When I ask a Realtor why they work with a particular inspector or any kind of vendor really, they usually say he/she is thorough, on-time and communicates well with their clients.
I say, “well, yeah, of course,” but I think that should be the bare minimum before you put someone in front of your clients, right?
Imagine a world where your vendors are setup as a Real Estate Practice Cultivators. So, not only are they doing a good job for you and your clients, but they are bringing a level of service, expertise and back end support that brings a major WOW factor to your clients. That’s how you get referrals! Every one of your vendors should be WOW’ing them…
Now I don’t mean, being genuine, honest, thorough, on-time, communicating well… Those are all a given! If you’re putting your clients in front of someone that doesn’t have these minimums, start interviewing immediately.
I’ll speak directly to the home inspection business, since that’s what I know best; let me ask you a few questions:
- Is your inspection company helping you market?
- Do they cover you if the client were to file a lawsuit?
- What’s their plan if they missed something during the inspection?
- What if something breaks after the inspection?
- Do they have a relationship with manufacturers that gets them to fix outstanding problems with systems & appliances?
The answers should & could be…
- Yes, mostly by ongoing email effort to your clients on your behalf, although it has nothing to do with sales, only service and info your clients will want every month, and when they see your name and picture every month along with all that valuable info that talks directly about their house, it’ll be easy to remember you and forward that email to their friend or family when it’s time to buy or sell.
- Obviously, lawsuits are rare, but if it ever came to that, some people just end up having to leave the business. That being said, most lawsuits can be avoided, and if they can’t, who’s paying the legal fees? If it’s a home inspection issue, the coverage should come from the inspection company or the inspector.
- Did you know that some inspection companies will buy the house back, for whatever your client paid, if their inspector missed something?
- A 90 day warranty, although not common as they should be, are offered by the best inspection companies with every inspection.
- The best inspectors and inspection companies offer a report in tandem with the site inspection report, that will contain information directly from the manufacturer of all the systems and appliance, and outstanding service calls will be taken care by the manufacturer at no charge to your client.
These are a few of the best practices available to Realtors. There are more, but I figured I’d share only 5. You may have heard of a few of them or none of them, but at least now you know they are available to you, and at no cost to you.
Since most of the people you work with couldn’t ever give you as much business as you bring them, you hold all the cards; you tell your clients who to work with, don’t you! You should find out from every vendor you work with, what’s possible; ASK! What can you do for me? You’re bringing them the business, right? They should be bringing the latest and greatest from each industry to your clients. There are always companies leading the way with new ideas for you… They want to earn your business! Expect the best!
Just know that if you are in the mindset of growing your practice and setting yourself apart from all other Realtors, you should first consider leaning on all your vendors to help you be the WOW to your clients. If everyone you recommend gives your clients that big WOW, then you’ll have systematized much of your business to avoid client complaints, things won’t be falling through the cracks and you’ll be fast on your way to having more referrals than you can handle.
As for the answers to 1-5 above and how those protections work for you and your client, there are explanations and videos at http://eliteanalysis.com that should answer most of your questions.
Ask me how to get your vendors working for you & your clients…