If I Could go Back to the Beginning...
What a wonderful 9 years it's been as a home inspector. The first 3 were while I was a full time employee for a moulding company servicing Home Depot Stores in the midwest. I had a bad feeling about the direction of this company and the management's attitude toward the reps that I was in charge of. They felt that my team should be lucky to have a job, and my instructions were to write written warnings for any issue, no matter how trivial so there would be a doc in the file at review time. Then the rep's bonus could be cut, thereby saving the company money. Not a good way to instill team morale.
I decided that having a back up plan would be very wise, so I went to inspection school, which I loved, then took my state test, then got my license and BAM, I'm in business.
I sent out a bunch of letters to friends offering to inspect their homes for free, just to kind of learn my way around a house and get a system of the flow of an inspection. It would have been funny to watch me if I was following myself around. I honestly don't know how I actually scheduled any inspections. I never even answered the phone, I had calls going to my answering machine when I wasn't home. My cell phone was a work phone for the 9-5 job.
As the first couple years went by, I actually started buiding a following of agents that used me from time to time. I was doing about 10 inspections a month, and enduring the stress of feast or famine. I would have one month with 15 inspections, then the next one had 5. Hardly making a living, I asked a couple agents that I trusted for some advice and what could I do to improve my referrability.
What I learned from them was that I talked too much. I never shut up. The inspections were too long, the info too overwhelming, and the clients were freaking out because I just didn't know when to shut up. Sales were sometimes lost because of me, not the issues of the house.
I'm not sure how I would ever explain this to a new inspector if I was asked, but if you followed me around today at an inspection, it's very much the same info as the beginning years, but I ask the buyers what they do for a living, which helps me decide how much or how little info they need to hear from me. If the buyer is in the trades, I am very brief with descriptions of an issue. I the buyer is a doctor or a computer geek, I ask them how they handle themselves around a tool box. Their answer tells me how much they need to hear from me when there are issues.
Learning to know how to talk less and pay attention to the buyers would have been a great lesson to learn early on in my inspection career. I suppose it has a silver lining. The agents I asked that question to so long ago are my very best referring agents today.
Today is June 26, 2016 and I just did inspection number 242 for the year. It's been my best year ever by far, and likely will be 450-500 by year's end. Quite a long way from those early years.
Scott Seaton-The Home Inspector With A Heart
SLS Home Inspections @815-644-6271
Inspecting homes like yours in the Kankakee, Bourbonnais, Bradley, Illinois area since 2007.
Real Estate inspections with same day report delivery. Mold and air quality testing.
FREE 90 day Homeowners Warranty. Included with every inspection.
FREE Sewergard protection for the first 90 days. covers up to $4000 of sewer or water main repairs.
FREE Recallchek appliance recall service. Included with every inspection.
FREE Moldsafe coverage on every inspection.
Visit my website at http://www.slshomeinspections.com/ or www.bourbonnaisHomeInspector.com or
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