Pre-Listing Home Inspections

PRE-LISTING INSPECTIONS

The Other Half of the Market

Ignoring about half of your potential customers does not sound like smart business.
But that is exactly the result for home inspectors who only market buyer home inspections.
The other side of every home sale is the seller. Call that half the market.
Home inspections for sellers – often called “Pre-Listing Inspections”  are routine in many markets, like New England. But seller home inspections are just starting to catch on this region.
The data is clear. There was about 20% revenue growth in the first years when a major national home inspection franchise company marketed Pre-Listing inspections. It was their key strategy when they were fighting the housing slump. It worked.
It works because it is a “win-win.” It’s good for everyone.
For sellers, a preview of the buyer home inspection saves serious money. Home buyers typically ask for $2 to $3 off the home price for every dollar of repair needed, one study found. That means sellers can save 200% to 300% by making repairs before it’s an issue. Savings like that usually make the Pre-Listing Inspection free, and profitable for a seller.
For listing agents, Pre-Listing Inspections eliminate bumps in the road to closing. Sellers who get repairs out of the way, and realistically price, have a lot fewer problems when buyers get the home inspected. Everything goes smoother, and faster.
That’s one reason Pre-Listing Inspections also pay by attracting buyers. The more showings, the more offers, the sooner. Buyer agents often show a Pre-Inspected home first. Buyers cruising around on their own pick homes with “Pre-Inspected” signs in the yard. People feel a seller is more trustworthy if they pre-inspected the home. Often sellers leave out the report with repair invoices.
Even buyers benefit, because they end up with fewer issues when their home inspectors check the home – a home they already love enough that they offered to buy to it.
No one – sellers, buyers, agents – ends up with an ugly surprise at the last minute. Now that’s a “win-win.”
Still, Pre-Listing Inspections take marketing. For all the good they do around the country, they are still news around here. They Kentucky and Indiana Boards of Home Inspectors should have been telling agents and sellers why Pre-Listing Inspections help years ago. One day they’ll wake up – and realize their mission of Aprotecting the public – means getting homes inspected.
Marketing Pre-Listing Inspections is long overdue here, and just beginning to take off in urban centers. But the potential to drive sales and serve the entire public is huge. The home inspections companies that lead in the next 2-3 years earning this market will hold a steady advantage, and better revenues, for years to come.

As the housing crisis got worse, Pillar to Post hired a marketing research outfit, Diboll & Associates, the pick up business for its roughly 300 U.S. home inspection franchisees.

Diboll & Associates recognized that these “Pre Listing” home inspections gave sellers an advantage over other sellers, as they could more accurately assess the value of their homes.
Diboll & Associates broke news of this nascent trend in USAToday, providing statistical references such as fact that home buyers will typically ask for $2 $3 off the home price for each dollar of repair needed. This encouraged sellers to fix that roof for $5k, vs. losing $10k $15k in the sale.
Diboll & Associates prepared key Pillar To Post home inspectors and respected realtors as spokespersons on the trend, offering discussion on how Pre Listing inspections benefitted sellers, reduced transaction time and provided greater security for buyers.
Diboll & Associates developed marketing tools based on trend media coverage to support individual Pillar To Post franchisees in their regions. Many aggressively marketed the Pre Listing home inspection, drive sales and revenue.
Pillar To Post enjoyed up to 20% revenue growth in markets where the Pre Listing inspections were marketed, and also saw uptick in markets even where there had not been regional marketing.
Some individual franchisees maintained steady revenue during the crux of the downturn, thanks in part to the Pre Listing home inspection trend.

Call Now Button