We do a lot of pre purchase property inspections and the most popular package is building and timber pest inspection. About half of our business comes from first time callers and the rest from referrals from past clients and real estate agents.

Our primary and the only duty is to the purchaser and that is why beyond leaving business cards with real estate agents we are careful not to build any relationships and expectations that could lead us to the conflict of interest. We know that some of the other inspection companies have cosy relationships and I have been approached occasionally by the agent to see if we would give referral fees to them if we were recommended to the purchasers they are dealing with. We always refuse because you cannot have a covert arrangement with vendor’s agent whilst your duty lies with the purchaser. I know that this does cost us a lot of business but we get our share anyway. In one case we got about a dozen inspection jobs from agent referrals in Kew before we declined his request and henceforth there were no more referrals.

However not all agents are like that and many understand what we do and how we do it because they can see our inspection routine on site and the equipment we use, and just accept what we do indirectly helps them as well.

So it comes as a great compliment when an agent from whom you never get referrals calls you and books a building and a timber pest inspection. Why? It’s because this time he is buying a property for himself. He actually told me he was paying me a compliment and was more than happy to pay the full inspection fee.