I have a question about marketing. I know that the economy is in the crapper, and home sales are down. I have had my License for a few months now, i have a website and hundreds of business cards circulating. I have done a few inspections. Can somebody explain to me what i am doing wrong, what i need to be doing right to acquire more business, i certainly do not want to steal business from other inspectors. thank you
of course you want to steal business from other inspectors. There’s only so many being done and you want some more of them. you wont get much help here if you dont add your location to your profile. people dont like to help their competition
its going to take time. get your name in the yellow pages. talk to realtors. lots of this business comes from word of mouth. if your area is saturated with inspectors, you may never get a lot of business. I just finished my first year and I got about 75 inspections. the first 6 months I did like 7.
Try getting a real job.:p:p
im gonna use a quick reply brother, and i hope i dont ruin your day by doing this. I have been a Union Electrician for 10 years now and unfortunately i am not a shop mutt, so i cant keep a job, I was hired for a job in December, working on a new hospital, right next door to the childrens hospital where my 2 year old had Brain surgery and was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. I was just laid off yesterday, because the boss needed to lay off 4 numbers, not really caring who. But i do appreciate your reply to my question hope you have a great day
and let me guess, just gonna throw this one out there. Your dog’s name is charlie !
cold hearted union basturds. you looking for donations my brotha?
You’re going to have to get jobs that usually go to someone else. Do some good market reaseach and find out who all your competition are if you haven’t already done so. Statistics say most people don’t buy on price alone so don’t be the lowest price, but offer perhaps an extra service for your regular price. A realtor told me he likes an inspector who can talk with the clients about solutions to problems and how the information is presented, instead of just giving a list of problems.
Good morning Andrew 
I’ll clue you into a couple simple facts of the real estate business that may help your mindset.
First, whether your’re in the business (sales, inspections, mortgages, whatever) or not there will be X number of real estate transactions this month in your area. You have absolutely no control over that.
Second, the 80/20 of business rule applies (and in real estate it’s more like 95/5 in my opinion), meaning that most of the business being done will be by relatively few people, while the majority of folks in the business will be starving - Good market or bad. No exceptions.
So your task is to try to figure out how to become one of the 20%, instead of the starving 80%; meaning that you have to take business from someone else.
Sort of - One difference in real estate sales/home inspection is that the majority of the people in the business are Single Practitioners, and can only do so many transactions by themselves in a given day/week/month.
I once sold 21 houses in a single month, it damn near killed me (and kept me so busy that I didn’t sell but one for the next two months) - I never equaled that feat again.
So because of scenarios like that there will likely be some left over people out there you can help, without hurting other (top 20%) inspectors; until you get real busy anyway.
One thing to keep in mind is that early on you’ll probably only get the crap work that no one else wants (junk houses, nasty people, PITA Realtors) until you establish a “name” for yourself. Until then business will be spotty.
So you need patience. If you are trying to get Agent Referrals than you need to keep after them or they’ll forget who you are. If you are trying to live via the Internet, then you have to get traffic to your site, and once you have that you need to evaluate and reevaluate your site until it generates leads for you. Same with more traditional forms of advertising.
Test and evaluate, test and evaluate, test and evaluate…then concentrate on what is working best for you - Which may be different from the rest of us.
Good luck 
Al in TN
Andrew: www.nachi.org/success.htm Synergy (doing a bunch of things right) is a miracle.
Or…
Another thing you can try is this: Close your eyes and imagine the ultimate, ultimate, ultimate inspection company. What would their vehicle look like? What would they dress like? How would they present themselves to agents, their clients, and their community? What would their website look like? What certifications would they have? What services would they offer? What would their brochures look like? What would their newsletter look like? What would they sound like when you call their office? Would they be running their own InterNACHI Chapter, inviting all the local agents, and explaining to them how MoveInCertified.com will help their real estate businesses? How would they be bigger and better than every other inspection company?
Write down everything you can about this imaginary inspection company. Then start doing everything to become them as fast as you can.
This is the first time I’ve ever admitted it publicly… but this is the system I used to grow InterNACHI. I dreamed of what the ultimate inspection association would be, wrote down everything they would offer and do, then tried to make InterNACHI become them, as fast as possible. Staffers still use a version of this system to continue making InterNACHI bigger and better.
Nick, this is by far one of the best posts I have ever read of yours. Great advice…and I didn’t need Rosetta Stone to try and figure it out!:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
Yes, excellent post/advice Nick
Al (closing my eyes right now) in TN
Great advice Nick!
I see your “listing agent training” still has ahold of you! :mrgreen:
Get it? 
Ha-ha-ha-ha!!! :roll:
LOL (I think?). I’m trying to break old habits, honest I am, well maybe…
Al (made three REALLY GOOD face to face agent contacts today, potential paydirt) in TN 
PS. Who’s gonna prank call me tonight? 
Is Sean being a bad boy again??? :mrgreen:
Andrew, change your profile to include your location. You might get some hints from local inspectors. The markets are vastly different in most areas of the country as are the pricing structures and regional expectations from the buyers, sellers and agents.
Good luck.
Try clicking your heals when you have your eyes closed lol
Wayne, I try that about everyday here in Kansas; never works.
LOL Yeah but Sean and I are betting if Al does it he is going fall over. I win if he goes to the left.