Despite the challenges of 2020, home sales rose dramatically. Homeowners either “stepped up a level” to find the home of their dreams—one with more outdoor space or the home office they now found they needed—or families repaired and sometimes even remodeled their existing homes with an aim to improve stay-at-home conditions.
No matter which way things went down, Pillar To Post Home Inspectors® inspected real estate valued at over $55 billion and served hundreds of thousands of customers. In addition, 40 new offices were opened, growing the network to 600 offices across the U.S. and Canada.
Things have changed in the home inspection world, and success comes from anticipating and serving those changes.
The biggest challenge today is the extremely “hot” seller’s market. Many sellers are forcing buyers to compete, and some of those methods are not good for the buyer or the REALTORS® involved. One such item is a “walk-through inspection,” or a “home inspection lite,” if you will. Unfortunately, it’s a bad tactic, and such an inspection can never meet the standards of sound due diligence for the purchaser or professionalism for our industry. No home is perfect, and financial, health and safety risks are commonly found during the inspection, which ultimately help a buyer buy with confidence.
While a thorough and excellent home inspection is essential, so too is the customer experience. And buyers cannot have the right experience if they don’t feel secure in their decision about buying a particular home.
In the early days of home inspection, the emphasis was often on the home inspector showing his/her expertise. What the inspector knew about homes, furnaces, roofs, plumbing, termites and structural foundations—these were crucial abilities to have.
Today, Pillar To Post focuses on ensuring confident homeownership in service to REALTORS® and the homeowner. This is an important moment in their lives. Moving is complex, and every house has its own history of repairs and maintenance and care. Unwelcome surprises should not be part of the experience.
Empathy and relationships, particularly in the last year, have played a huge role in our lives. People were encouraged to not welcome outsiders into their homes due to the pandemic. As a result, many of us had to find new methods to conduct essential services. Home inspections were one of those services, and Pillar To Post has responded with new ways to conduct thorough inspections.
See home-buying and selling as an emotional moment for the homeowner, and an important business moment for the real estate agent involved, as he/she also has a large stake in the transaction and a reputation to uphold in much the same way as the home inspector.
2021 brings new opportunities and challenges, and Pillar To Post has launched several new services to enhance the inspection experience, including virtual open house tours, 360-degree photo-enhanced home inspections, measured floor plans, an appliance’s remaining useful life and safety recalls.
Dan Steward is president and CEO of Pillar To Post Home Inspectors USA and has been lauded as a 2019, 2020 and 2021 RISMedia Real Estate Newsmaker. Pillar To Post Home Inspectors has been named No. 1 in category for nine years in a row on Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500® prestigious list ranking top franchise companies. For more information, please visit www.pillartopost.com.
