Whether your sellers are interested in having a pre-inspection completed prior to listing their property or your buyers are looking to make an informed home purchase, ensuring they have access to a trusted professional home inspector is essential. This is even more important as many markets cool across Canada and transition into balanced territory or even a buyers’ market this year.
Business partnerships that are win-win work well and have longevity, and each party must understand the value brought to the table by both professions. In other words, a good home inspector isn’t going to exaggerate a problem and encourage a buyer to walk away from a home, and a good real estate agent won’t prevent a home inspector from doing their job.
As a real estate professional, it may also prove beneficial for you to attend a few home inspections to understand how they work, what’s being examined and how the inspector determines areas of concern.
All home inspections should disclose the condition of the structure, foundation, plumbing and electrical systems, windows and roofing. An inspector will provide alerts to caution areas based on the age of the house as well as specific characteristics, note previous renovations and specify issues that must be addressed immediately versus ones that can be remedied in the future.
Both pre- and post-offer home inspections include thorough reports that become the property’s operations manual, detailing deficiencies, safety concerns, system shut-off locations and maintenance suggestions. Of course, the more educated everyone is on a property, the better for your clients – buyers and sellers.
Value-added services in addition to professional home inspections
When partnering with a home inspection company, be sure there are value-added services offered to make your job as a Realtor easier as well.
We bring several added benefits to the relationship including a Repair Request List via our software program that enables you to easily add personalized notes and create a pdf that details repairs to be made to a particular property. You can then present this plan to the homeowner/homebuyer.
As well, all our homeowner communications are cobranded with their Realtor’s contact information to help keep our partners top-of-mind with clients. Even home maintenance inspection marketing we send out a year after the initial home inspection has been completed is cobranded with the Realtor’s information.
We provide comfort to our partners by always ensuring our home inspectors are both professional in appearance and knowledgeable. Our inspectors arrive at every home wearing a uniform and driving a branded vehicle. And they educate every homeowner on the particular property, not just its deficiencies. That’s because our inspectors undergo rigorous training well above industry standards, including technical, business and field training. This professionalism helps further enhance the image of our referral partners in their clients’ eyes.
As a true partner, we also go above and beyond to protect our referral partners and homeowners. For one, we provide Realtor Liability Insurance, which covers the legal costs for a Realtor named in a lawsuit for a property we inspected.
We also offer a Warranty and Client Protection Program to safeguard against surprises that show up when a homeowner takes possession of their new property that weren’t evident at the time of inspection. When selling a home, people often try to cover up issues like mould, for instance, by cleaning affected areas so that no warning signs are evident. But, as we know, mould will quickly reappear if the root cause isn’t addressed.
As a partner, we’re here for you well after we’ve conducted a home inspection for your client. Have questions about partnering with your local A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections? Contact us today to learn more! https://partners.abuyerschoice.com
