I have been spending an inordinate amount of time lately focusing on my sales and marketing efforts as our local economy struggles with circumstances beyond our control. One aspect of my marketing that I have always thought important was my report. So you say, how does a report market your business. I would suggest that your report is your best marketing tool. If you think for a moment all the potential clients and referral sources that view your report for just one transaction: Buyer, Buyers Agent, 2 Transaction coordinators, Seller, Sellers Agent, Contractors, and the list goes on. Most of these people do not know you and will not have the opportunity to meet you. They will make up their mind about what type of service you offer solely based on the presentation of your report.
The one aspect of your report that is critical is readability. With the average report length easily into 20-30 pages it is essential that your report be easy to read. Until recently, achieving readability without spending countless hours formatting your report was the norm. However, new technologies and software have created a real opportunity for inspectors to get the best of both worlds - a report that easy for the reader and easy to write for the inspector.
One of the report writers that I use really excels in its presentation. Many of you may not know about eInspections or the Inspection Support Network but you will soon because they are rapidly becoming a mainstay and leader in the home inspection software category. I encourage you to check them out at www.einspections.net or www.inspectionsupport.net, especially if you want to have an out of the box report that is formatted to be easy to read for your clients and realtors. In fact, my realtor clients have told me that they prefer I use this format over the others that I have used in the past.
