Damages / Prevention It’s critical to understand that damages are not your first step of the inspection. Too many salespeople lean on damages and urgency first; this is wrong. If you hit damages first, it makes damages and urgency less credible. It looks like you had an agenda. For the most impact on damages, cover the wants and needs, ask plenty of questions, then address damages and urgency. Using bath sales as an example does the following. Do an actual inspection here! Get in the shower and INSPECT. This will create more credibility when you hit them with damages. 1. Use your moisture meter. It is a powerful tool and an easy way to create urgency. It will typically only work with tile showers, cultural marble, and tubs. If there are high moisture levels, that means every time they use the shower, more water is getting back behind the walls. Use this verbiage when explaining damages to your client. 2. Mold. How it starts: You are supposed to reseal your grout once per year. Unfortunately, no one tells us that. So, hardly anyone reseals grout, and water absorbs through it like rain through sand. Mold is not suitable for you or your home. Once it takes hold, it grows up studs and can spread to your attic. Mold is an expensive problem to fix. Mold is terrible for your health, especially for people that have allergies, asthma, or immune deficiencies. It is also bad for small children and seniors. 3. Wet studs let off a gas that attracts termites. Termites like wet wood. When homeowners get termites, they often start here. (80% of termite problems start in the wet area). Termites are an expensive problem to fix. 4. Bowed walls, spongy walls, and loose tiles all equal high moisture. 5. Fiberglass units crack and flex, and mold gathers around the seams. They are short, so water splashes above them and drips back behind the walls. 6. Be sure to show your damage photos on your iPad. A picture is worth a thousand words. 7. “Every time you take a shower, water is getting behind your walls.” This is the case with at least 75% of the clients you meet; it’s a big problem, and it’s your job to help them solve it.