ATTENTION REALTORS

Please read this. It can mean a lot to your business. Realtors clearly earn their money. You'd like to hold onto it.

Has this ever happened to you? You've gone through the sometimes-arduous sales process with your Buyer or Seller, showing the property, negotiating the price, discussing contingencies, working with financing, etc.? It's a lot of work and can be frustrating and sometimes quite difficult.

Then, right before close, an unknown, yet preexisting issue arises that is causing, or has the potential to cause, great damage to the home. This is now throwing a monkey wrench into your deal, endangering it or your reputation. Or perhaps it occurs immediately after the close, having a negative impact on you and your reputation if it isn't fixed? We know it happens. Often it falls to you, the Broker/Agent to foot the bill for the repairs. So, you do. No one else is going to pay it and there's going to be a lot of ticked off people if you don't. Your business is all about your reputation. We know of Brokerages that budget more than $250,000 or more annually to cover this expense. The Plumbers Report Card can virtually eliminate the chance of that happening to you ever again for FREE.

It's like this: You've got a seller who has made the price work and has agreed to certain contingencies to make it all desirable for the Buyer and he/she is now ready to close the deal and move on with their lives. You've got the Buyer who has agreed to a price, worked out any contingencies with the Seller, and is now ready to move forward with the purchase and then something pops up that neither party wants to fix. The Seller has worked with his Agent/Broker, paid for the inspection, made the deal, and now wants to move on to a new chapter in his/her life - in a new home. The Buyer thought the Home was being sold free of problems, and he or she has possibly pretty much been tapped out to make the purchase happen and he/she wants to make the purchase right away and move forward – leaving you in the middle with your good reputation. Sometimes it's a little problem. Sometimes not so little. What if it's a costly plumbing problem. What will you do?

You probably do what typically happens in such a situation. Neither Agent wants to lose the deal so they each give up part of their commissions to pay for the repairs. Buyer and Seller are happy but you just gave up your hard-earned money. When it's a plumbing issue, it cannot be ignored as even small problems turn into big ones eventually, so it must be dealt with. Ask yourself why it wasn't found pre-close and subsequently corrected?

After looking into the issue, we believe that all parties to a Home Sale expect too much from your typical Home Inspector and they give too much weight to their reports. Like in everything else, there are differing levels of knowledge and skill involved with the Inspector. Generally, Home Inspectors are not Plumbers. Instead they have good overall knowledge. As a result, not every Home Inspector has the skill set needed to conduct an accurate and complete Plumbing Safety Inspection.

There are few things worse for a Home than Water and Fire. The typical Home Inspection itself is designed to be an overview, looking at multiple aspects of the Home, locating only the most obvious problems. Their inspections are not intense enough for dealing with something so important. They overlook the fact that again, many small plumbing problems eventually become very big ones and again, there are not many things that are as destructive to a home as Water.

A Home Inspection is supposed to tell the Buyer they can buy a home with confidence and believe the home is problem-free and the Seller that he/she can be confident they are selling the same thing. However, despite inspections being performed on the vast majority of sales, too often that is not the case. The inspector is not a plumber. There can be surprises that are maddening to the Buyer and Seller.

We personally know people who have gotten the green light from Inspectors and then a few weeks after moving in, they are having to completely remodel their entire bathroom due to a plumbing leak that was present and had been for some time, which has left the double vanity, the wall, and the floor quite damaged and contaminated with mold. They are quite unhappy after paying half-a-million bucks for the recently purchased, just inspected Home.

They do not know why it wasn't discovered and they are doubly angry about incurring a large remodeling expense right after buying the house. If they go to the Inspector, by contract, all they can recoup is the inspection fee for a repair that will cost them many times the inspector's fees. They turn to the Realtor because it was he or she who has represented the Home as a problem-free place to live, and possibly even recommended the inspector. They are ready to report their negative experience all over town on various review sites and through word of mouth that will really hurt the Realtor's reputation and their future business.

Had the timing been different, it could have been forced to be an obligation to the Seller, and they would be equally unhappy. Why was it missed during the inspection? The Realtor, for his or her part, finds that it is far better to pay for the repair than suffer the negative impact the bad publicity would bring, so he or she pays for the repair in an effort to make it all go away.

A large RE Office can pay out Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars each year on claim settlements. Many of the problems that cause claims should have been known beforehand.

Now there's a solution to that.

The Plumbers Report Card is a standardized, all-encompassing Plumbing Safety Inspection tool created by a Master Plumber with decades of experience behind him. The Plumbers Report Card guides the Inspector through the entire inspection process, ensures all aspects of a home's plumbing systems are inspected – and will not create nor send the Inspection Report to all interested parties until all items are inspected and graded - with photos, videos, and notes of each item attached. That way there are no surprises and informed decisions can be made BEFORE these issues arise.

For more information click the “Contact Us” button to your right, complete the contact info form, and we'll get in touch with you right away. At that time we will give you the information and the materials you'll need to have you and your Agents reach out to your inspectors and insist they use our App.

It's not too much to ask. It's your money. You send them business.
It costs you nothing and gives you Peace of Mind.
Start saving money now!