I was thinking about promoting a discount to my first ten or so clients so that I can get up and running faster with more experience. I was worried that it might be against an ethics policy.
No ethics problem but I’m not sure it’s the greatest marketing idea ever… How about this - you’re going in for surgery and the doctor is offering $200 off because he’s brand new?
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Conversely, charging more than average is also not unethical. And I recommend it.
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Morning, Erica. Hope to find you well and welcome to the InterNACHI message board community.
Erica, lets us think inside the box about Ethics, Discounts and ones business exposure.
Seasonal Special discount. XXXX Home Inspection Services is offering now a 10%-15% discount from May 1st to May 31st. As well every professional home purchasing inspection by out lead inspector,… You will receive a professional folder package with Now You’ve Had Your Home Inspected Book for free, plus other incentives when you retain XXXX Home Inspection Services LIKE the lead inspector will come to your home to discus the report with you in person for 1 full hour. This is a $250.00 offer.
Erica, working hard and effectively is how you EARN trust. Trust is not given away easily.
Reach out to me and I will expose marketing tips I used too propel my company forward.
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Giving a discount or having a coupon is okay. Just don’t give the inspection away. If your pricing is already well below what everyone else is charging, don’t go any lower.
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I never give any discounts, why? If someone is buying a home for hundreds of thousands of dollars, why would giving them a few bucks off on the inspection matter.
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I never have given a discount for marketing purposes, ever. That includes my initial clients. Any client approaching you for a HI needs it now. Emphasize your qualifications, not your price. Marketing to clients who shop by price is a slippery slope to financial failure. You do not want those clients. You want clients shopping for qualifications. So long as your price is fair, those clients will hire you. Keep another gig going so you are not desperate for income as your HI business builts.
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What Matt said.
I’ll give a small discount to repeat clients.
Charge what you’re worth.
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Some inspectors do this type of thing:
“For the month of April I will be offering the first 15 clients $25 off every full inspection, just for visiting my website. Tell me after I give you your quote to receive your discount.”
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I think I’ll go ahead and get a part-time job, so I don’t feel so much pressure. This group of realtors wanted me to buy everyone lunch to have a chance to present myself to them, but since I’m just starting out I don’t have $400 to buy 90 people lunch. I wish they would’ve just taken some of my business cards…
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I worked 7 days a week my first year and a half. 3 days a week was a part time job, the rest was doing repairs and I did get inspections, just not a ton of them.
Year 2 I dropped the part time job. By the middle of year two I was taking Sunday off.
The worst part, I had most of a year retired. lol. I guess I have to stay busy.
I’ve been firing on all cylinders for a while now and I’ve had 3 months of 4 this year where I made more than I did at my corporate job and I used to make a pretty good living.
It takes time and effort for sure.
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Good plan on the part time job. (Good stuff, @msenty !)
On buying the group lunch, it varies by location, but typically that doesn’t get you a relationship(s) to work from. It gets them fed is all.
Your part time job will help you not ooze desperation. And, it will give you time to be out and about giving your card to anyone that will take one…at your dentist, grocery store, where ever there are people.
And, it will give you time to practice on any house you can…with whoever will let you.
Good luck!
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That part is so true and isn’t taught by NACHI or anyone else. It’s easy to identify issues of concern when at the property. The real challenge is producing a report in an efficient manner that is accurate and easy to understand. Putting together a good report is the most difficult aspect of home inspecting. Practice on any friend or associates house who will let you.
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Moring Joseph. Hope to find you well.
Don’t assume.
I have seen that almost all first time home buyers do not have hundreds of thousands of dollars on hand. It is borrowed money.
What overwhelms them is, the costs of purchasing a home. I wrote a blog on this very point, as did the Montreal Gazette and CMHC.
The CMHC and Montreal Gazette collaborated with an advertorial titled, “How much will my home really cost?” This included Appraisal fee, Down payment, Deposit additional costs can range from 1.5% to 4% of the property value and include things like land transfer tax, home inspection, legal fees, and title insurance.
They, first time purchases, become weary of all the costs and expect good value for the money they spend. After purchasing homes and reading reports they get to understand value for the money they wish to spend.
Best regards.
Robert
Long, long ago in a land far, far away the first thing I did was join the local RE Association to get access to the Supra Key. As an associate that gave me access to their monthly RE meetings. I went to one and only one and witnessed the most pathetic thing. As the RE Salespeople were hitting the trough (buffet table) there was a hoard of Inspectors hanging around to help serve them and grovel at their feet. As the meeting progressed I watched Inspectors going back and forth to the trough to bring them more to the RE Salespeople tables. What a pathetic sight!
As the years went by I also received the little notices to “Sponsor a RE Meeting” and promptly threw them in the trash or deleted the emails. Spend all the money you want on that trash and you will find unless you are ready to bend a knee to them (they know they have you if you play their game) then you’ll get little to nothing out of it.
Let the rest of the Inspectors out there blow their money on feedings at the trough, names on folders, etc., etc.
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It’s tempting in the first few years - especially if you are independent. I’ll show a $25-$50 discount on the invoice here and there for one reason or another (repeat customer, multi-service discount, etc). But as far as “market price” I’ve found there is no real bottom. In the couple slow times where I’ve dipped my bid lower than I want, half the time somebody beats me out on price still. Sometimes by $100, not just $10 or $20. I don’t know if this is larger multi-inspector firms filling their pipeline during slow times (my suspicion) or nearsighted new guys getting desperate in the doldrums (equally likely, I guess) but if they want to fill out the form for $250 and underwhelm the client and the realtor, I’m gonna let em.
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