Realtors vs. Homebuilders

I haven’t performed many new construction home inspections. That being said, I am surprised at how Homebuilders are able to maintain a barrier between themselves and realtors. Those of you who’ve seen more new construction inspections, any thoughts?

One word… HA!

New homes (new construction) tend to sell themselves and are often customized by the buyer (colors, counter tops, other details) prior to finish. Not sure what kind of training is really necessary to sell new construction. Sort of like shooting fish in a barrel for realtors. And often, the builder is aligned with a realtor to move the home for them since they don’t want to deal with that part of it. So, relationships are already in place.

Jeff is correct. Many new construction builders have there own sales team to move homes. But it wouldn’t hurt to market to them. I don’t care if it is new construction I bet I could find a defect or two;-)

I was the Project Manager for a Builder. Most of our buyers hired a home inspector. I made sure I left some easy things for him to find. :slight_smile: But I looked at it as them being smart buyers. Just because it’s new, and passed the code Inspection, doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

I think with my background new homes in the upper range are my target market. I have been talking to custom homebuilders and they are polite to me but I can sense the’re not too receptive to getting their 1.5 million dollar home inspected by anyone.

I’d love to grow this part of my business but I’ve found it difficult. Many times a new construction buyer seems to be under the assumption that their new home is perfect, so why have it inspected?

“If you don’t find any defects that meet or exceed the cost of the inspection, the inspection Fee will be reduced by 50%”!

I like that!

“And any client that refer’s you to a family/friend, and you don’t find anything with their home, you will refund the OTHER 25% of their inspection fee”!

(Max refund not to exceed 100% total fee paid, all methods inclusive).

Both are great plans. I’m going to make a change to my website based on this, if you don’t mind me borrowing your idea…

It’s all your’s.
I’ve never had the need to try it out, so let us know if you do, and if it helped. I do often state that I’ve never (yet) inspected a home that I didn’t find at least a handful of legitimate defects, usually in workmanship (ie. lazy contractors, cut joists, eng. joists, etc).
Good luck.

Thank you sir. I’ll give it a shot.

Here in Edmonton it’s mostly scale, big builders have their own sales staff, and often the sales staff are moonlighting RE agents, but working for the builder. Smaller ‘spec’ builders list with MLS just like home sellers.

I have noticed a huge improvement in the quality of home building since the introduction of new home warranties, they are required now in AB, but as usual our fearless government leads from behind, they had pretty much already been universally adopted by the industry. I find that most builders welcome buyer paid for home inspections, for builders it’s free quality control.

Interesting point…
I had never considered that.

Heres a picture from a new construction house. Would you say anything about this?