As I was preparing to pass on my 2017 income tax documents to my accountant, I had the opportunity to review where most of my revenue came from last year. It was not what I expected, that is, not from buyer or pre-purchase inspections. Rather it was from other activities.
First it was from being the owner’s engineer or representative on new construction and renovations. That is, being involved in budget, scope, progress monitoring, contractor inquiries and billing review.
Second, and this was the eye opener, I had a revenue stream from conducting the 2-5-10 year new home warranty inspections. I had not realized that over time, I had developed quite the expertise to know what was covered at each of those milestones under a policy and how to assist homeowners with preparing their claim, should there be an issue.
As I was also transitioning my website from a template based format to a wordpress managed site, I immediately incorporated and highlighted the above two building inspection services.
Guess what happened? In my local market I’m at the top of the search engine’s results when it comes to new home warranty inspections! I found my niche. I’m good at it and most important for clients, it’s a market that’s underserved. I suspect my competition is not inclined to learn about warranty coverages and exclusions nor do they want the added responsibility of having to have to deal with the insurers and being challenged, when a claim is submitted based on an inspection report.
So there you go, some 2017 year-end introspection on why clients engaged my services produced a new focus for my business going forward.
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