Two former Google and SAP executives have joined hands to launch Home Inspection services in India and plan to expand the platform to North America, the UK, Singapore and the Middle-East.
Phi Property Management Services (PPMS), that performs independent third party end-to end pre-delivery checks – inspection services in the Real Estate domain – has launched operations under the brand name “HomeInspeKtor” in Bengaluru with plans for other cities to follow.
“Home Inspection service is a limited, non-invasive examination of the condition of a home/apartment/villa in connection with the sale/renting of that property,” company’s Chairman and COO B R Nagaraj said.
As a first step, PPMS has partnered InterNACHI (the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors) in setting up the India Chapter, he said.
InterNACHI is the worlds largest trade association for property inspectors based in the US.
The India Chapter would provide local home inspectors access to all of InterNACHIs offerings and a network of support, tailored specially for India, including education, training and certification, Nagaraj said.
“Even though home sales in India are comparable to those in the US in terms of volumes, Home Inspection as a practise is hitherto not followed which is where we come in,” said Sudhi, CEO, PPMS.
HomeInspeKtor services are the first of its kind in India, though prevalent in the US and some other countries, Nagaraj said.
The company has been formed by Nagaraj who was previously Director-Real Estate and Workplace Services at Google and Ramakrishna Yarlapati, former Senior VP, SAP AG and an entrepreneur.
Nagaraj said the company’s qualified home inspectors would use an in-house developed mobile app to carry out inspections wherein they verify 100 plus robust parameters with a comprehensive checklist, using tools such as thermal cameras, moisture meters and infrared detectors.
The company has raised an undisclosed sum in funding that would be deployed to expand to more cities, set up franchisees as well as global real estate markets, he said.
He said the US operations would be launched in about two months.
“We plan to grow eventually in the US, Middle-East, Singapore and Canada,” he said.
Within the country, the company was in talks with large builders in north India, Bengaluru and Chennai.
The service charges would be well within the reach of middle class home buyers. For example, if a flat were to cost Rs 50 lakhs, the charge would be about Rs 10,000, Nagaraj said.