What Are The Merits of Having REA Name On The Report?

The real estate agent is not a party to the transaction between the client and the Home Inspector. Why would Home Inspectors put the Agent’s name on the report?

I don’t.

There is no ‘good’ reason what-so-ever.

It’s a “suck up to the Realtor” thing.

Obviously, I don’t play those games.

It’s great marketing. I realize some inspectors do not market to the agents but some do. Those that do increase their exposure which adds more business.

For instance www.HomeGauge.com/crl is a feature for agents and home buyers to use. They love it so they will want to use a inspector who can provide it.

Everyone bitches about other clients and Realtors using your report.

The report is for the client, and sometimes a Realtor represents that client. When you get a summons with another Client and/or Realtor’s name on the complaint (depending where who is listed on the complaint) wouldn’t it be nice to identify who the report was initially for?

No.

:-;;

Like this? It’s marketing.

Yep. Some agents do not recommend a home inspector. Their buyer will find the inspector through a great website or search as well as word of mouth referral. The agents who do recommend will add business to that inspector’s company. It’s always good to try to be that referral. There are still a lot of agents that care about their buyer and want the inspector to find whatever is wrong. Then there are the opposite. By marketing to the agents and doing your best inspection you will naturally be with the agents that care. At least that is my philosophy.

Listing who the Agent is, is a matter of Record.

For those that hate Realtors, this is not putting their name up in lights, it’s just a matter of record. It is your job to observe, identify, and report conditions at the time of inspection. The Agent happens to be one of the conditions during the inspection.

If you do many inspections, you may not remember who the Agent was that was involved in the sale. You may not ever know if they never show up for the inspection. When I get phone calls about an inspection, the first thing I do is pull up the report. The Listing Agents that sometimes call, do not tell you what side of the fence they were on. If for nothing else, it’s nice to have all that information available to you. Helps in keeping your foot out of your mouth.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful comments. I come at this from a very narrow point of view that the report is a tool that is much like many of my other inspection tools. And, aside from the signage on the side of my vehicle, I do not expect any of my other tools to do advertising and promotion for me. The only reason I put my name on my ladder is so it might be recovered if it is ever stolen. I might view the REA name as a small safeguard against some third or fourth REA misusing the report, but I just have never thought it was a typical occurrence.

I put the Realtor’s name, office address, phone #, e-mail, phone and picture if I have it in the report.