Is there anyone who is making enough money, or any money with the Move In Certified program to justify any marketing material they may have purchased, or time spent to get inspections directly related to MIC?.
Not that I don’t think it’s a good idea, I’m just wondering if any or many inspectors are receiving enough of these inspections through what ever marketing approach they might be using to justify even doing it?
Time-Money-Return (spent)…on their investments?
Thanks,
?
I have been watching and have not heard anyone bragging; The subject has been very quite.
17 MIC inspections, so far. All, except 5 (for contractors selling new construction) from people who have had their houses on the market for over 6 months.
The lowest fee, $325 (for a condo, the only one). The biggest, $1250.00, from someone selling (GC) a new construction and wanted inspection, plus pest inspection, plus mold inspection plus water quality, plus Radon (subbed out), plus pest inspection (WDI and rodents, subbed out) plus meeting with the Architect to discuss the cedar shake roof (a crappy job) and with the GC (another one) who was going to *** an a secornd floor to the garage.
It’s all in how you market yourself. :mrgreen:
Hope this helps;
Great job Will…!!
Now were you marketing MIC exclusively—or were you marketing your normal great service and great inspection report----?
Not one…for me. But I’m not marketing MIC at all.
This a good topic.
Let’s hear from those who have the proof that it works for them and
how they do it.
How did you do it Will?
I have been promoting MIC to various Realtors, in their offices and through Chamber of Commerce networking events. Realtors, in my area are sitting on a lot of inventory, both in numbers of houses and in house prices.
11 of those 17 were calls directly from the owner, and 8 of those 11 were selling as FSBOS. 2 of the 8 were calls from contractors who built the houses (for sale, tear-down McMansions) and have had a hard time selling them.
Check out one, now, on MoveInCertified.com. Use the address 305 Central, Wilmette, IL. I just do my normal report, but I woun’t place the sign until they fix the safety and major issues (that’s my take on it).
Hope ths helps;
I am thinking about getting a nice letter or flyer printed up along the lines of:
Gee, I live in the neighborhood and have noticed that you have had you house For Sale for a long time. Maybe I can help? And then pitch a Move-In-Certified inspection.
Really no different from a regular, pre-listing inspection. The only difference is the power of the Move In Certified sign and web site.
I have done two so far. The first one still has not sold and I got the inspection from a flyer I left as a door hangar.
The second one was a listing my wife has and I did the inspection for her because I wanted to get another sign out in someones front yard. That house just sold two days ago. I will be anxious to see the buyers home inspection report.
Both inspections have gotten me several phone calls from agents wanting to view the report.
I have been marketing MIC for about 5 weeks now and only generated 1 inspection.
By marketing I mean leaving about 1000 flyers with local realtors in week 1
Mass emails to about 1600 local realtors in week 2.
Mass emails to local realtors in week 3.
500 flyers to local realtors in week 4.
Week 5 is Turkey week not to much marketing. 1 Realtor office presentation for about 15 realtors. (lots of interest)
Also as I am driving around and see a For Sale sign I hang a flyer.
I have only generated 1 phone call from flyers (when left in a mail bins) and nothing from emails.
Now when I am handing out flyers and talking to realtors face to face I generate alot of interest.
So I am going to stay the course and concentrate on talking directly to realtors and generate more office presentations. That is where I get the most positive feed back.
The whole MIC program is new to realtors and will take some time I am sure and most realtors here already agree with and know the advantages of haveing a home inspection done ahead of time…its convincing there sellers to do it is the hard sell.
Hope this helps
Mike;
One good thing. You can target your market to houses in your neighborhood, or in a high priced area near you.
I would suggest making the flyer a little more personal, like you were writing it directly to the person whose house you were dropping it off at.
Hope this helps;
I sold one this week by mentioning it to a real estate broker who asked me how to sell her own property. Which really surprised me because I thought see was mad at me because I did not kiss the a$$ of one of her buyer clients at the cost of the seller, over a year ago.
She is getting everything fixed on the report. Now if the overpriced house sells, it will truly prove that MIC works. It is an old crappy spec home.
The realestate broker just called me and told me the MIC house went under contract yesterday. She then ordered a termite inspection from me on that same property. She wants me to inspect two more of her properties with termite inspections. She says she loves the idea of Move In Certified. Sound like we are going to do a coop ad on Move In Certified also. I am building a snowball.
Great. Nothing works right away or unless you work it.
Glad to see you understand this.
The funny part is I have not really worked it yet. She is the only person so far I have explained the program too. I have been busy moving my office.
David writes
Funny 
.
I did an MIC inspection for a builder. The house was going to auction.
The Realtor just called me and wanted to tell me what a GREAT idea this was. He said that houses, at auction, rarely have time for inspections and that this service was ready made for builders and houses at auction.
He told me that the key was a complete, thorough report, pictures in the report and that if the builder fixes the issues (I won’ty place the sign unless the major items and safety items are fixed and re-inspected) the report is added to showing that the fixes were done.
He told me that he has about 20 more houses that he is handling and that he will be recommending me to all those sellers. 
It’s all how you market it. Call house auction people in your area and pitch it to them.
Hope this helps;
A great thing to know.