In my past life I learned early on many the rights and wrongs of a home. I learned to have an eye for details. My Dad is an architect, so I was always wanting to be an architect. There was just one problem, I was not really good at math, or algebra. I worked at my dad's office as the copy machine boy for a few years putting spec books together and making blueprints. I remember taking off in the station wagon really early on Sunday mornings with my dad and we would just drive around town looking at different historic homes and new properties or projects he was working on.
My first real job was when I was 14, at a Hardee's burger joint. Hated the job but the food was cheap. I could only work 2 hours a day until I turned 15. When I was 18 I was an assistant manager making $400 a month and I bought a house. I left Hardee's in 1978 to work in the home improvement department of a local variety store. That was the beginning of a 32 year career selling building materials. My wife (who also worked at the store) and I were married in October of 1981. I left that store in 1984 to become the manager of a brand new Do-It Best HWI store 30 miles north of our home in Bourbonnais, IL. The owner's wife had some medical issues and he sold the store in fall of 1986 to a Chicago lumber company, and they were nothing but bad news. By February 1988 I was done with them and started working at a contractor lumber yard in Joliet, IL. Fast forward to 1996. My wife and I now have 4 children, 3 girls and a boy. The lumber yard owner decides he was going to take my number one contractor account worth approx $12-15K a year in commissions and make it into a house account, and pay me $100 a month to manage the account. This was really him trying to save his company with any cost savings he could manage. The Joliet yard closed on 1997. I was already gone in the summer of 1996 and I ended up at Georgia-Pacific, at first working in the warehouse slowly driving a fork lift, then moving into outside sales calling on independant lumber yards in 16 counties in Illinois and Indiana. In 2003 I moved to the GP National Accounts team calling on Home Depot stores and servicing their Moulding department. I honestly thought that I would retire at GP but things changed in 2007.
The contract for the Home Depot moulding was up for bid and GP did not win the bid. Our entire team lost our jobs at GP, but we were all hired by the new company, from Canada. French Canadians to be exact. I learned very quickly that the people in charge at this company do not trust Americans. Learning to pay attention to what people were saying and how they were acting would save my career. I had a really bad feeling things were not going to work out in the end with the Canadians and I needed some sort of back up plan so I started researching a growing industry, Home Inspections. I remember my wife coming home one day from her job in January 2007 telling me that if I ever had something go wrong with my job that she was now eligible for health insurance. I took my severance package from GP and paid for home inspection school, tools, license and a website and I was in business. I still had the terrible moulding job until Dec 30, 2010. That was important because as everyone remembers, there was a recession during those years and as I was building my inspection business, the recession was recovering and the first day of 2011, I was now a full time home inspector. From 2007 when I did a total of 4 free inspections for some friend's homes, to 2019 where we will end the year over 550 inspections with myself and a young inspector and marketing person added to the team, it's been an amazing journey.
It's hard to pick just one thing that has been the main reason for success. I do know that I have spent lots of money and hundreds of hours attending seminars and listening to very successful home inspection experts and marketers. Implementing these ideas is a big challenge as there are only so many hours in a day to get things done. If anyone that knows me were stopped on the street and asked "what is one thing you can say about Scott?" I am hoping it would be that he's a really nice guy and he loves to talk. That's 2 things but they are both true.
Mix in that a heart attack scare in 2012 when I actually died twice in the ER and I am one grateful home inspector. Our family is growing, as my oldest daughter just had our first grandson on September 19, 2019.
This is Clover Leif Seaton.
This is Clover Leif Seaton.
In short, my past life has had an enormous impact on where I am today. My advice is this. Pay attention when things are pointing you in one direction or you may miss out on the best thing that could ever happen.
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12 month warranty is available if inspected by any other inspector. Same great conditions apply...no 30 day waiting period, choose your own contractor, no appliance prorating, no pre-existing conditions.
All these bonuses are FREE with every home inspection.
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.
FREE Platinum Roof Protection Plan with 5 year leak repair coverage.
Visit my website at www.illinois-home-inspector.us or
like me on facebook at
Scott L Seaton
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