gromicko
October 22, 2017, 1:31am
4
All – there was a thread forwarded to me about Nick’s Free Listing Inspections that he plans to introduce in 2018. I had a chance to read it this morning and I want to make sure a couple of things are clear:
Porch is in the repair business. We get hired all of the time by sellers or listing agents to do the repairs and maintenance needed to sell their homes. So if you see listing agents hiring Porch contractors, yes this happens regularly and is unrelated to this program.
Porch didn’t invent nor are we behind the Free Inspections in 2018 concept. I got a call Thursday morning from Nick about this concept after he had posted this announcement. I didn’t know anything about it until then.
We are taking it seriously to make sure we are only providing products where inspectors have control and will help their business. We have heard this loud and clear. If Nick asked Porch to help provide repair services for the seller as part of this Free Inspection program, I’d only consider being a part of it if 3 things were addressed: The integrity and independence of the inspection report would have to be unaffected, consumers have to feel good about the offering and that they aren’t being harassed, and it would have to be good for inspectors (control is maintained, an increase in the number of inspections, etc). Just as of yesterday we started to talk about this and while we haven’t found a solution yet, we’ll be meeting at InterNACHI HQ in a couple of weeks to see if it is something Porch could ever get behind.
In terms of an InterNACHI/Porch relationship, what Nick and I have been working on is trying to make the InterNACHI Buy Back Guarantee available for free to all inspectors (or at least all InterNACHI members) as well as provide $100 of Handyman Services for each of your customers. Nick had concerns that had to be resolved, such as having data security and privacy oversight (which we are providing to make sure the inspector industry knows we are doing everything by the book) and a No Complaint Guarantee (which we are providing with a creative concept of Nick’s that will cover a month of the InterNACHI membership fees if there is a single customer complaint in a month). Nick will announce what we are doing soon and I think it will be a great thing for inspectors and homebuyers that all will be excited about.
Hope this clears things up. I want to make sure inspectors and inspector franchises know that Porch has been listening to the feedback and believe we have addressed all of the concerns. Nick will include an FAQ with the details in his announcement. We really are looking forward to being an important partner that you can count on to help your business and your customers.
If you have any questions for me directly, please feel free to email me at matt@porch.com
Matt Ehrlichman
Thanks Matt. Good post. One of the purposes of free listing inspections is to determine what has to be repaired or replaced, so it is fitting that you and I continue to explore ways Porch may be beneficial to InterNACHI members and their clients without tainting the independence of the reports or pissing off consumers. Maybe we’ll come up with something, maybe we won’t. But we certainly should try. See ya in a week or so.