Good morning/afternoon,
Im currently in the process of starting my Home Inspection busniess and having a hard time finding the solution. If a client calls to schedule a home inspection with me, do i need to be in contact with the realtor to gain access to the house on the day of inspection if unoccupied? And if a home is occupied, who is responsible for informing the current occupants of the home inspection?
Any and all advice will be greatly apprciated!
I schedule all inspections, except for FSBOs, through ShowingTime. If it’s a FSBO, I contact the home owner directly, and in some cases, my client will make the arrangements with the owner
If you don’t have showingTime, then yes, you need to contact the LA for access and inform them of the date and time of the inspection.
Whether it’s occupied or not, you must have permission to enter the home, and access instructions are a good thing to have too. 
I scheduled with the caller.
Then, I called the listing office, or FSBO, and let them know I had an inspection to set up with one of their listings and let them know the day and time. ( Too many issues if not going direct to listing office, for me.)
They would call or text me back the verification and how to enter the home….with my Supra key or combo, etc.
I scheduled with the client and told them to contact their agent with the inspection time and date. The buyer’s agent would then inform the listing agent.
Never had any problems.
That is exactly how I operated for 22+ years until the Covid Hoax took effect.
Covid, restrictions, fear, amongst many other things changed everything, and had to get flexible real quick!
The last year or so, some things have returned to (old) normal, but many realtors have become lazier than ever, and adding to that the games being played in this Sellers Market.
You are gonna have to blaze your own trail. I suggest focusing on your Client, setting a day and time with them when you book the job (as you need to block the appointment), and suggest to your client to contact their Agent to confirm the appointment.
I have the client’s agent coordinate the time with the sellers and the selling agent (sometimes the seller’s agent insists on being present). Obviously it is an agreed upon time, and the process is started by me telling the client an available time. Who then tells his agent, etc. etc. . . till consensus is reached.
I usually start by asking the client what time they want. That’s the most important need.
Thank you all for the great information! I really appreciate your time for answering my question!
Location, location, location.
Every area has different customs.
If you can get ShowingTime, I highly recommend it. As I understand it though, inspectors in some areas can’t get access. That is unfortunate. Makes life way easier.
You do know that ShowingTime is intended as a tool for Realtors, not inspectors, but as usual with inspectors vying for realtor referrals, they screwed the pooch and caved, handing over more control. Some of ya’ll will never learn.
Same here, I’m scheduling with the client, all the “next steps” are on the other parties.
Originally I suppose. But it is perfect for inspectors.
I type in the address, select the date, time, and duration, select inspection and hit submit. A few moments later I get a message saying approved and the access code/instructions. The seller and their agent now know (and approve of) the timeframe for the inspection, and I have the access details.
What’s not to love?
Arriving to the inspection and the homeowner or tenant is present, and they know nothing about the inspection and refuse me entry.
This has also happened when the agent is present. A few agents I know have told me this is a common problem with ST. Even though the Seller has access, they don’t give a squat. They still do what they want.
The problems with ST falls in line with Supra malfunctioning. I have had agents try for 10-15 minutes to gain access, and having some very heated phone calls with the LA!
These problems and more are why I and many agents have stopped using e-Boxes and have gone back to Combo’s. Agents are stuck with ST in most areas, and many are not happy about it. This is yet another case of the Cities mandating what the rural agencies have to conform to.
In most cases, the owner has to approve it. At least that has been my experience based off of talking to agents about ShowingTime. My daughter just sold their house earlier this year and they had to approve all ShowingTime requests. As far as I know, the only time the agent gives approval is if the owner has handed that power over to them, normally in the case of a vacant house or if the owner is not technology savvy, or if they will be away from internet service for a period of time.
I can only speak for myself in that I have never had a failure with ST or Supra in my 4 years. Not saying it can’t happen, just hasn’t happened to me yet, knock on wood.
Combos are fine. Except for the ancient boxes still out there where the agent is too cheap to buy some new ones, lol.
Here is a pretty cool feature with all of this…
Today, I had an inspection out west of me. Many agents in that area use Sentrilock instead of Supra. I have Supra access but do not have Sentrilock yet because I just haven’t ran into enough of those yet.
Anyway, in Showingtime when I requested the inspection time, there was a check box to click if you do not have Sentrilock access. I checked the box, and a few minutes after my Showingtime request was approved, I received by text a one day Sentrilock code. Love it!
I have showing time app, but very few listing around here go into that. If I search a zip code around here, almost nothing shows up. So I always get the buyers info when scheduling and my system sends out all the needed emails. It’s the buyers agents job to inform the seller of an inspection.
It is interesting to see how things are different in other areas. In my area, if it is on MLS, it is on ShowingTime. The only ones that aren’t are those that get sold prior to hitting the open market (sometimes), and those that are FSBO (always).
Setting up inspection appointments is a very regional thing. In the Denver metro, most of it is done by the agents. A buyer or their agent calls or texts me. We schedule a day and time. The buyer tells their agent who schedules the inspection. If it is an agent I know, I text them the info also. Within the last year, I have had several want me to use Showing Time. I too, am a little (very little) amused by agents making $20K+ commission who cannot be bothered to spend five minutes to schedule the inspection.
Luckily, Supra and Sentrilock are only about 10% of our listings, so I don’t see them often. Most of the time, Supra and Sentrilock work fine but when they don’t, it can be extremely annoying. About 10% of the time, the keypad door lock is being utilized for entry.
When we make an appointment we tell the buyer that they need to get with their agent and tell them we have it set for X day and X time! I have found over the years that if the buyer tells their agent that they have setup the inspection the agent usually does what the buyer is asking. Very rarely do we need to change the inspection because of the agent not being able to set it up.
About 40% of our inspection orders come through our online order on our website and the dates are set that way.
We seldom if ever have contact with the listing agent!
I’ll second the comments that this is all very regional. Real estate business practices have grown very organically in local markets. Talk to inspectors and agents about how things work, and don’t attempt to reinvent the wheel.
Separately Sentrilock is better than the combos around here. The LAs who use combos are invariably cheap and bad at communicating. It takes more running around to get codes or they give the wrong code to that box. The Sentrilock agents just seem more likely to have their stuff together. Unless physically abused and broken the electronic lockboxes are remarkably reliable.