TOPIC: Marketing Ideas

I specifically prohibit selling my report on my agreement.  It is its own clause with its own bullet.  

The purpose of the home inspection report is to identify the house's condition at a particular time for a particular client who SIGNS my agreement.  The basic purpose of the agreement is to protect ME.  Your report goes to a realtor who distributes it to six different people, all of whom think they have a claim against it's reporting of the house's condition.  That's a can of worms.

I added that "no sale" clause to my inspection agreement about 12 years ago when I found that one person was selling my report to another when the first decided not to buy the house.  Of course the report is only valid for the person signing the agreement but both thought they were making out well -- at my expense!  That is the reason I do not include an address on my report, only the name of the buyer.  That way it cannot be proved, if sold, to actually pertain to that particular house.  The only place the address is identified in my system is on the agreement.

I see your point Jay. I just realized that you may have a problem with the realitor "loosing" pages of the report too. I recently went for the schooling required in PA to get my Radon Cert. and the guy teaching the class used to put the tests he did on individual papers until he found out that the realitor or the home seller was missplacing the page with the higher test. He now puts all the test info on one page.

Around here it is against the law to give the report to anyone who did not pay for the report without their permission.  Also I have added, like Jay, the clause that state the buyer can not sell the report to anyone.  This does not stop them from giving the report to anyone they want for free.

So, if the Realtor hired you and paid you for your services, they can make and GIVE (NOT SELL) as many copies as they want.  I have also added the following phrase in my contract.

8. I fully understand that this report is not transferable to any third parties or subsequent buyers. Our inspection and this report have been performed with a written contract agreement that limits its scope and usefulness. Unauthorized recipients are therefore advised not to rely upon this report, but rather to retain the services of HLC Home Inspections LLC to provide them with their own inspection and report.

I have the following listed in my report instructions.

NOTICE: This report is the exclusive property of HLC Home Inspections and the client(s) listed.
Use of this report by any unauthorized persons is prohibited.

And I have this listed on the front page footer.

Notice to Third Parties: This report is for the sole benefit of the Client(s) listed above and is not transferable to any third parties or subsequent buyers. Our inspection and this report have been performed with a written contract agreement that limits its scope and usefulness. Unauthorized recipients are therefore advised not to rely upon this report, but rather to retain the services of HLC Home Inspections LLC to provide them with their own inspection report.

As you see I have stated that the report is not transferable to any third parties and that I retain rights to the inspection.  This way, they aren't suppose to even give the report away without HLC and HLC client permission.

So, to get back to your question, can you sell the rights to your reports, only to the person who hired you and paid for the inspection.  I would also make sure you sell them all liabilities of the inspection and the report.  I would hire a lawyer and get a solid contract drafted up if you decide to do something like this.

I have the third-party clause in my agreement also.  That did not prevent people from trying to sell it!  Like Adrian, I have both clauses in my agreement!

At Christmas time I add the Santa Claus.

But Jay, doesn't the Santa Claus make your report way to large?  

It's in the agreement, not in the report...