While other inspectors are sitting at home or in the office, you could be on the road to earning more.

Probably the last thing that you want to do is a home inspection when it’s pouring down rain. But the Orange County Register in California proposes a different idea. Home inspections in the rain might be a great idea for home buyers, sellers and people who are fine where they are.

As a home inspector, this idea translates to more potential business and a broader swath for your marketing efforts.

Foul Weather Home Inspections are Great for Everybody

Regardless of whether a house is being sold or not, a home inspection during a rain shower is a good idea. For homeowners, an inspection can unearth leaks and other problems that stay hidden, such as attic leaks and wet basements. This lets your client focus on repairs that preserve the integrity of the home.

For sellers, the same applies but for a slightly different reason. Although buyers will have an inspection, a pre-sale inspection works as a heads up before the house hits the market. That way, repairs can be made as needed to help make the house more marketable. And then of course buyers really need an inspection to alert them to problems that might not show up when the weather is fine.

When the weather is dry, a walk through might not be as revealing as it should.

Why Inspecting in the Rain is a Good Idea

Roof leaks and flooded basements are only part of what you might find when you inspect a home during foul weather. Standing water in the yard might signal a clogged drain, says the Orange County Register. Gutters that don’t drain and water that stands around the foundation are more clues that the house needs some attention.

Leaks around a natural gas HVAC system or water heater could indicate a leaky vent pipe seal. Other places to watch for leaks are around doors and windows, where seals might fail. And while a flooded basement is clear and convincing evidence of something that’s amiss, whether it’s a bad grade around the foundation or something else, a damp basement might only reveal itself while it’s raining.

Your Marketing Efforts Might Reap Bigger Rewards

Most inspectors are always in search of new ways to grow their business. You can continue handing out business cards and networking with real estate agents to market for buyer home inspections. But focusing on whole communities could add a nice bump up in business. That’s especially true in areas where there’s not a tremendous amount of rainfall and leaks are tougher to find.

Marketing to a broader pool of potential clients makes you more valuable to the whole community where you work. The more you offer, the more people will need your home inspection services. And the more people who hire you for an inspection, the bigger your reputation as an industry leader will grow.

Bad weather might make you want to stay home and wish for better weather. There’s nothing especially fun about inspecting a house in the rain. But the added business might be more than fun; it might be downright profitable.

Starting a home inspection business is exciting and challenging. How do you get customers in the door? How do you keep business steady? A home inspection business offers a unique service; knowing how to attract customers can be the difference between success and failure. That’s when the right marketing plan comes into play.

Here are some marketing tips for your new home inspection business to help you attract a client base.

Advertise

Potential customers need to know you exist in order to use your services. Place ads in local and regional newspapers. Many papers are circulated in businesses and restaurants, as well as delivered via personal subscriptions, so the reach can be significant.

Flyers and Leaflets

Everything has gone digital, but tangible, paper advertisement can still be effective. Post flyers on free advertising boards, get permission to place them in real estate offices, and hit the streets on your own to hand them out. A flyer or leaflet gives potential clients something to save and come back to later when they need an inspection done.

Get in Good

When people first buy or sell a home, they don’t always think about their home inspection. But it’s a necessity when doing either, and you want to be the person they call. Get close with a real estate agency or individual real estate agents. Ask them to mention your business when showing homes to buyers. Whether they want payment or to refer you as a professional courtesy depends upon your relationship and what you’re able to work out. Make it a reciprocal arrangement by referring your friends and family to the real estate agent for buying and selling needs.

Bonus tip: Become a member of a national organization of certified home inspectors like the American Society of Home Inspectors. It shows that you’re educated, certified, and verified.

Get Social

Hitting the streets with flyers and business cards is a good way to market. But since everything has gone digital, it’s smart to use social networks to advertise. When building a social page for your business, include as much information as possible. The easier it is for prospective clients to find and contact you, the better. Also, be sure your listings on digital and hard-copy information pages is up to date.

Budget

Marketing for your business is a high priority. It will help get customers in the door and keep them coming back. With the vital need for marketing comes the necessary budgeting to consider. When doing the books, work your marketing expenses into your budget. Be sure to include a generous amount for advertising. Remember that your time is a commodity, and dedicate a certain number of hours a week to ground advertising and digital marketing upkeep.

Once your business is up and running, getting attention to your services is the next step. These marketing ideas are a great basis to grow your marketing system upon.

You’ll discover a lot of variation in air conditioners, and ICA School will prepare you for all of them.

The weather will soon warm up again, and air conditioning units will get a workout. That’s the classic time for lurking problems to surface. In winter, you’ll switch on the air conditioning just long enough to inspect it. But when the weather is warm and the unit might be running more often, problems that have been waiting to emerge can come to the surface.

Types of Air Conditioners You’ll Probably Encounter

A lot of different looking air conditioners are on the market. You’ll encounter some newer systems, and some that are so old they’re barely hanging on for dear life. You’re not typically required to inspect portable air conditioners or those installed in a window. The others will be central units and ductless ones.

Mini-split systems aren’t as popular as central units yet, but the ductless heat pump technology and efficiency mean they’re gaining ground.

Principles of Heat Transfer

Part of understanding how air conditioning operates is learning the principles of heat transfer. In general, heat transfer refers to the natural migration of heat to a cooler area, like the way heat from the sun passes through to the inside of a house in summer and heated air migrates out in winter.

As it applies to air conditioning, heat transfer deals with refrigerants that capture heat and move it someplace else. In our program, you’ll learn how each type of air conditioning removes heat from the interior of the home and releases it outdoors.

Different Types of Defects

Air conditioning is easy to operate, but there’s a lot going on inside. Defects might be obvious, with physical damage, or not so obvious, with defective electronics, leaks, or a number of other problems. Some defects only deal with an overgrowth of vines and similar neglect.

Air conditioning is one a home’s major systems. Maintained properly, they’ll last several years or longer. Left in disrepair, they’ll need replacement much sooner. A home buyer relies on the information that you provide to help guide him to a wise choice. Just remember that defects don’t necessarily mean a home isn’t worth buying, not that you’d offer any advice about that.

You don’t have to be a major corporation to enjoy the rewards of social media; it’s an inexpensive promotional tool.

If you’re like a lot of people, social media is where you share vacation photos and spend some time forgetting about the day’s work. But what if the same places where you socialize online could bring in more business? A lot of small business owners are already on that bandwagon, and many are enjoying the referral and brand building benefits.

Social media isn’t a gimmick, and it’s probably here to stay, at least for a long while. And ads are becoming more and more prominent. So should you use any of the common platforms to promote your business? It depends on what you’re willing and able to put into it.

Keep an Active Presence

One of the biggest, if not the biggest rule of social media business promotion is that you have to stay involved. There’s too much competition not to. Competition doesn’t just come in the form of other home inspectors, either. In fact, most of your social media competition has nothing to do with inspections at all.

Social media is a short attention span playground. If your followers don’t see a post from you in a week, they’ll start to forget about you. Wait two weeks, and you’ll lose a lot of readers. Longer than that, and you’ll nearly have to start over from scratch. Post on social media regularly – but no more than once or twice a day – and you’ll stay fresh in the minds of your audience.

Follow the One-in-Seven Rule

If you’ve never promoted a business on social media, you might have trouble figuring out what to say or how to say it. Why would the average homeowner take interest in an inspector when there are so many fascinating news articles and craft projects to read about? American Express Open Forum says to follow the one-in-seven rule and you’ll be golden.

This rule says that out of every 7 posts, only one of them should be a blatant advertisement for your business. The rest of your posts should focus on offering your followers something entertaining, informational or both.

If you can stay active on social media, your followers will expect and look forward to your posts.

Engage Your Audience

Social media isn’t like a print ad, television ad or billboard. It’s not a static thing. It requires at least some participation on your part, especially when you’re just getting established. The way to do that is to engage your audience, and the way to engage them is to ask for their opinions and comments and reply to them regularly.

Give your target audience something to talk about, and participate in that conversation with them. You’ll see your audience grow. A comment from a friend will show up in another friend’s Facebook news feed or a “retweet” will be visible on Twitter. You’ll make new friends, and the conversation will keep growing.

Offer Something Valuable

For any of this to work, you have to offer valuable content to your audience. Seven posts will most likely fall on deaf (or bored) ears if the posts are about the most fascinating lint deposits you’ve ever found in a dryer hose. But talk about something that piques interest, such as which home defects can cause the most expensive damage, and you’ll gain a reader or two.

The key is giving your audience something that they find interesting, not something that you want them to find interesting. You can even share posts that have nothing to do with inspecting but would benefit homeowners, such as the latest commentary from Bob Vila or This Old House.

A blog post about social media promotion wouldn’t be complete without mentioning LinkedIn, but that’s a different kind of animal. By and large, LinkedIn is a social network for professional connections. Home buyers aren’t likely to go there to find or interact with a home inspector.

But real estate agents and other professionals that you’d like to connect with are on LinkedIn. And those connections can lead to a lot more referrals than any individual customer that you’ll meet on Facebook or Twitter.

Social media isn’t for everyone, but it might be for you. If you can devote the time and stay consistent, you’ll reach a wider audience than without it.

Regulations help consumers feel comfortable with the service that inspectors provide.

All that you need is to do a simple Google search and you’ll find numerous news and opinion articles about home inspectors. You’ll read about what clients should expect from an inspection, whether inspectors perform a good service, and how buyers should always beware.

The “beware” part of the equation comes up often because although most inspectors do a great job, there are some who don’t. When an inspector overlooks defects and gives an inaccurate report, the consumer is right to be concerned. So that begs the question: Just who regulates home inspectors?

Why Regulation is Important

In an industry that enjoys a lot of freedom, home inspecting isn’t free from regulation. At least not in all parts of the country. And that’s a good thing, both from an inspector’s point of view and for all of the customers who need a home inspection.

Regulation helps home inspectors stay on top of what’s important in the industry. Home systems change, new hazards are identified, and new products are developed. With a controlling body, all inspectors have equal access to new and important information about the service that they offer.

Regulation also helps inspectors provide a more consistent type of performance. The uniform regulations mean, at least in theory, that one home inspection will cover the same ground as another, and that each inspector who follows those regs will be up to date.

Through associations, home inspectors can learn from the Standards and also from each other.

Home Inspection Associations Started it All

Back in the earliest days, there was no regulation. That’s because home inspecting wasn’t a true industry, and the only people offering help to home buyers were a few contractors here and there and others who knew their way around residential property. But it didn’t take long until the need for some type of uniformity became evident. That’s when the first home inspection associations formed.

All national associations, and likely all state ones as well, have a set of rules called the Standards of Practice. The original Standards were developed by a few associations working together. Then as groups gained more of a following, each one fine-tuned the Standards to their needs and set them in place as the rules for members to follow.

Standards are largely the same from one association to another. Each set breaks down which parts of a home are required to be inspected, which parts are exempt and how the inspection is to be carried out. To maintain membership, inspectors are required to uphold the Standards with every home inspection.

Some States Have Licensing Requirements

Many areas regulate home inspectors through a state-run agency, often a licensing board. These boards might have any number of requirements, such as regular continuing education and even internships before the inspector is licensed to work solo.

Licensing boards vary to a much greater degree than home inspection associations do. Some are extremely strict. And some are not. Some states have no licensing board at all, which is one of many reasons why associations remain a relevant and vital part of the industry.

Some licensing boards set forth education requirements, too. That means a board might require certain courses, a set number of education hours, and it might have the power to approve (or not) a home inspection school for the purposes of licensing. Attend the right school, and you won’t have to worry about whether those requirements will be bet.

Although home inspecting is a largely a lone wolf kind of occupation, fewer and fewer inspectors work in an area where there are no regulations of any kind. Where a state agency isn’t in force, association membership is important. It adds a level of professional integrity that gives customers peace of mind and it helps inspectors do a better job.