PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Ian Robertson
Welcome back to Inspector Toolbelt Talk everyone. So I’ve been looking forward to the guest that we have on today. And I’m going to butcher your name, but it’s Juan Jimenez. Did I say it okay?

Juan Jimenez
Yeah, that’s great.

Ian Robertson
Close enough?

Juan Jimenez
Close enough.

Ian Robertson
It’s not Juan Geminus.

Juan Jimenez
It’s not that but if you said that I probably still would be like, Yeah, that’s fine.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. Okay, that’s cool. You’re good about stuff like that. But it’s great to have you on, Juan. Thank you so much for being on and I just like to kind of introduce you a little bit. You own A House on a Rock Home Inspections down in, we’re gonna say Midlothian area, Richmond, Virginia, that general vicinity, and multi inspector firm. And when I was cyberstalking you just on Google alone, you have over 1400 5 star reviews.

Juan Jimenez
Yes, sir.

Ian Robertson
For any business, let alone a home inspection company. That’s impressive, man. Kudos.

Juan Jimenez
Thanks. Thank you so much. Yeah.

Ian Robertson
And I know you, you credited Blip a lot with your with Shin and Blip and all that Blip is a software for anybody who doesn’t know, we don’t own it, we just like it. But you have had to work really hard at doing really good inspections for a really long time to get that many good reviews. So that says a lot about you and your business.

Juan Jimenez
Thanks. Thanks. I appreciate that. And yeah, definitely, you know, Blip does all the automation, but yeah, you still have to do a good job to get good reviews.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, then you just automate bad reviews if you do a bad job. Yeah, exactly. But that’s gonna be a nice lead into our subject here in a little bit. But can you tell me a little bit more about yourself? How did you get into inspections? You know, how long have you been in business in one form or another? Anything that you’d like to share?

Juan Jimenez
Sure. So been in business like, almost 12 years, I think. Yeah. And basically, I started, I was getting out of the Marine Corps, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And then I bought a home and I saw the inspector. And I was just like, Oh, I think I could do that. And He charged me 350 bucks. And at the time, that was like, a ton of money. So I was like, Man, I think I can do this. And it would definitely help financially. So in Virginia, there was no licensing at the time, you could just start, you could just be like, Oh, I’m a home inspector. And, you know, I did the courses and started the business, I only really wanted or needed, like one a month, you know, that was a sales pitch to my wife, like, Look, if we can get one a month, that’s 350 bucks. Like, we were so poor, we were like, dirt poor. And that was my pitch to her. And I just started and, you know, I’m kinda have a tendency to always just do the best I can. And it kind of just blew up from there. So I didn’t mean for it to be this big thing. I just wanted some money. And I thought I had the skill set. But yeah, it turned into something much bigger and better than than I had planned.

Ian Robertson
Well, you know, that says a lot about you in a lot of different ways. But it’s a great self made man story. You saw something you worked hard for it. And you know, ex military, you guys tend to make really great home inspectors, not afraid to get dirty, you work well with other people. And you figure things out, and you have a go getter attitude, typically. Yeah, you know, so, I mean, there’s other factors, but I see a lot of that happening. And it’s good. And I do have to say, for most of our listeners are, are listening in the audio only of the podcast. But if you have a chance to watch this on YouTube, there’s a great visual in Juan’s background of Mr. Bean holding, holding a teddy bear, which is both frightening and awesome. So, but Yep, there he is. Mr. Bean. Apparently, one of your employees left it outside your door and scared the snot out of you one day, right?

Juan Jimenez
Yes exactly. They started a prank war. So yeah, we’ll see what happens with that.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. Oh, well, so it’s still going on. So that should be interesting, we’ll have to listen to more stories. Very nice.

Juan Jimenez
Right.

Ian Robertson
So you actually brought up a great subject today. And I really loved it. And I was really excited to talk about it. Anybody who listens to our podcast knows that we talk a lot about how. Let’s take for example, back in the 90s, average home inspection fee was about 350 In the mid 90s, 350 bucks. And it hasn’t gone up that much higher in in almost 20, 30 years. It’s insane. The average home inspection fee now is just a little over $400 nationally. I mean, account for inflation, we’re making less than half of what we used to, but now we all have licensing, more certifications, more training, more equipment, more everything. And we’re making we’re making less so we talk a lot about raising the prices, but you added in another dimension, that is really important. Charge more. But be more. What does that what does that mean, Juan? Can you explain?

Juan Jimenez
Well, I think, you know, yeah, home inspectors talk about it a lot. But they generally, you know, when I see the conversations on forums and Facebook, it’s sort of like this arbitrary charge more, you know, and it’s almost like, a lot of it almost seems to come from a place that, like, we don’t know how to. But, you know, if we’re putting the burden on everybody else, to drive our own profit margins up. So it’s like I, you know, it’s like, inspectors feel like, well, I’m having trouble because there are cheaper inspectors. So I need them to charge more so that I can charge more. And that seems to be the it’s very arbitrary, though, like, you know, just charge more, charge what you’re worth, but it’s like how, why, you know, and there’s, there’s not a lot of discussion about how to actually do that, just that it needs to be done. And it’s usually so for the posters own benefit, you know, so I can charge more. I definitely think we need to talk more about how we would go about doing that.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, you know, it’s interesting that you say that there was a post not long ago, and it was another home inspector talking about in other industries, they have always had their prices go up. He paid X amount of dollars for a service industry service 10 years ago, and now it’s almost twice as much now. And he said, and he’s like, why don’t we do that in the home inspection industry? And that actually kind of popped into my head. I’m like, that kinda almost sounds like price fixing at that point is like, let’s just charge more.

Juan Jimenez
Sure. Yeah, it is.

Ian Robertson
But it’s like, go ahead.

Juan Jimenez
No, I was gonna say it does have that vibe. You know, like, charge more, everybody charge more. We’ll all make more money. Has that like price fixing monopoly vibe sound to it? Yeah.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. But as you mentioned, there’s another dimension to it. And so I always use McDonald’s a lot as an illustration. Because sometimes we we view it as like a commodity, it’s a burger. I pay X amount of dollars for a quarter pound of beef at Burger King versus McDonald’s. So I went to here instead of there. But it’s like, if you’re both Burger King and McDonald’s, and you both say, hey, let’s raise our prices, you’re still giving people the same burger, just more expensive. You know?

Juan Jimenez
Right. Right. Right, exactly.

Ian Robertson
So that whole being more mentality. Tell me a little bit about what you mean by that. So how do you think we can go about legitimately raising our prices? What’s what’s a good avenue for you? Or that you think home inspectors could imitate?

Juan Jimenez
Right? So I, I think the first thing and I had to give it a lot of thought, but I think the first step is that home inspectors really need a fat dose of humility, before they can raise their prices, because the conversation usually goes, you know, well, I charge more, because I’m the best, you know, or you should charge more, because you’re providing such an awesome service, or, you know, we’re the only unbiased party, and we’re the most important people in the whole transaction. You know, and there’s, you know, we need to be more humble first, before we can charge more, because, you know, all of this, you know, me, me, me, me, me, I’m the best, I’m the best, I’m the best. I don’t leave my house for less than this much money, or I know what I’m worth, you know, none of that. None of that. None of the conversation around raising the prices ever has to ever revolves around the consumer. You know, what they’re what they’re getting, it’s always about the inspector and how awesome they are. And so I think first, you know, we need to take, you know, our, we need some humble pie. And realize, you know, a lot of us are really the same. A lot of inspectors, we’re not really that much better than anybody else. And even if we are the best, you know, we need to be able to communicate that with the client in a way that they will understand. And so humility and communication, I think, are the biggest things. And neither one of those things has to do with how good we are as inspectors. But yeah, of course, I think if we’re humble, then that provides us the avenue to become better inspectors and offer a better service. So I know that’s sort of like a, you know, Chip bar what’s like, a very, sort of mysterious answer. But yeah, I think I think we need to be humble first.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. No, I don’t think it’s an enigmatic answer at all, actually. And I think you summed it up well with two things that you said. Humility and communication. So I totally agree with you on both of those things. I talk to inspectors every day. It is just all the time. And unfortunately, sometimes the answers I get are, well, I’ve done everything I can and people should hire me because I’m good. It’s basically what it comes down to. It’s like, well, first of all, we should be humble enough to know, Hey, that guy that has been doing it for 25 years, may be better than you.

Juan Jimenez
Absolutely.

Ian Robertson
And I’ve had to have Humble Pie too, because it’s easy to compare ourselves to a bad inspector because it stands out more. Sure. You know, we go and we follow somebody who did a pre listing inspection, they missed this, this, this and this, and we walk away. For the next six months, we think about how amazing we are to a guy that did a terrible job.

Juan Jimenez
Right.

Ian Robertson
And it’s like, oh, okay, cool, feel good about yourself that you did a great job, but a little bit humility there saying for every one of those, there’s another guy, that’s better. Right. If I got followed on an inspection, are they going to do better than me? So it’s basically having a realistic view of ourselves? And then communication, communication. What do we add to the buyer? We need to be able to communicate that if we can’t communicate that, or if our answer is the standard. Well, I know more about a house than anyone else. I’ve been in construction for 20 years. I’m more thorough, those are not answers.

Juan Jimenez
They’re not.

Ian Robertson
Those are ad lines on a website.

Juan Jimenez
And they’re not going to resonate with the person on the phone, you know, no, you can’t tell the person on the phone. Well, you know, we charge this much more. Because every time we go behind a home inspector, we find defects that they missed, like one, they’re not going to believe you and two, they don’t care. Yeah, that is not going to work.

Ian Robertson
Well you know what’s funny, going back to the burger illustration, McDonald’s, raising their prices, and Burger King doing it, whatever. But I went to this gourmet burger place. And you could tell that they spent years perfecting this burger.

Juan Jimenez
Absolutely.

Ian Robertson
And on the menu, the description is a very short line of this burger is a proprietary mix of not only locally sourced beef, but locally sourced lamb that we have experimented with for X amount of years to get it just right. And then a slice of this cheese, which is made down the road, etc. And when they bring it to you, it’s amazing. Like I bought it because of the description, but it’s like three sentences. So can they charge more for that burger?

Juan Jimenez
100%.u

Ian Robertson
Oh, yeah, yeah, I don’t even know if I asked. It just looked amazing. I’m just like, I need that burger. Right? So a little bit of humility on their part, made them step back and say, I could throw a burger out here and say it’s better than McDonald’s. But does that really command the price that I’m looking for? Can I spend some time honing that burger thinking about what are the three clear points about this burger that make it amazing and better than anywhere else? And if we can’t do that, we can’t step back humbly and say, Hey, man, where do I stink as either a businessman or a home inspector, right, We’re never really going to command a price. James Gonte, he was on the podcast, oh, man, probably a year or two ago now. And he talked about that, how he goes and does continuing education, way more than a state requires. If a state requires 24 he’s doing. He’s doing like three times that and continuing education, and then some, and you know, he already kind of knows his stuff, right? And he’s like, and that’s why I can charge. I think he said, like $800 for his average home inspection with a couple of add ons, where most people in this market are charging 250-350. Right. It’s gourmet burger. Is that kind of what you’re getting at with your angle, too?

Juan Jimenez
Yeah, yeah. And I tend to focus more on the fact that if this burger company hadn’t communicated it, what was so special about their burger, they’d still only be able to charge so much for, you know, it really came down to how they separated that burger from other burgers. I mean, because there are other there are, I’m sure, there are plenty of other burgers in the area from locally sourced beef. And, you know, but if you can’t communicate it, then it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. So it’s the fact that, you know, I tend to focus a lot on that, you know, it doesn’t matter. Even if you are the best if you cannot communicate it to your clients in a way that they will appreciate that it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, because even the best home inspectors are still going to be charging 250 to you know, compared to a home inspector who’s just a really good communicator, who might actually be worse, but they’re charging more so yeah, I mean, I don’t, I don’t go to as many classes as James, but I definitely focus on how we’re communicating with the person on the phone.

Ian Robertson
So besides making myself very hungry now, really. I think your communication point is very much key. And I think it’s the skill that we lack most as an industry, which is interesting. I’ve had home inspectors email me, say I’d like this on my website, or we’d like this feature on our map or whatever. And then we ask questions. Back and forth. And finally, we have to call them. And a common thing that I kind of chuckle at is, I’m sorry, I’m really having a hard, I really have a hard time in life, putting my thoughts into words. And I’m like, that’s really half our job anyways, right? We have to see something and put it into writing. Right? So we oftentimes, I think, spend a lot of time working on the input and not the output. So I know a lot about a house. Okay, how do you communicate it? That’s like having a Corvette engine, but no wheels? It’s going to run really great on the inside, but it’s not going to go anywhere. Right? It doesn’t deliver anything. Absolutely. So yeah, communication is key. Yeah, I agree. Because I always tell years ago, almost 20 years ago, when I started my first inspection company, there was this home inspector, and I was always like, Man, how does he kill it that bad? He’s doing awesome. And he’s retired now. So I can say he was he wasn’t good. It was not a good, not a good scene. And he would even kind of like indicate that a little bit. Yeah, you know, I could do better here there. But he was just such a charismatic, good communicator that people were drawn to him. Right. So what skills he did have, he was able to spin it.

Juan Jimenez
Right. Exactly.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. Oh, well, this other home inspector offers infrared, which was a big deal back then. You know, they offer an infrared. Yeah. But you know, let me talk about my strengths. You know, I found this and he was able to spin it. So no matter what the other guy had, under the hood, so to speak. His wheels, they were taking him places, how he was able to communicate.

Juan Jimenez
Right. Right. Well, I think there’s instinctively there’s two, two routes that you can go right? If you suck at picking up the phone and communicating, then you can just hire somebody, right? You can hire somebody who’s good at it, that’s certainly one option, because we all can’t become great communicators. But two you know, I think there’s, there’s so many sources out there, you know, podcasts and videos and books. I mean, it’s all free too I mean, you don’t charge anything for this podcast, right?

Ian Robertson
So, now we know there’s a problem. Not all of us are great communicators. How do you think a home inspector can learn to be a better communicator? Nope, not a bit.

Juan Jimenez
It’s all free. I mean, there’s so much free information on how to, you know, and really, it’s about being a better salesperson on the phone. Even though a lot of people don’t like that word, it’s really just about being a good salesperson on the phone. And, and if you’re not good at that, to put as much effort into that, as you do. Learning about houses, you have to put, you know, if you’ve got eight hours of continuing education for roofs, then you need to spend eight hours learning how to be a better salesman, because that’s half your job as well. Half of your role in your company is to be a salesperson.

Ian Robertson
You know, it’s it’s interesting that you say that too, because a lot of guys, I’ve had many guys tell me this, I’m not a salesperson, and that’s not going to change. And or my favorite one is, they should hire me, because I’m better. Right, right. Not because I’m salesy. And my response has always been the same. If you’re that good, why are you having such a hard time selling yourself? Right? So if we can’t, I think the beginning of being a good communicator of why to hire us, I actually have a script on one of our on our website, that home inspectors can download and input with their own information. So adapt that script to you, right? There’s your phone script, it can get you through a 10 to 15 minute phone call less, more, whatever you want, and it and helps you highlight, and it forces you to sit down and say, what are the three things that actually set me apart from everyone else? Right, literally and physically. Don’t say, Well, I do infrared everybody does it. Don’t say I do a thorough inspection. Everybody’s saying that. What actually sets us apart so that we can say and, you know, we always throw that USP unique selling point, whatever, step back and say, What would you want to hear? When you call a contractor? What do you want to hear? I think that’s the beginning of good communication is having it clear on our own mind. Instead of when somebody calls just trying to wing it and think about, oh, well, you know, I don’t know, I guess this or that. Write it out. Three things. What are unique selling points? Which is hard. It really is. I mean, if somebody pressed me right now what what are your unique selling points? I’m like, Well, I can squeeze into a crawlspace pretty good. You know, I was actually thinking about that the other day. I don’t I don’t really get in underneath houses, but I had in my own house. I have this small crawlspace there’s a little tiny window. And I’m not. I’m not overly wide, but I’m not overly skinny. But I was able to get in. I’m like, Ha, there you go. That’s why, that’s why I was a home inspector. USP right. Joking. But does that kind of make sense to you? Maybe even just writing it down?

Juan Jimenez
Yes. So I mean, I’m, I think that’s a great start. I’m pretty, I’m pretty anti script. Yeah. Because, again, you know, and I think scripts are really good for a lot of people, I just, I tend to think scripts are, are really, you know, one sided. You know, you write a script. And it’s all about the things that you’re going to say. And we tend to focus more on what the customer is going to say, on the phone. And essentially, what I what I tell our my phone person, and other inspectors who ask is we let them write the script, right? So, you know, somebody calls, and they’re like, hey, we need a home inspection, you know, like, Oh, why what’s going on? You know, like, oh, whoa, we just got a contract on the house. And then oh, well, did you see anything wrong with it? You know? And then right, right, then they’re like, Oh, well, we saw that, you know, the roof might be old. And you’re like, Okay, what’s the address? And then we look at, I can see that I can walk on it. Like, oh, you know, based on the pictures, Yeah, it does look kind of old, just, you know, we are going to walk on this roof. And we’ll be able to know the age and the condition. Let you know, if there’s any defects with it, you know, and I’m not gonna go over the whole conversation. But now, just that one thing, they should have told us, they’re worried about the roof. Right. And so our USP is that we walk on roofs, right. But I didn’t know it was important to them until they said, Well, we’re worried about the roof. So you might have all these USPs, but the ones that you say might not be ones that the client cares about. So you ask questions, you get them to tell you everything it is that they want. And then you confirm that you’re listening and that you are going to do those things or how you’re going to do those things or, or how that’s gonna play out in your inspection and, you know, sort of subliminally subliminally why you’ll be the best choice for them. Because they’ll go over the things that are most important to them. And then you just repeat it back to them. And then they’re in they’re like, Oh, this is the company, this is the one, they’re gonna do all the things that were important to me. And then then you give them the price, and they pay whatever you want, they’re not going to have to go to another company, right? Because you’ve, and they might not even know yet what is important to them. So you’re kind of extracting it out of them. And then while they’re kind of figuring it out, you’re also telling them you’re going to do it. There’s no reason for them to call anybody else. Yeah. You know, they’re like, Oh, this guy’s listening. He’s going to do all the things that I wanted. He just told me sounds like everything we need is going to be addressed by this company. So yeah. And then you’re like, Yeah, $600. And they’re like, sometimes you can hear it, they’re like, oh, but they still go. Because their ready, they’re like this guy. He’s the one who gave me everything I needed. So yeah, we’re, sure fine. 600 bucks, I thought it was gonna be less. But we’re gonna go for it, you can almost charge them anything at that point.

Ian Robertson
So I wholeheartedly agree and you. I don’t know if you know this, but you basically laid out several old school marketing tricks, marketing has not changed in 6000 years. It’s the same. Our script actually does some of the things that you mentioned. I liked your adaptive USP, though I’d like to talk about that in a minute. But we in the script, we actually say adaptive USP. Yeah. So you adapt to the person, our USP may be a level two thermographer. But they don’t know or care about that.

Juan Jimenez
Don’t care, right, yup.

Ian Robertson
Maybe their dad’s an electrician. And our USP is we’re, we were an electrician for 40 years. They don’t care about that. Exactly. Yeah. So adaptive USP, which I like to talk about in a second. But one of the things that you mentioned was, and the term escapes me right now. But basically, you get the client to have a vested interest in you. Every minute that you keep them on the phone, and they explain something, the more likely they are not going to call somebody else because they don’t want to subliminally do that again. So car salesman use this trick we mentioned in a previous podcast, where the car salesman knows if you test drive a car, you’re gonna be there for half an hour. If you test drive another one, if he can make you wait, you often notice how there’s like nobody else in the building, but your salesman makes you wait, yeah, I’m like, How long does it take to go get a key? What they’re doing is actually keeping you there. Because the longer you’re there, the less likely you are to go through that process again, with someone else. So in the script that we have, we actually say keep them on the phone for five to 10 minutes. Have them talk about everything, ask them all the problems, their concerns. And the reason you do that is five to 10 minutes in, our conversion rate went from 50 to 90 some odd percent.

Juan Jimenez
Right.

Ian Robertson
Because they’re like, if every, subliminally ,they’re like if every phone call that I make, I have to explain this and this guy has already given me everything that I need. I’m just not going to make another phone call. This is too much. Let’s just go with this guy. Right? It’s it’s one of the oldest sales tricks in the world, it’s a it’s a vested interest that they have in you know, but the adaptive USP that you mentioned, that’s something that’s not built into my script. And that I love. Because our USP may be, you know, I’m a Certified Master inspector, which that’s a whole different podcast, you know, a lot of different opinions on that, whole different podcasts. But maybe they don’t really care about that maybe maybe their cousin’s a home inspector out in the Midwest, and they’re buying a house back back East. They’re like, I don’t care about any of that. My cousin told me to look for a guy that is XYZ. But if we didn’t ask them, we don’t know. And now we’re giving them USPS that unique selling points that they don’t care about. So I love that adaptive USPS.

Juan Jimenez
Yeah, I think, you know, saying I’m, you know, a level three, level two thermographer, they might not resonate with them. Whereas if they’re like, Well, you know, we were worried about leaks, you know, worried about leaks in the walls, well your USP was reduced thermal imaging, right. And if you, if you charge more for it, now you’re about to sell it, but you’re like, oh, whoa, just so you know, we do do thermal imaging. And that can help us, you know, scan the house, check for thermal anomalies and confirm with moisture, or however you want to say it, you know, but basically, you just now you can present it in a way that does resonate with them. Because just saying, I’m a thermal imager, they might not even know what Thermal imaging is yet. They’re worried about leaks, but they don’t know what Thermal imaging is, maybe. And now you can bring it in, in a way that they’re like, Okay, that’s cool. Makes sense to me. They’re either gonna hire you or they’re gonna hire you already. Now you can you charge more and I can add on so it was really easy. Yeah, we charge 99 bucks for and they’re like, oh, absolutely sure. For hidden leaks, sure, absolutely go for it.

Ian Robertson
Man, you’re talking my language. So that goes back to our charge more, but be more.

Juan Jimenez
Exactly.

Ian Robertson
So be more, be a better inspector that has more services that you’re qualified for, that you can get 1400 reviews, like you that are five star, you have to be amazing to have that number two be more of a salesman, and not just an inspector, right? We got to we got to have the wheels, if we’re really that awesome. We really need to be able to sell, and if we’re not that awesome. Get more awesome. And then at the same time, know, know, what we do bring to the table, right? You know, everybody likes to tell the story of how they became a home inspector. And you saw an inspector and like, Hey, I could do that. A lot of times, though, they say I had a bad inspection. So I became an inspector. And it’s, and it’s like, okay, cool. Now, what’s your USP after that, like, what makes you better than that inspector that gave you a bad inspection?

Juan Jimenez
Right? Well, I’m just better, right?

Ian Robertson
I’m just better. Yeah, I’m not going to do that to somebody how, right? You know, it’s like, if you it’s like an ice skater saying, Hey, if you jump up here, I’ll catch you. And I’m not going to drop you. How do I know? Like, have you been doing a lot, A lot of laps, and Delta exercises, man, let’s just give me some proof. You know, but I really love that idea. That’s something that I’m going to take with me. Adaptive USPs. So listen to the consumer, which we try to do, we really want them to talk. But we had a different angle before. I think we’re going to include that more. So if they mentioned, leaks, we talk about infrared, if they talk about plumbing, we talk about our sewer scopes, and our certifications. And maybe even for me, you sound like you can do it a little bit more off the cuff than me, I like to sit down with a little chart. And I like to process map everything. So I might actually sit down and say, Okay, if they mention this, here’s the here’s where you can go and do a little tree so that, you know, little notes. So the my people answering the phones can say oh, okay, they mentioned this and check off that box. Yeah. So I really liked that a lot. If you and your people are visual diagram, tree people and that. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Well, and I say that only because too, you sound like a natural communicator. But for somebody who is not a natural communicator, writing things down does help. So it’s kind of like, I’m not a natural at math. Anybody who’s heard me try to do math on the show would laugh. So I have to write it down. But once I write it down, I can do it right. So it’s just like any other thing that maybe we’re not natural at like you with communication, write it down and we can go back to our notes. We don’t want to read it but we could say okay. They said this, maybe I can go here now. For us we do a lot of stuff, we do Home Inspections, wells, radon, radon, mold assessments and mold clearances, which is a New York thing, septic systems, sewer scopes, we do a whole bunch of services. So we try to upsell those as part of our USP.

Juan Jimenez
Right.

Ian Robertson
Like a good example of, not that we purposely did it as USP, but we often heard people say, I’m having a heck of a time getting the septic guy out there the same time as you. Because the agents only wanted to make one appointment. Sure. So that’s when we got into septic inspections. So now they’re we’re like, Well, you don’t have to worry about that we can do the septic inspection, one appointment, one inspector, one check, and that mattered to them, because it’s really hard because the you know, septic guys are like, Well, I have a pump out at 11. I can try to be there at one, but I don’t know. Right, you know, right. So even adding on services, being more, can be our USP or at least one of them.

Juan Jimenez
Right. Absolutely. I definitely think the more services you offer, if you know, you actually go through the training and buy quality tools to do them. Yeah. Then yes, obviously, that should add more money, as long as you then learn how to sell it to the customers. Right.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. And I think that’s important, too. It sounds like you have a lot of additional services. If you don’t mind me asking what what kind of services do you offer besides your base home inspection?

Juan Jimenez
We do radon, chimneys, infrared, termite, and sewer scopes.

Ian Robertson
That’s awesome. The chimney thing that’s going to be the next big thing, in my opinion, more and more. It’s becoming a process that home inspectors take on kind of like, 10 years ago, nobody really did sewer scopes, for the most part were I wasn’t as heard of, And then it was a plumbers job. And now we kind of take it over. I think we’re going to take over, you know, chimney inspections and level twos and stuff like.

Juan Jimenez
Yeah, I think so too. You know, I, like, I mean, I wasn’t around when home inspectors first started testing radon, but it seems we’ve become the like, radon testers, home inspector, really. I would estimate like just complete guess that home inspectors are performing like 90% of the radon tests, professional radon tests in the states, like, it’s got to be some ridiculously high number like that. And it just became, you know, we’re the ones who do it. And I think yes, chimneys and sewer scopes, and termites, and probably even well, and septic, I think we’re going to be the ones who are the ones who take on that role, at least in real estate transaction.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. And even even now like in New York State, there’s no licensing for septics. But in my area, most of most of the septic inspections, I would guess now are being done by inspectors for real estate transactions. But then you go to like Massachusetts and New Jersey and a couple states around us. And they actually do have licensing for it. New Hampshire, I believe is another one. And that’s being taken over by the home inspection industry, because we’re already equipped to do it. Right. But that’s just an interesting side point. But it just shows that you work hard to be more. So I know you say that you don’t maybe do as much continuing education as James Gonte. And he goes very hard into the, you know, I want to be the better inspector, but you have a lot under your belt there that you are well equipped to do. And I go back to the reviews, you’re obviously very well equipped to do it and good at it. Because you don’t get that many good reviews. stinking up the joint, you know.

Juan Jimenez
Right? Yeah, I think the reviews is probably the other major factor. Because they can come when they come, they’re primed and ready to pay a premium. You know, they don’t see 1400 5 star reviews and be like huh, bet they are a cheap company like, you know, I bet I bet this is the lowest priced one, let me go here. Like they’re not doing that, you know, they’re coming, primed, ready to pay, either at least, you know, an average price or probably a premium price. So that’ll go a long way too but we didn’t always have that. So then you got to learn the hard way to get them to pay.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, I mean, you’re at a point where you’re USPs are all over the place, you have tons of them. Maybe somebody’s starting out or in the middle of their develop business development, maybe they don’t have that many. But understanding what they are and communicating them is important. Actually, anyone who’s listening, we did a podcast on how to become a better communicator, I believe it was last year, you can go back and listen to it as some tips and tricks because not all of us are great communicators. You know, it’s ironic that, you know, I have a podcast here, but I was actually not a great communicator. For a long time, I had to learn how to pull the levers and do all the tricks. And you know, you can’t look stuff like if you can’t look somebody in the eye, look them in right in between the eyebrow, you know, stuff like that, and just be a better communicator on the phone or in person because that’s important too, because the sales don’t stop once you’ve booked the inspection. Right? It happens the entire process through the inspection.

Juan Jimenez
Right, I agree.

Ian Robertson
And we need to communicate well with them there. And I don’t know about you, but we upsell on site. So like sewer scopes that’s usually going to be upsold on site. A lot of the time because it’s like, okay, well, they didn’t order one. But you’re looking at this old galvanized pipe that’s half fallen apart, and you’re like, you want me to run a scope through that. But now how we present that is going to matter if they hire us or not. Right? You know, it’s like.. Oh, yeah, you should really get a scope in there. I got it right in the truck, four hundred bucks. You’re not communicating the value. Right. Now, if you pointed out you say, Hey, are you concerned about this? Like you said your method. Are you concerned about this? I don’t know. Should I be? Well it’s old. And you know, there is known to be Orangeburg piping in this area, you know, would you like us to put a sewer scope in there? No, a lot different communication there. Exactly. You’re empathetic, you’re listening, and you’re giving them a solution to a problem.

Juan Jimenez
Absolutely.

Ian Robertson
Never upsell anything that nobody needs, though. But I think everybody needs a sewer scope. I don’t care what it is.

Juan Jimenez
I agree. I agree. It’s not, it’s not pushy, you know, if it’s going to provide them value, and they’re going to get a great benefit from it.

Ian Robertson
What’s the most expensive sewer scope issue that you’ve ever found?

Juan Jimenez
It was so I don’t remember the exact price but it was upward of 10,000. Because it was a main road. And they were going to have to, like contract with the Department of Transportation to like, block it off, and dig up the sidewalk, and all of that stuff. So it became very expensive. Oh, yeah. I remember one time the most expensive sewer scope issue that I ever found. It didn’t even need to run the scope. I just walked in the backyard. And I said, I smell poo. I’m like, Okay, well, let’s. And I looked and they were daylighting their black water into their neighbor’s cornfield. It was a lake, there was black water fines. Not like a literal lake. I mean, it was just this giant puddle of poo water from years of just dumping it in there. Blackwater fines, I don’t know what the neighbor ever did with them. They didn’t have a leach field. So I mean, there’s what five to 10 grand for a leach field.

Ian Robertson
So, yeah, never had to run the scope. I go, Hey, look, here you go, poo water. But you know, you shared some knowledge here today. And I learned something. And again, I’ve said it like five times during this podcast, but I’m going to remember it adaptive USPs. And I think I’m going to put that into practice.

Juan Jimenez
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it. I’m going with it.

Ian Robertson
I just made it up. So we’ll go ahead and use that term. But I really like that you can do it off the cuff because you’re a good communicator, I think I’m gonna write it down. But either way, the big takeaways, charge more. But be more, be a better inspector, offer more services that we’re qualified for, be more in the sense of also being a better communicator and working at that. And I think my favorite expression from you today was, if we do eight hours of continuing education on how to inspect the house, do eight hours of continuing education on how to be a better communicator. Take a course, watch some YouTube videos, listen to our communication podcast. And that’s a good suggestion. So thank you.

Juan Jimenez
And you’re welcome. You’re welcome.

Ian Robertson
Hey, Juan, it’s been awesome having you on the show. Did you have anything else that you wanted to mention on the way out? Are you all good?

Juan Jimenez
I mean, the only thing I keep thinking is this is the first time in my whole life anybody has ever described me as a good communicator. I certainly wouldn’t have ever described myself like that especially many years ago. So it’s just proof that you know if you work on these things, and then you’ll get better.

Ian Robertson
Yep. We never see our own progress. Right. Yeah. You are a good communicator, as seen here today. And thank you so much, Juan.

Juan Jimenez
All right. You’re welcome. Thanks for having me. Yeah.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, hopefully have you on again.

Juan Jimenez
Absolutely.

Outro: On behalf of myself, Ian, and the entire ITB team, thank you for listening to this episode of inspector toolbelt talk. We also love hearing your feedback, so please drop us a line at [email protected].

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