Marketing to the agents who refer you and the buyers who already read your report.
A homebuyer needs one inspection and may not need another for years. The agent who sent them needs an inspector every month. Your list holds both, and a short, useful message at the right time keeps your name first with each of them.
Two lists, two calendars
The past-client list is full of people who trusted you with the biggest purchase of their lives and then stopped hearing from you. They do not need another inspection soon, but they own a house with the maintenance items you flagged, they may never have tested for radon, they have friends buying nearby, and in a few years they will sell. A note timed to their closing anniversary or to the season reads as service, and it is how a buyer remembers who to call when their sister goes under contract.
The agent list runs on the housing calendar. Agents want to know your turnaround before listing season picks up, when you add a service like sewer scopes or thermal imaging, and that their last three clients were taken care of. A quarterly note with your booking link and a sample report is a referral tool. Gifts and payments for referrals are a different matter: federal settlement rules and inspector codes of ethics limit what can change hands, so keep the relationship to service and information.
Texting has its own rule. Marketing texts need written consent, and the inspection agreement is the natural place to ask for it. The booking confirmation and the report link are transactional; a radon reminder a year later is marketing. The system has to know the difference and record who agreed to what.
What email and text marketing for an inspector has to do
Consent, then segments, then a calendar you can keep up with between inspections.
Collect consent at booking
The agreement includes a line asking whether you may email and text after the inspection is over, records the answer with a date, and the CRM refuses to send marketing to anyone who said no. Our guide to texting law explains what counts as consent.
Separate clients from agents
Buyers get maintenance and anniversary notes; agents get turnaround, services and booking links; sellers who had a pre-listing inspection get a different note. One newsletter to all three wastes the list.
Write to the season and the house
A fall note about gutters and the furnace filter, a spring note about sump pumps and grading, a radon reminder in January, timed to what your report told that client to watch.
Ask for the review while the report is fresh
A few days after delivery, once the client has read the report and the deal is still moving, a short request with the direct link. Reviews that mention the town and what you found are what the next buyer reads.
Offer the pre-listing inspection in the right year
Clients who have owned a few years get a note about finding problems before a buyer's inspector does. It is the one message to a past client that books a job.
How we build it for a home inspection company
The lists come from the CRM, the sending runs through your own domain and number, and you approve every message once.
Segments that build themselves
Every client and agent record already carries consent, closing date, add-ons bought and referral history, so the segments (never tested for radon, owned three years, agent gone quiet) need no spreadsheet.
A year of messages, written from your reports
Six to eight client notes and four agent notes, drafted after a conversation about the defects you flag most often, scheduled ahead and editable any time.
Agent updates with real content
A quarterly note to each agent with the clients you inspected for them, your current turnaround and anything new you offer, sent from your address with your name on it.
Registered texting and clean sending
Your number registered for business messaging, your domain authenticated for email, opt-outs handled on both, and each message recorded on the contact's timeline.
What each note returned
Opens, replies, reviews posted, pre-listing inspections booked and agent referrals, quarter by quarter, so each note shows what it produced.
What you own on day one.
Every account is opened in your company's name with you as the owner. If you ever leave, you change a password, not your business.
- Domain, hosting and the site files
- Phone numbers and call recordings
- The CRM and its database
- Email and text lists, with consent records
- Google Business Profile and every listing
- Analytics and Search Console
Email & SMS Marketing for home inspection, answered.
How often should a home inspector email past clients?
Four to six times a year, each with something they can use: a seasonal checklist tied to their house, a radon reminder, a note on their closing anniversary. More than that and the unsubscribes outrun the referrals.
Can I pay agents for referrals or send gifts?
Talk to a lawyer first. Federal rules on settlement service referrals and inspector codes of ethics restrict payments and things of value for referrals. Information, speed and good reports are what you can offer freely.
Is texting past clients legal?
With written consent recorded at booking, yes, and with an opt-out on every message. Without it, no. The agreement is where we collect it, and the CRM enforces it.
What should the agent newsletter say?
Turnaround, availability for the coming weeks, any new add-on, a reminder of what to have ready at the house, and a link to your sample report. Short, factual, and sent from a person's name.
Email & SMS Marketing for home inspection. Owned by you.
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