A new owner moves in knowing nobody to call. This 90-day sequence — a systems-check text, a filter-and-detector schedule, and a first-year plan pitch — makes you the shop she already trusts.
System 7 from the Leveraged Owner Starter Pack
It is day three in the new house. The boxes are still stacked in the garage, the water heater makes a noise she cannot place, and she does not know whether the furnace filter was changed last month or last year. She needs help with everything at once — and she has no contractor yet. Whoever helps her first, calmly and without a hard sell, usually gets called for years. This post builds that first contact the right way, inside the same calm-booking thinking behind appointment confirmation texts that keep a calendar full: a welcome sequence that earns the first visit, then the first year.
A new homeowner welcome campaign for contractors is not a blast to a list of strangers. It is a short, timed sequence for people who chose to hear from you, built around the three things a new owner actually worries about in the first 90 days: Is everything safe and working? What needs attention on a schedule? And who do I call when something breaks?
Start here, because everything else depends on it. You may only text people who opted in — who gave you their number and agreed to receive texts from your business. That consent is the foundation of the whole campaign, and there is no shortcut around it.
Concrete takeaway: the checklist offer is slower than buying a list, and it is the only version of this campaign that lasts. Every number in the sequence below belongs to someone who asked for it.
Turn the campaign into a standard operating procedure (SOP) — a written routine your whole team runs the same way — and store each contact in your CRM (customer relationship management software — the system where you keep customer records and job history). The five touches:
Five touches in 90 days is welcome. Fifteen is a nuisance. Concrete takeaway: every touch either delivers something useful or offers something specific. A touch that does neither gets deleted, no matter how good the week feels for sending it.
Why timing beats volume: a typical business takes 42–47 hours to respond to new inquiries (2026 benchmark studies of 250K+ inbound leads), while responding within an hour makes you 7x more likely to qualify a lead (Harvard Business Review, 2011). A welcome sequence wins the same way: the right message in the first week, answered fast when she replies.
The systems check is the heart of the campaign. It is a short, defined visit — not an open-ended inspection and never a scare tactic. Define exactly what your tech checks before you offer it, for example: furnace and AC operation, filter size and condition, water heater age and visible condition, main shutoff location confirmed with the owner, smoke and carbon monoxide detector test dates, and any visible leak or corrosion at supply lines.
Hi [First Name], it's [Your Name] from [Business Name] — welcome to the neighborhood. Your free move-in checklist is here: [Checklist Link]. If you'd like, we offer a move-in systems check: we test the heating, cooling, water heater, and detectors, confirm your shutoff locations with you, and leave a written list of what we found — [Check Price], about [Visit Length]. Reply CHECK and I'll send times this week. Reply STOP to opt out.
On the visit, the deliverable is the written list, sorted honestly: needs attention now, watch this year, fine as-is. Most new owners have never been handed that list by anyone, and it becomes the reference sheet on the refrigerator. Concrete takeaway: the check sells nothing on the day. It produces the document every future call is based on — and your name is at the top of it.
Example: a homeowner replies CHECK on day nine. The tech finds a filter two sizes wrong, a water heater in its later years, and detectors past their test date. Nothing is an emergency, and the owner says so out loud with relief. The filter and detectors are handled that visit at prices quoted before work starts; the water heater goes on the watch list with its age noted. That is the whole model — calm, written, and priced in the open.
At day 30, stop sending general advice and send her schedule — hers, built from the checklist or the systems check:
Hi [First Name] — [Your Name], [Business Name]. Here's your home schedule from your move-in check: filter ([Filter Size]) next change around [Date]; detector test this weekend takes two minutes — press and hold the test button until it beeps. Full schedule: [Schedule Link]. Want us to just handle the filter changes? Reply PLAN and I'll explain the maintenance plan before your day-90 note. — [Your Name]
Notice what this touch does: it proves you kept her information and used it only for her. Concrete takeaway: a personal schedule is the strongest trust signal in the sequence, because no mass marketer can fake it. Guard the details carefully — a wrong filter size in the text undoes the whole effect.
By day 90 she has received a checklist, a written systems list, and a schedule with her name on it. Now — and only now — the plan pitch lands as a convenience, not a sales event. The pitch has three parts:
Hi [First Name] — [Your Name] from [Business Name]. You've been in the house 90 days. Your systems check list, filter schedule, and detector dates are all set up. If you'd like us to just own that list — [Plan Name] covers [Included Visits] visits a year, filter changes, and detector tests for [Plan Price] — reply PLAN and I'll send the details. Prefer to run the list yourself? It stays yours either way, and we're here when you need us. — [Your Name]
What the pitch never contains: a discount that expires tonight, a claim about breakdowns the plan cannot promise to prevent, or a savings figure you invented. Concrete takeaway: she is not buying inspections. She is handing over a list she already respects, to the shop that wrote it. Price it plainly and let that be enough.
The sequence is a default, not a script she is trapped in. Any real reply — a question, a noise, a leak — pauses the campaign and starts a normal service conversation, booked with the same confirmation discipline you use for every job. When the job closes, she can re-enter at the next scheduled touch if it still fits, or simply move to your regular customer reminders. Concrete takeaway: automation that keeps talking over a real conversation is how a welcome campaign turns into the reason she blocks your number.
This campaign lives inside Appointment Confirmation Texts That Cut No-Shows in Half — the Pillar D system for a full, calm calendar, where the visits this sequence books get confirmed the same reliable way. For the recurring-service cousin of the day-30 schedule, see Filter Subscriptions: Recurring Revenue on the Same Visit Logic, and for turning one good visit into an add-on she asked for, see Smart Thermostat Upsell Text: The 10-Minute Add-On.
The full setup SOP, all four copy-paste scripts (including the owner notification), the "Your Numbers" missed-call worksheet, and the step-by-step setup guide — free, no catch. Fix your missed calls this week.
Free. The full 8-system Starter Pack is $27 if you want everything else.
This post is System 7 from the Leveraged Owner Starter Pack — the done-for-you version with the full SOP, every script, the worksheets, and screen-by-screen setup instructions for all 8 systems. It includes this welcome campaign pre-written — the checklist offer, the five-touch 90-day sequence, the systems-check script, and the day-90 plan pitch — ready to load with your prices and plan details.
Stats sourced as labeled: response-time benchmark from 2026 studies of 250K+ inbound leads; qualification figure from Harvard Business Review (2011). Worked examples labeled as examples; not real customer results.
Related guides from the Leveraged Owner blog:
Reply YES to confirm texts cut contractor no-shows. The exact wording, timing, reschedule-link trick, and full confirmation cadence — a micro-system deep dive.
Repeat customers cost nothing to win. A practical retention system for plumbing and HVAC shops: maintenance agreements, annual check-ins, and scripts.
What is review gating? Why filtering unhappy customers before the review ask violates Google policy — and the compliant system that gets more 5-stars instead.