We interviewed a Realtor friend from out of state. We wanted to gain perspective on what the relationship between real estate agents and inspectors is like from the agent’s point of view.

What has been your experience with home inspectors you haven’t worked with reaching out to you?

The ones in my area didn’t really (reach out). There were only a few that did it full time and they had been doing it for years, so they didn’t have to do much for marketing. I wish I had a better answer for you!

Can you speak to the process of a Realtor deciding whether or not to work with a new inspector?

Using a new inspector is kind of scary if I’m being honest. I definitely had preferences on different ones for different clients depending on the client’s anxiety level. The big thing for a lot of agents is knowing that the inspector will be thorough, but not inflammatory, so staying positive even when issues came up was a big deal for me. I didn’t go to inspections because our inspectors were members of the MLS and could access lock boxes, but if something major came up they would generally call during or after and let me know so we could talk through it and I had the information I needed to figure out how to work through it instead of blowing up the deal.

That’s understandable. We can always tell when an agent feels like they have been “burned” by an inspector.Can you speak to the idea of agents thinking home inspectors ruin their deals? We are there to report on the home- we’d be in breach of protocols set by licensing agencies if we didn’t thoroughly report on defects.

For me it’s definitely not about changing the report or skipping defects or anything like that. It’s more in the tone and the way it’s communicated to the client. Almost every defect has a solution if both the buyer and seller can get on board with it. I try to remind my clients that no home is absolutely perfect and that the home inspection is just another phase of negotiations. It’s just an all around better experience for the client if their whole team (lender, realtor, home inspector, etc) is working from a place of “how can we fix this problem” rather than “this problem isn’t fixable.” If that makes sense.

We could not agree more! And we get to work with many, many agents who hold the same philosophy. We love it when we find real estate professionals to work alongside who are positive, solution seeking, team oriented folk. It truly gives the client the best experience, and of course, makes for a fun day at work for the rest of us.

Thank you so much to the Realtor who agreed to be interviewed by us, we appreciate your honesty and transparency.