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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Ian Robertson
Hey David, how are you? Welcome back to the show.

David Nyman
Doing well, Ian. Happy to be here.

Ian Robertson
Hey, so are you ready for another episode of Inspection News?

David Nyman
I am riveted. Is that the right word to use?

Ian Robertson
I think so. I don’t know. You’re asking the wrong guy.

David Nyman
I’m not from this country. So I should shouldn’t be asking you.

Ian Robertson
Well, you know what I’m excited about, though not, not about that. But more about my microphone being fixed. Last few podcasts episodes. I don’t know something had been going wrong. And apparently my webcam was actually messing up my microphone. So I’m glad to have that all fixed. Because now you can hear me a little bit better. Yeah, I don’t know if that’s a good thing, though.

David Nyman
And the microphone hides your goatee really well.

Ian Robertson
No, no goatee. But it does take up a lot of space. This is a large microphone when I when I first got it. It had all these great ratings, you had recommended it to me. And it was just, I opened up, thing is ginormous, it’s like, the size of my head better sound good for the size of it is. But anyways, here we are. So with Inspection News, we just like to keep everybody updated on what’s going on in the market, whether it happens to be real estate related, how it affects us as home inspectors, to what’s actually directly affecting us in our industry. And today, we actually have a couple of bits of news that are very much affecting us. And I don’t want to come off as saying I told you so. But this is actually something that I had been warning our industry about for a long time. And this is the beginnings of it, me and you were talking about this before the show that Inspectify, so first of all, if you work with Inspectify, we’re not calling you evil. And we’re not calling Inspectify evil or anything like that. This is just the information. And basically our perception of it. But Inspectify actually sent out a notification. And I have a copy of the email that they sent out. It says, I am contacting you today about a change to Inspectify’s pricing structure in California, beginning May 8, all full home inspections in the state of California will move to Inspectify set pricing, the email kind of goes on and talks about how the pricing works. And apparently that was released May 8. I haven’t been able to find any information on what that set pricing is I actually emailed Inspectify and asked them you know what’s, what’s the set pricing but they haven’t responded. So that opens up a whole can of worms. Now at first glance, it’s like oh, that’s alright, as long as it’s high enough. Here’s my problem with it though. David, anytime you have a company that has that many inspectors working with them setting prices, they set prices for all of us to an extent. So if you look on the Inspectify website, right on the About Us page, it’s https://www.inspectify.com/company/about-us. So it says they have 2000 plus home inspectors. Now our industry is made up of about 30,000 home inspectors, but only about 20,000 of us are actually active, like I would say at least, you know 50 to 100 inspections a year. So that means about 10% of the active industry works with Inspectify. So here’s here’s where my worry comes in. So if you’re an inspector out in California, charge 750 for a home inspection. But now you’re one of X amount of home inspectors in an area and 20 of them are Inspectify guys. So now what if they’re at 650? How are you going to be that far above what most of the other inspectors are in your area if they’re all Inspectify guys, so now they’ve actually set a market standard for us. They’re controlling our prices to an extent. And I say, I told you so. Not to sound like a jerk. But this is what happened to the appraisal industry. This is what I’ve been worried about for years. Appraisers, they have a set amount by a management company, that’s how it works. Management company takes x amount of dollars and then they pay their guy X amount of dollars. Now they do twice as much work for half the pay. And that’s why there’s actually an appraiser shortage. A lot of them are getting into the home inspection industry. Because management companies are just destroying them. Yeah, so that’s that’s what I’ve worried about for a long time. What are your thoughts, David? Am I being too over the top?

David Nyman
We’re not saying it’s evil, but we might insert some Empire march right here. Or worse.

Ian Robertson
Is that is that is that the impression we’re giving? Inspectify, they are not your father.

David Nyman
Resistance is..oh that’s the wrong..

Ian Robertson
No, no, that’s the Borg. C’mon, get your nerd genre right, man.

David Nyman
No, I see the concern. And just like you said, you know, whenever you have a large company managing the prices for a big section of the industry, that is definitely going to impact all the, even the inspectors that aren’t members.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, and we’re not saying if you work with Inspectify that you’re evil for supporting the machine, we’re all making a living. But you know, it’s interesting, Inspectify’s bigger in some areas than they are in others, kind of like, northeast, you’ll get some bits and pieces of Inspectify out here. But not nearly as much as you would in California, California is where they’re really, really dense with Inspectify inspectors and Texas, from what I understand as well. But that affects all of us, even here on the East Coast. So for instance, just as an example, New Hampshire and New York have been some of the biggest places over the past year where people from California are moving to, I have lots of friends, I was sitting around the campfire not long ago, and everybody there except two people were from California. And they’re like, Yeah, I think I mentioned this on another podcast. But an agent, I know she’s from California. Two agents I know are from California, people are moving here from there. So now, if they moved from there to here, what kind of pricing is Inspectify setting? Because now they set a standard in those people’s minds, both the agents that move in? Well, this is how much a home inspection should cost? This is how much it costs in my area. Buyers moving in. Well, this is how much it cost when I bought out in California. So nationally, they’re affecting prices. But really, I’m concerned more about California. Because man that has a deep effect on on you guys out there in California.

David Nyman
Yeah, I mean, you can understand, you know, there’s some security, some convenience in having that support. So you can see why it’s a it’s an easy sell for Inspectify to get, you know, home inspectors to hop on the ship, but they might not have expected this to be coming in the future. You know, maybe some people expected it and are saying I told you so now, but overall.

Ian Robertson
Are you calling me a jerk, David?

David Nyman
No. I wouldn’t dream of it.

Ian Robertson
I guess, um, my concern is when you look at it from an outward perspective, they’re not doing anything evil. They’re running business, they’re changing an industry. But when you look at the industry within, you’re, you are changing an industry, you’re changing our lives very directly affecting our businesses. And we were the ones who fed the beast, we tend to feed the beast, whenever an industry goes under, we tend to feed the beast, and I’m saying we’re going under, but that’s what’s happened in the past. So giving a management company any kind of power, in my opinion, I’m getting on my high horse here, because I get a little fired up. It, it takes away from the individuality of the industry. So now the other issue, I have with that is the quality of inspections for the industry. So right now if you’re an Inspectify guy, you can say I charge this much money, and this is what I want. And I’m going to do this kind of inspection. All right, cool. Now what if they say you’re gonna get $150 less? Like, Well, okay, well, I’m not going to, not going to work for that. So it’s the same thing with licensing, licensing tends to push some of the guys that are really good, awesome inspectors out of the industry. Because now you get a flood of guys to say, Hey, that guy has been inspecting houses for 30 years, I have the same qualifications as him, even though I’ve never done one. And that’s true, he had the same piece of paper, the same license. So now I charge 300. And he charges 550. Eventually, that guy is going to be like, I’m not going to charge 300, I’ll find something else to do. They go into commercial inspections, or something else. I find that it’s the same thing with appraisers. Like everybody’s like, it’s hard to find a good appraiser. Like, well, yeah, you got to pay him well. Anybody who’s worth their, what is it, worth their salt?

David Nyman
Yeah, something like that, or pepper.

Ian Robertson
Or however, I don’t remember, I don’t know how those expressions work. You know, they’re not going to work for those set amounts a lot of the time. So it takes away the value to the client and the ability of us to be able to say, I offer a better inspection, I charge more. And everybody’s like, Yeah, but no, they all charge the same.

David Nyman
Yeah. I mean, in a way, I guess it’s similar to the Walmart effect. Yeah, they chased out all the small companies, you know, the mom and pop stores because they cost more to, you know, buy your books or whatever. And then you kind of lose the right to complain when you’re going to the Walmart and you think it’s a terrible place to be. Yeah, but that’s that’s all that’s left. You know.

Ian Robertson
You know, I think that’s a fantastic illustration. And I often pick on McDonald’s, but I don’t know if I’ve ever told the story on this podcast, but there is a really great gourmet burger place near where we like to hang out. And man, they just had amazing burgers. On our way around there one day we told some friends about it. And someone in the back said, Oh man, they’re expensive. It was like $17 for gourmet burger when I’m say gourmet, these are like New York City burgers in upstate New York where the cows outnumber people. I’m like, why are they, why you guys even here?

David Nyman
It’s a lot of meat.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, exactly, easier to get to the cow. But they eventually went out of business because people are like, Oh, that’s expensive. But it was it was a perceived value, because you go to McDonald’s now. And the whole thing was, oh, it’s cheap, it was cheap. And then their overheads increased, and you know what it cost a lot. And it’s like $15, by the time you get a value meal, and you want a side of six chicken nuggets, and then end up feeling like garbage after you eat it. I’m like, that’s $2 off from a gourmet burger. And people are like, Oh, that’s so expensive. Going for gourmet burger, I see the same kind of thing happening. I’m just reillustrating what you already illustrated is now that’s what people expect. And now that’s all that’s there. If you want a great inspector, you’re gonna have to find a great inspector who’s willing to work for those prices, you know. Back in the 90s, average home inspection fee was like 350ish. Now now it’s finally gotten up. Two years ago, we did our We’re Not Charging Enough episode, and it was around 350. Now it’s a little over 400. Yay. But that’s barely keeping up with inflation, in my opinion. It’s around like 425, 440, somewhere in that range for the average home inspection. But that’s just keeping up with inflation, barely. So it was already on a downward trend. And now you have management companies changing the price. So I’m not going to harp on that much longer. It does, but it does bother me. Here’s another piece, a home inspectors sent me or posted in in a group or something somewhere, if you go to Inspectify.pro, so not .com, .Pro, there’s an Inspectify home inspection company, or at least that’s what it appears to be in Dallas, Fort Worth. So I’m looking at the three guys right now. And if you’re listening to this podcast Hi, first of all, thanks for listening in. Second of all, how does this work is Inspectify not only setting prices and having inspectors work with them, but then creating their own company to compete with the inspectors that are supporting the company? You know what I mean? So it’s like I work, say, hypothetically, I worked for Inspectify. And they’re like, Oh, this is working out. Great. We’re gonna start our own company to compete with Ian. Okay. So you had your own inspection company now, after I kind of supported you and helped build you up.

David Nyman
Yeah, I’m starting a competing podcast, just so you know.

Ian Robertson
Exactly. David’s starting his own podcasts. And he’s gonna call it David Toolbelt Talk.

David Nyman
Swedish Toolbelt Talk.

Ian Robertson
Swedish Toolbelt. It’s all just going to be the Swedish Chef talking into a microphone. Man, we just took a turn. Anyways..

David Nyman
Back on track.

Ian Robertson
Back on track. So this just has me concerned that that’s all I’m saying. So I’m not saying they’re evil. I’m not saying anybody who works with them, or for them is evil. They’re running a business. Am I saying this is not good for our industry as a whole, in my opinion, very much so. This is the beginning of what has brought down other industries. Inspectify filled a gap that didn’t need to be filled, but could be, you know what I mean? Like, did they need to be there? No, but there was we left the gap for them. So, but anyways, that’s the kind of that’s kind of the big stuff going on in the industry right now. It was a little blurb that people didn’t really think I think too much about maybe they did, maybe they did think about it, but I have, I was hoping for a more fire discussion. It’s like, do we not see the forest fire building in the distance we can see smoke. Everybody goes, Oh, man, there’s smoke. And then there was wasn’t any more, you know, humph about it.

David Nyman
Yeah, Ian is making a big fuss about it.

Ian Robertson
I know I’m making a big fuss everybody, come on fuss with me. Anyways, let’s move on to some lighter inspection news here. Well, first of all, let’s talk about we’ll give a plug for our home inspection app, Inspector Toolbelt. So we’ve had some new features come out, we had our RLG, Repair List Generator, TM. So..

David Nyman
Is it actually TM?

Ian Robertson
That makes it a legal TM, I don’t know.. But our repair list generator, you can turn that on in our app or you can turn it off if you don’t want to use it allows people to create a repair list from your report. Agents can use it and clients can use, it it’s not giving cost estimates it’s just saying okay, we want x amount of dollars for the bad roof and the report generates another report, works really well. It’s been really popular. Also too if you want you can download an office presentation for it. You can submit it, we’ll add, our team, put your logo on it, adjust it to your colors. We have an amazing graphic artist on our team, Kim, she’ll be happy to take care of that for you. Yeah, what other Inspector Toolbelt bits can we throw in there, David?

David Nyman
We do have a few things pending on the horizon. Some of them are you know, under some kind of wraps, because we don’t want to give away our trade secrets too early. But there are some exciting things both for, you know, generating more revenue as an inspector. And also, you know, to give more control over the data that inspectors have access to.

Ian Robertson
Yep. So “take back our industry” is our mantra here at Inspector Toolbelt, give you the inspector, the control, give you the inspector, the revenue, and that’s one of our integrations coming up here is going to give you an opportunity for that, you can use it or not, that’s all part of our you take control, where your data goes is up to you, then we also have a partnership that’s coming up, I really wish I could talk about it. Because I’m super excited. I love those guys over there. But it’s another home inspection software..dun dun dun… And we’re gonna be doing some work with them. And they are very much on track for the Take Back Our industry aspect of what we’re doing here. So we’re very, very excited to work with them. Everybody, you can just kind of sit there and guess and think, I’m not going to tell you, you can message me but I won’t tell you. But that’s coming out soon. For other news, I thought this was interesting. I want to talk about the real estate market as a whole how it affects us as home inspectors, I tend to try to listen to only the really authoritative people in organizations when it comes to the real estate market, because there’s a lot of subjective information out there. So this one is from the National Association of Realtors. So they’ve been talking about how kind of basically what the feds are trying to do with interest rates, it’s actually kind of backfiring on them a little bit. So just to give a brief overview, when the housing market gets too hot to prevent a bubble from happening, Feds raise interest rates. So then people are like those interest rates are too high for us. So 10, 20% of people fall out of the buying market. And that’s hypothetically supposed to level it out. The problem is, a large chunk of what our industry is going through is inventory. There’s not enough houses on the market. So the way to curb that is either people just need to move for some reason, or you build new houses. So the problem is builders are like yeah, we’d love to build. But with interest rates so high, people are waiting for them to come down. So we can build new houses. So the cure for the problem is causing the problem right now, I thought it was an interesting concept. People don’t move when they have a low interest rate. And they’re happy with where they are, and they can’t find something better. So right now, people refinanced during the pandemic. And they have stupid low interest rates. So if you’re sitting on 20 years out of a 30 year mortgage, with 3.1% interest, and there’s nothing on the market, you’re not moving. We need to put new stuff on the market to get people to move. But lowering interest rates is also going to compound that problem.

David Nyman
Yeah, no, I have friends actually, that have been talking about, they can’t find houses for a price that they can afford. Yeah. Because yeah, there’s just not enough out there. So prices get hiked up.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. And it’s because of an inventory issue. You know, it’s if there’s five diamonds and 20 people that want to buy diamonds, those diamonds become really, really valuable. So we just need more houses out there is what it comes down to. Lowering interest. I said this with Beon on our quarterly report that we do. I don’t think it’s so much interest rate related anymore. Because if you lower it, you have the same problem just in reverse. If you raise interest rates, now you just don’t have any new inventory. So it’s a compounding issue where the housing market is doing well is typically going to be in not luxury housing, but more expensive housing, where those people don’t really care about their interest rate as much. It’s like, oh this is only 1.2 million. Yeah, I’ll do this as my home that I live in in August. And then I’ll move to my September home. But you know, the average American family, like you said, they’re gonna run into problems like we can’t afford a house. I watched a smaller, I say smaller, it was 1500 square foot. So average size house, go on the market for nearly double what it would have six years ago. No joke, I did the calculations and I don’t have them with me right now. But it was a little over double of what it would have gone for just five, six years ago. I’m like man, and they’re gonna get it, they’re really going to get it, it already actually said this house has had a lot of views and people had already scheduling showings and and I’m like, yeah, they’re gonna get that but how can you keep up with that, you know, just 5, 6, 7 years. Literally, you know, I live in a rural area. I mean, it’s only two hours from the city. So it’s it’s a lot of commuters. There’s a burnt out shell of a house that is basically going to need to be torn down and rebuilt with one kitchen. Yeah, kitchen, one bedroom. That’s basically it, they want 75,000 for it. Yeah. Hey, that’s a good deal. What’s the address? Everybody listening might want to hop on that?

David Nyman
Yeah, I’ll find it. I’ll find it. I’ll put in our transcript later. Great investment for the future. Yeah. Oh there’s probably a bathroom. Well, the way it looks right now, basically, basically, the whole thing could be a bathroom.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, exactly. If you need a kitchen and one bedroom, yeah, no bathroom? But yeah, it is. It is. It is crazy. I’m seeing pieces of land go for what that land with a house on it would have gone for. It’s it’s nutty out there. So if we’re thinking, Hey, why is it so slow right now, it’s probably very regionally, depending on your market, but it’s just an inventory thing. It’s not a matter of hey, I’m not a good inspector, there’s no houses to inspect, crazy market.

David Nyman
Yeah, a few of the inspectors that have been doing trainings with, they have mentioned that they have gotten a lot of new build inspections lately. So it is it seems like there is a trend, at least in some areas.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. So that’s actually a good point. So while it is, interest rates are stifling building a bit. There’s actually building that’s picking up because people are starting to want to move no matter what. And the only way you can get the house you want now is to build. So if people have the money for that, they’re just building it, which is probably an explanation why land is becoming a little bit more expensive in certain areas. So that’s what we have for for our inspection news so far. Do you have anything to add, David?

David Nyman
Nah.. Nothing exciting, got my family visiting in September, but it’s not really home inspection news.

Ian Robertson
It’s, I didn’t ask for just any news.

David Nyman
Sorry. It’s exciting to me.

Ian Robertson
There you go. I’m glad for you. I have news. My chair is uncomfortable.

David Nyman
Oh, no. Mine is very comfortable.

Ian Robertson
How did Michael Scott say it? It’s still an announcement. You just don’t care about the information. Yeah. So everybody, thanks for listening in. And stay tuned for the next episode of Inspector Toolbelt Talk and next time we have the segment Inspection News.

David Nyman
Thank you, Ian.

Ian Robertson
Thanks, David.

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].

If you’re enjoying the conversation, don’t forget to hit the subscribe button. Our podcast is available on all major podcast platforms. For more information on our services and our brand-new inspection app, please visit our website at Inspectortoolbelt.com.

*The views and opinions expressed in this podcast, and the guests on it, do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Inspector Toolbelt and its associates.

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