How to Set Real Estate Agents’ Expectations as a Home Inspector

Imagine this: You pull up to your inspection, and the real estate agent is late letting you in. When they finally arrive, they’re frazzled and eager for you to be done as soon as possible.

“You should be done in 30 minutes, right?” they ask without looking up from their phone.

After some back and forth on why it’s going to take you more like three hours, you start your visual examination around the exterior. As you inspect the foundation for cracks, the agent pokes their head out the window.

“Hey! When you get back in here, can you let me know if the stairs are code compliant?” the agent asks. “The buyer’s toddler can stick their head between the balusters. They’re freaking out that the stairs might not be safe.”

After inspecting the roof, you’re back in the house, only for the agent to approach you again and ask what you saw. When you mention the roof has some significant issues, the agent groans.

“Ugh, the roof is not that bad! Are you trying to kill my deal?”

Home inspectors like you despise real estate agents like this. While unprofessional and unethical agents aren’t the norm, you may worry an agent you’re working with has their commission—not your clients’ best interests— at heart. And even with good intentions, you may worry their lack of knowledge about home inspections leads them to have unrealistic expectations.

The good news: Home inspectors have a lot of power to educate agents about inspections. By taking the time to instill realistic real estate agent expectations about what inspections are and what’s in their scope, you secure another advocate for your clients.

Read on for tips from fellow inspectors on managing real estate agents’ expectations.

What’s an agent’s responsibility related to home inspections?

Eighty-eight percent of buyers use real estate agents to find and secure their homes. Consumers rely on agents for their perceived knowledge of the local market, access to available properties, and negotiation skills.

As a home inspector, you rely on real estate agents, too. Here are some ways in which home inspectors’ and real estate agents’ worlds overlap:

1. Educating clients on the purpose and value of home inspections.

Client communication matters. In the age of walk-and-talk inspections and even waived inspection contingencies, what real estate agents tell clients about home inspections is paramount. If real estate agents diminish the importance of inspections, their clients are less likely to ask for them. But as Jordan Ballard of Tahoma Inspection Services in Washington explains, foregoing inspections hurts clients and agents.

“If clients have an inspection, it removes a lot of liability from the agent and allows the buyer to do their proper due diligence,” Ballard said. “Many agents learned [this] from the COVID days of waiving the inspection, and the headaches that were discovered after closing.”

2. Recommending qualified, reputable home inspectors like you to conduct their inspections.

Bobby Shelly of Best Inspections USA in Washington and Idaho has found most clients rely on agents to recommend experienced, quality, local home inspectors.

“Agents should thoroughly vet all of their referral partners for experience, report quality, and people skills. The inspectors they refer are a direct reflection of the agent,” Shelly said.

However, agents don’t always vet in the ways inspectors think they should. According to Nick Gromicko, Founder of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI) and a former top-producing real estate agent, it’s partially because agents feel fiduciary duty to shop for the best price.

“When they find a house, they negotiate that price down. They try to find the buyer good financing with low interest rates,” Gromicko said. “When they finally get to one of the last pieces of the puzzle, the home inspection, they think they’re doing their client a favor by shopping for a cheap inspector.”

To combat agents’ perceived incentive to hire inexpensive or inexperienced inspectors, Gromicko suggests marketing to them You can adjust real estate agents’ expectations by asking them to hire inspectors based on merit, not price. 

For an example of how to encourage agents to shop the right way, you can refer to Gromicko’s letter to agents on inspector selection.

3. Preparing before the inspection.

Another overlap between real estate agent vs home inspector responsibility involves preparing the clients, sellers, and home before inspection day. For Dean Young of The Inspection Co in the Piedmont Triad, agents should communicate with sellers ahead of time to ensure the inspection goes smoothly.

“Agents should make sure all systems—like the water and power—are on for the time and date of the inspection,” Young said. “They should also make sure all pets are secured and access is available.”

4. Utilizing your inspection findings to negotiate repairs or better pricing with the sellers.

Inspections help clients make informed purchasing decisions. They can also help clients secure better pricing or pre-close repairs. By understanding your inspection findings, agents can make better cases for their clients to save money.

But understanding what you found during your inspections isn’t as easy for agents as it seems.  – According to Ditanyan Sye of DS Home Inspection Services, LLC in Maryland, the best way for agents to learn is  by being there. Whether it’s a real estate agent’s first home inspection or hundredth, being present for all or part of the inspection can help them advocate for your shared clients.

“Agents should attend the inspection to represent the buyer’s interests,” Sye said. “They are there to help interpret the inspection findings for their client and advise the client on which issues are serious concerns versus minor repairs to focus on for negotiating.”

Learn more about the pros and cons of agents attending inspections here.

How does managing real estate agents’ expectations help you and your clients?

When we asked home inspectors how managing real estate agents’ expectations helped them and their clients, inspectors shared three benefits.

First, it helps the clients be realistic.

“Effectively managing the real estate agents’ expectations will keep the client’s expectations in line,” Sye said.

Second, it develops a cooperative relationship between home inspectors and real estate agents, argues Ballard.

Lastly, it reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings.

“Managing agents’ expectations allows for a free-flow of communication, which helps reduce misconceptions between all involved parties,” Shelly said.

Home Inspector vs Real Estate Agent: What are the most common misconceptions agents have about inspections?

Inspectors run into many misconceptions. But these are the ones we hear again and again:

1. Inspections take less time than they do—two hours regardless of size and condition of the home.
2. Home inspectors are code inspectors.
3. An inspector’s scope extends to everything that can be wrong in a home.
4. Inspectors are obligated to examine all systems and components—regardless of safety and access.
5. Ancillary services like radon and sewer scoping are unnecessary money grabs.
6. Thorough inspectors are overly critical deal-killers.

For inspectors like Jeff Bissonnette of JDB Property Inspectors, LLC in California, unrealistic time expectations can especially lead inspections off on the wrong foot.

“Far too often, agents have a distorted and unrealistic view as to how long an inspection will take,” Bissonnette said. “Agents that don’t properly advise their clients often create scheduling issues for the homeowner, client, and inspector.”

However, the misconceptions and real estate agent expectations that most often lead to claims are numbers two through five: poor expectations relating to the inspection’s scope and limitations.

How do you manage real estate agents’ expectations for your scope and limitations?

With bad expectations running rampant, how can inspectors help agents better understand their scope and limitations?

Here are four ways to prevent home inspector vs real estate agent misunderstandings:

1. Start by defining a home inspection as a visual, non-invasive examination. Make sure agents know you can only report on what’s observable and safely accessible, says R. Christopher Strack of Be Smart Home Inspections in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
2. Explain the basics of your standards of practice (SOPs), including what you are and aren’t required to report, suggests Young.
3. Since many agents assume you’ll identify code violations, remind them that you aren’t a code inspector. Inform the, too, that your SOPs exclude determining compliance with laws, installation and maintenance instructions, etc., recommends Sye.
4. If an agent approaches you after the inspection about a perceived oversight, be prepared to explain the SOP again, advises Gromicko.

Live up to real estate agents’ expectations.

As a real estate professional, many inspectors are linked to agents—for better or worse. 

As valuable referral sources and trusted client resources, agents have the power to help or hurt your business. But when you’re the one setting agents’ expectations about home inspections, you take control of the narrative and get better results.

Looking for a way to help agents feel more comfortable referring business to you? Make sure your insurance policy comes with referring party indemnification. (All InspectorPro policies do!) Learn more about referring party indemnification here.

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