I have Realtors that absolutely enjoy my IR camera and tell their clients about me and my IR services and I have others that think that IR is a tad too much for home inspections. They do not like to see me revealing too much information about specific homes.
I market my IR services through the Internet and it definitely works. I’ve done jobs for major automobile dealerships, major colleges and other important commercial buildings throughout Massachusetts. I don’t need Realtors to assist me in my marketing of Infrared. Simply advertise on the Internet, and they will come.
Are you a certified commercial building inspector? Do you have to be to do IR inspections? Or are IR inspections their own thing and don’t fall under Home or Commercial inspection guidelines or state laws?
Each state is different… but at this point, I do not think any laws
have been written on the licensing of an IR inspection. (not that
I know of). Check with your state to be sure.
I do a whole 2.5 hour presentation on this stuff. You can check availability at www.irinspector.com. I also just released a guide for inspectors like yourself to answer many of these questions.
REALTOR MARKETING
What I tell my inspectors is that you will win some and lose some but the ones you retain are the one you want. If an agent leaves you because you want to be more thorough and accurate then they will probably leave anyway - so what have you lost.
MARKETING METHODS
I second Mr. Valley’s comments - the internet is the best return on investment. You should make a short video presentation so your client can “see” for themselves - the power of infrared technology. There are other effective methods which you should incorporate into your marketing - don’t just do the internet and leave it at that.
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OTHER OPPORTUNITIES**
You will be amazed at what kind of services you can offer to make money. I always talk about diversification and how important it is as a business owner and especially for business owners in a cyclical market. I generate a lot of revenue for leak detection, heating and cooling evaluations, insulation, ect. I haven’t even cracked the commercial market - yet.
I do beleive the underlying question that you have is the water warm, NO?
Well then, I was excited about the potential of IR inspections before. NOW, I am really excited.
I think that offering IR inspections is quite possibly an even bigger difference maker in peoples lives because of the underlying, hidden problems that a standard inspection can’t see.
My goal starting out in this business was to be able to truely make a difference. I can see with this technology, that it would be another better way to acheive my goal.
I especially like the diversibility of the technology. Being able to do many different things to bring in money.
I truly believe it’s a wise investment. It’s opened many doors since I introduced IR to clients. More and more consumers are aware of IR and it’s capabilities. Since rolling out my IR and advertising it on my site, 90% of my clients ask about IR first thing, not cost, not what association do I belong to, but do I use IR. It’s opened a broader spectrum of clients.
Scott
I have done Steve’s course in IR and it was well worth the money to learn a few ideas and applications, a must is get atleast level one or minimum do Johns course as a basis to get you wet. Stick time is paramount and you need to kinda scan everything for a while till you begin to understand what your looking at and for with the camera, times of day also effect image quality and what can and can not be seen , there are lots of applications and IR is becoming big business. definatly well worth the investment in equipment and education.
Also you may want to add a few items to help , get the anemoter with thermal and humidity readings airspeed from extech part# 45158. With this it will help in setting the camera and also for readings. hope this helps, and ask lots of questons, John, Steve, David, Kevin, Mario are all tops in IR and a wealth of Information
I did a sales meeting at a local realtor office this week where I showed the Consumer Guide Video, passed my camera around the class, and answered questions. The pitch I made for the pre-listing infrared inspections was that it was a golden opportunity for the agents to seperate themselves from the rest of the marketplace and build more referrals through the use of this technology.
