Referrals - You Never Know Who's Watching You

"He knows if you've been bad or good..."

As a kid, I was always a little creeped out by the thought that Santa "sees you when you're sleeping" but I aprreciate the general spirit of the idea that he's always watching, so you need to be on your best behavior.

It really is something that has carried through well into my adult life.  Call it the Golden Rule, or karma, or just simple professionalism - but the idea of doing your best and treating everyone right, regardless of their standing or situation, is a core beliefe of mine.

After my last discussion (about Realtors referring Inspectors) generated so many testimonials and comments, it was clear to me that most of us out there operate under this same principle of basic goodness.  It makes me feel sad for the poor, pathetic souls who see conspiracy around every corner and evil motives at every turn.

So, here is the icing on the cake.

While I was in RainCamp yesterday (awesome, not to be missed, BTW) my phone was going crazy (of course, since I can't really answer it).  After a relatively slow couple of weeks, I was looking to RainCamp to re-invigorate the marketing approaches I had let slip.  At a break, I listened to the messages and karma delivered me 3 gifts:

1) A Realtor I had never worked with but who was the listing agent on a renovated home I inspected complimented me on the thorough report.  He said he does a lot of renovations and had the home inspected before I went through it, and was amazed at the things I was able to find.  He held his contractors feet to the fire based on my findings and got the best out of him.  He now wants me to pre-inspect all of his projects.

2) A client I inspected for last week (not the best of homes, but he really seemed to like it) opted not to buy the house I inspected.  I got a call from his Realtor, scheduling another inspection.  I got a call from him to check my schedule for next week, AND I got a referral from him - a coworker who had already scheduled with someone else, but he spoke so well of me, that she cancelled that appointment and hired me!!

3) The local Philadelphia Housing Authority called me - turns out I inspected for one of their clients, and they liked the presentation and detail of the report so much, that they want me to help teach their "Transition to Homeownership classes" twice a month.

You never know when a referral will fall in your lap, but you can be absolutely sure that if you give your best, provide great service and genuinely care about your client, it will show through and the referrals will come.