5 Marketing Strategies to Steal for Your Home Inspection Business in 2023
As you start your own home inspection business, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to market yourself. From handing out business cards to navigating social media and creating a personal brand, here are some of the best tips from the pros for how to market your home inspection business in 2023—and nail it.
Tips We Cover:
- Partner with Real Estate Agents
- Create a Personal Brand
- Hand Out Business Cards
- Become Active on Social Media
- Create a Website
#1: Partner with Real Estate Agents
Most professional home inspectors will tell you that the best way to market your business is to get yourself in front of some agents! This is an especially good opportunity if your marketing budget is limited—get out there and connect with people in the field. Their referrals, both to one another and to their clients, are excellent ways to help you land inspection jobs and stay busy.
By getting to know agents, you can also actively uproot any negative perception there may be about home inspections. You’re not someone coming along to “kill a deal.” You’re on the same team as the agents you work with. At the end of the day, your goals are the same: make sure that your clients end up with a home they love. And a home they love must be a home they’re safe in. By putting yourself in front of agents, you can tackle that myth first-hand while also building lasting relationships.
Here are some ways to build connections:
- Attend Open Houses
- Offer Classes
- Hang Out with Agents
Attend Open Houses
One way to get close to agents is to attend open houses alongside them. That means you’re also putting yourself in front of the home buyers.
This is one of the most popular tips from home inspectors, and for a good reason. Not only are you building relationships with agents by working alongside them, but you’re also sharing your knowledge with potential clients, too. It’s the perfect opportunity to share your inspection services, sample inspection reports, and make yourself a familiar face—especially for nervous first-time homebuyers who want to know what comes next.
Offer Classes at Real Estate Offices
Another way to make yourself known among real estate agents is to make a space for yourself in their environment. Sounds like something off Animal Planet, but it really works. So, schedule a time to meet at their office, and bring them some donuts to eat while you show them a little about what home inspectors do. Pass around your business cards at the end and offer ways to stay in touch. This is a great opportunity for them to understand your side of the business, and also find clients.
Hang Out with Agents
The best—and most fun—way to make connections is to build authentic relationships with agents outside of work. Rent a space in the same building as a real estate office you like so you can work alongside the agents you market to. Take agents out for happy hour, or, better yet, organize a fun group activity like TopGolf. Establishing authentic connections is key.
As you build connections with agents, don’t forget to share the things that make you stand out as an inspector. Your brand is what sets you apart in this industry, so here are some ideas from us to get you brainstorming.
#2: Create a Personal Brand
Branding is an easy way to spread familiarity. Come up with a logo, a color scheme, even a t-shirt design, and use it consistently across your business marketing. The more people see it, the more likely they are to remember and recommend you.
If this feels overwhelming, think of your “brand” as another part of your personality. You want to make yourself memorable and give your clientele a glimpse of who you are, and you want that to be authentic. Here are a few key questions you can ask yourself to get started.
“What is important for my client to know about the work I do?”
What are your values? Maybe you care about helping your clients understand in detail the issues they face. Maybe you care about making your clients feel like their issues are manageable. Maybe you want your clients to feel comfortable and excited to approach you with questions and concerns.
These values should be reflected in your brand. When you market your business, your values should be obvious to your clients and your connections in the industry.
“What makes me different from other inspectors?”
Are you certified in almost every area? Do you have lots of experience in different climates? Do you make everyone laugh? Do you live in a state without licensing, but got trained and passed the NHIE exam anyway? Are you AHIT-trained? Figure out what it is that makes you different from your competitor. It can be something as major as 15 years of experience in construction, or as natural as being someone who can make a friend wherever you go. Your brand should ultimately highlight these differences.
“What do people compliment me on?”
This is a funny one, but it helps to define some of the things that set you apart. If people are always complimenting the way you explain things, for example, find ways to incorporate that into your brand by creating social media posts that help them understand common problems. Or maybe when you network, you can hand out lists of common issues that arise in a home inspection.
“What drives me?”
Chances are, that one thing that motivates you to work as hard as you can will also be the thing that draws attention to your business. You love solving problems. You love to make people feel safe. Whatever it is, share that when you meet people. The more you share your passion with others, the more appealing your business will be to them.
“What do I want to be remembered for?”
There are dozens of angles you could take when considering your personal brand, but at the end of the day, you want to leave people with a positive impression of who you are and what you can do. What does that mean for you?
Create Your Home Inspection Business Logo
Once you’ve started to pin down the vision for your brand, you can get professional marketing help from InterNACHI. They’ll help you come up with a logo and other marketing designs that will take your brand to the next level. A professional, original logo will set you apart and make you look both credible and reliable.
Another good way of using this tip is to create a business card that follows along with a personal brand. Your branding is your business, after all. AHIT Instructor Chris Kjeldson says, “Everything we do is branded. When I get up in the morning, I got black pants and I got blue shirts, because my color is blue. My Jeep is blue! There’s all these little things we can do all the way through.”
#3: Hand Out Business Cards—Everywhere
Business cards are a marketing staple, and for a good reason. Especially in the home inspection business, the more available your information is, the more likely it is you’ll be found by clients. Design your card to follow your brand and then give it out everywhere you go. In a recent AHIT webinar, Joe Mazza (AHIT alum and HGTV star of Home Inspector Joe) shares that he would slip his business card everywhere he could get it. “I would promote myself at funerals. That’s where my mindset was. I would slip my business card in people’s pockets when they weren’t looking.”
#4: Become Active on Social Media
Social media is one serious beast, we know. With ever-changing platforms and algorithms, it’s easy to feel intimidated. Here are some tricks you can use to bolster your social media presence, and have fun in the process.
Social media is the perfect avenue to show off that personal brand and connect with people who are interested in what you do. Make posts regularly, in whatever way comes naturally to you. That could be sharing pictures of things you find on the job, or short videos describing different parts of a home. The more fun you make it for yourself, the more fun it’ll be for people to view your content.
Don’t forget to market on your personal social media pages, too! Professional inspector and AHIT alum Chris Chirafisi says, “All too often I hear of new inspectors missing out because family, friends, or new acquaintances had no idea they were a resource for home inspections.” Don’t be that inspector. Share your expertise. You never know what connections you can make if you don’t try.
This is especially the case when building relationships with real estate agents. Chris Kjeldson says, “Get on social media and be positive, and realize that the (agents) are there. Be involved in their lives.” If you’re going to be successful in the industry, that success starts with the relationships you build authentically. Joe Mazza adds, “When they post something, say you like it. Get in their brain. It’ll work!”
Check out AHIT’s Home Inspector Group on Facebook for an easy way to connect with other inspectors. This is a great place to learn tips from each other, share moments on the job, and more.
#5: Create A Website
To solidify your online presence, create a website. Don’t run, it’s not as scary as it sounds. Websites are a great way to create some credibility. You can link your site on your social media, include it on handouts, and more. It’s also a great addition to a business card. AHIT even offers a package for inspectors to get started. We take the hard work out for you, so there’s no reason not to give it a go.
Your Marketing Strategy Grows with You
The way that you market yourself will change and grow as your business does. The key is consistency, and finding tactics that work for you, not against you. AHIT offers training that goes outside of the education and the rules—we offer help with marketing too. As an AHIT student, you get to work with instructors who are also professionals in the field. They have been around the block a few times, so they can tell you what has worked—and maybe more importantly, what hasn’t worked—in their marketing journeys.
Don’t let personal branding and the idea of a marketing plan intimidate you. Home inspection marketing can be easy. Without a doubt, you have what it takes to stand out. Be yourself, highlight your differences, and get out there. AHIT has your back! We offer a variety of courses for people interested in making the change to become a home inspector. Our training is top tier, so anyone can do it, succeed, and have fun in the process. For more information about our inspectors or training, call 855.494.1870 or send us an email at ahit@theceshop.com