peotone home inspection: All Because I Raised my Hand
- 07/31/24 12:27 PM
All Because I Raised my Hand
As I write this letter, I am in the final stages of selling my company that I started 17 years ago. The interesting thing is, I never thought I would be in this position when I made the giant leap of faith to start a business on my own. I just figured I would someday hang up the tool bag and take down the website and fade away. But none of it would have happened if I hadn't raised my hand one December morning in 1997.
I had been selling lumber and building materials since … (22 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Why Us You May Ask?
- 07/30/23 07:43 AM
Why Us You May Ask?
That's a great question and isn't asked very often. Most of the time the very first words we hear when the phone rings and a potential buyer is on the other end is "How much is a home inspection?" Literally 9 out of 10 times, that's all the caller wants to know. They don't know that it's not really what they want to know, but they don't know what they don't know. What they really want to know is what are you going to tell me that is so valuable and worthwhile and important in … (14 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Flower Season is Way Too Short
- 05/30/23 09:02 PM
Flower season is way too short.
Every April and May in Bourbonnais, Illinois we get an amazing blast of color thanks to the wide and assorted collection of flowers that bloom seemingly all at once. These flowers make real-life paintings in everyone's gardens and flower beds. Having a job where I get to visit homes and enjoy these beautiful gardens all over our area is a bonus that I don't take for granted.
Finding such beauty in what otherwise may be a very dull and drama free inspection and turns it into a perfect opportunity to snap a few … (9 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Nope, I Didn't Always Know Everything
- 05/01/23 07:07 AM
Nope, I Didn't Always Know Everything
Someone recently asked me what it takes to start a home inspection business. How did you get started? You seem to know everything. Really?
When I started my business, I had the good fortune to already have a full-time job. Good thing too, because it was right before the mortgage crisis in 2008. That took some of the pressure off to make the leap to full time. I was able to ease into the inspection business and build my network and relationships with many local agents. I completed 4 free inspections in … (20 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Maybe a Seinfeld Episode?
- 03/26/23 07:40 AM
Maybe a Seinfeld Episode?
Many years ago when I first started doing inspections, I had the pleasure of inspecting a condo for my daughter and her soon to be husband. The marriage didn't last for a few good reasons but that's not what this story is about. They were buying unit one of a 4 unit condo. The complex was horseshoe shaped with a detached row of garages in the middle of the horseshoe. The seller was home. As I walked around the back by the gas meters, I could smell a strong natural gas smell at the meters. I … (8 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Not a Bozo Bucket For Sure
- 03/23/23 08:21 AM
Not a Bozo Bucket For Sure
About 6-7 years ago, I had an inspection scheulded for a client that was buying his very first flip house. He owned a carpet cleaning business and this property was only $30,000. I remember thinking how many carpets he must have cleaned to save up $30K. Nothing was really out of the ordinary on the roof and exterior. The interior was a different story however. As I was in the basement looking at a section of about five 2x8 floor joists, I saw there were termite tunnels and what looked like squishy wood. There … (16 comments)
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peotone home inspection: If I Could Live Anywhere...
- 02/28/23 08:04 AM
If I could live anywhere, I have to think I may just end up where I am at this very moment. I know there are zillions of other locations around the world and for sure around the country that are more beautiful, have more amazingly intense sunsets, more green cool forests and maybe even a better quality of life. But, and this is a really big but, it's not where I call home. I've been living in the Kankakee, IL area ever since my family moved here from a small town in central Illinois in 1970. At the time … (13 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Old School-New School
- 01/30/23 01:05 PM
Old School-New School
Last year was a crazy year in real estate and I'm pretty sure everyone that reads this might agree. While some months were normal to average business wise, there were several months that were not close to 2021. As the year went on, we determined that 2021 was an anomaly and we were more likely tracking with 2020. Our fees increased slightly, so while our number of inspections were down, we were still above in total revenue.
The biggest change happened in April when our longtime marketing partner sold their business to a new company for a huge chunk of … (20 comments)
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peotone home inspection: My Top Blog post Ever ever ever
- 10/23/22 07:36 AM
My top blog post ever ever ever. Several years ago the monthly challenge contest was called the AR Pay it Forward Challenge. This was my entry.
PROJECT RE:CYCLE BLOG POST
I like to enter the challenges every month if I can, and when I saw this one, I knew exactly what I would write about. I've been in Activerain for maybe 10 years now, and really try and read as many blogs as possible. I don't always comment on each and every one that I end up reading, and I'm sure I miss a whole bunch of them … (12 comments)
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peotone home inspection: 21 Questions Challenge Accepted
- 08/28/22 08:24 AM
Questions
1. We all go on vacation to get away from it all and have a great time, but I want to know, what vacation day was your worst? My wife Mary and I got married in October 1981. Went to Mexico with plans to stop in Dallas for a few days to visit her Aunt Erika and Uncle Imants. 2 days after arriving in Dallas my wife got really sick. I was fine until.... I was with Imants at the Kennedy Memorial and that's when it hit me. We spent the next 5 days in bed violently ill and had to … (9 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Fly With Pride
- 06/12/22 06:41 AM
Fly with Pride. As a past Scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 324 in Bourbonnais, IL, I had a special task teaching all the scouts in our troop the rules and guidelines for raising and lowering a flag, folding and storing the flag, marching and displaying our flag and removing a tattered flag from service. There are very old and historic rules about all of these actions regarding the American flag. Other than the pledge of allegiance, most young people don't really ever look at a flag and for sure don't know or are taught the rules of respect for flag handling. … (9 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Bourbonnais Scarecrow Festival is a Howling Hit
- 10/28/21 12:35 PM
The annual Bourbonnais Township Scarecrow festival is always a huge success.
Starting the first week of October, local businesses, charities or individuals can enter the contest for a chance to win prizes and promote their businesses or group.
The contest winners are determined by the appointed judges and also by the coveted peoples choice voters. The transformation from a simple plastic fence on Kennedy Drive into a 2 block display of Halloween fall displays and scarecrows is almost overnight. Lots of hard work and creative designs are displayed that must have taken weeks to work on just … (8 comments)
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peotone home inspection: We have Two Wright Homes in our Town
- 10/28/21 11:54 AM
We have two Frank Lloyd Wright homes in our town. Kankakee, Il.
Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) is famous the world over and his homes are known for some of the coolest, most innovative and striking design ideas ever built. Kankakee, IL is proud to have two Wright homes. Next door to each other too. One of them is privately owned and there are not a whole lot of people that have visited that home as long as I can remember. But the B. Harley Bradley home is a very different story. It's long history has several inspiring chapters, … (3 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Winter is Coming Fast- Ready or Not
- 10/23/21 06:18 PM
Winter weather is coming fast. Bourbonnais, Illinois was 36 degrees last night.
There are a few things that are worse than a furnace acting up in the middle of the winter, but for the life of me I can't think of any right now. Your furnace or boiler needs an annual checkup.
REPEATING Your furnace or boiler needs an annual checkup. Don't wait.
If you put it off until November or December, you're asking for trouble. Waiting until the snow flies means you waited about 3 months too long. Now if you're depending on something like this old furnace … (8 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Things I wish I knew
- 09/26/21 09:00 AM
Things I wish I knew- As I have gotten older, I realize there are so many things I just don't know anything about. I wish I did, but either I never took the time or didn't realize I really wanted to know about that skill or idea or information to learn about it. For instance, I have always wanted to play guitar, I even own an acoustic giutar, but have never picked it up to play one note. I would like to know how to play golf, but learning to play is just a reason to be able to hang out … (9 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Fresher Than Fresh
- 07/16/21 07:28 AM
Fresher than Fresh, sounds great doesn't it? It's the name of my salsa that just has a nice ring to it. Well, I wish I could take credit for the recipe, but I can't. Back in old days before cell phones and online recipes, there was these things called magazines. I sold lumber and building materials for 32 years. I would often go the local library in the town near the lumber yard where I worked so I could do blueprint takeoffs for the house lumber package I was selling. It was quiet, no interruptions from the lumber yard guys, had … (12 comments)
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peotone home inspection: What Might Have Been Different About this Picture...
- 05/30/21 05:03 AM
What might have been different about this picture...
This will always be a very emotional picture for me and all of my family. It was taken on Christmas Day in 2012. That means it was exactly 13 days after I came home from the hospital after a heart attack. On December 10, 2012, at 1:30 in the moring, I woke up to intense pain and crushing pressure in my chest. I was covered in sweat and immediately knew I was having a heart attack. I woke my wife, told her to call 9-1-1. I put some jeans on and went … (17 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Perry Farm is a Winning Visit for the Family
- 04/09/21 08:20 AM
Perry Farm is a winning visit for the family.
Bourbonnais Illinois is the home of the Perry Farm. Today it is listed by the National Park Service of the Dept of the Interior in the National Register of Historic Places. But it wasn't always like that.
In 1835, Thomas Durham moved his wife and family of five daughters and four sons to Bourbonnais Grove,IL, about 60 miles south of Chicago on property on the banks of the Kankakee River. He built a farmhouse and a three bay English barn and a horse barn. Legend is the farmhouse cellar was part of … (7 comments)
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peotone home inspection: Odd, It Was Easy To Be Thankful This Year
- 11/26/20 07:11 AM
Odd, It was easy to be thankful this year.
I know it sounds crazy but there are so many things to be thankful for as this trying, agonizing, maddening, frustrating, sad, painful, distressing year comes to close.
But as for business and the steady background of the corona virus, the business success far outpaced the virus. We are thankful for so many things, but our list would not be complete without these handful of events.
1. The PPP loan. Somehow we were able to take advantage of the PPP loan and get a much needed assist when the virus … (10 comments)
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peotone home inspection: We Just Might be Telling You Something Important
- 05/24/20 06:42 AM
We Just Might be Telling You Something Important.
Really, if there was no benefit to the inspection agreement that the State of Illinois requires us to have signed before we start the inspection, then I would gladly toss it out right now. But it does have lots of valuable information that protects the buyer as well as the inspector. We always make sure and go over the agreement with the buyers at the end of the inspection so they have a clear understanding of what they signed, even though this is not required by our SOP. We just feel it's makes … (8 comments)
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All Because I Raised my Hand
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