need advice on marketing to realtors

[yo yo]

Hello,

I am newly certified home inspector, and I would like to get some advice on making a presentation at a weekly/ monthly realtor office meeting.

Basically, do any of you know where can I get information, idea's, or topic's on what I should talk about? Has anybody ever presented to a group of realtor's before, and if they have, could they give me some pointer's?

I also intend to offer the realtor's in my area 1 free introductory inspection so they can get to see what kind of service they can expect from me. Have any of you ever tried this tactic? If so, were the results positive or negative?

What work's when trying to get business- that's what I would like ot know. I'd really appreciate any help that can be offered on this topic. Thanks in advance for your time and suggestions.

yo yo

[MelB]

I wouldn't recommend the free inspection offer. You aren't really saving the realtor any money, and the offer screams 'new inspector'. This will make them worry about an inexperienced inspector scaring their client out of the deal, costing them money.

If you don't want to work under someone for a while, to get your feet wet, you are going to have to pound the pavement and meet Realtors at their office, at their coffe shops, and at open houses. I met one of my top referrer's, and a genuinely nice guy at a dog training class.

There is no sure fire method to get the referrals rolling in, but this board sure has a lot of guys (and gals?) that are carving out a living through referrals. Good luck in your new venture.

[kurt]

Understand one thing; you're going to be about the 10,000th inspector to hit them up for this sort of thing.

Trust me on this; none of them care a lick about you or your service. Offering them something free is just one more thing they'll hammer you on.

[Les]

Here I go - real estate agents are not your clients! You are not giving them anything, they are taking from you.

MelB has some good advice.

Be careful about the "certified" stuff.

Emphasis on your real client - home buyer or owner.

I been doing this forever and had some of the best minds in the world consider your question and the result is the same - your client will just mystically appear (in the company of a real estate agent)and ask who is the best inspector? They should ask who is the best inspector FOR ME?

[BlackJack]

Originally posted by yo yo

Hello,

I also intend to offer the realtor's in my area 1 free introductory inspection so they can get to see what kind of service they can expect from me.

yo yo,

Your client is not the realtor. So who gets the free one? Your service is to the buyer, which sometimes goes counter to the realtor who only wants to make a sale. So if you promote yourself to realtors as a guy who will get the deal done for them, you will be crossing an ethical line, which I'm sure you learned about. I'm not saying you cannot promote yourself to realtors, just be very careful how you do it.

[Scottpat]

Hi Chris,

All have given you good advice. Our profession is not as easy as everyone thinks, it takes a good deal of time and patience to make it as a home inspector. Being certified or having the title of master does not mean diddly squat when it comes to getting folks to call you. You just need to get out and meet and greet people.

Hopefully you went to a professional school that has some marketing materials that you could use.

I have found that if I send out a generic letter every other day to 10 real estate agents/brokers along with 5 business cards that I get a fairly good response or at least name recognition.

[Chad Fabry]

Instead of giving a realtor a free inspection, charge the realtor AND your client and then send me both checks. Let me explain the benefits.

IF you can convince the realtor to pay you then you've proven you're a God and that realtor will recommend you for eternity.

The client pays because everyone knows that nothing of value is ever free and they'll perceive high value when you charge them 30% more than the competiton would. (Even though you have no competition because you got money out of a realtor which is a scientific anomoly)

You then give all the money to me so you can feel as though you've sacrificed something for this advertising effort because nothing with value is without a price.

Repeat this process until you run out of realtors.

[Les]

Let me drift here a little - I think we are talking about real estate sales people, not necessarily Realtors. For instance, attys can be real estate sales people, but not a Realtor.

[DLRambo]

Chad -

Call me sometime (800) 474-8957. I don't know what you're smoking but I haven't had anything that strong since Vietnam. Could use some more.