PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Ian Robertson
Welcome back to Inspector Toolbelt Talk. Today we have on Jon Bolton. How are you, Jon?

Jon Bolton
Awesome, man, awesome. Thanks so much for having me, Ian. I love this stuff. So thank you, really appreciate it.

Ian Robertson
Oh no, thank you for being on. We actually asked you to be on because I was reading one of your posts on one of the Facebook groups. But before we get into that, tell us a little bit about yourself. So we know where you’re coming from, and why you have such a strong opinion on our subject today, which is the consolidation of the home inspection industry. So tell me a little bit, tell me a little bit about your background.

Jon Bolton
You know, it’s not real exciting to be honest with you. It’s kind of humorous, but I went to school, I got a degree, I got a job I got laid off in about a year. So I was only employed for one year for the last, from that point up until just a few months ago. So I’ve been self employed over 30 years. Nice. All right. Right. So like me, for one understands and gets the entrepreneur, like I was forced into it. You know, mama bird kicking the baby out of the nest. Here, I didn’t have mom and dad anymore, like I was. It was up to me if I wanted to eat, right. So I did all kinds of stuff. And one day, my dad says, You got to look into home inspections. And I’m like, Man, I’m tired of that construction. stuff. I was, my job at a school was a superintendent. And that was like, everything’s your fault. Get it done yesterday, and you’re over budget. And you know, the same thing. It was high. It’s high stress, move, move, move, move, move, move. And he find my dad finally talked me into doing it. And back in the day, we had these books, these real thick books, and had a lot of yellow pages and a lot of white pages. You know, I’m talking about?

Ian Robertson
I’ve seen them in history books. Yeah. I used to sit on one, I think.

Jon Bolton
Yes. So I opened up the Yellow Pages. And they were two pages of home inspectors. That’s it two like, right, I could see all of them there. So you remember the number one marketing strategy of a business back in those days was the alphabet. That was a number one marketing strategy. Right? So I start at the top and it said, A all American home inspections, and I call and the guy says, Yeah, can you somebody come on in. And that was that was really the beginning. So that was 1998 when I started doing that.

Ian Robertson
That means you’ve been in the home inspection industry for boy, my math is bad. 25 years?

Jon Bolton
Yeah. 25 years.

Ian Robertson
Wow. And then you’re a commercial inspector, and you also own a home inspection school down there in sunny Florida, right?

Jon Bolton
Correct. Correct. Correct.

Ian Robertson
That’s awesome.

Jon Bolton
I used to be an instructor for another school. HIA, and the owner was looking to get out of the business and to sell it to move on. I couldn’t afford to purchase it at the time. But I thought, Well, hey, I’ve been doing that for them at that point for eight years, give or take something like that. And thought, well, it would be a great time to move the school into Central Florida. You know, we’re in the Orlando area. So it’s very easy for people to get to us. I thought, hey, this is a perfect time. Let’s move it to Central Florida to start our own thing. And we started doing the pre licensure class. And in Florida, you required to have 120 hour pre licensure class state, no choice, right? So we started doing that. And, you know, I went from going to this school where I only had to work with three or four days in that time period, just doing limited subjects to working every single day, all day long, because you got to cram 120 hours in two weeks. You know, I mean, so it’s it’s Move, move, move. And that was that was tough. It was it took a lot of fun. I’ll tell you that took a lot of fun away. But that’s where we started anyway, evolved out of that.

Ian Robertson
So I guess that sets the stage for the fact that you’ve been in the industry for a long time. Since well before licensing in most states. You’ve been in the industry longer than me, I’m coming up on 20 years, and you’ve well past that. But you’ve seen it from a lot of different angles, home inspector, commercial inspector, school owner, teaching other home inspectors. So I think you’re probably one of the most well versed inspectors to talk about the consolidation of our industry because me personally, even just 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago, the industry looked completely different than it does now. I don’t even recognize it, let alone almost 20 years ago when I first got in, it was a completely different industry. And we always hear there, you know, the older inspectors talk about that or like back in my day, it’s like, okay, it was different. I mean, you can just look at the metrics. You can look at how the industry worked, and it was just different. Would you say that it’s different now?

Jon Bolton
Oh my gosh, you know, I believe I heard you talk about it on one of your shows, great podcast, by the way.

Ian Robertson
Thank you.

Jon Bolton
I’ve watched several of them. So it’s impressive. And as you know, we never ever, ever stop learning. So whether it’s a younger guy or an older guy, there’s always something to take in. And I believe you guys were talking about the old days and how things were. And, you know, I’m thinking, Yeah, you know, back when we were using that hammer and chisel to write that report, it was, it was tough. And they were, the tablets are really heavy. And stuff. I was actually going on with an appointment, and I lost my train..

Ian Robertson
That’s okay. You were you were the first one to use a tablet out out in the field, except it was a stone tablet. I remember being the first one in my area to do electronic reports. And everybody’s like, whoa, and I had this, like, forget what they call them. The Palm Pilots. They’re like the old computer, personal computer things. Everybody thought I was so cool and trendy. It was so dorky. But um, you know, I think one of the biggest changes besides technology and what we offer and how we offer it is basically how our industry is viewed, it’s starting to be viewed in a lot of people’s opinion as a commodity. And whenever you commoditize it, commoditize is that a word? Commoditize anything, it changes, it cheapens it in a lot of ways. But that’s what happens with consolidation. So your post on Facebook was basically a video of, can you explain what was happening with that post that you put out there?

Jon Bolton
Well, it was just a clip from a video. It was put out by Robin Katla Moines, and I was I wanted to just bring up to guys and gals out there. Let’s have a conversation. Okay. And this is just what they were doing in the video is having a conversation going, this is where we’re at, this is why we did things, this is where we’re going. And it was just exploratory or explanatory in nature. And I thought, well, we can sit here and talk about it now or discover it later, when it’s, it’s crept up on you. So why not have a conversation. And like, to your point earlier, it’s not so much that I have my opinion. I’m very wide open at this point, you know, especially the older you get, like I am now I don’t need certain things. I don’t need the trophies anymore. I don’t need a lot of that stuff. I like having the conversation. And I like learning because things are developing really fast. And I am that guy that I need help figuring out how to, you know, do password stuff on my phone. Right? I understand. Technology’s passing me by. And so I’m trying to have these conversations. And that’s where we’re going with that is, hey, this consolidation movement, it’s not new to the home inspection industry. Right? Everybody’s kind of treating it like that. And it really isn’t. Consolidation happens in every industry all over the globe. And you know, from guns to groceries, it’s it’s literally it’s everything. And that’s just kind of the natural progression of business. You know, we’re starting out we were starting that conversation with, you know, here, it started out with a late night commercial, right, a guy with a clipboard. A truck. And that was it. And that’s how you went out and in mind you that was one of our first reports for the company, I worked for. It was a triplicate, what he called it the carbon paper, the carbon copy when it was legal size, and some of you guys out there and will remember those that was yeah, that was fun time.

Ian Robertson
Well remember paper? Yeah, I remember that, has been a long time since I’ve seen one. But, um, so let’s, let’s really dig into this. So we throw around words like commodity and we throw around words like consolidation. So basically, when something becomes a commodity, it becomes a product with no distinction from other product. So it’s, it’s just a thing. So right now, home inspectors, you know, let’s let’s go back 20 years ago, home inspectors were you had to hire a home inspector based on his merit and a scale and how awesome he was. And then pricing was a factor. Cool. Now it’s becoming a little bit more like a commodity, kinda like this person is licensed and that person is licensed and in the mind of the buyer, they get the same thing. So from the perspective of the market, not us as the industry but as the market that hires us. It’s becoming more and more of a commodity. Consolidation is basically what you said, you know, every industry it happens in. Used to have independent grocery stores. Now you have, you know, Hannaford or Food Lion or Walmart, and they consolidated all these markets into larger stores. So a consolidating market is basically big companies kind of taking over regional or nationally. And there’s a lot of that going on. I mean, nothing wrong with these companies. But there’s no well, maybe there is, I don’t know, we’ll talk about that. But there’s a lot of companies that are growing exponentially. There’s companies out there with 50, 100, or more inspectors, and a company that didn’t exist 20 years ago, I mean, multi inspector firms were rare 20 years ago. I mean, how many multi inspector firms were in your area would you guess when you first started?

Jon Bolton
Two?

Ian Robertson
Yeah, right. There wasn’t even one. I live in the Capital District of New York, there wasn’t even one for many years, I was one of the first ones. And I was like, really? Big cities didn’t have it. It’s crazy to think about. So why do you think? Why do you think it’s consolidating? What, what’s the reason?

Jon Bolton
Honestly, I think it’s the natural progression of business. And, you know, we use the words like consolidation and, and commoditization, and I get that and maybe those aren’t the exact perfect words for what we’re talking about. Now. It’s just for lack of a better word. But I completely 100% totally agree with you, if you can’t differentiate yourself from every other home inspector than you are every other home inspector. Right? So you got to be able to differentiate yourself. I totally agree with that. But you look at this industry that that started with, you know, Chuck in a truck, and his and his brother Stan in a van. Right, that’s what it was. And then there were a few people that hired a few people. And then you’d have a few, and that word’s pretty accurate, a few right, there were a few that were multi inspector in that they had one to five guys like that was a healthy company, and that still is today, five, five guys or gals, that’s pretty healthy. So when you get above that, now you really become distinguishable. People really start taking a look. And you and I can probably sit here and name off, you know, just a very small, small number of very large companies that are in excess of 20 guys, yeah, right. There’s just not very many. And one of the inherent things as you grow up, and you get that big, just like any other company, you get to a certain that glass ceiling where it’s hard to break through. And now all of a sudden, you need more resources, to buy more equipment, you need more resources to get software that can handle a larger infrastructure, right, you need more people, you need more salespeople, you need more boots on the ground, you need a you need more of everything. And at some point, it just becomes very difficult to navigate by yourself.

Ian Robertson
I think I see what you’re saying there. That basically breaking in as a small inspection company, let’s say under five guys, or just ourselves, it makes a lot harder to compete with bigger guys, because you don’t have the same infrastructure as a larger company. Is that what you’re saying?

Jon Bolton
Sure. Now, this larger company has somebody that can go to the meetings, the Chamber of Commerce has the the real estate meetings, all those kind of things, and they put money into stuff, right? So that’s a real big advantage of getting larger. Okay. And believe me, like we talked earlier, I, I am all about the entrepreneur. I’ve been self employed more than 30 years of my life. Right? I totally get it. It’s just like society has changed, just society. Right? All sudden, we have this unreasonable expectation of somebody and everybody on the podcast right now just took a big Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Because you get blamed for the dumbest stuff. Right?

Ian Robertson
Yeah, there’s an unreasonable expectation of a home inspector. You know, why didn’t, why didn’t you predict my, my favorite was always dishwashers break, I’d get calls six months, a year later, two years later, my dishwasher broke. I’m like, okay. You gotta fix that. Yeah.

Jon Bolton
And we can complain about it. And sometimes it makes for great story, right? That makes some good cooler talk. But go out, join a multi inspector company. Right, you will have time to start building your tool chest, right? Everybody’s gonna need moisture meters and meters and infrared cameras and sewer scopes, and on and on and on. And a lot of these things get expensive. Okay, it’s one thing to buy a circuit tester. Less than 10 bucks, anybody can do that. Right? But now all of a sudden, if you’re starting this brand new business, you have to buy all this stuff right away and you’re in the 1000s or 10s of 1000s. Right, whatever level you’re competing on. So if you join a multi inspector company, you’ll have time to build that toolbox while you’re learning the trade. Right? You get a paycheck, now you go buy another tool, you get another paycheck, you go buy another tool, and start building up yourself. Plus, you learn about all the mistakes that Ian and Jon made along the way, all the stuff that you shouldn’t be doing. Don’t say it like this, make sure you disclose that, you know, I’m saying, Hey, this is our SOP this first the second this third for a reason. Because if you do step three, first, you’re gonna miss something in one or two, right? You can start learning from the old dudes. What’s the, my daughter even bought me one of those old the old guys rule? Right? Rule. There’s some truth to that. So it only made sense to me right? Not to go out on your own right away, I let’s, why don’t you do this for five years, and then make another decision. You may very well get into this go five years later, go on. Man, this marketing stuff is not me. Like that’s not my personality, not my skill set going out shaking hands and kissing rings. Maybe I should just stay where I’m at. Because this is cool. All I have to do is do my job. The stuff I love to do the, you know, taking volts and amps and figuring things out and guiding people. Maybe that’s your skill set. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But trying to not only survive, but thrive all by yourself is going to be tough and expensive. And your longevity isn’t going to be there. You’re gonna one day you’re gonna want to go on vacation, one day you’re gonna get hurt. You know, the list goes on and on and on. But this is my perspective. So it’s a good good conversation. Right? Yeah.

Ian Robertson
So and it is a good conversation because that is an interesting perspective. I actually kind of take the opposite stance a little bit. So you know, one of the one of the questions I was going to ask you was do you think that the consolidation of the market is a bad thing? And it sounds like maybe it’s a mixed bag, in your opinion, like, there’s good and there’s bad to it, there’s good and that, hey, you can work with a larger company and learn the trade and then go in or learn the profession rather, and there’s bad to it too. But my perspective is I look at it like and I’ve mentioned this on this podcast before I mentioned it to you actually one time, about like Supercuts when Supercuts came became big in the 80s. I remember my parents bringing us there, and they’re like, you get like a $3 haircut. This is amazing. You know, I had three brothers, it’s four of us boys, that was a cheap way to get a decent haircut. For me and my brothers, we were fine with it. But there is a little boutique hair place outside the mall. Still there. You know, it’s probably changed owners like 100 times. But it was small it was boutique, they didn’t worry about Super cuts. Now a Supercut haircut is I don’t know what is it $10 or something like that for the average guy. There’s guys out there that are gonna pay 50, 60, $70 for a haircut, and not worry about Supercuts. So if anything, Supercuts just drew a line in the sand to make guys that were really good at haircuts start a boutique place. So I tend to take the opposite side of things. I wouldn’t work at Supercuts. But you know, it depends on the person. I wouldn’t work at Supercuts to gain experience. I’d become that boutique, guys, but that’s my personality. Um, I hate working for other people. But if we’re not an entrepreneur at heart, I think what you said, matters a lot. Go and work for a company and say This stinks. I want to do it on my own. Cool. Now you have that option. You’re like, you know what, I liked this. Now you can stick with it, instead of starting out and finding out that you’re not an entrepreneur, like like yourself, and saying, yeah, I’m just ditching the whole thing altogether. Does that kind of make sense what I’m saying?

Jon Bolton
Yeah, 100%. Totally 100%. And I love this kind of converse. When you say that consolidation can be bad, consolidation can be good. Now we’re talking something that’s very subjective. Something that’s subjective to Ian, something that’s subjective to Jon, something that’s subjective to every other home inspector in America. So that’s whatever your personal paradigm is, well, that’s your world. Okay, for some people, if it’s not for you, that’s that’s fine. There’s no problem. You know, I got no problem with it. But let’s, let’s talk about this. So you’re aware of it. Maybe there’s some things that you’re not aware of. For another guy, it might be a very, very good thing. Here. I am 57 years old now. And we were looking for what like, what’s our exit strategy? Right. Up until very recently, my exit strategy, like I knew the date, my retirement date. I can tell you, it was the day before the funeral. And unfortunately, that’s what the vast majority of this industry is. 

Ian Robertson
Yeah, no. And I mean, remember, this is coming from a guy, I started three inspection companies, you know, multi-inspector firm. So I guess maybe part of the perceived solution and the perceived problem. But I think, I guess it comes down to this, a lot of guys don’t like the consolidation of the industry, number one, because it’s change. And we liked the the Wild West, I liked the Wild West, it was awesome. Back in the early days, you’re just driving around doing inspections, and it was the most awesome industry. There’s less and less of that every year. You know, and it’s more and more consolidation and larger companies taking and taking over. And if we don’t know that, it’s not that it’s not happening in our area, we’re probably just not looking hard enough. Because I’m not going to name the companies here. But I can name a dozen companies that have moved nationally, and are consolidating our industry. On the back end, we talked just a couple of weeks ago on a podcast, you know, companies even like Inspectify, I’ll mention them just because it was in the news. They made a partnership with one of the MLS. So now every home inspection that gets scheduled in that MLS, it’s a national MLS, has to get scheduled through Inspectify, that is a matter of consolidation, and also part of the commoditization of the Home Inspection Service as a whole. And I say that because let’s talk about the subjectiveness of this. Maybe we’re thinking as we’re listening, you’re listening into Jon and I right now and you’re thinking, I’m not bothered by this, I’m going to be one of the big companies or I’m not bothered by this. I’m driving around my truck for the big companies or whatever we’re thinking. Let’s talk about how this has happened in other industries that are actually close to ours. Appraisers, pest control, pest control is a huge one, right? Oh, yeah, even some of the service industry, there used to be a lot of small companies that were HVAC contractors. Now, for the most part, they’re taken over by a very large or moderately large companies nationally. So tell me, John, what’s your opinion of let’s take one, it seems like you from our previous conversation, had a somewhat of a knowledge of the pest control industry, how did that consolidate and what was your opinion on what were the good aspects and bad aspects of that?

Jon Bolton
Yeah, well, that’s just a really good example. It’s a good, because it’s a very parallel to what we’re doing right now. And matter of fact, a lot of home inspectors are pest control guys, and WDO WDI guys, whatever they’re called in your area, right? So people really get that. And it’s been happening for decades, where some Mom and Pop will build something up and they get around, right? And they start accumulating this stuff and they also start realizing that man, this is this is hard work. And it was okay when we had 20 people on our route, or we were working with five or 10 home inspectors and now it’s grown and it’s grown and it’s getting out of hand. But they’ve got something of value. And then you have somebody like a Terminix, say, you know, come in, and they can bring a lot of stuff to the table. Yeah, they’re gonna take care of their clients, right? You might get a nice big check, Mom and Pop might get a nice big check, when they leave, they might have an earnout, they might have some equity share, depending on you know, what type of platform is going on? There’s some real good advantages to that. And we see that like, constantly. And, you know, am I allowed to mention company names here?

Ian Robertson
You can as long as it’s in a respectful way. Yeah.

Jon Bolton
Very respectful. I mean, look at for, for goodness sake, the largest consolidator in in this entire industry, is NACHI. Right? I mean, look at all the stuff that they’re doing. Like they offer a ton of stuff I couldn’t, I couldn’t even recall it all, they do so many things. So you know, maybe you weren’t necessarily thinking like that. 

Ian Robertson
Yeah. So I guess how I would sum up my opinion about it is, it’s kind of like steering a boat and you see this wave coming. You can’t pretend it’s not coming. You either steer into it or steer with it. So what decision we make is not necessarily good or bad. The wave is not necessarily good or bad, either. It’s just there. So what do we choose to do about it? You know, I think about the pest control industry. And I think you’re talking a lot about resources that companies can bring in. It’s pretty interesting how we talked about process mapping with Greg Brooks a few weeks back maybe a couple of months ago now. And it surprises me how much process mapping you can do in almost any industry in his professional process mappers actually know somebody who is, he would go into places and skilled tradesmen. And he would say, you know, you’re a skilled tradesman. No one can teach that level of skill, you have to live it. But let me videotape everything that you do. And he would videotape everything that they do. And he would process map the entire thing. Now he could get people with way less skill to take 60 to 70% of his workload off, and that people with higher skill to focus on the rest of that. And so now they were running more efficiently, it actually created jobs and create a production. And it’s process mapping. Now, home inspectors hate it when I say this, but home inspection business in general, there’s always going to be one home inspector more skilled than the other. I’ve always considered myself a very skilled home inspector. But I had had agents that process map me without knowing it, they were like Ian’s gonna go here, here, here and here. And they would actually walk around and they pre-find stuff for me before I ever got to the inspection. Did they did they find everything I found? No.

Jon Bolton
Great example. Of course not.

Ian Robertson
But did they get pretty darn close from being on hundreds of inspections with me? Yeah, like eerily. Process mapping, what do you do when you show up? What do you do in this? What do you do? What do you write when you have this issue? What what do you say on the phone here? What do you do there can all be process mapped. The sad part about that is almost anything can be processed map, like the skilled welder 50 years ago, is now replaced by a machine. Masons are being replaced by AI right now, with these, if you’re watching on Facebook, you know, those machines that will actually do part of the pour for you. Obviously, that’s a long way off and an extreme example, but..

Jon Bolton
I’ve seen drones that can nail shingles to roof.

Ian Robertson
Yeah.

Jon Bolton
Yeah, there’s all kinds of technology advancement.

Ian Robertson
But that comes from process mapping. So if somebody can get 80% of what you do, and then stick two people on site for cheaper than you can do it. It goes back to my point about consolidation and inspections becoming a commodity being kind of the same subject. Because now it’s somebody goes in and says, I want to hire a home inspector. And your agent says here, call this company, they have 30 of them. It’s kind of like when I call a pest control company, not that I ever do, but you call a pest control company, you don’t get to pick your technician, you get the guy that comes out. And he says I killed the mice, and they treated for the termites and he goes away, if you have a problem, another technician comes out. It’s not like you have this personal connection with your pest control technician. There are those kinds of companies out there, but they’re becoming rarer and rarer, and being taken over by these larger companies. So there’s good and there’s bad, they come with more tools, more resources and a process map. So they’re very consistent. And they have a lot of resources, like you said. But there’s still that 20% lingering around where the skilled home inspector had, that you really can’t replace that that can’t be processed mapped, that comes from 40 years of building homes that comes from 30 years of plumbing, that comes from doing home inspections for 25 years like yourself, that can’t be taught. So that also leads to home inspections become a commodity, but as soon as it becomes a commodity, that’s when the consolidation really just overwhelms, so to speak.

Jon Bolton
Yeah, but to your point. You know, society, there’s a certain level of expectation in society now, right? They want it faster, cheaper, more options.

Ian Robertson
McDonald’s,

Jon Bolton
McDonald’s. There you go. Bam, bam, bam. So efficiencies are obviously there, we can come up with a million different examples. And that was my whole point is just to let’s talk about this. It’s just because you think it’s bad, isn’t bad for everybody. Right. So let’s and and we’ve had good conversations and we’ve had some heated conversations. Well, I didn’t have any the heated conversations. I think that was all via the keyboard.

Ian Robertson
With me? Was I heated? I love this stuff. I could talk about it all day.

Jon Bolton
No, on some of these social media platforms. You know, sometimes you just just gotta keep your mouth shut and let people do what they’re gonna do. Right. It just is what it is.

Ian Robertson
Well, yeah. And that’s, it’s important to think about that because we’re a rare industry right now still. Where we are still made up a large portion of independent solo inspectors, where you can still get into the industry for a minimal amount. You want to become a carpenter. Dude, that’s you’re going to spend some money. You want to become a roofer. You want to become almost anybody I mean, even if you want to clean carpets or windows, you’re still gonna have to invest in tools and equipment. You can still get into home inspections and make a good living on minimal money, yes. But the time for that is limited. So let me ask you, if so you’re on that boat and you’re watching the wave. My, my thought on it is, I’m not going to push against the wave, I’m not going to ride, I’m not going to push against, I’m not going to ride with it. I’m going to kind of go to the side and be boutique. That’s, that’s my MO.

Jon Bolton
Nothing wrong with that.

Ian Robertson
What’s your perception of that? I think you kind of alluded to it, are you going to ride with the wave? And say, let’s, let’s ride this out? Or are you going to push against?

Jon Bolton
Well, that’s a good, good, I’m glad you brought it up in whatever is good for Ian might not be good for Susan, Susan, might not be good for Mark might not be good for John. So I think the best approach is, listen, use your ears, talk, become members of your your local chapters, become members in your in your chambers, you know, do this, find out what’s happening, what’s going on, and take what you think is good for you. And you do you. And there’s there’s nothing wrong with that if you want to stay, we got a local guy here that has been in big business before very big business. And he will have nothing to do with that ever again. He’s about my age. So he’s up there. And his paradigm is just a little different. You should having a conversation with him is way different than any other single operator I’ve ever had in my life. He knows his numbers, like big time, he understands all of those things, and his of his inefficiencies and his efficiencies. He’s got it all down. But he’s very comfortable in that scenario, and God bless him more power to him. Vince is a good dude, if he’s, if he’s listening to this.

Ian Robertson
Hi Vince.

Jon Bolton
I’m going to tell him, he’s going to have to listen to this to the very end to hear that. But it really depends on what your goals are, you know, there are some people that are ready just to to leave the industry, maybe there’s other opportunity. And the consolidation thing is really appealing to somebody like that. If you’re, if you’re young and full of it and ready to go set the world on fire, maybe it’s it’s not the right thing for you at the right time. But one day, you know what it might be? So why not take this opportunity to build some relationships? And who knows, you may be calling on? Hey, can we start that conversation back up again, some things have changed in in my life, personal or professional? Or what you never know. So don’t you know, I would tell anybody and everybody here, don’t pay. Just listen in and keep the information with you. Because you might need it one day, you know,

Ian Robertson
I’m actually processing over in my mind some things you were talking about earlier. And I do kind of see one of your points a little bit clearer now. And I think I agree with it. That one of the good things about the Yeah, thumbs up, right? You like it when Ian agrees with Jon. It does create a unique opportunity. And I often talk about when I started in the industry, there were no resources for me. NACHI was around, wasn’t as big as it is now. But it wasn’t like I could go and ask people questions and learn how to do an inspection from somebody. And it was everybody was one man shows, close knit, didn’t want to talk with you, especially if you’re new and young. Now, when you start out, you have all these multi inspector firms to choose from, you can learn the trade, take your time, decide what you want to do, and it does create opportunity, doesn’t destroy the opportunity to be a one man show. And to be you know, to live in the Wild West and be a cowboy. But the railroad coming through modernizing things, changes things, but also creates opportunity for us. So I do kind of agree with that part of things. It does create opportunity, pest control operator, go back to that analogy. Yeah, now you can go work for a company, learn the whole trade, build up your tools. And now when you start, you hit the ground running. So yeah, I guess I do see your point there. And I do agree with that. That’s a good part. I’m not saying all things are good or bad with the whole wave coming at our ship. It’s just a matter of like you said, what are you going to do with it? You can’t make it stop. It’s coming.

Jon Bolton
It’s coming. So let’s deal with it. And how each person deals with it may differ, but at least we can all work together. And if we work together, we can come up with something that’s amicable for everybody. If there was more of that we would be much less fragmented and stratified. That’s not the right word, but it’s the only thing I can think of now, right?

Ian Robertson
Yeah, you know, I go back to that hair illustration that I was talking about. I have friends that are one man shows and they’re hairdressers. They don’t worry about the big beauty shops. So there’s room for both. There’s room for a consolidated market. One man shows, smaller companies of five and under, and the 50 to 150 home inspector firms, a little bit harder to compete with them. But yeah, there’s room for everybody. And I think consolidation is good and bad to it.

Jon Bolton
Amen. Amen.

Ian Robertson
And you changed my mind on a thought, that’s hard to do. Jon, I gotta say, I’m pretty belligerent. There you go. And anything else you’d like to tell us about? Your thoughts on the consolidation of the industry, because again, you have a unique perspective. You’ve been around for a long time. Any final thoughts that you’d like to give inspectors out there?

Jon Bolton
Keep an open mind. And again, if anybody wants to talk to me about it, I’m happy to talk about it. Not a problem. I’m not going to persuade you one way or the other, because I don’t have that kind of right. Right, whatever your core belief system is, whatever your goals are, that’s you. And if I can help you be you better, then by all means, I’m not going to tell you one way or the other. But I’m happy to have the conversation. And I’ve, I’ve for several people, I have moved that conversation on up to higher levels. And that was very, very good for them.

Ian Robertson
Nice. Jon, I can’t thank you enough for being on the show today. This was a great conversation. As I mentioned, I talked about this subject a lot. And I think it’s important that we as an industry and individual home inspectors given a lot of thought, what are we going to do as this wave hits? Make our decisions now, don’t just ignore it. So thank you so much for being on.

Jon Bolton
Thank you, really appreciate it, Ian.

Ian Robertson
Yep, talk soon.

Jon Bolton
All right. Bye.

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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