HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU CHARGE FOR A HOME INSPECTION? WE DISCUSS WHY MORE IS BETTER
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The question is simple: Are you charging enough? The answer is not so simple. In this episode, we’re going to help you tune your pricing to get that much closer to ‘just right’. This is Inspector Toolbelt Talk.
Ian: Welcome back to Inspector Toolbelt Talk. We have a great show ahead of us today. As you probably heard in the opener, the title of our podcast is: “You Aren’t Charging Enough”. So I’m looking forward to digging into that.
Here is my regular co-host, Beon De Nood. How are you doing, Beon?
Beon: Thanks Ian. Yeah, I’m doing really well. How are you doing up there?
Ian: Doing pretty good. We’re just digging into winter.
Beon: Good stuff. It’s been a good week for us, even with our state of the app. We’re working on Trek. We know if — Got the Trek templates and rating in there, but we’re going to get the brand new REI7-6 for our Texas guys. So look out for that coming up in the next week or two. That’s pretty exciting.
Ian: Yeah. We’re looking forward to that. Getting to our subject today, though. It’s kind of an interesting title, isn’t it? You Aren’t Charging Enough. We didn’t call it “This Is What You Should Charge” or “How to Price Your Services”. We just straight up said: You’re not charging enough!
Beon: Yeah!
Ian: We jumped right in, didn’t we?
Beon: Yeah, absolutely – and maybe as you read the title or you’re hearing us even bring up the topic, it’s kind of one of those that, depending on how you feel about the prices you’re charging, maybe you broke out in a bit of a cold sweat; got the sweaty palms, your pulse increased a little – because it can be a toopic that is very challenging and difficult to talk about and hard to get right. But I think we’ve got the right guy with us here. Ian’s going to help us out today.
Ian: Yeah. I bring out the fact that we’re not charging enough as a home inspection industry, because as a whole we really aren’t. Everybody has been talking about inflation lately. We talked about how a house costs a lot more now, how the US dollar and the Canadian dollar are worth less than they were just a couple of years ago. Inflation is a real thing.
So, we think about the average inspection fee right now. It really depends on where you look it up. You’re going to get numbers everywhere from $250 to $500… But for the most part, they range around 350 bucks or so for the average base home inspection fee. We’re not talking ancillary inspections and all that stuff. Base home inspection fee, nationally in the US anyways, is about 350 bucks.
But it’s interesting. I grew up in the surveying industry. You know my Uncle John, Beon. We would actually do some home inspections, although we didn’t call them that. We would just kind of check out the house for the people and stuff like that and we wouldn’t do mechanical systems, usually. But we worked very closely with engineering firms and home inspectors – because a lot of what we did went hand in hand with what they were doing.
I remember being a kid back in the nineties, watching someone pay about 350 bucks for a home inspection. We could probably did around and find that was probably about the average fee back then. So Beon, you’re better at math than I am. Tell us why that is such a bad thing. I remember you had a calculator you were telling me about.
Beon: Yeah. Well first of all, Uncle John. I mean, he’s a legend. He actually taught me how to plow snow with a truck. That’s my one fond memory of Uncle John.
Ian: Oh, Uncle Johnny.
Beon: But yeah, the numbers. So you threw out an interesting number there – $350. That’s what you remember charging people for home inspections back in the nineties.
So what I did is I took a random year, just 1996, and what we’ll do is we’ll do just a quick time travel. Let’s get in a time travel capsule. Let’s go back to 1996.
What was life like in 1996? Well first of all, President Bill Clinton – that’s the time period we’re talking about – minimum wage was… guess what? $4.75 an hour. Okay, that’s the climate of the year. A gallon of gas – $1.25 for a gallon of gas. Needless to say, the world has moved on from those numbers.
So if we’re still stuck on $350, here is how that translates – and you mentioned that calculator. Now the Bureau of Labor Statistics; they’re the guys who, every time we listen for a CPI and the inflation rate, they’re basically the guys keeping track of all of that stuff and reporting on it.
But hey, this handy calculator is called the CPI Inflation Calculator. You can get in your time capsule, you can put in a date and a dollar amount and see what the equivalent value would be today. So for interest’s sake, I put in $350 for January 1996. What does that equate to right now in 2021?
$350 is equivalent to $626. So that represents how much costs have gone up relative to inflation. So that begs the question, then: If we’re still charging the same that we charged back then, who is absorbing all the increasing costs? And the answer, I guess, is you are – and that’s why this is an important topic to talk about.
Ian: That’s a really good point. So let’s say we even take the very highest number of any of the estimates of the average inspection fee. Let’s say 500 bucks, which was the highest end that I could find. That is still less than we were making back in the nineties.
So back in the nineties, there was — I can’t remember a state – I’d have to check – that had licensing yet. I know New York didn’t, the state that I’m in. There was no real great certification programs. We have to be more qualified and we have to do more to inspect now than we did in the nineties. Anybody could just kind of show up and inspect back then.
So we have to be more qualified – and even at the very highest estimates, we make less than our counterparts from that time period. It’s amazing to think about! And not only do we make less, but it costs us more to do business.
So how much was a gallon of gas back then compared to now? It was probably just a little over a dollar, right?
Beon: Yeah, $1.25.
Ian: $1.25. It’s a lot more than that. It’s about triple that right now for a gallon of gas. If you’re out in California and listening right now, you’re paying quite a bit for your gas. So it costs you more to drive to your inspection. A truck back then didn’t cost as much as a truck now.
Everything costs more! The shirt that you’re wearing. The fast food burger that you grab on the way inbetween inspections. Everything costs more. So even at the highest estimates, we as an industry are not charging enough. We should be triple what we’re charging right now.
Beon: Yeah. If you think about the rest of the industry, everybody else involved in the real estate transaction, they make their money based off of a percentage of the sale of the house; as far as I know. I mean, maybe not everybody, but most of them.
Ian: Real estate agents and brokers do, yeah.
Beon: Right! The agents do. So if you think about it, yeah, the relative prices of homes obviously since 1996 has gone way up. Their percentage – they’re making more money. So they have kept up. But you know, as home inspectors, you’re not charging a percentage of the home fee. You’re at a fixed dollar amount. That’s why it’s important to have this conversation.
Ian: Yeah it’s really interesting, because I have had an agent or two make a comment to me: “Hey, you’re charging more”. You know, just as a good business practice I didn’t say this to them, but I felt like saying: “But you’re charging more. You’ve made 6% on a house. That was the fee for both agents involved – 6% total on a house than was $100,000 in 1996. You’re making triple that now on the house that’s now worth $300,000. It’s the same house. So why wouldn’t we charge more?”
There’s a cost to doing business that we as home inspectors don’t always think about. We’re in a low overhead industry. It’s the reason why a lot of us say “You know what? This would be a great job for me to get into. I don’t have to buy tons of equipment that’s hundreds of thousands of dollars. I can get in with my experience”…. but your experience costs money.
You have to walk into a house that you’ve never seen before, in front of an emotional audience (some of whom’s living depends on what you say ie. the agents). There’s attorneys and mortgage brokers and these peoples’ entire future and you have to tell them everything that’s ever happened to that house, everything that’s happening now, everything that will happen in the future. Write an exhaustive report about multiple disciplines within that house and finish it and be right.
That takes a lot of experience! It costs you a lot of money to gain your twenty, thirty, forty years’ of experience.
Digging in the mud, laying shingle, hanging sheet rock. It was expensive for you to get there. You can’t buy that. You can’t replace that. You can’t outsource that to India. You can’t have some college course that’ll teach somebody to be a home inspector and give them that same real world experience. Although the education of things… that’s very important. But, the certifications you carry… that all takes time.
There’s a cost to doing business that a lot of us don’t really consider. That’s everything that’s built up to that point.
Beon: Yeah. That’s a good point. It sounds like a pep talk, but you know what? That’s exactly what it is. It is a pep talk – and the reason for it is for you to be comfortable charging what you’re worth. You have to know what you’re worth. That is really part of the message that we’re trying to help you out with today.
Ian: Yeah and just going to the math, because being a business person I’m all about the math. So our average inspection – our overhead costs us about $125 per inspection for one guy to get out of bed and go look at a house for somebody.
That was from about two and a half years ago. So I’m sure it’s more. I paid $10 for a 2×4 a few months ago. You know, the price of everything is up. I’m sure it’s probably more like 150 bucks.
So let’s say we’re that guy that we’re really worried about getting business, so we keep our prices at $199. I’m glad this isn’t an interview with a bunch of home inspectors in here because we all have very strong opinions about that subject. But let’s talk about that for a moment.
If your overhead is $150 and you went out and did that inspection, you made $49. So that means you spent a half an hour of driving there, a half an hour back, a half an hour or an hour researching the property and getting everything all set up, talking with the client on the phone for fifteen minutes, scheduling it. A couple, 2 or 3 hours on site on the inspection. Finishing up the report, answering questions afterwards.
You just spent four to seven hours for $49. You’re making less than 1996 minimum wage! That’s not even worth it.
Now we may say: “Well, I don’t have that kind of overhead”. We have more overhead than we might realize. You don’t have just the gas to get to the inspection. You have wear and tear on your car. You have electricity. You have resources. Everything that you’re using to get to that inspection.
But even if you walk to your inspections, you use a clipboard with 9-inch ruled paper and a pencil that your grandmother gave you as a present; so as to keep all your expenses low… you still have expenses! It still costs you to do business. And it may not be $150. Maybe it’s $75, but I can guarantee you that for most of us it’s more than we expect. So we have to take that into consideration.
Beon: Yeah – and really, you need to know what that dollar amount is! So you know, Ian mentioned the phrase – and we’ve got a blog post on our website: “How To Price Your Services” where you actually itemize everything that’s involved. So if you missed the list right now, go and look at that blog post.
The question you have to ask yourself is: What does it cost you to get out of bed in the morning? If we can’t put a dollar amount on that, then we really haven’t gotten to the starting point of being able to price services.
Ian: You know, I’m a huge The Office fan. I love The Office. I have never worked in one, but I just love the show. Go check out that episode where Michael Scott starts his own paper company and he advertises the cheapest prices in town.
They go to see it and the accountant and they said: “Can we hire somebody to deliver our papers so that we don’t have to deliver it?” And he goes: “No! You can’t afford that – or anything – because you’ll be out of business in thirty days!” And they said: “Our low prices are the only thing keeping us in business”. And he said: “They’re actually putting you out of business”.
Our own prices will eventually put us out of business.
So, why are we not doing that? What do you think the fear is, Beon? Why do you think a lot of us aren’t just raising our prices and elevating the industry?
Beon: Yeah, that’s a very good question, and I think the answer may be different for every individual involved or you may have a whole list of reasons why we hesitate to raise prices.
But I mean, we all stand at the grocery store together. If you live in a particularly small community, you’re standing next to your neighbors in the grocery store line and you hear them complaining about how things are going up. You know, some folks are having a real hard time.
So for us, as a business owner, to sort of feel part of that and raising your prices… it can be an awkward place to be in your community. You’re the guy raising your prices. But there’s other reasons for it too, you know? The stigma attached to actually seeing your value – What am I worth? – And being able to attach that value to it… there’s a lot of psychological hurdles, potentially. I mean, those are just a couple. There’s many other reasons.
Ian: Yeah. I really think when we drill it down to the base of what we’re thinking as a business owner, is losing business. “If I raise my prices, less people will hire me”. It seems like a legitimate fear, but I have always been of the mentality of: “You want less people to hire you”.
That sounds counter-intuitive, but here is the math on it: Say we charge $300 per inspection. So at $300 per inspection — And just easy numbers, just for the heck of it. We do a hundred inspections a year. That is $30,000. So if we raise our prices to $350, let’s say, that comes down to $35,000. That’s a good increase! An extra $5,000 out of $30,000.
But we might worry: “What if an agent drops me?” So, I’ll tell you. Every time we’ve raised our prices, out of the past almost twenty years, we’ve lost maybe two agents. Okay? Big deal. That’s not the end of the world. So it’s not likely to happen, but let’s say it does. We lose one agent – and our numbers show in our system that the average agent sends us ten inspections a year.
So now you’re only doing ninety inspections, but at that new $350 mark you now make $31,500. You made more money doing 10% less inspections. Why wouldn’t you want to lose that agent and raise your prices? Because you’re making more and working less, but very likely you’re not going to work less.
But now out of those ten inspections, let’s say you did lose that. Going back to that $150 overhead per inspection, you also saved that. So those ten inspections equal another $1,500. So now you’re at $33,000. The math just adds up.
So even if you were to lose 10% of your agents for every price hike, you make out better, because you work less and you make more – and isn’t that the goal? Who wants to make less and work more? That’s counter-intuitive.
So I remember one of the inspectors that I work with. That’s exactly what he said. He’s like: “I’m worried that people are going to drop us” and I said “Good! That’s exactly what we want”. We want our prices to be to the point where we can do a fantastic job, we’re not worried about getting into the next inspection. Dropping agents that refer us and clients that come to us wanting a cheaper price, working less and making more.
That’s the goal of any business owner, in my opinion!
Beon: Yeah. And then when you pick up the next agent who comes along, you’re at a higher price point, where when your volume increases so will your revenue. I mean, it’s kind of like driving down the Interstate, right? I mean, you can get stuck in second gear off the exit, but it’s only going to get you so far. But as you move on through, you’re going to keep the vehicle going faster and faster – and that’s what we’re trying to achieve as well.
Ian: Yeah, and in reality, if we’re worried about somebody who is not going to hire us because of a $50 price increase – they don’t understand our value.
We had a conversation before about ‘perceived value’. If someone is trying to devalue what we’re actually worth, do you want that client? I have often found that the client that is saying: “Well, I have found somebody else to do it for $199 and you’re at $550”, which by the way is our price, then “Okay. Why aren’t you going with them? You’ve called us twice now to see if we could come down. You obviously want us”.
Why would we come down to their level and not elevate them to ours?
We want to be able to help people, but having cheap prices doesn’t help people. It doesn’t help them get a good inspection.
Beon: Yeah.
Ian: We want to give them the best value possible.
Beon: Yeah. You know that point on ‘perceived value’ of something… As far as your customer base, it does make a difference. It actually reminds me of that story you told me once about your friend there that had a box of kittens.
Ian: Yeah. True story!
Beon: Yeah! Their cat had kittens and… Well, they couldn’t keep all of them. So they wanted to have people have the kittens. So “Kittens, free!” right? That was the ad. “Free kittens!” And they didn’t move a single kitten. Nobody wanted free kittens. But, what was it? He put five bucks on it.
Ian: Yup, five dollars. He couldn’t get rid of one of them at “free” and he put five dollars per kitten. That weekend they were all gone.
Beon: That’s just it, you see. It’s the perceived value, a mental image of what a “free kitten” is. You know, you don’t know what — Are they sick? They haven’t had shots, you know? They’ve got all kinds of mange going on. That’s your mind’s perception of a free kitten. But one that costs five bucks? Oh, yeah! You know? They’ve probably taken care of it.
It’s the same psychology that plays out. If you’re trying to be the cheapest guy in town, have the best prices; pick up all of the business… you’re the free kitten. You know? We don’t want to be the free kitten.
Ian: Yeah. We want to attract the kind of clientele that — I love it when my clients, either before during or after or whenever they’re paying for the inspection, they say: “What was the price again? I didn’t even ask!” That’s the kind of client you want.
The agents that refer us and the people that refer us – they’re not thinking “What’s the price?” They’re thinking “Ian and his guys… they rock!” That’s the kind of client that you really want.
Beon: Yeah. So at this point, I’m listening to this information and I agree. Yes, I’m motivated! I am worth more. I am going to start charging more… BUT there’s a gap between what I’m charging now and what I’d like to be charging.
So Ian, how do we go about it?
Ian: Yeah. So we don’t want to just roll out there one day and our prices are $350 and say “You know what? Now I’m charging $550. Here we go, people”. We want to do it in a professional way that is more palatable to our market, because we’re going to be moving out of a price range and we want to ease into that new price range, into those new clients, in a clean way.
So a couple of things. First of all, timing. So I have made a lot of mistakes.
Raising my prices just before the holiday season was one of my worst mistakes – because what happens is we have this mentality right after our busy season. We just got done with summer and we’re into late October and we’re like: “Man! We just had a banger year! I rock! Next year I’m going to hire three new guys. This is going to be amazing!” and we raise our prices.
If you could actually — Well actually, you can, if you go to Google Trends. Watch the search volume for home inspectors. Peak in the summer and then drop down to almost nothing in the holiday season. People don’t want to move at Christmas. It’s going to be our slower season. If you’re a seasoned home inspector, you kind of know that. We’ll stay pretty busy, but it’s not going to be a banger part of the year.
But on top of that, it’s also the time of year where people are more conscious about how much they spend. They’re going to be thinking more about that. The worst possible time of year, in my opinion, to raise your prices.
“Get through the winter” is what I always did. And again, I’m in the North East, so winter is going to be a slow season. It’s not going to be a slow season maybe for Southern California and Texas and Florida.
But right around the springtime, just as we were getting into the busy season… Not before it, but just as we’re getting into it, I would raise my prices. Everybody’s busy, so everybody’s calling around and trying to get a home inspector that’s available and that they want. Nobody was really caring that I raised my prices $50.
Beon: Yeah.
Ian: So then by the time the slow season came around, it was just a known. All the agents have referred me, mortgage brokers… All my clients have referred me. They knew: “Oh yeah, that’s Ian’s price”. It became normal to them by that time of year came around. So time it out well.
Also, doing it incrementally. So if you want to do $25 in inspection now… that might not seem like a lot, but it adds up especially if you’re doing some decent volume. And then midsummer, do another $25.
If you’re a Florida guy and there’s a lot of people buying houses in the wintertime, that’s when you’re going to raise your price. Whenever your busy season is already under way. Not right before, but already underway. That’s the time that I find to raise your prices.
Beon: Yeah. Good one. So now I have decided I need to change my prices. I know what my new price point is. I’ve got the timing right. Now I mean, obviously only I know about this information. So what do I do with it? Is it time to fire up that marketing campaign and announce this new pricing model to everybody? What are we going to do?
Ian: You know, I have had so many guys call me, like to say “Hey Ian, can you change the pricing on my website?” and “I’m preparing an email to let everybody know I’m raising my prices”. And I’m like, “Why would you do that?”
You know, my local grocery store doesn’t email me when they raise their prices. My HVAC contractor doesn’t tell me when they’re going to raise their prices. We’re home inspectors. We’re not subscription-based business. We don’t charge $300 a month and now we’re raising our monthly fee.
We just raise our fee, don’t announce it and don’t apologize. I hate that; when I watched a home inspector one time: “I’m sorry. I just raised my prices. Here is a new price. Hopefully that’s okay”. You know what? After he said that, it wasn’t okay. It made it weird.
Be confident! You can’t outsource us. As long as houses are bought and sold, people need us. Don’t apologize for a price adjustment. I don’t see any real estate agents apologizing about getting $50,000 over asking right now for a house and their commission going up! If they sold that house and they did their job, they earn their commission! We are an important part of that. Don’t apologize.
“Hey, here’s your fee. Thank you very much. I am glad you enjoyed your inspection today”. Be confident. Don’t apologize.
Beon: Yeah. Very good point, because this points to the psychology of it and to your own personal thinking and feelings on the matter. So we mentioned at the beginning: If raising your prices, or even the topic, gives you the sweaty palms and it makes your heart beat a little faster… You’ve got to work hard to get past that point.
Because if you aren’t confident about what value you represent and the price point, if you’re not standing behind it and confident about it, you’re going to come across apologetic in how you pitch your price. And like you said, it gets weird!
Now you question: “Oh, so you’re not sure you should be charging this? You think you’re overcharging? Well, if you think you overcharge, you probably are!”
Ian: Yeah.
Beon: So, yeah. We definitely want to get in the right headspace on that one.
Ian: Yeah. Be confident. You know, our job is not easy as home inspectors. So be confident in your prices. And as Beon just mentioned, we don’t want to project our own insecurity on it, especially if we’re new. That’s kind of what it comes to sometimes.
Maybe we’re a little insecure about our abilities or about our pricing or “What does the consumer or the agent or the attorneys… what do they all expect of me?” They expect you to do a great inspection! And if you do that, don’t apologize.
A couple of other things that you can do. If it also helps your confidence level as well, especially is: Add value, add services and be better!
It sounds simple to say, but talking about ‘adding value’…
So I hired a contractor recently to pave my driveway. I didn’t really go on price because of the situation that happened.
So I got three contractors. One kind of showed up from a job, he was all dirty, writing the estimate on a piece of paper and he ripped it off and handed it to me. I didn’t even consider him. He wasn’t the cheapest, or maybe he was. I don’t know. But I didn’t even consider him.
Another guy came. He didn’t tell me when he showed up. He just came, measured my driveway and gave a price and he didn’t even know what I wanted. He didn’t cover some of the information that I had told him about on the phone.
The guy I hired showed up with his shirt tucked in and his logo on, shook my hand, looked me in the eyes and gave me a great professional experience. Anytime I had questions, his office would call me back. He gave me an electronic invoice. It was a great experience! Reminders: “Hey, we’re going to show up. Here are some pictures of our guys”. It was amazing! He added so much value, but with little things.
So I mean, just to give a plug for ITB here, but there’s things that add value. Showing up when you have already reminded everybody, sent out reminders with a notification system. You have already got the agreement. You’re going to produce a clean electronic report that’s easy for them to follow.
Show up with your branding! Your shirt tucked in. I have always said that. I hate seeing somebody show up without their shirt tucked in. Just little things. Having your hair clean. Everybody expects you to get dirty on an inspection, but not show up to one dirty. Bring an extra set of clean clothes to change into. I have always done that, ever since I have inspected. Wear booties on your shoes when you’re walking in, or just change your shoes. Have a separate set of shoes for the interior.
By giving them a professional experience, you add value. Because remember, if we’re being referred by somebody, we represent that person now. People are always going to refer someone when they know that they’re going to give them a great experience. Give them that great experience!
Beon: Yeah. You bring up the point fo software there. I mean, as the lead developer for our app… You know, using something like Inspector Toolbelt; you mentioned notifications. It becomes something where you’re adding value but you don’t even have to think about it. So you setup the reminder and the thank you email and “Would you like to refer me?” email. All of those things add value.
Look, you touched on the report. Now, I don’t want to open a whole other can of worms, but imagine now you have software where you are able to deliver a report on site. Again, I don’t want to open up that can of worms, because everybody feels different about that. But value to a client, being able to walk away from a home inspection with a report delivered, huge!
You will not have to apologize about that price, guaranteed!
Ian: Or even just the next day or that evening; we actually had a building that had to get inspected outside of my area. He mailed me a report. He wasn’t my pick, but he mailed us a paper report. That wasn’t a whole lot of value added.
So yeah, every last aspect of what we do on that inspection – it adds value. It shows why we’re worth our price. So make ourselves worth that price by giving them the services that they need.
Then just two quick points: Adding services. That’s an easy one. I already burned off my overhead – 150 bucks to show up on site. So I want to add services.
We do septic inspections, wood destroying insects, raid on, well testing, water purity testing and mold assessments – and we are qualified for all of them. That’s a side point. We want to make sure that we’re qualified for that. We want to give people good inspection. We don’t want to just add on services. We want to be qualified.
Take the time to get really good at that, to add on those services, because your overhead is already burned. Also, it makes the time easier.
So if you’re going to do a mold inspection and you’re going to do a wood destroying insect inspection, you’re already in the house doing the home inspection. You’re in all the areas that you’re going to look for anyways. Is it really going to add that much more time to do those while you’re already in those spaces?
A lot of times our average inspection fee will be about $1,200. People are like: “Woah! People pay that?” Well, yeah! If we’re doing a septic inspection and all of those things that we mentioned in addition to the home inspection. Also, it goes back to adding value. Agents and clients love it that they can do it all with one phone call. They don’t have to get three separate companies.
So I talk to a lot of guys that outsource this to other companies. It’s missed revenue. If you can provide a valuable service like that, get the qualifications, get the experience and do it.
And just one short point on being better, so that we’re worth more.
My doctor has all of his plaques and everything that he’s ever gotten all over his wall in his office – and you know what? Subconsciously it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. “He’s good at what he does”.
So, become better! Get certifications, take courses and post them all over your website… Put them on your business cards. Whatever you have to do to make people say: “Oh, this guy is worth it”. It makes raising your prices a lot easier.
Beon: Yeah. That certainly makes sense. A lot of this, again, plays down to psychology; and getting ourselves in the right headspace and also helping our client, at the end of the day, to feel good about what they’re getting – the value for money that they’re seeing in our services.
Ian: Yeah, and really in conclusion, it comes back to your ‘sweaty palms’ comment. Don’t get those sweaty palms. Don’t worry about raising your prices. Don’t worry about losing people. Have the goal of working less and making more. That’s really what it comes down to.
So, don’t be afraid to raise your prices. Raise them up, do a great job and get paid what you actually deserve for a required industry that can’t go anywhere.
Beon: Yeah. Thank you very much. Hopefully you have been able to been able to find the information you needed to hear in this podcast, because it’s clear to me… For me, I’m not a home inspector. I’m looking in at Ian who has done this for his entire life. The point of this really, it seems, is that you’ve got to start with you.
You’ve got to sit down, you’ve got to do a little bit of work and figure out what is the price point that you need to have to be profitable. And once you decide on that price point…You know, I made the joke earlier about getting yourself in front of the mirror and giving yourself that pep talk that “I am worth this!” You know? You’ve got to get your head in the game! I don’t know if Ian would recommend the looking in the mirror thing.
Ian: Yeah, don’t do the mirror thing.
[Both laugh]
Beon: But the point is, you’ve got to get yourself in the right space first and then you’ll be in a good position to be able to sell yourself at whatever price point you do set. But, thank you Ian. Hopefully you have found that useful and take it and implement it in your inspection business and be able to see the good fruit from that.
Ian: Thank you to Beon. Great subject matter. I’m looking forward to our next man.
Beon: Okay, man. I’ll see you there. Thanks.
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