It would certainly make more sense.
Im with, and agree with Michael, and I also brought this same exact subject up about 12 years ago.
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Buyers don’t pay the commission. The sellers do. The seller negotiates a commission with the listing agent. Then, the listing agent “surrenders” a portion of that commission to a buyers agent who brings a buyer.
If the listing agent acquired the buyer on their own, the listing agent keeps all the commission.
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That goes back to what I said above. We generally work for the buyer. If an inspector wants to be paid a commission on the sales price, be prepared to inspect a lot of homes before getting paid. Let’s say a buyer looks at 20 homes before purchasing and your average inspection price is $400. That’s $8000 worth of inspections you may have to do for that one buyer.
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Thank you for that, I’m now reminded.
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A home inspection priced as a percentage of sale price would often be done for free. So to are contracts and negotiations that the buyer walks away from (done for free). You can price your inspections any way you want, but get your money up front. Only a fool waits for a closing that may not happen.
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I factor my price on home value along with square footage, year built, and foundation. Throw in hot market and you have 
.
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Inspectors always get paid regardless of whether the house is sold or not. Realtors only get paid if the home sells, realtors can waste years with clients who never purchase a home. While realtors make more per house, they are involved with far fewer sales than an inspector. Extremely successful realtors can make far more money than an inspector, however most realtors are not extremely successful. I was a realtor for 6 years ( previous to 12 years inspecting), Right from the very first I made substantially more money as an inspector than I did as a realtor. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.
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I don’t disagree. However, my wife has been very successful and makes substantially more money than I do. Like everything, it’s the time and effort that you put into it that will eventually make the money.
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I called her that today LOL!!! 
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I call my wife that all the time… LOL. She’s got way more money than me!
As for agents, they earn every penny they get IMO. As inspectors we have the best deal by far. Make an appointment when we want it, show up for a few hours and probably never see the buyers again. Agents? People want to start looking for a house when they get off work at 5PM and, of course, all weekend. And, who do you think is stuck with these nuts after we drop a 50 page inspection report on them? Aside from an occasional phone call we’re out!
I get the question and don’t fault OP for asking it but the same could be asked about trade that goes into the house. Why doesn’t the electrician get a cut? The excavator? I guess the best answer is because it’s just not the way it’s set up.
My past work before inspections was in restaurants and it always struck me as odd that the people serving the food are heavily tipped and make far more than the ones cooking it. I really liked working the cooking line but it didn’t take me long to figure out I needed to get to the front of the house.
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Yeeep, me too. Very odd. I started working in the front of house in restaurants when I was 16 and it can honestly be pretty fun, & decent money at young age. I love cooking and considered culinary school at one point, but working in the kitchen of a restaurant is tough work. I couldn’t do it. It always felt dirty as hell counting my tips, working out to about $40 an hour, while people in the back were getting barely over minimum wage. I usually threw the bussers a little extra though.
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I let my girlfriend know that I’m helping to change patriarchal social norms when she pays for dinner 
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I always tells people after restaurant work anything is easy 
I relocated recently (Oregon to Maui) and the inspection thing is a bit slow to start up so I picked up a bartending job a few nights a week to make a few bucks and get out of the house. It’s funny how after 20 years I just got right back into it. I’m actually having a blast. Although, it was physically easier at 30 than it is at 50! And yeah, the money is actually pretty good. Between my wage and tips I usually average around $40/hour. Not quite as good as inspecting but not bad for pretty much mindless work with almost zero responsibility.
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Never understood the animosity on here towards agents. They deal with a lot of $*** in order to close a deal.
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Agents do work with the hope of the ir client buying the first house they show them and that way their commission comes quickly. There are a lot of times where that agent will show a client multiple houses spending considerable time, fuel, meals away from home, wear and tear on their vehicle and then after all that the client decides to go with a different agent to buy a home. So the first agent does not get paid for all that time. As a home inspector I like to get paid each time I do my job. I do not think I would accept doing multiple inspections with the hope that my client is going to actually purchase a home I inspected and then I get paid.
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Last week, I was inspecting a condo and overheard the following, the buyer was purchasing the condo as an investment property to rent to his sister. However, the sister was the one choosing the condo. They started this process over two years ago and were now nearing the finish line.
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The reason is pretty simple. Two different professions, two different pay structures (result based and service based).
One is a sales position that get’s paid on commission from the result of the house being sold. (In Texas, the listing agent charges a commission to the seller and agrees to share the commission with the buyer’s agent).
The other is a service position that get’s paid for the service provided, regardless of the sales status of the house (hopefully).
(Long rambling metaphor about car sales and car inspections removed, too many extra words)
I have worked as an agent and as an inspector. I can tell you that it feels pretty good knowing that your are going to get paid every time you walk into a house. You aren’t getting paid what the agent is getting paid, but you weren’t there for the 20 other houses that agent had to walk into for free. You also weren’t there when the agent showed the buyer 20 houses for free and then got fired because the buyer’s cousin just got her real estate license. And your money was in the bank when the agent found out that the buyers couldn’t close on the house because the financing fell through.
This is why some agents get a little twisted if they think the inspector is “spiking their deal”. They have hours invested in this deal and if the buyer walks away because the foundation is in bad shape or the wiring is not safe, they will have to find another house or lose the buyer. Home buying is emotional not just for the buyers and sellers, but also the agents. It’s important to make sure the agent understands that the inspection is about educating the buyers and keeping everyone involved from having to explain things to a judge.
I like to tell agents that I’m more like a surveyor than an appraiser. Agents argue with appraisers all of the time because they are providing an opinion on value. Agents never argue with surveyors because they are providing objective facts about the property. I want agents to know that I am going to be fair, objective and non-negotiable. We can have a conversation, but we aren’t going to have a negotiation.
That was a lot more words than I intended. I think it might be time for a nap.
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