Members need something that works to get us good legitimate leads.
None of this hocus-pocus stuff. No shams. No top secret Willy Wonka crap. No recycled leads. No professional tire kickers. No what’s in it for me vendors.
Now something that is worth while that has been brought up in the members section is advertising at www.realtor.com
Listen friends times are tough, we all know this. Things are not getting better anytime soon. I’ve had my worst week in 5 years… and I’m no slouch in the biz. I do not piss away my time boo-hooing, or talking religion, or politics, or complaining at just about anything I can think of.
I care about inspections and providing for my family. We need to pull together and do something that will give us some real leads. Inspectorseek or all the other NACHI sites do not provide squat and haven’t in years. My wife is a local agent and NObody in her office has ever even heard of InterNACHI… well one lady Realtor asked if it was an old Star Trek movie :shock: I’m not bashing InterNACHI right now, I’m just giving you the facts.
InterNACHI is great in many ways like online training, certain benefits, and the message board… we all know this. I guess what I’m trying to say is we need something big that will give us highly targeted qualified leads… again www.realtor.com would be a viable option.
I’m not into drawl inspections, insurance inspections, or anything like that, my bread and butter is InterNACHI sop type inspections. We need to find a way to drum up some business for these type inspections. We need something big. Since we all know Nick runs the wheelhouse, once the majority votes on some big lead source, he needs to enact it ASAP. I’d set up a poll for let’s say 2-4 weeks, following up with an email to membership so everyone is informed and has a chance to vote.
My vote www.realtor.com banner ad. InterNACHI can dole out the leads, or set up a rotator type system.
Few REALTORs have any inspections to pass out right now and those few that do, don’t choose their favorite home inspector based on whether or not the association he/she belongs to runs ads on the very site agents never visit. It is simply not a factor in inspector choice, that they care about or look for (I was a top producing agent for RE/MAX for a decade).
And by the same token:
Few consumers visit REALTOR.com after they sign a sales agreement (the point at which they need a home inspector). Actually, I don’t think any consumers visit REALTOR.com ever, after they enter into a sales agreement. These are the consumers are trying to reach yet they are the last people in the world to visit REALTOR.com. REALTOR.com advertises homes and agents. The consumer you are trying to target just bought a house and already has an agent. REALTOR.com would be the very last place on earth you would find the consumers we are trying to target. Once a consumer finds an agent, finds a house, and enters into a sales agreement (this is the point where they now need a home inspector), they won’t visit REALTOR.com for 7 more years on average. You’d have a better chance aiming anywhere else in the world but there.
I applaud you for trying, but I eat, drink, and sleep this stuff. As they say…“Don’t try this at home.”
The path to success for inspectors, these days, requires direct marketing of a variety of inspection services, to consumers and homeowners (who have no intention of buying or selling).
Nick I’m glad you’ve at least joined the conversation. Things have changed since you were a top agent 10 years ago. I think you’re missing the concept here, or you yet to realize that I agree with what you stated.
We need to target the consumers. What InterNACHI is doing is not working. Maybe it worked in 2004, 2005, 2006 but not since then.
We need viable, real time leads, fresh from the internet. We need a site that directly targets consumers. So you do not like Realtor.com, how about www.yellowpages.com or www.superpages.com? We do not need fluff or gimmicks. We need something for the established inspectors to generate bread and butter inspections.
Not free rare coins, or focus groups, or secret missions. If you do not want to pursue a large advertising project for the members just say no thanks and I’ll get the point. If InterNACHI does not have the funds to support this type project, I understand.
It is very natural for inspectors to assume that consumers about to need an inspector are on REALTOR.com when in fact, that is the last place you will find them. Not giving it much thought, I would make the same incorrect assumption.
And so Jim is 100% correct. We promise to never waste member’s dues based merely on the assumptions of a “majority” of members. Relying on the appropriate skill sets has shown time and time again to serve members better than mindlessly counting ballots.
I have to say I agree with Nick your name needs to be in the Realtors mind or reach at the point they tell the customer that they should get a home inspection.
Just promoting the three deadly mistakes help us all out EVERYONE NEEDS A HOME INSPECTION if every home sale had a home inspection we would all be better off!
Lobbying whoever it need be to try to make a home inspection mandatory is the answer to keeping us all busy. No matter which organization you belong to.
I don’t like yellowpages.com or superpages.com because of the drastic changes in our industy over the last 5 months. I don’t like them because people come across those sites when looking willy-nilly for a home inspector. And people these days don’t look for home inspectors. Let me repeat that: People don’t look for home inspectors. If you are relying on being in the right place at the right time and being one of a few inspectors available when a consumer is looking for a home inspector, at a time in history when consumers don’t look for home inspectors… you are making a mistake. The world has changed. No one out there needs you. At the risk of being cruel, I’ll repeat that one again too: NO ONE NEEDS YOU. And no one is looking for you.
The path to success is found in making a consumer, all of a sudden, want you… and only you.
Off topic. If you want me to continue, start a new thread called “the path to success” or something.
Maybe I’m missing something but a direct consumer finds you on yellowpages.com searching for ‘‘Atlanta Home Inspector’’ just as much as if they were to go to Yahoo.com and type in ‘‘Atlanta Home Inspector’’
Sorry, I think I’m missing something here? The internet is all about being in the right place at the right time. We all know the more rural area you service, the less likely a consumer will find an inspector on the web but many inspectors cover a large coverage area. It’s also about having many vehicles driving traffic to your site. It’s just InterNACHI web vehicles are not producing OR we need more vehicles. So Nick are you interested in finding us some more bread and butter inspections? Does InterNACHI have the funds to put toward a project such as this?
Ray, read my post above again. Consumers aren’t looking for home inspectors, so it really doesn’t matter if you are where they would look, if they did. They aren’t. I’ll put the post here again for you to read:
Gromicko writes:
Read my lips: CONSUMERS DON’T FIND THEIR INSPECTORS BY LOOKING FOR THEM.
Anyway, your comment above about us not needing “secret missions,” refering to my posts about the focus group for the big project we’re doing, was made by you on a thread regarding REALTOR.com. The founder of REALTOR.com who built the parent company into a multi billion dollar operation… is none other than the very same man handling my “secret mission”… as you call it.
I understand what you’re saying InterNACHI is not interested in finding viable, real, credible, leads, or more so throwing a few dollars into such a project.
I’ll look at the secret mission a bit later… I got to finish my inspection report.
It is not NACHI’s job to get us inspections. That is something that we each need to do on an individual basis for our own business. NACHI is merely a membership organization that can supply us with information and education to assist us in helping ourselves. Leads and contacts are a extra bonus.
Do you think the AMA advertises for, or sends leads to physicians? Nope.
Do you think the NAR advertises for, or sends leads to individual Realtors (businesses)? Nope.
Do you think your state Bar Association advertises for or send leads to lawyers? Nope.
While it would always be nice to have someone advertise or do the work for us, that is not the job of the organization.
You can list yourself on Superpages with a free advertisement or pay for a more prominent one. You can list yourself on Yahoo or Google or any number of directories with free listings or pay for a more prominent one. These are the choices for an individual business to make. Don’t have enough jobs? Then you have the time to start searching and listing yourself / your business in dozens if not hundreds of directories, many without charge.
And also perhaps stop belittling InterNACHI projects being run by the very men who made the very monster site (REALTOR.com) that you so much think we should advertise on, into a multi-billion dollar operation. Kind of like belittling Steve Jobs from your iPhone, no?
Anyway, in terms of success tools, I don’t believe there is another association that provides anything like www.nachi.org/success.htm
Ray, I’ll venture to bet that you haven’t done even 1/2 of the 183.
Buyers indeed look for and seek out inspectors. I have clients contact me everyday from my website and other sources. Today’s buyer is looking for outside resources and information about obtaining their own inspector without using the realtors recommendation.
BTW, realtors don’t visit the front side of realtor.com, home buyers and home sellers do. More than 1 million agents and their associations pay fees to place their property listings on realtor.com with the sole purpose of listing exposure to the home buying public.
NACHI will not spend a dime advertising on realtor.com for one simple reason. There is no way for the NACHI ownership to profit from it…
In Illinois, about 10% of the inspectors do about 90% of the inspections.
These inspectors have a few things in common:
They are full timers (inspections only).
They are very well educated (college degrees and well over the “bare minimum” state CE requirements).
They know how to run a business (i.e., they know basic business law, accounting, payroll, A/P, A/R. etc)
They spend every business hour, that they are not doing inspections, doing marketing, networking or writing articles.
They know how to form business partnerships.
They network.
They are educated in new technologies (i.e., thermal imaging, WDO, environmental inspection, etc).
They are IRC certified.
They are NEC certified.
They look for “non-traditional” sources of business (i.e., building consultation, water intrusion inspections, energy audiits, mold or WDO inspections, phased construction, builder consultation and quality control, draw inspections, insurance inspections, rehabber bank draw inspections, transition and reserve studies, etc).
I have been turning away inspections (regular home inspections) and passing them on to other NACHI members, for the past month. I have also been working with other NACHI members, in business, that I don’t have a lot of expeience in (reserve studies) and hiring them on, or subbing to them. I have been doing a lot of thermal work, energy audits, consultations and contractor consultations. I still do regular home inspections, but I do not limit myself to them. I also just set up a partnership with a large “hard money” rehab funding bank and now do all their “draw” inspections in the Chicago market ($150 an inspection, pictures only report, with minor comments, about 20 minutes an inspection). I was referred to them by a fellow NACHI member in another state. (NACHI RULES).
Business is business and money is money.
Today I did 4 thermal imaging inspections, with regards to energy and in conjunction with a local insulation company, but also referring a real good local HVAC guy to fix all the problems created by the original installer. 2 of them were for GCs, inspecting their houses. They were impressed (because I did a good job) and will use me for their own business. Took home $750, and didn’t have to write any reports. And I created more contacts and generated more business.
So you admit to belittling something you haven’t even looked at?
No wonder you hilariously did the belittling of our project on a thread that you started about REALTOR.com You had no idea of the connection between the two.
Finish your inspection report after you take your foot out of your mouth. LOL
REALTORs don’t visit the front side of REALTOR.com… so running an ad there won’t be seen by REALTORs.
And I already explained that buyers and sellers don’t need an inspection at the point when they are visiting REALTOR.com as they are on the site looking for homes or agents. They haven’t even found a home yet (too early). Once they find an agent, find a home, get their offer accepted, and are in need of an inspector… THEY ARE NO LONGER ON REALTOR.COM!!! Why would they be on a site that helps you find a home… they already found one! (too late). REALTOR.com is the last place they will be!
I can keep explaining it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.
