Daniel Rogers - Virginia Beach Home Inspector

This is geared toward Home inspection businesses but the methods are a proven success that can be applied to all businesses.

In the last couple of weeks I've had several request from inspectors on how I use sendoutcards.com to build my business so I'll elaborate here and show you some examples. Some of you are already using sendoutcards and some are not so I've posted a few public samples on google's picassa web . In the interest of full disclosure, I do get a referral fee if you sign up under my name which I would be grateful for but not my intention here. In fact I would incourage you not to sign up if you don't think you'll use it because it would be a waste. But the good news is you can try it and there is no obligation to buy or commit yourself.

I'm big on building referral business because those leads are basically sold and just need to be scheduled. So my primary use of SOC is birthday cards, thank you cards and keeping in touch cards. These go to agents, buyers and sellers I've done business with. Any referral I do get, I will send a thank you card to the referrer and include brownies, cookies or a gift card to express my appreciation. This all garners a lot of extra business for me. I have learned no matter how good you are or how much money you saved them, they forget you almost immediately. But if you keep in touch with a birthday card or thinking of you card they always remember you. It don't make sense to left brained people like home inspectors but let me tell you, it works. People love to be appreciated and it leaves an indelible make on their psyche. Each day after my inspections are complete I enter the names, addresses and birthdays of the agents, buyers and sellers into the data base. Birthdays are pretty easy to get these days off of facebook but usually I'll ask them straight out if they mind if I put them on my birthday card list and they always happily agree. Then I just get the month and day. Once I put that info in I assigne them to a 3 year birthday card campaign that I created. I'll also send the seller a funny "thank you for allowing us to invade your home card" because they are potential buyers. and I'll either send a "nice to meet you" or "thanks for the business" card to the sellers and buyers agents along with putting them on the birthday card campaign. Additionally all clients and agents get assigned to seasonal cards and holiday cards. But by far the birthday cards are most powerful. I think it's because you thought of them and associated yourself with their most important day of each year.
By the way, the cards I send cost 62c plus postage and they're good quality but most of all they do all the stuffing, stamping and mailing. It's insanely cheap and time effective.

For what i'll call "new work" or marketing I also use campaigns. First let me explain about campaigns. campaigns are simply a single card or a sequence of multiple cards that you create before hand and can assign to a contact in your database. I use the campaigns a lot because it's a huge timesaver. Even after you assigne a client to a campaign card you can still edit it with a special message if you want.
I use these campaigns for Fsbo's, Expireds and Builders anniversary inspections to get the pre listing inspections or the builders anniversary inspections. I get the names from a couple locations including MLS and tax records but that's a whole other post. The new construction names I import to the contact manager in January for the entire prior years sales and I assign them to monthly campaigns that go out in a two card sequence 6 weeks and 4 weeks prior to the expiration of their builders warrenty. I get approximately 3 direct inspection per 100 cards and several referral inspections once the neighboors start talking.
On the FSBO's and expireds I go for the pre-sale inspection campaign "selling your house fast with less aggravation" This campaign list some of the benefits and a special package deal I have exclusively for home sellers. All of my marketing type cards say "call from this card and I'll give you $25 dollar discount". None of my cards are slathered with logos or company stuff. They only contain the company name and contact information. Remember, it's very important to keep it personal. They can check out all your professional credentials online or when they call. But logos won't make the phone ring.
OK this is getting to long but I wanted to give you a better idea of how you can use personal cards to grow your business in a fast, affordable and friendly way. again, here are some examples:
Campains and individual client cards.
If you're interested in learning more, feel free to PM me. Or you can go road test it for free at sendoutcards.com

PS: if you have an account with SOC and want to use my campaigns I can "share" them over to you for your own use. If you don't have an account with SOC just start a free trial account and I can also share them to you so you can at least check them out.

OMG! price vs value illustrated. A repeat & devoted client of mine decided to try a cheaper inspector for his 3rd house because it would save him $45 . I pleaded with him and warned of the risk. Well...he just sent me this e-mail and has scheduled me to re-inspect this house that he now owns with all the problems. I feel badly for this man but maybe lesson learned.

Real Estate agents beware - This buyer is upset at his agent because he recommended this inspector.

Here's the e-mail
~~~~~~
I have only been in this home 2 yrs and I have some seriously hazardous situations that the previous owners hid and the home inspector missed. My bathroom is sinking into the crawl space, ceiling is caving in my son's room, exposed wall behind cabinets, tuna cans in the ceiling to catch the plumbing leaks, etc.
I now regret not using Final Analysis. Please contact me ASAP for a re-inspection.
thank you, Tony B*****
~~~~~~~

A customer just called me this morning and sadly she informed me that her husband had passed away suddenly just a couple of weeks after their home inspection. Their beloved family dog also died the same week. She wanted me to know that she treasures the card I sent using SendOutCards.com as it's the last photos taken of her husband and family pet. I simply snapped a picture of the family as I was leaving. The dog came around the corner to see what was going on so I snapped a picture of him too and put them both in the card (below) along with some cookies. ( I learned at the inspection that they loved cookies) This is a sad example of leaving a lasting impression but It made me feel good that I sent them this treasured card. A side note: They had a prior inspection done but they could not remember who or the companies name. They discovered me from similar card of mine that they saw on a friends refrigerator. They have also sent me several referrals to other family and friends. Not because I'm a great inspector, but because I cared and they remembered me for that. Front of card Inside Top Preview Final Analysis Home Inspections 757 495-2300 www.Final-Analysis.com Inside Bottom Preview 12/02/2008 Dear Steve and Kathy, I just wanted to send you this special card to say THANK YOU for trusting me with your business. It's now official, I'm the family home inspector. :) It was a pleasure meeting you and always great working with all your family. Now...here's some cookies for you. I baked them myself he he ...just kidding. But I wanted to return the yummy gesture. I wish you and all your family a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year. All the best,

Learn more about these cards here

If you think your customers will be impressed when you send them a card of appreciation with your logo and glamor shot, you should see how they react when they open that card of appreciation that contains familiar faces of the ones they love.

Just by accident I discovered that 3rd party appreciation is very powerful. Often times I take pictures of clients or their house and I put it in a card. Well sometimes I can't always do this so I'll take pictures of their pets or children. I was surprised at the positive reactions I got.

People need you to appreciate them and the cards are perfect for that. But if you take it to the next level and show appreciation for the ones they love, then your a hero for life. It's like proxy appreciation but it's more powerful than direct appreciation. If you think about it, it makes sense. What doting parent or pet owner wouldn't appreciate you showing kindness to their child or pet?

Loved ones are very important to them and they really are appreciative when you remember that. I even send birthday cards to their pets if I know the birthday. I often snap pictures of the pets (they never mind) while I'm at the house and put it in the card and address it to the pet. If you think clients like when you appreciate them, you should see how much they like it when you honor their loved ones. It's a huge hit and garners lots of referrals for me.

I use Sendoutcards.com to do this because it's so cheap, creative, original, easy and they do all the remembering for me. It's been my experience that these personal greeting cards cut through the competitive clutter of fridge magnets, calendars and other worn out commercial gimmicks and it completely circumvents the bombardment of Internet e-mails, pay-per-click, etc.

Here's a couple of actual samples I've sent.

Valentines card from pet to their human, via me

These people actually have a birthday party for their doggie.

To human from their pet, compliments of a little help from me.

I've got tons of kids cards to but you get the idea. I'll often send a mothers day card with a photo of their child. Trust me when I say, this is powerful, THEY DO NOT THROW THESE CARDS AWAY. As fine looking as you may be, they would much rather have a photo card of their child or pet. 3rd party cards like this create a powerful and lasting association between you and the ones they love.

Now that the housing market has frozen over and it's January, I've been seeing a lot of foreclosed, bank owned homes. I had 3 inspections this week on "winterized" homes and I've got to say I do not feel comfortable about this and neither should the buyer. When I get a call to schedule an inspection and I'm qualifying the appointment I get to the question, are the utilities on? It's the same answer every time.."well it's winterized but the bank said to just go ahead and de-winterize it."  Sounds easy enough, just close all the faucets and open the meter valve right? Wrong! First of all Home inspectors are not supposed to be turning on utilities such as water, gas or electric because of the liability that come along with that. How are we supposed to know what was wrong before or after this property was foreclosed. One of the houses I was supposed to "de-winterize" didn't even have any pipes in it because the copper was stolen by some crack heads. Often times it's the home inspector that first discovers these problems because before the buyer came along no one had a reason to care. The second winterized house I inspected must have been winterized after the water was shut off or after it already froze because as soon as we turned on the city water valve, water came gushing like an overflowing pot out of the top of the water heater tank. This water heater also happen to be the hot water source for the fan coil furnace. So we couldn't inspect the plumbing or the heat on that one. The third house also had fan coil water heat in the attic. We turned the water on and everything was fine for about 5 minutes when suddenly water came cascading out of the attic hatch. You guessed it, the fan coil was either corroded through or it had fractured from the cold.

Here's the problem. It's not as simple as just turning on the water. It can easily take an extra hour to find and close all water valves, find the water main, dig it out, bail out the water, Light pilot lights on furnaces and water heaters, run here, run there, only to find that something is wrong and you can't inspect those systems anyway. I've ben trying to deal with this because I want the work and I want to help the buyer. But I think it's clear that I should draw the line on how much risk and time I should take especially when it almost always doesn't benefit the buyer.

So what should a buyer and their agent do? The banks don't seem to care and just keep shoving that "as is" phrase up every ones nose. I think if the bank gets a viable offer on the property then they should make it and it's systems fully available for inspection so we can at least see what "as is" is. Why should those risk and additional cost be passed on to the home inspector or potential buyer? These homes should be in basic working condition otherwise the inspection is crippled. I think that when an offer is made, it should be contingient on the bank making the property and it's systems fully available for inspection and that includes de-winterization. They usually have all the utilities turned on so why not have it de-winterized at the same time.

What I'm going to do is start telling people that they must have the house de-winterized and recommend they try to have the bank absorb that liability before we can inspect. I'll explain the liabilities and limitations of doing this during the home inspection and the advantages of doing it before hand as it may reveal damages that can be repaired that might otherwise hinder the inspection.  I'm also thinking about offering to doing the de-winterizations as an additional service but I will have to factor in the extra time, liability and cost associated with doing this. The won't like it but they will have to be responsible for the extra cost. It's a hard sell but certainly worth it so they can get a full and complete inspection. If they choose not to have the home de-winterized then I will just not be able to inspect the things that can't be inspected and I'll disclose that up front and in the report. Otherwise I may find myself out in the cold.