Hello to all,
I have an out of state investor client with an in town realtor. Have done several inspections with more on the books. Problem came up today is that the realtor says she does not want to babysit the punchlist for the builder and just wants to lease to properties.
My problem is do I (and I am not looking forward to it) get with the client and act as his go between with the builder (for more$$$) or do I tell him to get a more full service realtor?
Any thought?
Happy Inspecting
Bruce,
Who hired you, the Buyer or the Realtor?
You kind of lost me regarding the Realtor not wanting to baby-sit the punch-list. You mean the buyer wants the Realtor to make sure the punch-list is completed?
If that is a fact, I would tell whoever I was working for that I would keep inspecting the home until it is completed properly, for a fee.
I smell opportunity here…the chance to be the “agent” for the investor…
But make sure you charge according to your worth and the service you provide to the investor…because it will be a grind I bet.
Have fun!
Tony is correct on this. Ive done a number of these type of inspections (I call them rolling inspections) where I would check the progress every week for an investor down State on a remodel job. I would coordinate with the contractor when it was convenient for both of us to meet at the property. I would take photos to compare with the previous weeks work, write up a short bullet statement style report to email to the clients. This was a good money maker and was easy, quick and exactly what the clients wanted. You will have to figure out what your time is worth.
Yes, figure out what your time is worth and add 30%…PITA factor.
Dale, the realtor referred this investor (as well as several other investors in CA) to me but the invester is my client. So I don’t want to make her mad(??).
The biggest part of the problem is that the investor has closed and leased 3 properties before the first inspection(new construction) in fact I had one of his just completed homes and another home that was 8 years old the other day- the 8 year old roof was in better shape. The good news is that I have instilled in the investor to INSPECT BEFORE CLOSING, go figure.
I like the idea of acting as investor’s agent( for $$$), would like to hear more from others on this and any contract issuse that might help.
I’d do it and charge $75 - $100/hour, including phone, travel, and documentation time.
This sounds like to me a WIN-WIN-WIN situation for all concerned. You can take the load off the Realtor who does not want to be the punchlist coordinator, your client gets a weekly or monthly report from you to keep abreast of progress and you get make extra easy cash for a small amount of time. Try selling the idea to your customer and the realtor over a conference call. The realtor may want you to do the same service with other clients if she sees you can do this kind of inspection and if she is heavy in property management. There is no telling how many properties you could end up doing routine inspections and annual maintenance checks on. This is a huge opportunity to expand your service base into an area that most realtors would probably rather farm out. These kinds of jobs are time wasters for them and money makers for us. You could float it by her in casual conversation as well and see if she would be interested, then ease into suggesting you do this for your investor client. Its called finessing.
I also work for a number of investors, and really enjoy it. Anytime a Realtor is not directly involved (with my company), I’m in heaven…
Go for it.
I do free re-inspections for clients - especially investors. It has worked VERY much to my advantage and led to a good amount of business, so it not a policy I am about to change.
REinspections only cover defects that I identified and are presented to me as “corrected”. In other words, I want to know exactly what I am looking to reinspect in each case, and I ONLY reinspect those things (not ever an issue, but I have always sensed it could be, so I insist on a document or email detailing what I am to reinspect.)
It takes me 15-30 minutes and I schedule it into my day in an unobtrusive way. Builds a good rep for client care and - as I mentioned - has way more than paid for itself at $100/hour…