[Bill Schwab]

After consulting with several local realtors, I have a new start up we are going to get off the ground.

I get bombarded with requests from realtors who want us to go to a property in escrow and examine thises and that's. Home inspectors typically will not cover anything that is not structure, irrigation or drain systems, walls, patios, etc.

Persons purchasiing property have 17 days before their deal is locked to back out without cost.

These realtors expect me to drop what I'm doing, check the place, and then write something up to present to their client.

So, creative mind I have, California is a place where much emphysis is placed outdoors, because that is why they pay the absurd prices for homes they do here.

So, my venture. I'm starting a landscape inspection company. As a licensed bonded contractor, NCMA certified, who better qualified to make written assessments of outdoor spaces? The cost will be $350.00 per home, and a written report will be made and E-mailed to the agent for their client to have.

Being that we are the only company at the monent who does this, two things will come from it. We will generate a revolving line of income known throughout the real estate market to help present issues clients have with landscapes. This can either save them thousands, or cost them if they choose to repair them. Second, what better company to repair the items than the one who did the inspection, and those inspections can easily be converted to assessments for estimates.

I realize this may not fly in other parts of the country, but we are a 12 month outdoor state.

I would like to have as much thought good or bad as you can throw at me.

Looking forward to seeing what all you got to say....



b

[Matt Kulp]

Bill,
I think it is a great idea and is something that I have done on a limited basis in my area. The only negative thing that I can say would be to watch the liability issues with missing something on the property. I know that you will be very thorough, but things happen and if you miss something that could be important to the customers decision in the purchase, I would think you could have some liability. I know if a inspector missed a foundation crack or termites and they showed up after settlement, there would be some issues. JMO

[Rick Carver]

Bill

Seems like a pretty good Idea,,,,, " con ",,,,, I only wonder why someone else hasn't thought of this before,,,,, Liability is my biggest question here and has to be taken care of by the best lawyer out there,,, now I mean a really good guy that will help you set up your whole inspection process so that when any liability issue shows up it will be capped or a shared claim. Example, this lawyer should be good with contract law,,, his firm has to be experienced with PLANNED,,, CONTRACT LIABILITY LIMITS,,,,so he will help setting up or OK your request form.... FROM..... the customers as to what will and wont be inspected and or covered by your work. Your..." WORK " may be able to be classified and accepted as an "expert opinion" and not a validation of any kind,,,, this will accomplish 2 things,,, one, it will correctly point the liability finger at you,,, if anything ever does happen,,,, only in PART!!!!!! due to the fact your opinion hasn't caused liability and can only be partially liable at best,,,the contractor who installed whatever would have contributed to the liability mostly etc etc,,, two,,, this kind of legal direction will cause you to build your new venture on EXPERT advice and opinion, so you will have not much overhead or inventory, LOLOL ;-) I hope you consider to name and set up this venture a different name then your present contracting company,,, for nothing more then liability and also to not look like a monopoly of sorts with this field or venture. If I noticed a report provided by abc. and it stated that it would be in my best interest to correct this or that or contract with ABC to do this for you???? I would automatically look for another quote just to make sure I am not being scammed,,,, PRO,,,, I just think that if you make this fly (and I know you can) please keep a diary so you can show me what to do and I would buy your first franchise! ;-)

Go get em Bill!!!!

Take care
Rick

[Lanelle]

Great idea! Regarding the liability concerns: Carry E&O insurance. In your shoes, I'd probably call up my favorite engineering firm and ask who is their insurance agent and carrier and exactly what insurance they are required to carry. I'd also think you might want to set up a consulting agreement with the engineers to come in and do a more technical assessment when warranted, at an extra cost to the client of course. Just another way to insure a thorough handling of complex problems which se results in a higher charge.
If this business really grows, you might have an engineer on staff. That person's recommendation regarding the best contractor for the job could be very lucrative.

Hope this is a big success!

[HardDaysKnight]

It's a great Idea bill. I have been considering doing this for
years. The only difference is , I would cater to the buyer not
the seller as a consultant on the same issues. They are purchasing homes here that are situated in the worst
possible ares for drainage. They are buying homes here with aspirations of having an in-ground pool not knowing they are in
the "pine barrens" and that land cannot be altered whatsoever.
I would suggest you switch to the purchaser and you may
find yourself inundated with consultations.

[cutntrim]

Sounds like you've put a lot of thought into it, and I'm sure your wife is positioned to give sound advice/leads as well, given her profession.

Here in Ontario there aren't any restrictions (as far as I am aware) to calling yourself a "home inspector", so there certainly wouldn't be any with regards to an exterior landscape inspector. However, I recall reading recently, about the issue of conflict of interest where repairs are concerned. I can't say about the legality of it, but it might be difficult to present yourself as an unbiased inspector on the one hand, while on the other you are making yourself available to do the repairs that you are documenting. Likely you may have thought about that already...

California is certainly different than Ontario though, I can't see that service being in demand here.

[pineapple]

What a great idea!

My only thought is you are not charging enough. It should be $500 at least.
Consider travel time, on-site time, your office time, plus admin, not to mention insurance.

Perhaps you should be charging around $100 per hour, since you are extremely knowledgeable about this?

Especially when the price of a home is so astronomical in CA.

[Squizzy Taylor]

Bill, If I was the intending home owner and the agent gave me a report done by a landscaper who is likely to have an interest in further works at the property I'd throw it out due to a conflict of interest. An inspector, surveyor, auditor, personage who does condition assessment should be independent and unbiased. I'm sure you would be these things but you are connected with the "repairs". I like to see true independence in business.

Now, having said that, most engineers who run say a design office generally do some inspection and reporting works on the side, which can lead to them getting further works. Most do it ethically without any real problem but a legal eagle will make the connection in a dispute. I would be more worried about being seen to be feathering your own nest rather than the straight up liability issues.

Just my take on the issue.

[Bill Schwab]

Thank you for the input ladies and gents!

Rick:

Your input is always critical to what decisions we make internally here. The liability thing, I all over it. The name is different, and, since home inspectors don't have a license issue like contractors do here, this venture is filed as an LLC not a corp.

It has separate check books, separate bank accounts, and uses a completely separate method of accounting. As with every job we perform, we will keep a communication log. Communications logs are the oine and only thing that prevail on all disputed construction related lawsuites, and are but savers for those who keep impeccable records.

Pinnapple:
I thought about the rates for a while. I have to get an employee and build to more, targeting a close to retired or retired landscape contractor. Perhaps a native CA person who, failed to plan, and there are many of those here. They are content renting a room near the beach for $500.00 a month. So I pay them 40% for example of each inspection they do. We create a check list of what has to be done and a system of how the whole thing will come to fruition.

At $350.00, we are right in the same range as the home inspectors rate top realtors. So, the employee gets $140 ($70.00 per hour for 2 hours) and our company get $210.00, which should cover E&O, overhead for the venture and and bank some time.

My soon to be hired A/A for Naturescape needs more to do right now than we can give her, so the administrative stuff (computer generated report) will be subcontracted to the Naturescape employee. Now she has a full day.

Ding off 3 inspections a day which in all reality one can do, the employ gets $420.00 per day (where will anyone find that) and we get $630.00.

Though I love the thought of $500.00, I would need to test the waters at $350.00 first, and just see what kind of responses we get when the first wave of flyers hits the realtors desks and mailboxes. There are 40,000 registered, licensed agents in San Diego who have experienced the problem of out door inspections.

To all else, thank you for your thoughts, it helpos me keep in check here. I'm on a roll. The first wave of flyers will hit the desks and mailboxes in 4 days. We shall see what comes of this as the real estate market heats up for the before school move craze. Believe it or not, this is a seasonal business here, and will revolve around when houses sell, which, typically run very hot from January to August, then a lull. Still movement, but slower than most.

[Rick Carver]

Bill

I was pondering the " bizz building" " networking" aspect regarding your new venture, this morning. I am pretty sure, knowing you, that the thought of breaking ground with this new bizz and marketing it,,, has also been given a lot of attention.

Some thoughts of mine. With Patty's industry connections, well it's a given,,,, lot's of great and profitable possibilities,,(luck guy!) but don't forget that LA's that you ARE FRIENDS or HAVE A STRONG HONEST CONNECTION with may be one heck of a lead generator especially with multi home projects that the builders already have a Landscape company contracted to work in. After we finshed having our home completed by a custom builder we had a few issues. I found in the book a inspection company that was owned by 3 previous county inspectors and would for a SMALL fee oversee your new home construction and guarantee the delivery to be within the plans specs. Also inspection svc's of after the fact and code compliance and industry standard quality etc. Bet you can do the same thing. I often thought about it myself. Even home owners who are thinking to spend XXX $$$ should be able to look up a company that can oversee or even ram rod a landscape job affordablly. Why do our customers have to almost become experts in landscaping before they sign on the line for there next install? On some of our big estate work the process was to show the client the plans and sell the type of plants they enjoyed etc. Then we worked with an on staff person who normally knew what he was doing over seeing the project that was on staff for the client,,,, hmmmm,,, lot's of possibilities here eh?

Good luck bud,,,,
Rick

[dan deutekom]

Cutntrim is right that in Ontario there are no restrictions on calling yourself a "home inspector". That being said it is now recommended that if buying a house to have it inspected by a home inspector. Ten years ago you never even heard of them. I think Bill is at the leading edge of things with this. Give Ontario another 10 years and we will be there too.

[Bill Schwab]

Ahhh the gears are turning indeed. This thing could very well ex freeken splode! I'll let you know how many calls we get when the flyers hit the agents desks Friday. Since real estate is not as hot this second as it was 2 years ago, I'm cautiously optimistic.