! 
Agree. I have it turned on. So it’s not actually on the report, just in their user portal. But, no takers yet, haha.
And yes, I like that its all up to them.
I also like that we can select which specific partners we want to show the client (if we choose show them any at all). There are only four partners available as of now, and one of them (Lemonade) isn’t available to me due to my area I guess. I’m sure more partners will be added over time though.
Just sayin’!
It’s just a comfy luke-warm bath for Mr. Frog! He likes it!