PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Ian R: Welcome to the Inspector Toolbelt. We have another special guest this week, we have James Gonte. How are you, James?

James G: Pretty good, and yourself?

Ian R: Hey, not bad at all. Thank you for being here with us. I know you’re a very busy guy, you told me that you were in a team of five inspectors yesterday, had an 8000 square foot house to inspect, and all sorts of ancillary services and all sorts of great stuff. So taking time out of your day to do this is really appreciated.

James G: No problem. I appreciate helping.

Ian R: So if you’re listening in right now, and you don’t know who James Gonte is, then you probably should. But just for those of you who may not, let’s introduce James a little bit. So tell us about yourself. James, your background, your inspection company, your career in the inspection industry in general,

James G: No problem. Well, my name is James Gonte. I was born in Detroit, Michigan, I moved to South Florida when I was nine years old. So I was raised in South Florida. I’ve been doing inspections since 1992. I have two degrees, one in business administration and management. I started off buying a lot of real estate. I own a lot of real estate. One of the reasons why I became a home inspector, I was buying a 48 unit building back in 1990 and I saw what a terrible job they did. I said to myself, what a great business opportunity if I did it right. I can make it a really good business, and I have, I’ve been blessed.

Ian R: You know, it’s funny, that’s a common story among home inspectors. A lot of us got started out by saying, “Man, this is a terrible home inspection, I can do better than this.” Oftentimes, they’re very successful inspectors like yourself.

James G: Thank you very much.

Ian R: I gotta say, the difference in weather from Detroit, Michigan, to South Florida. That probably took a couple of years of adjustment for you and your family.

James G: Well, not really, you know, I moved here when I was nine years old. So I went straight into elementary school, you know, third grade, and it wasn’t really an adjustment. You know, I love it. Now, obviously, I don’t think I could put up with that, um, northern weather.

Ian R: Well, I’m up north. I’m not in Michigan. I’m in upstate New York. I like to make that delineation. I’m not in the city. I am in upstate New York and yeah, we’re still having winter. We had four inches of snow just the other day. I mean, it’s early April here. We wouldn’t mind some sun, but not quite the sun that you get down to South Florida.

James G: Well, anytime you’re down in South Florida, please look me up and we’ll have some Cuban food and Cuban culture and maybe a cigar and things like that.

Ian R: I would love some Cuban food. Ironically, there are a couple of Cuban places up here. Yeah, they’re pretty good. Yeah, I like them. My wife is from St. Petersburg, Florida. Lots of Cuban food there.

James G: So we’ll give you some Cuban coffee.

Ian R: Oh, yeah, I would love that. See, now everybody listening is super hungry, and wants a Cuban coffee. So instead of talking about what goes into Cuban coffee, we’re here today to talk about something near and dear to your heart and my heart. A while back, we did a podcast on you aren’t charging enough. This is something that has always sat on my mind as a home inspector, that we basically are self-defeating. We continually charge less than we should and even less than we did in years past in the mid-90s, the average inspection fee was about $350. It’s still the same average right now, if you look online, you get all sorts of different numbers, but it averages out to about $350. And I know this is something that weighs on your mind to James, isn’t it?

James G: Absolutely. This is what happens when you compete. When you compete, you race towards the bottom. Think about it. The real estate profession, the realtors, they don’t compete. It’s 6%. Throughout. Why do we need to compete and lower our wages when automatically, the realtors get an increase, especially in this market that we’re going through. You know, I don’t understand that since I started back in 92. My philosophy has always been, that I do not compete. I do not care if you do $200 inspections, I will never do $200 inspections. Why? because I invest my money in my education and that’s the reason why I could charge more money. I go to a lot of conferences. I belong to a lot of associations that bear a cost. I like to attend and I like to go and I’d like to learn more and more. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. This is my 30th anniversary, doing inspections. I’m in business for a reason because I do not compete. That’s why a lot of people compete. They go out of business.

Ian R: It’s kind of interesting. We often talk about all the new guys coming on the market, or we see the successful inspectors talk a lot about their success. What we don’t see a lot of are the inspectors going out of business. I have personally learned about 10 inspection companies over the past four weeks that have gone out of business. One of them was multi-inspector and the other ones were single inspector firms. I remember just looking over their websites, a couple of them I had talked to, were not charging enough.

James G: I’m not a big fan, and I’ll make it public. I’m not a big fan of multi-level inspection companies, and why? They have to compete. They have to compete and they have to keep prices competitive, compared to me, a single operator. Sometimes I do subcontract other professions when I do an inspection but I have full control of what I charge. When you’re a multi-level inspection company. I’m sorry, you have to compete in order to be successful, but just because you own a multi-level inspection company, that doesn’t mean you’re making a lot of money.

Ian R: Yeah, I guess it kind of comes down to I think what you’re referring to maybe is the difference between going to the mall to get your hair cut at like one of those, I don’t know what they’re called. Those barbershop chains?

James G: Correct.

Ian R: Or you go to a small boutique, $10 for a haircut at the mall. It might be $40, for a haircut at the boutique, or maybe more, I don’t know. So as a single inspector, what you’re saying is you’d rather stay boutique and make more per hour than try to compete on basically just growing a larger business.

James G: Correct. You know, I’m about the quality of the inspection. If I do one or two a day, that’s all I need. I don’t charge $300-$400 like the multi-level inspection companies. I’m not saying all of them charge that, or any single operator charges that, but I will not charge that.

Ian R: Yeah, it’s really kind of funny, because sometimes we’ll say things like, well, I need to charge less to get started or I need to charge less because other people are charging less. You know, there’s always going to be people who want to go for price when it comes to a home inspector, but I hired a contractor recently. I’m pretty picky about my contractors. I’m an ex-contractor, I don’t have the time to do the things that I need to do sometimes, when I hire one, the last thing I ask is what is he going to charge?

James G: Right? All inspectors are not the same. There I said it, all inspectors are not the same. The inspector who charges $200 is not the same inspector charging $850. There’s a reason and the reason is, we invest in ourselves, I invest in myself, you know, I’m a businessman first and a great inspector second. That’s something very important, you have to invest in yourself, these new inspectors coming out, they need to invest in their education you see that online all the time. You know I’m the administrator and founder of the WING (worldwide inspectors network group) and you see some of these questions that the new inspectors are asking. They can’t charge what I charge if they don’t have the knowledge and the education to charge more, and that’s a problem.

Ian R: Yeah, and they can still work up to it. They can get to that point but it’s an investment, it takes time.

James G: If they’re willing to make the investment but most inspectors, I would say 90% of all inspectors out there, they’re not business people and there’s a big difference. When you’re a business person you’re into the numbers, you’re into the bottom line, you’re into the profit, you know, all your expenses going to an inspection before you quote the job. So I always tell new inspectors, you need to take business classes or your local college, you need to invest money in yourself.

Ian R: In one of our previous podcasts, they actually went through how much it costs for us to get out of bed and go to one inspection. It was about $125. It was kind of interesting because we did the math, if you’re charging $199 for a home inspection, you just blew $125 of that. So you’re basically getting 74 bucks.

James G: They just bought themselves a job. If they’re charging that amount of money, they might as well work for minimum wage, somewhere on $11 an hour, then charge $200 Because they’re losing money, but they don’t see it because they don’t have the business sense.

Ian R: So why do you think inspectors in your opinion don’t charge enough? What’s holding them back besides what you had just mentioned. Like the feeling of what’s holding them back?

James G: I think a lot of inspectors don’t have self-confidence. I don’t think they rolled the dice. I don’t think they believe in themselves. I don’t think they try to get more money for their inspections. It’s a shame. We’re in business to make money for our family. I’m in business to make money. You know, I’ll say right there. I’m in business to make money. I’m not in business, to have a job that pays me minimum wage. James is not about that. I’m about to make money. If I’m in business, I’m putting all the effort into my inspection of my clients. I need to get compensated properly.

Ian Robertson: Yeah, and I guess what you just mentioned there, we lack confidence. There was a guy in my area years ago that retired now, and I remember first starting out and this was a long time ago. He was charging 750 for a home inspection with wood Destroying Insects back then which was unheard of in my area. I’m like, Whoa, that’s a lot of money when I was first starting out, but he would explain why he goes, I’m awesome. It took me a lifetime to get this knowledge. Why would I hand that out for free?

James G: Correct!

Ian R: He did well. He always had work and there was another competitor, he did more inspections. He was like 800 inspections a year.

James G: So people that charge more for their inspections will have more longevity in this profession.

Ian R: Oh, yeah. Well, because you have more to work with, you can provide a higher quality product, and you’re not rushed. So that guy that does 800 inspections a year, charges much less than that guy, less than half. So the other guy could do half the inspections and make the same amount of money, do a better job, have a nice, leisurely lunch, and pick and choose his clients.

James G: Work smarter, not harder. These are basics. This is nothing that I’ve invented.

Ian R: Oh, yeah. So it comes down to and I’ve said this before, too. We’re our own worst enemy. When it comes to charging more, we’re worried about losing work, I have to stay afloat. Sometimes ripping out one part of the ship to fix up another part is going to end up worse, we need to stop and say what is the best to keep this boat afloat long term.

James G: Keep in mind, you’re not gonna get all the inspections that you quote, that’s reality and I understand that, but you know, something, keep prices high. You can only keep prices high when you give your client value. The value you give your client is the education that you have to protect your client. That is so important for new inspectors that just, you know, do everything online. And they have no idea they didn’t even come from the construction background or remodeling background or real estate background. They’re clueless. So they think by making $200 or $300, it’s great. It’s not great. If you have business sense, you would charge more but really, you can’t charge more if you don’t have the education. A lot of these newer inspectors, you know, I’m not bashing your inspectors because I started in 1992, but I had a lot of education, experience, remodeling experience, and owning a lot of real estate, which I do to this day. You know, you have to roll the dice, for example, everybody that’s listening to us today, they are listening to our podcasts that we’re having today and just increase their price by $50. Roll the dice, and see what happens. I believe if they did that, they truly did that with self-confidence, they will get it. I would love for them to call me and say “James, I heard you and I did it. Now I’m making $50 More an inspection.”

Ian R: Yeah, and it’s kind of hard. I think sometimes because I was a new inspector too and you got to start somewhere. So I feel for new inspectors, but gaining that knowledge and that confidence and knowing your worth is extremely important. One of the companies that I know that I mentioned before, and that sounds like a high number. I have my fingers in knowledge and I know a lot of people in the industry. That’s a high number of 10 inspection companies that I know of anyways, that just went out of business within the past month. They all competed on price.

James G: That’s exactly the conversation we’re having today. You compete on price, you won’t be here that long. I’ve been doing this since 1992, 30 years in this business, I love my profession. Every time I go out to work. It’s not work for me. It’s pleasure. I enjoy it. Do you know why I enjoy it? Because I price my inspections properly. I get paid what I want to earn not what the market or the competition that takes to me should earn?

Ian R: Yeah, and I guess there are some practical ways for us to be able to look at, if even if we’re a new inspector, how we can raise our prices, and unfortunately, I see experienced well trained inspectors undercut themselves too. So newer inspectors, okay, we need to gain some knowledge and some experience but guys, if we’ve been around for a while we know what we’re doing. Know the product that we’re selling, it’s you, you’re worth it. We have to go into a house that we’ve never seen before likely tell everybody everything that’s ever happened to it, whatever might happen to it, what’s going on with it right now, multiple systems with a bunch of people watching us that are all stressed out in a couple few hours, figure this all out and then put it into a report that everybody can understand. That takes guts.

James G: And a lot of liability, my friend. Keep in mind whenever I read a report for a client, I’m actually writing the report for me to protect myself against my client. So I need to be thorough, I need to be detailed. I need to have an inspection order in order to do my job properly.

Ian R: So let’s talk about some practical ways then that home inspectors can start charging more what are some practical ways besides the obvious, hey, just tack on $50. What can they do to kind of make themselves get their feet wet so to speak?

James G: You know something, I think first they should really become more proficient in the home inspection. Number one, as soon as they become more efficient in doing home inspections, then I think they need to add other services such as, remember, I’m in the state of Florida. WDO, Termite inspections Wood Destroying Organisms, okay. Mold inspections, Radon Gas Inspections, Lead-Based paint inspections, Asbestos inspections, Dive and Dock inspections. We have a lot of seawalls here in South Florida. Septic Tanks, I do a lot of commercial property, so I do Grease Trap inspections. Now when I say I do these inspections, I subcontract other professionals to do these extra inspections, sewer scope inspections have been very good. I’ve employed one person specifically for sewer scope inspections, and we’re having great success. Now for sewer scope, I’m going to give you an example, we charge $495 to do a sewer scope if the property is under 2000 square feet. So when you introduce an Auxilary inspection, you should start not on the bottom competing, you need to start a little bit higher and I think that’s very important. There are so many other inspections, you know, that they can add on to increase their bottom line. Remember, we’re in business to make money. This is simple. This is a simple language, you want a business like a home inspection business, it’s to do the right job legally and ethically in order to make a decent income. Why settle for the minimum when you could shoot for the stars?

Ian R: Yeah, and I agree with you on the ancillary inspections, because you probably know the exact term with your business degree. But I’ve always viewed the home inspection as a loss leader. Basically, that’s just getting me in the door, I’m not counting on making a bunch of money off of the home inspection, because I have to burn off overhead. That’s where most of the work is. So I want to add on ancillary inspections because that’s where the money is, if I’m already on site, and our septic inspection is 400 bucks, there’s no loss to that the home inspection is a loss leader to it.

James G: You know, something, I agree, you get your foot in the door, but when I add on to a sale when a customer calls me, I always tell them first what they call me for, the home inspection. Then I say, by the way, does the House have a septic tank? Yes, it does. We could do that septic tank inspection for you. For example, in South Florida, what I charge is $650 and includes the pump out. Then I asked them, Would you also like a mold inspection. Since Florida has high relative humidity, I recommend you do a mold inspection. Boom. It’s called suggest the selling. A lot of inspectors since don’t have a business background. They don’t know what suggestive selling is. It’s not just happy because you made 650 out of the home inspection and you’re leaving money on the table. Lots of money, because if the person has a septic tank, and they want to move inspection, it’s called suggestive selling, it’s a 5050 chance that you’re going to add it on. From a $650 inspection, you wind up with 6000 I’ll give you a perfect example. I did an 8000 square foot house. My inspection for the house was $40-$800. The home inspection. I didn’t stop there. I sold them for why they called me, a home inspection. Then I asked them qualifying questions. Does the property have a seawall? Yes. Would you like a dive-in seawall dock inspection? Yes. How much is it? $1,200. I want it, give it to me. Then I asked. Would you like a mold inspection? Yes, I want that also, how much is it? $1,200. So imagine, don’t be content, just with the home inspection. The reason why they called you, obviously, is you need to sell what they called you for, but then it’s time to suggest a sale. That’s how you increase your bottom line and your sales.

Ian R: Yeah, I see a lot of home inspectors start off and they say I offer home inspections. And again, going back to that loss leader thing. Okay. That’s your loss leader. In my opinion, what else are you selling on top of that?

James G: It doesn’t have to be your loss leader, either. If you operate like me as a boutique.

Ian R: Right. Well, what I’m saying is it gets you in the door to sell those other inspections.

James G: As I said, the background of most inspectors is that sales, they’re not business people, their order takers. This is why I don’t have a secretary and like to close all my deals.

Ian R: You know, one thing that I’ve done over the years is, for instance, going to wood-destroying insect and almost every inspection that we were having about 13 years ago, I remember when we made this decision had wood Destroying Insect added to it. I remember I did an inspection one time, and there was wood destroying insect damage and the client was like, “Hey, I didn’t want to pay for this. But can you just write this down?” I’m like, Well, okay, you didn’t pay me to do this, you only want to pay me if I find it. It just got weird and I just remember thinking that from that day, listen, half the big structural issues I find have to do with wood destroying insect damage anyways. So whenever somebody calls me, I automatically add wood-destroying insect, and people like, Oh, that’s a terribly high price. I’m like, it also includes wood-destroying insects, we won’t do a home inspection without it, because we want to do the best job possible.

James G: I agree.

Ian R: Yeah, so one of our biggest ancillary inspections, automatically gets added on whether you want it or not.

James G: I do something similar. Every inspection that I do residential or commercial, includes a WDO termite inspection. Now in the state of Florida. I’m not a pest control operator. So I subcontract the termite portion but it’s included when I give a quote, for example, home inspection and report includes roof, termites, structural, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, all appliances, interior, exterior four-point insurance, and windstorm mitigation, only $850, for example. As soon as I have them sold on that, then I go into the other inspections that are available.

Ian R: So I think we need to clarify that if you’re listening to this, that when we say we add those things in automatically, that doesn’t mean we’re throwing them in for free, we’re charging for them.

James G: We’re doing bundling price. I call it bundling price. That’s why our prices are much higher than so-called our competitors. We know from structural damage, that there’s a lot of wood damage and mostly they’re done by the wood-destroying organisms. I never want to have a problem with that, so it’s always included. It’s never optional. No, I can’t remove it to charge $100 less. This is not let’s make a deal. When I give you a quote, this is not let’s make a deal. I’m in control. I’m the professional.

Ian R: I think that’s actually sold inspections for me personally, too, because I remember just off the top of my head, a client saying well, I don’t want the wood-destroying insect inspection. I’m like, listen, I’d rather miss this inspection than skip the Wood Destroying Insect because I’m not going to do a subpar inspection. I remember them saying that makes so much sense. You’re the type of guy we want.

James G: There you go.

Ian R: We’re gonna do a better inspection.

James G: And if we do a better inspection, you should get compensated properly. That’s my opinion.

Ian R: So I like to do the quick little bit of math for guys, it’s very simple in second-grade math. Listen, I charged $600 for that inspection, you charge 200. If I take the rest of the day off, you have to do two more inspections to catch up with where I am. Matter of fact, four inspections that day, because now you need to burn off overhead for each of those inspections, you have more report writing. So either you’re cutting corners, or you’re making way less for doing a great job, either way.

James G: Or you don’t have enough knowledge to do a proper inspection and that’s why you can’t charge more than you’re worth.

Ian R: Yeah, and I guess we need to have a little bit of self-awareness. You know, some of us who have been around for a while, we kind of think, Oh, I know better than the new guys and you could be a new guy coming on no one better than me. Maybe you do know a lot about houses and Wow, great for you, but sometimes if we’re stepping back, and we’re lacking confidence, is it because maybe there is a gap in our knowledge.

James G: So then they have to invest in their knowledge, get more education, not only online, but live education, join up their local or state or national home inspection Association. For example, in Florida. In Florida, we have two of them. We have a South Florida Association, home inspector Association of South Florida, okay, which we have meetings once a month, second Tuesday of every month. Then we have FABI, which is the n. So we have local, state, and we have InterNACHI, and we have ASHI, but this costs money. In order to be a part of these organizations, you need to be making money. The way you make money is by getting more knowledge and increasing your price in order to have more knowledge.

Ian R: Yeah, you know, it’s kind of funny. You mentioned gaining knowledge because we all say hey, well, yeah, I’m going to take all the courses needed. Yeah, I’m going to get, you know, certified with Nachi or I’m going to take all these state courses. It really doesn’t stop there. I remember when I first started out, had I wired outlets and put in lights and all that other basic electrical stuff. Yeah, sure. I’ll tell you my weakest point when I first started inspecting was electrical. I mean, there are so many different factors, you know, 100 years worth of wiring and I live in upstate New York where I’ve inspected houses from the 1700s. You know, you’re gonna see all sorts of stuff. So what I did was instead of going and doing more electrical inspections, I went and I just learned everything I could I took every course I possibly could, I spent days with an electrician, showing me things, I would do mock inspections of people’s houses so that I could just look at the electrical system. I spent weeks upon weeks doing that, to the point where I actually started to teach a course on it and other inspectors would actually come to me with questions on it because I didn’t stop at those weeks after I got my feet solidly founded on some gaps in my knowledge, I spent months and years and it was just like an athlete, you know, not that I’m an athlete. You’re like, “oh, man, this is a great run but man, that right turn, my ankle just kind of gives out a little bit.” So you keep working that one muscle over and over and over again,

James G: You were willing to acquire more knowledge to learn more to protect your clients, you’re willing to put the time, the energy, the effort, and the cost of getting more education, A lot of newer inspectors are not willing to do that. I’m seeing it. I see it every day. I have inspectors from all over the United States, Canada and Australia call me asking questions that are very basic questions. They don’t bother to learn on their own first, before asking a question. I’m here to help everybody, I will pick up the phone on everybody and I will help them, I will not get mad, I will not get upset because I’m a professional. It’s our reputation.

Ian R: You know, we’re probably venturing into a completely different discussion but when we talk about new guys coming on the market, it was different years ago before licensing, wasn’t It? I mean, I don’t know, when Florida had their licensing come out.

James G: We got licensed in 2010. It’s only been 12 years, I was truly against licensing. I’ll tell you why I was already doing all the right stuff, going to all the conferences, I didn’t need a license. When a professional becomes licensed, then it becomes competitive, and the prices start going down. The problem is when a client calls you or me in the state of Florida, I’m licensed, my license is 158. You’re new inspector license is 15,000. Okay, that’s another selling point that I used to close a lot of deals. Well, you got another quote you said it’s $500 less, did you ask for the license number? That’s an indicator, of how long have they been in business,

Ian R: Not all licensing systems are that sequential? Yours maybe is not every system, what I see happening is kind of a mental thing. I remember, there was this one inspector who had been around forever and he was fantastic. He was kind of a grumpy dude. Like he wasn’t fun to be with but he was a great inspector. I remember, a new guy came on and they said, Oh, well, I have the same qualifications as so, and so. That was his selling point. And you know what he did, they both had the same license. So here’s this guy who’s just on the market, you know, charging half of what this other guy charged, who was probably the best inspector in my market at the time. There it is, they had this quote-unquote, same qualification. So licensing does kind of create that environment a little bit. That other guy got better and he started charging more but I think that is kind of the catalyst for I’m going to break into this market, I’m going to have my license, and I’m going to charge less just to get into the market. Unfortunately, when we start off charging less, we don’t always raise our prices later on.

James G: Correct because you get comfortable and you’ve already built up relationships with the realtors and things like that. Also, that’s another thing that I would really like to mention, you know, home inspectors can market to other people besides realtors. I know in my market, I would say my particular business, my boutique business. 50% of my referrals come from realtors, but I have a mix of real estate attorneys, developers, contractors, architects, engineers, insurance agents, and title companies, so you can market more than a realtor.

Ian R: Yeah, and we actually have a podcast on that about fractional marketing for home inspectors. I’ve always said we should never rely on the real estate market because that’s the thing. We’re relying on the real estate market. We just had Harold Van Dyk on a couple of weeks ago. He was saying in his entire county of almost 800,000 people, they only had at that point a little over 200 houses for sale. That’s not going to feed the home inspectors in that market. So if we were relying on the real estate market that puts us out of business. Fractional marketing is great. I used to market a lot to mortgage companies, there are a lot of them. Yeah, you don’t get a ton of work from them but if you do it enough, you’ll get pieces here and there. Engineering firms, always need home inspectors.

James G: Also, believe it or not, I market to A lot of other homeowners, oh, yes, that’s great. Since I do other services, the new inspector or even seasoned inspectors, don’t want to get into sewer scope. They don’t want to get their hands dirty. I get a lot of referrals from other home inspectors, you know, and why they’re doing the inspection, I’m doing the mold, or I’m doing the sewer scope, or I’m doing something else. If they have a question for me, I’m there for them. You know, and I’ll be able to answer their questions. But back to the licensing, especially in the state of Florida. What I noticed as soon as licensing came to town, everybody, the public, you know, licensing is supposed to protect the public, you know, which it does but the public thinks all inspectors are the same. They’re not, just because they have the same license that doesn’t mean they have the same education, knowledge, and experience.

Ian R: That’s also one of the reasons why in our reports, just as a side point, we never say if there’s something that needs to be fixed electrically, we never say, recommend a licensed electrician, I always say a qualified electrician, and I’ll sometimes have the question of what’s the difference. I tell them basically the same thing, just because that electrician is licensed does not mean I let them touch my electrical system. I want you to, I want you to find someone who’s not only licensed but qualified. It’s the same thing with home inspectors. So listen, if you’re new out there, we’re not bashing you, we’re here to help. That’s why we’re here.

James G: No, absolutely, I really would like to, you know, say to any inspectors, they have any concerns, they could contact me or you and I’ll be happy to speak to him explain to him, we’re here also to mentor new inspectors, and even seasoned inspectors. Also, we’re here for the betterment of our profession. So we’re not here bashing, we’re here having a nice discussion, facts for facts, realities, reality, and trying to help the profession, you know, Rise and go higher and higher. So we could all participate, you know, for more income for ourselves and our family.

Ian R: Yeah. And I think the big takeaway from this is if you are new or you are experienced, and you’ve been around for a while, raising your prices is key to having a successful business in general, listen, we have one of the most valuable industries in the world. So the average homeowner spends 1000s of dollars when they first buy a house, at a fairly busy real estate brokerage will sell 100 houses in a year. I mean, hey, that’s a busy month for the home inspectors. If you have a couple of inspectors kicking around, that’s not a hard number to hit in a month. So we have access to information that companies like porch and others really want. So if we are in such an industry that major corporations are like, Hey, come on, why don’t you just share just a little bit of that information with us. By the way, our app does not share any of your information, we have a very strict privacy policy. Corporations are going after our information like that, our client’s information, why are we charging so little, we have to do an incredibly difficult job in a competitive field and there are only about 30,000 home inspectors in North America and you know, United States and Canada. So there’s not a big pool of us, you’re not going to find us on every corner, charge what you’re worth.

James G: That goes to show you how valuable the information that we have is. You know what happens to it, it gets sold. A lot of these companies piggyback on the back of home inspectors, you know, and then they turn around, and they make a big conglomerate, they sell it off the information that we provide if we use those services. Me, for example, I don’t belong to anything, nothing, you know, inspectors that use services from those other companies. You know, they’re supposed to be getting service from those companies, but they’re getting the data. A lot of those companies sell the data and then these other businesses off the backs of the home inspectors,

Ian R: You know, what we become when we don’t charge enough? We become coal miners 200 years ago. So the coal miners, what is that one day later, and $1 in debt owing to the company store, right? So basically, they would have these coal miners go in and get this valuable product, sell it at a profit and keep them in debt, working them to death. We become coal miners for the real estate industry and big corporations. If we don’t charge enough.

James G: Well, because we let them. We let them you know, other home inspectors let them. You know, I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I don’t belong to no warranties, no other providers in the home inspection business. I personally don’t believe in them. That’s my personal belief and I’ve been successful without them.

Ian R: Yeah. And we’re not saying that they’re necessarily bad. I actually have a fairly neutral opinion on that whole thing. I think the point I’m trying to make is, that if everybody else views our industry as being so valuable, why shouldn’t we?

James G: Why should we charge and respect ourselves and respect the profession and respect our license, we need to start charging more, but you can’t charge more unless you have the education to do so because then you’re doing a disservice to your clients.

Ian R: Now, you’ve made some great points here, James, we really appreciate your insight on that. I guess if I could summarize maybe your thoughts and if I have a gap in it, let me know, become a better inspector more qualified, and be confident enough to charge for a good quality inspection and let your inspection speak for itself is that fairly good summary?

James G: Yes, it’s all about the education. That’s the key to your success as a home inspector, invest in yourself and then the fruits will multiply.

Ian R: Great advice. If you’re ever looking for James, you can find him on Facebook all the time, obviously, with WING. If you’re not a member of WING, join it. It’s great, James and a lot of other contributors have some great information on there, you can learn a lot of the things that you need to learn if you’re a new guy out there. It’s a great way to kind of commiserate when you have kind of some crazy situations going on.

James G: And if anybody ever needs to call me My telephone number is 786-512-1594. I will always put it out there. I always like to video chat and help anybody I can.

Ian R: That’s very kind very rarely will you find any other industry like this or guys like James who will take time to no benefit of themselves and say I want to help you. So take him up on that. James, you rock. Thank you so much for being on the show today.

James G: I appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me.

Ian R: All right. We’ll talk soon.

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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