Business Idea: Home Inspection

Reading a post on the Iskandar Living Forum got me thinking of a business opportunity. There is lots of interest in buying new homes (condos, link houses and bungalows) but lots of people express concern about buying used houses. There are several reasons for this but I think one of them provides a business opportunity.

In the USA there are professional home inspectors. They often used to be general contractors (and some still are – doing both). Pretty much every resale has a home inspector look through the house. Those doing it, do so many times each week and have checksheets (with dozens of things to check) and they know the area. So they know for example if some developer used bad wiring for a condo or whatever and can take special care to check things that are problematic.

If these don’t exist in Malaysia yet it seems like a great business opportunity (if they do, then just doing a great job at it is still a good business). If you can stake out ground as a reliable expert purchasers will gladly (smart ones anyway that are not home inspector experts) pay fairly well. You don’t need to do a lot of work (once you become expert) to provide a huge amount of value. This is a great place to be for a business (provide a large amount of value for not much work) as you can provide the customer a great value and still make a nice living yourself.

The smart ones in the USA have developed very extensive handbooks to then turn over to the new homeowner with all sorts of useful info. Again this is a great way to set your business as professional. If I were interested in creating businesses here there are lots of opportunity, but this seems like another great one. What you want to do is talk to lots of real estate agents and have them refer there clients to you. I think it is best if you just provide a great service that makes the agents look good (because they provide a good referral to their customer) but if it is legal in Malaysia you could even pay the real estate agents a portion of your fee.


The most important facet of this business is providing accurate assessments of the conditions and making sure you uncover risks the homeowners may face. Don’t compromise this for anything. If some agent wants you to overlook something because that may cost them a sale – Do not do it. Take time to research what risks home owners in JB face and become expert at finding those risks. Then focus on customer service. Since this is a business opportunity where large amounts of money are at stake there will be plenty of people willing to pay a premium for great service. Focus on that and continual improvement of the value you provide and I think that would be a great business.

I believe the real estate business in Iskandar and Johor are likely to be very big in the next 20 years. The potential customer market in the area seems like it will grow quite a bit.

Related: Iskandar Housing Real Estate Investment ConsiderationsThe Potential of Iskandar is Very High but Investing in Iskandar has Risks

One thought on “Business Idea: Home Inspection

  1. Cool dude! you are doing a great job! i am a local JB guy and I really enjoy your write up! Keep up the good work!

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