Had a call from a sales person that just couldn’t wait to get me more business then I could handle, that is if I paid $500 up front (and it is an annual fee) and average of $20 a lead.
And yes that for each lead that was passed to me and supposedly I would get a 80% close rate. Now if we assume this to be true and I got 2 call a week or
104 a year at $20 each equal 2,080 + 500= $2580 a year in cost. And with a a 80% close rate I would get 83 jobs (pick an average of) $300 a job for a revenue of $24,900. But after Home Advisor cost that would drop my revenue to $22,320. Home Advisor would get 10% of my revenue. And that is before tax and cost revenue that they get the 10% on.
Seem expensive to me. Home Advisor, sales person said to ask the NACHI guys, as the inspector at NACHI loved his service and a lot of the NACHI inspectors are using Home Advisor.
So I am asking if anyone out there is using the Home Advisor and if so what they think of the service. Also if any one else thinks the fees are high for the services?
Lets see now…
There are 5 inspectors in your area that are signed up.
Each of you get the same leads.
Over the year you each get a piece of the pie.
How do you calculate an 80% ROI???
If you all shared equally (pure luck), that equates to a 20% ROI, if every lead actually results in a job sold!
You are better off investing in a top notch managed web site and generating your own leads. This is what they are doing is using your money to put up a website pay for ads and generate 3x the revenue or more for each lead
Remember HA sends out the leads to at least 3 other inspectors. Although I have not used them most here have not had a good experience with HA. There are always the exceptions but for home inspectors its unusual. I know of a local inspector who signed up and he said most of the leads were of poor quality.
They get angry on the phone when you tell them they are liars. but that is exactly what they are. They also told me that they had glowing positive reviews on the Nachi message board. I did my research and found that they are liars.
Keep in mind… In their TV commercials they always clearly state the service is FREE.
Q: How exactly do you think they pay for those thousands of TV commercials, as well as providing the service itself? They certainly are NOT free.
A: YOU DO!
I read some of these comments and wonder if I missed the part in licensing where pessimism is a prerequisite to becoming a real estate inspector. Is this site for helping people or for sh…tting on every post? I mean seriously “They lied”? with no explanation, or “This has already been discussed in other threads, go look there” (paraphrasing). I just got a call from HomeAdvisor about the service, and I plan on doing my research because it sounds promising, but I’m not gullible. I also grilled the salesman about specific claims. Below is what he said, and here’s what I’m going to research:
-$347/year - Actually not bad - let’s say that’s one inspection fee
-$20 per lead with : 1) a 70% closure rate, and 2) average of 1.6 inspectors getting each lead (I know, I know. You can’t have .6 of an inspector - it’s an AVERAGE)
-I can set the parameters: distance, type, etc, and I can suspend getting them.
-No auto-renew. They call first.
As a new real estate inspector, but as someone whose been inspecting houses for other purposes (other industries) for more than 30 years, and who’s bought and worked leads with other businesses, here’s my attempt at deciphering the information presented to me so far:
-THEY’RE GOING TO SEND YOU LEADS. IT’S NOT GOING TO BE FREE! Why would it be? This is America. They have a right to make a buck. Do you work for free? And the fee is reasonable (if all their claims check out)
-THEY’RE GOING TO SEND YOU LEADS TO DO INSPECTIONS YOU WOULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN IF THEY HADN’T SEND YOU THE LEAD. Man, am I the only one who gets this? Of course you’re going to pay. Do you refuse to make money because you’re going to have to pay taxes?
-I’m going to find a way to talk to someone WHO ACTUALLY USES/USED THE SERVICE, rather than listen to know-it-alls who have a negative opinion on something they don’t know enough about.
-This may be a great way to get my business going until I can get enough quality relationships with agents, then I can drop the service. Many of you inspectors who’ve been around for a while really sound bitter and offended that newbies are trying to get up and running quickly. Your ego rather than your compassion to help a fellow inspector really shows through. Some of the replies I read are meant to show what a big expert the writer is rather than to contribute.
-I don’t believe one thing I was told by the salesman until I confirm it. Also, I called the company to confirm he worked there. I used to investigate identity theft claims, and there’s certain information that I will refuse to give them (SS#, references, etc). They’re more than welcome to use anything in the public domain, but they’re not getting anything but basic info from me. If that prevents me from being considered, fine with me. I’m not going to do business with a company that puts me or my information at risk.
-I need to find out if the leads are at least average quality. Is there a pattern to them that makes them less desirable. For instance, the process has less human interaction than a referral from an agent, so are the people more lawsuit prone? IT’S JUST A POSSIBLE QUESTION. Unless you have concrete information about it, don’t answer it.
-For those of you who are offended that I called you out for your crappy replies - Good! and I don’t really care. I bet there’s something in your marketing material or on your website about how helpful you are. Bulls…t. You should change those claims to “I’m trying to make a buck, I don’t care about you, helping people in my industry, or anyone else. The world should cater to me” I’m trying to help the guy who asked the question, and I don’t worry about what some egotistic, bitter, narcissist thinks. I came here looking for the same answers, but had to filter through the garbage answers to find anything helpful.
-The Gromickos have put together services that TRULY help the industry. There are a lot of people on these blogs that could take a lesson from that. Why don’t you help your fellow inspector rather than discourage them. If you don’t have anything helpful to add, go something else. It’s not just this thread; it’s almost every blog that gets contributions from inspectors. Thankfully there are some that have helpful input. Thank you to those folks.
Really, the best thing to do is try them and then you will have actual experience. I do know a couple of tradespeople that use them and are happy but they are specialists and have little competition.
It would be interesting for some of us to have you try them out and in a few months let us know how it worked for you.
Yes, I did use them once and it wasn’t a good fit for my business model.
When you are a Member, then you have room to speak. Inspectors in this organization and other organizations have been burned numerous times by this junk company. At the same time, the message board does not need endless duplicate questions and discussions about these jerks or other easily researched topics.
And of course don’t forget the Nationwide Class Action Lawsuit against Home Advisor. For more information…
Quote: On November 14, 2016, Chimicles & Tikellis has filed a class action lawsuit against Home Advisor – an online large lead generation service. The plaintiffs are Service Professionals (contractors), who claim that the supplied leads “are not from targeted, serious, qualified and/or project-ready homeowners”.** Tens of thousands of service professionals nation wide are involved as plaintiffs. **Primarily, these are small to midsize home improvement and remodeling contractors.
So take your “Guest” privileges and sell them somewhere else.
The majority of opinions and experience on this forum differ from mine. HA has its PITA downsides, but I credit it with jump-starting my business.
Yes, it scks to have to drop everything when a lead comes through and then convince someone who does not know you from Adam that you are the best choice. It also scks to have to take a demand for a lead refund to a supervisor, which I must do from time to time, however…
When you recognize that you really do have provide something better than the competition and you have to make that case every time you talk to someone, HA can be a decent resource.
When I got into this business a veteran inspector told me his overhead amounted to about $100 per inspection, including his marketing, so I accepted early on that marketing was going to cut into my profits considerably and made sure that was included in my pricing model.
Of all the things I have tried - Google, BIN, new agent classes, open house guerrilla marketing, and email campaigns, none of them have given as quick as good an ROI as HA.
I have not gotten “all the work I can handle”, but I have gotten a lot that I would not have gotten otherwise.
I’m getting more referrals and agent work all the time, and eventually I will say goodbye to HA. I suppose some people can’t or won’t do what has to be done to make it work for them, and that’s OK. When they approached me, I figured it was worth a try, and I’m glad I gave them a shot.
