The biggest problem that I have come across is being booked and not having time to do all of the inspection requests that we get. It is always tough turning down business, especially if it is from a referral source that uses us a lot. We don’t want to make them go elsewhere, because we may never get them back. On the other hand, you can’t let this control your life either. Remember, we went into business to improve our lives, not to let our business control us. You need to ask yourself, am I a business owner or am a I self employed maniac working day and night, practically killing myself in the process? The thing is that we can make our business turn out however we want it to, we just have to know what we want it to be. Either we run the business or the business runs us. . . . . into the ground.

If you are thinking that you don’t have enough inspections right now to worry about this, you are wrong. First off, you need to begin with the end in mind, and second you need to be prepared for how you are going to run your business whenever you do get busy. How are you going to get more business? Just stick with me and this blog and I will help you to get more business and grow your home inspection company into a strong, thriving, and dependable business. Talk to you soon.

In this short video, you will see how moisture damages chimneys and I explain how it could of been avoided. If you are a home inspector or want to become a home inspector, this is something that you may see almost on a daily basis. Once you have been doing inspections for a while, you will be able to see a trend in most of the problems that you report on, and also be able to relay to your clients how and why it happened.

Being a good home inspector is just the start when it comes to running a successful home inspection business. As with most small business owners, you have to be able to do the inspections, run the office, answer the phones, handle complaints, do the books, run a successful marketing campaign, etc. You obviously need to know more than just how to do a great inspection! The sooner you learn to delegate most of these other tasks the better. As a one inspector shop, you will have to be the one doing the inspections, obviously. As you grow and hire other inspectors, your focus should shift to the marketing and growing of the business. You can hire inspectors to do the inspections, or at least some of the inspections, to free up some of your time. Once you have more time to work on the marketing and learning new business building skills, your business will grow even bigger. Let’s face it, there are only so many hours in the day, and you can’t do it all on your own. You have to focus on the important tasks.

The most important task in any business is the marketing. If you don’t have any inspections to do, it doesn’t matter how good your inspectors are. There are many ways to market your home inspection business, and many of them are a useless waste of time! So what works? In my opinion the best way to market any business, and especially a home inspection business is relationship marketing. What is relationship marketing? It is the practice of building long lasting relationships with your core group of referrals by providing valuable content to them on a regular basis. Thus, guaranteeing that whenever they need a home inspector, you are the first name that comes to mind. Sound difficult? It’s not and I’ll show you how to easily set it up. Email me at kelly@soyouwanttobeahomeinspector.com and I will send you a free report that will tell you all about it.

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The most common type of foundation repair that I see as an inspector is wall anchors. An alternative to wall anchors is carbon fiber straps and in my opinion are a great alternative! Why do I like them so much? Well there are numerous reasons that I can come up with, although the main reason is how unobtrusive they are. You don’t have to drill into the foundation and you don’t have to dig outside like a wall anchor system. Don’t get me wrong, wall anchors have certain advantages also, but what a great system these carbon fiber straps are. I will expand on different types of wall anchoring and foundation repair systems in a later post.

Your number one priority is your client. You should always do the best inspection that you are capable of for your client. That is your job. . . . .that is what your are expected to do . . . . . that is what you are getting paid to do and that is the ethical way to run your business. Period.

Now does this mean that you are against the seller? No. Against the buyer’s real estate agent? No. How about the seller’s real estate agent? Again, no. Now listen, we are already assuming that as stated above that you are doing the best job for your client. Doing the best job though, does not mean that you are rude or mean to the other parties involved. I hear stories from real estate agents and inspectors themselves telling me how they do not talk to the agents or they do not acknowledge the sellers if they ask a question. Are you serious? I even know of an inspector that does not allow anyone to be at the inspection with him. Well, let me clarify this, the buyer can be there. . . . but they have to stay in their car!

I am not saying that you need to be friends with everyone, but how about friendly? As long as you keep your primary purpose in mind, (doing the best inspection that you can for your client) I don’t see why you can’t still be friendly with everyone else. I firmly believe that the house should write the report. Anything that is on my report is because that’s the condition of the house, good or bad. If you keep that in mind, you will always be consistent and you will always be accurate. The problem that some inspectors have is being wishy washy about what they are going to write up depending on what agent is there or if the seller is breathing down their neck. You are not always going to be liked, but if you are always honest and consistent, you will be respected. I’ve had many clients hire me after I inspected a house that they were selling. I had a guy tell me that he hated me while I was at his house, but he also knew that whenever he needed an inspection, he was going tom use me!

As you become a home inspector and get some experience under your belt, you will see that there are numerous personalities that you will face. Some you will think are great, others will just rub you the wrong way. Part of being a great home inspector is being able to be pleasant with everyone, even if you want to just tell them to get lost! Being a great inspector and finding all deficiencies in the house is only part of the equation, you must have good people skills too.

So being friendly with agents isn’t the problem. The problem is letting an agent sway your decision on what to write on your inspection report. Do your job consistently and you will never have a problem with agent relationships. The good ones will respect you, the ones that try to get you to “go easy” on the house don’t care about you or your company anyways. And if you think about it, they don’t really care about their buyer either. They ones that do care, want the best inspection for their clients that they can get. Please let me know your thoughts on this subject.

His father had taken the day off to come to the inspection for moral support and they really wanted to do as much as could be done today. The buyer’s agent called the seller’s agent who got permission from the seller for us to turn the water on. I was against turning it on, although with the permission of the seller. . . . . regardless of any damage that might be caused, I slowly turned it on. To make a long post short.

Water on for around 30 seconds. . . . . water leaking through gameroom ceiling into basement and saturating new carpet! I was thinking, I told you so, although kept my mouth shut. We turned the water off, contacted the seller, and cut the inspection short. What do you think would of happened if I turned it on, without permission? I would be paying to repair a ceiling, dry the carpeting and padding or possible replacement!

Moral of the story. Never, ever turn on shut off valves without permission. If they are off, it is usually for a reason. This goes for gas valves too, which can be even more dangerous. The utilities should be on for you when you arrive at the inspection. If they are off, don’t try and be a nice guy and turn them on without the ok to do it. If you do, you are only playing with fire. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Talk to you soon.

Do you need to have a background in the building trades? Not neccessarily, although it helps. My inspector Brian, the first inspector that I successfully hired and have actually kept around had very little experience when he started. I went through four or five other inspectors that had way more experience, that did not last. As you will see whenever you grow to the point that you become a multi-inspector firm, character and integrity are way more important than knowledge. You can teach inspection skills and knowledge, but you can not teach character.

I always wonder how much I didn’t know in the beginning! I guess I did ok, since I am still in business, although I still learn new stuff everyday. I think the best thing that you can do is to realize that you don’t know everything, even if you think that you do. I have an electrician, plumber, heating and cooling tech, etc., all on speed dial. Any time I have a question or something comes up that I am not sure about, I can easily call them and get the answers that I need. Granted after ten years, I call them less and less, although sometimes I still need a little assistance. Some of the stuff that you see out in the field, your just not going to find in any books!

With the way wireless phones and pda’s can access the internet now, you can easily Google your question and find the answer that you need, without the client even knowing what your doing. Now if you need to find an answer every day at each inspection, you are obviously in need of more training. I’m talking about in the case of an unexpected question it’s nice to have access to an answer. If you don’t know, tell the client that you don’t know and that you will find out. If you pretend to know, they will see right through you. Besides people will respect you more if you are honest.

So don’t feel that you need to know everything before you get started. Get a good base, read and learn continuously, and get out there and get started. Sometimes the best way to get started is to get a good book to give you an overview, although this will only touch the surface. Here is a really good book that can give you some great information on becoming a home inspector. The Home Inspection Book: A Guide for Professionals.Also read the Customer Reviews

Keep checking back and I will give you as much information as I can. Next time we will discuss another topic on what makes a great inspector. . . . . . .How to talk to the clients, Realtors, parents, and sellers the right way while doing the best job possible for your clients. This is an integral part in learning how to become a home inspector.

It seems like everyday someone tells me that they are thinking about getting into doing home inspections. They ask me all kinds of questions like, “How did you get into this?” or “How many inspections do you do a day?” or “Do you mainly work with real estate agents?” and a million other questions.

So I decided that after around ten years in this business, I would finally make up a site where new inspectors as well as existing inspectors can get some insight as to what it takes to be a home inspector in this day and age. I am going to get into all facets of being a home inspector, from training, education, tools, insurance, different kinds of inspection software, E&O insurance, what narratives to write to best serve your clients while covering yourself, etc.

I will be uploading pictures and videos that I take while doing actual inspections and providing as much help and guidance as I can to new and existing inspectors. So get ready and keep checking back as I will be posting updates regularly. If you have any questions or comments, let me know.