MIKE ORTIZ TAKES US INTO THE WORLD OF REFERRAL GROUPS & HOW TO NETWORK. LISTEN IN!
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Ian Robertson
Welcome back to Inspector Toolbelt everyone. We have back on the show someone who’s become a bit of a staple here. Mike Ortiz. How are you, buddy?
Mike Ortiz
Good, man. How are you doing?
Ian Robertson
I’m doing fantastic. I’m happy to have you back on because you’re one of our guests that understand my nerd references and share a lot of hobbies. And it’s kind of like hanging out having a beer with a buddy. So thank you for being on.
Mike Ortiz
Yeah, no problem, just missing the beer. But it’s a little early for me right now.
Ian Robertson
Yeah, that’s the problem. Yeah, you guys over there on the West Coast, you have to wait longer than us on the East Coast.
Mike Ortiz
Exactly. That’s alright. We won’t tell.
Ian Robertson
It’s five o’clock somewhere.
Mike Ortiz
Somewhere.
Ian Robertson
But we’re glad to have you back on the show. And you know, you’ve made some changes since the last time we talked, we’re going to talk today about local business groups and referral groups. And you actually emailed me this, saying, Hey, this is something we haven’t heard a lot about on your show. And it’s a really great marketing opportunity. But before we get to that subject, you’ve gone multi inspector since the last time you were on the show, correct? You hired an inspector?
Mike Ortiz
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So I was doing 1099s for a while until California got rid of it. Really, you know, selectively getting, letting it be, making it difficult for us to sell that stuff out. So got our first W2 inspector. And the thing I learned really quickly was just, you know, pay him really well. There’ll be very happy. And that’s that there’s no way around it, I think. But yeah, I’m excited. It took about took a few months of training, I’m fortunate that he was already InterNACHI Certified, and doing inspections for an insurance company. So you know, he was used to going out, the driving, the people, talking to people. So those are all things that I usually it’s hard to ask if you have good people skills, but I think having him on the team has been really great. It’s opened up it the funny thing is that I did it so that I can open up more time for myself. It just made me busier. So it kind of it’s more paperwork than I thought it would be, you know, with the whole, you know, payroll and worker’s comp, and, you know, just double checking work and everything like that and stuff just paranoia constantly. But things go smoothly after a while. And now we’re I’m really content and happy. And so we’re pushing to be so busy that we can hire another inspector, hopefully next year.
Ian Robertson
Awesome. Congratulations. And thanks. Hopefully you had a chance to listen to our podcast a few weeks back on, are you ready to go multi inspector? Because we talked about that. Yeah. You know, it’s it’s amazing. It seems like it should be so easy. But every time I’ve ever hired anybody, I have to plan on losing almost a full workday of hours per week. Yeah. So at least two inspections a week. And I’m like, because there’s payroll, there’s a problem at this inspection, the sink flooded, this car broke down. You know, there’s always something and it’s.. Yeah, Jury duty. And it kind of blows my mind. I’m like, man, every single time it works that way. But congratulations. I’m really happy to hear that. Yeah. And you’ve done really well. So I want to hear a little bit about the your thoughts on the local business groups and referral groups, because I have to admit, and I was telling you this before we started recording the show here, I never did enough of this. Yeah, I belong to a BNI group. I belong to another couple smaller groups. But I never worked the room like I should have. So I’m fairly ignorant compared to you on this subject. So I’d like to learn from you. And hopefully everyone listening can learn a bit
Mike Ortiz
Jury duty. Yeah, I think the value of networking is, it’s it’s something that I didn’t know at first. And it’s mainly because of a neighbor of mine that got me into it, who also owns a small business. And what it is, is it’s a group of people within your city or your county that meet up and basically they help each other by giving each other tips and usually it feels, it sounds like it’s it’s boring, which honestly, sometimes it is if they bring someone in to talk about life insurance or something. You know, it’s not, you’re going to snooze way. But what the value is, is that you have, let’s say 10, 20, 30 people, that now you can build a relationship with that only cost should cost you about an hour a week that they own businesses. And if you’re lucky, there’ll be contractors in their local trades or even you know, there’s going to be a realtor in there a lender in there, a title person in there, and then you get to build those relationships and you know, you get referrals, they refer you out because you’re there they feel obligated to because they’re hoping that you do the same for them because they’re also looking to be busy. And they have these mixers which honestly in all honesty, I’m not very much a person that likes to go to a mixer or some type of event that’s anytime after 5pm I want to be home or in the office or driving back from my last inspection, but if you force yourself to start making these relationships here, what you’re doing is you’re building you’re building a network of people that you can rely on, you can refer out, you’re adding value to your own company, because you can refer out, you know, a roofer, an electrician, a painter, you know, in some of these groups, they, they really, they go out and they validate that you have a license that you get good reviews, and there are rules, like, Hey, if you’re, you’re doing bad work, you get kicked out of the group, stuff like that. And so I think the value in it is that while you might not see it right away, just the word of mouth because nowadays with so I get so many emails, so many text messages, phone calls, and spam calls. It was soon as somebody this was I pick up the phone says, Are you the owner of the business, I hang up, I don’t even say anything anymore. So imagine us calling Realtors emailing Realtors doing anything other than meeting them in person, I get that it might work here and there. But I feel like your time is better spent better spent face to face. And the only way you can do that is even though nobody in the group might be ready to buy or wanting to buy a house and need an inspection. They they know a lot of people because they’re they’re networking. So that means they network with a ton of people. So every person that you touch has already met, you know, dozens of other people and one of them is going to say, hey, on Facebook, does anybody know a good home inspector, I’m buying this new construction. The first person that should pop up is the inspector that’s part of your networking group. You know, you’ll feel obligated to bring Hey, I know a guy. And it makes you look good to say I know a guy, because everybody wants to be the guy that knows a guy, you know, like I want to be, I want to say, hey, if somebody has a problem, I know a guy that can fix it, because it makes me feel good to say that and offer that up. So be that guy in order to do that. And no inspectors, no other inspectors do it. I’ve never seen it done. They’re like we didn’t even think that that was a slot anybody wanted to take up. And it is. And there’s a lot of the groups out there.
Ian Robertson
You know, there’s a little bit to unpack there. Because I have a question about first of all, besides BNI? What are the kinds of groups that are out there? And how do you find them? I’m sure inspectors are asking that. But there’s something that we forget about as home inspectors, that we have a very desirable industry for other industries. So I remember one time I was in a BNI group, and there was a doctor there, there was an insurance agent, a guy who owned a mattress store something like a bunch of local businesses. And I remember home inspector saying to me, I don’t, what’s the point? I only, there’s only one agent there I can meet 10 agents at an office. True. And there’s a lot of bang for your buck with office visits. Yeah. But all of those people want to get in good with the home inspector. Because when do people spend more money than they ever do in their life? When they buy a home. Yeah, buy a house, you buy a new bed, buy a new couch, you you hurt your back.
Mike Ortiz
Get the house painted, junk removal, electrician. We are like, that’s why you, those big companies are out there trying to buy our data. Yeah, our contacts are gold, man, our contacts, the 1000s and 1000s of emails, names and phone numbers and addresses that we have in our systems are valuable to people. I mean, if we if you think about it, we because it’s everything in the house, every single thing, people that buy a house have a car. So if you got a guy who owns a mobile car washing company, you’ve seen people every day that own vehicles, you know, like even just to mention, like, I know a guy who can clean your truck. It’s like we’re more valuable that way. We don’t we may not get a lot of leads from like you say the doctor, but you know, it’s really just about being useful to them. And then that value translating into inspections for us overtime.
Ian Robertson
Yeah, exactly. And it’s not only even directly related to the home even Yeah, but like you get, for lack of a better term, fresh meat into the market. That’s what every marketer wants. If you have somebody that’s lived in your town of 20,000 people for 30 years, they have their doctor, they have their mattress guy they have their car dealership. Yeah, this is fresh meat, most people so to speak, yeah, somebody coming into the market who doesn’t have anything so you know, if they’re, they need a new car a year after buying their house two years, they’ve never had a dealership close by. So we are the gateway. So we should be walking into that room like Michael Jordan. Because everybody in that room, nobody really cares about meeting the doctor, the car guy, but everybody wants to get on our good side. So I realized that when one of my competitors belonged to like, it was like seven BNI groups. And I me and him, me and him are buddies. You know, I’ve known him for years and we’re sitting there, weirdly enough eating soup. I don’t know where that came from. Like, don’t go out for coffee with a guy get go grab a bowl of soup. But we’re sitting there. Yeah, just soup. I don’t know. Weird. So we’re just sitting there. And I’m like, Dude, why do you belong to so many BNI groups? I belong to one and I think I went to like three meetings. Yeah. And I learned a lesson from him. He’s like, because every BNI group is a bunch of people that recommend me because they want to know me. Yeah. So they’re sending me leads. Say oh man, I sent you three, I sent you three leads. And oh, my cousin’s a real estate agent, and they’re gonna call you and he actually built his whole business up based on those seven groups. He really didn’t do a whole lot of other advertising. Yeah. Because me and him actually lived really close too, and he did all on BNI. And I’m like, dang. Okay, by then I, you know, I was I was bigger, and I really didn’t get much into it. But I’m like, Man, I wish I had done more of that. But I think we worry. We’re like, Oh, I’m a home inspector. I’m not related. Usually, they give you a little speech time. Like, you can take a 10 minute speech. Usually, when you first join the group. Yeah, give them your spiel. And that should be our spiel, I am the gateway, not the real estate agent in the room, real estate agent in a room might sell five houses a year, I’m gonna do 500, I meet 500 new people coming into your market year after year as a single inspector. Cool. That’s a big selling point.
Mike Ortiz
Yeah, it is.
Ian Robertson
To anybody in the room. So hey, I’d love to get, send you referrals. You know, somebody’s looking for a new mattress, oh, great mattress store down on the corner. Send me anybody who’s looking for a home inspection. Yeah, those are beautiful selling points.
Mike Ortiz
They are. And that’s the thing, I think what I..because I think you asked, so I’m not a member of any BNI group. So the the groups that are available out there, it’s usually it’s usually being led by a marketing guy who’s putting together groups. And usually they charge sometimes they charge a one time fee, you know, four to 500 bucks a year, or 40 bucks a month, however they want, basically just paying for your slot, making sure that you’re the only inspector in the group. And then that way, you know, there’s not competition or anything like that. But these groups, you can find them on like Facebook or something, or locally, just ask your, you know, anybody that goes to the BNI groups in your area, they’ll tell you, if there’s other groups nearby, like, Hey, I’m also a part of this other group. And we need to, we don’t have one home inspector in that group, you’d be great, have a great fit, we’d meet at this coffee shop, or whatever, and we go out and we do learning and, you know, some of the stuff they teach, you know, they they bring people in, like, how to get a business loan, how to do something, there’s some useful business advice they give, like, hey, how to do marketing or whatever, just tip. Some have it, you can retain and use for your own business, because, you know, we’re all busy business owners but as far as just marketing for your home inspections. You know, in the groups that I’ve been, I’ve done, you know, maybe, since, you know, I’ve joined the groups, like at the beginning of the year, maybe 30, to 40 inspections, just based off that group alone. The value of paying that 600 bucks a year is already back, you know, I lose an hour a week. But I don’t mean, I don’t lose an hour a week, I invest an hour a week. And then that’s my payback. And the reason, Ian, here’s the thing is that on my own, I’m fine. That this is where that transition came in. As far as being becoming a multi inspector on my own, I would have been fine at 10 to 15 inspections a week, depending on how busy the week is. So my goal right now is just to keep my guy busy. In order to do that, I have to do more marketing than I was doing before, which was practically zero, just to make sure that he’s as busy as I want him to be and keep them at that eight to 10, which he’s used to. And so that’s my main goal right now. So it’s not really just like trying to stay above water, it’s really adding more business to that. So that’s me specifically. But if you’re on your own, and you don’t, you know, you don’t have a lot of the guys that, like me, I started with a big company. And then I went off on my own, but I wouldn’t have the skills I have, I had when I started my own without having talked to a bunch of agents and going into offices and speaking to a bunch of clients. So this is a way that a new inspector starting out, can get to know how networking works, and how talking to other people and businesses works. That way. You can learn how to build relationships and see how it kind of works. So that you can build over time, get that one inspection a week to two inspections a week to, you know, 20, 30 a month, and then go from there. But I think it’s a good starting point. And they teach you a lot.
Ian Robertson
Oh, wow. And if I could just kind of even backtrack a little bit, you mentioned that marketing is not a lot of what you did. I think networking is maybe a little bit newer in your repertoire because your marketing was on point you were very much social media based. And I describe it as intense. I’m a social media marketing marketer, and I’m even kind of like, I went back and I looked at what you suggested. That’s a busy guy on Tik Tok. And we even before the show, we were talking about YouTube shorts and stuff like that. And it’s intense. But networking is a completely different leg to the stool of marketing. So ever picture a stool that holds up our business, there’s going to be multiple legs to it. One of them is online, you know, website, SEO, social media, all that stuff. Networking is another big lead to that. And then there’s hard angle marketing, which be a whole different discussion. But networking is extremely important. There’s some agents that I know that have never been online anywhere. And they kill it. Yeah, matter of fact, one of the biggest agents in my area is like you, What do I need a website or any kind of brokerage advertising form before? And he just networks like a crazy man. And it works. Most people don’t even know he’s one of the top agents. He just keeps appearing on these billboards. You know, when they when they have their award ceremonies and stuff. Yeah. So your networking is, is working, though. So if I could just real quick backtrack to so anybody who’s listening to this, start with BNI. I would probably recommend it sounds like you would, because that’s the easy one to find. And then just basically look on social media and ask around maybe even some agents that we know or other people, Hey, do you belong to any local business groups? How would I join? Where do you meet? How many do you belong to, Mike?
Mike Ortiz
It does. Me, right now, I think I’m only in three, that’s about as much time as I could commit to. And I think it’s the, I think that some, some have rules, you know, regulations, as far as like, Hey, you can only be part of one because I don’t know, they get really competitive. But I see, I highly suggest just being part of one really good one, I think the part that is most valuable, is if you if you spread yourself too thin, and try to be a part of all these groups right away, you’re gonna, you’re gonna lose, it’s putting too much of yourself out there that you won’t be able to see where the leads are coming from. So if you start with one group, like the BNI, and you get to know everybody in that group really well, they’ll see that you’re committed, they won’t see you as someone who’s just showing up to show up and say, Why is it not working? You actually have when you get there, you actually have to work on the relationships. If somebody says, Can I take you to lunch, I want to ask some questions now, go for it, take, grab a coffee, like you have to be invested in those relationships, because otherwise, there’s no point in going to these groups at all. If you go to a real estate office to just drop off some cards and say we do home inspections, compared to going in there and talking to the front desk, you know, a person and saying, hey, you know, what do you guys usually use? What do you like about them? Okay, that’s great. Well, if you ever need a backup inspector, or if you need someone that’s available really quickly, you know, we’re here, we’re local, and you speak to their needs. You know, I think that’s, that’s the same concept when you’re going to these BNI groups. So I’m not saying anybody listening, I’m not saying join the BNI group, and immediately, you’re gonna start getting leads, and everybody’s gonna want to refer you, you still have to earn their trust. When you go in there, these businesses have been doing business for, there’s guys in my group that have been in business for 42 years, and they are successful. And they’re even in these groups. So there is value there for big businesses that are bigger than yours. And you have to humble yourself, because you’re just an inspector going in, there’s guys in there that are contractors, or there’s even they don’t have time to go themselves, they send one of their managers to go to learn some stuff about marketing. So these relationships you build, you know, they’re going to make you stand out in your own community. Because you’ll know these people, and they’ll have their own events, they’ll have their own marketing, they’ll have their own mixers and everything, and then that it takes time, but it’s one of the things on top of visiting real estate offices, on top of doing your social media on top of your SEO, and this all goes into owning the business. It’s the leap from, do you want to work for somebody? Or do you want to work for yourself? That’s the big difference. You know, that’s the difference that that’s made there. Because as an inspector, for a big firm, you’re good, you just show up, inspect and go home, that’s it. But if you’re looking to grow it, if you’re looking to make something out of it, you have to do all these things, I think that you do, and I have a lot of weaknesses. I’m very weak with SEO and my website and all that I paid somebody to make it and it’s just for me, I haven’t had the time to do what I want to do with it. I’m very backed up on, you know, marketing materials, you know, door hangers, pamphlets, handouts, things like that, because I just haven’t been able to get to it because you know, social media takes up a lot of my time. But no, but months ago, you know, my wife took over our social media account. And it opens me up to like, every time something’s been helped with, I somehow become busier. And I don’t know how that happens. Like, I thought, Oh, is this gonna free up two hours of my day? No, somehow those two hours got filled up. But anyways, it’s really just about managing, but it is one of the more important things that I’ve been able to do for the business is networking, and but you have to be serious about it. You can’t just say I’m going to join BNI, pay the monthly fee, go to the meeting, listen to whoever’s talking, and then leave as soon as it’s done. Stay, you have to stay after where they mingle, and they talk and they’re like, hey, oh, what do you do? Really? I have a cousin that like exactly cousin that does this. He might be interested, give them your info. You have a card, but that’s how that’s how it happens. And then you do that one inspection. Hey, you did my cousin’s inspection, hey, you know, you did a great job. And then then they leave you five star reviews, which also helps, you know, ever since using, you know, again, I was listening to a podcast between you and Juan Jimenez, two things that you guys brought up. I started using Blipp. I don’t know how to say it properly.
Ian Robertson
Blipp.
Mike Ortiz
Blipp.
Ian Robertson
Yeah, Blipp from Sheehan.
Mike Ortiz
I started using Blipp like four or five months ago and like 100 reviews and like that, that short period of time without having to do any extra work. And then so that’s been great. And then the the other thing is, is I know it’s off topic, but it’s it’s the adaptive USP, the response you give out when you go out, when you go to these networking groups and you try to sell yourself, everybody can spot that right away, because they’re all business owners. So they all know what it’s what someone who’s trying to sell themselves looks like and sounds like they just immediately get turned off when you’re like, hey, I can help you guys out and they don’t, they don’t, you know, they don’t wanna hear that. But when you ask people, hey, what you know, what do you think? Or what what, what do you need? Or, or you know, what’s something that you’re concerned about? And then they tell you, then you can offer if you can offer help, you can say, well, you know, maybe you should do this, maybe should do that. Maybe we should have us come by, you know, something like that. And even sometimes free advice is a great way to be on top of someone’s mind. Hey, my AC is out, you know, instead of trying to weasel your way and say, I’ll go inspect for 100 bucks. You can say, You know what? I know a great guy who does AC, I’ll give him a call. See what he thinks, send me a picture. And then I’ll get you guys connected. They’re like thanks, Mike. You’d do that for me. Yeah, no worries. Yeah, let me know how it goes. It’s stuff like that, that long term relationship that really helps.
Ian Robertson
Yeah. And unfortunately, I remember an inspector not long ago, saying, you know, you reveal all your quote, unquote, secrets on your podcast and all these guys. I’m like, It’s no secret. You’re either gonna do it or you’re not. I remember, I was at a trade show. And I was with the guy that I was telling you about the belongs all these different BNI groups. This was years ago. And I’m like, Hey, do you belong to any BNI groups? He goes, No, I went to one of those one time and it didn’t work. And that’s kind of like saying, I went to the gym once and it didn’t work. Yeah, if you want to get jacked, you got to do the work day in and day out, follow up, good nutrition, all this other stuff, otherwise it’s not going to work. You can’t just go once and say it doesn’t work. And I think that’s why most people you don’t see a whole lot of home inspectors in these groups. I’m always getting these messages, you know, hey, we’re still looking for a home inspector in our group. And like, because a lot of us are just out there going. I didn’t get anything from it. Because there’s only one agent in the room. We have to see beyond that. Yeah. So you at three, working the room, three groups that you belong to working the room, have done 30 or 40 inspections in seven, eight months out of this year. That’s fantastic. But you did it the right way. You hit the gym, so to speak, yeah, day in and day out. So we have to go to the groups, we have to work those relationships, and even the ones that we don’t think about right away. One of my best relationships that got me work for years to come was an attorney that wasn’t a real estate attorney. But then he decided to become one. And then who was his guy? And then all these agents are like, Hey, do you have somebody, he’s like, yeah, I have this guy. Yeah. And you know, it just didn’t seem logical. But I’m like, you know, what, he’s nice, I inspected his house, helped him out with a few things. And you know, even if he didn’t become a real estate attorney, he has a bunch of attorney friends. Yeah, you know, hey, we need a guy for expert witness testimony. Well I have a guy, Hey, we need a guy for an inspection on a building that we’re buying. I have a guy. It all feeds into the whole networking group.
Mike Ortiz
Exactly. Yeah. I think that a big a big part of it is, we’re in a… I know, a lot of guys might like to think, you know, might hope that we’re not in, a we’re in a people business. That’s what it is. Most from what I see, like in the Facebook groups is like, hey, just go and do your job, do the inspection, you know, and then you’re good, you should be good. And what I’ve found is that it’s a sales job. Because once you know how to do the inspections, that’s that’s like muscle memory. It’s the software every day, softwares are getting easier and easier to use. And it’s ,so now it just comes down to Okay, well, can you keep yourself busy? And then how do you do that without the skill that networking provides? Because networking, what it does is it keeps you it keeps you fresh and on your toes with people who own businesses who are serious people. So it, it forces you have to stay professional, you have to put your polo on, your logo on, you have to stay professional, even though you’re not inspecting that, that morning. You have to look professional, so you feel like you’re in work mode and doing that, you know, you you hand out your card, you hand out advice you you listen, you take in information. You know today I heard about there’s a guy who’s owned a landscaping company or he’s not landscaping, but like hardscapes like construction, Mason, masonry, pavers, all that stuff. He’s been doing it for 40 years. And he’s, he’s he’s standing there talking. He’s like, we did the entirety of the walkways for Disneyland and for all the trees and Main Street and all that stuff. And I’m like, What are you doing sitting in this group at this restaurant? You know, 7:30 in the morning on a Wednesday, and he sits there and talks about you know, the reason why I’m in this group is because I’m not always up to date on what people look for when it comes to marketing or what people’s needs are. I feel out of touch when I’m just by myself in my office, you know, having because things change over the years to And I see it as a way of keeping myself up to date with business practices with the way the markets looking in my area, because people like to talk about what’s going on, especially like the real estate market, and what’s going on in New York community. And if you’re up to date with what’s going on in community, you can spot trends, you can find weak points, you can find hotspots, you know, hey, looks like they’re building three new communities. Well, have you done any marketing for new construction, you know, some door hangers that say, Hey, you’re buying this house, give us a call, or have you found a is there a community that’s about to hit their 10th month of their warranty? Hey, time’s running out, get your warranty inspection, put a frickin door hanger on their door. And you know, you’ll have one of your guys go out, pay him by the hour and just run around, that’s what I did. He runs around, leaving them all on the doors, and then and then goes to his inspection. And then you get the phone calls. You know, I use unique numbers for every piece of marketing material. So I know where the phone call comes from. And so that’s its CallRail is a good company that I use, I don’t know what everybody else does. But they allow you to have multiple numbers, you can track where they come from. And I got that from a buddy of mine who, who let me know about it. But knowing where your marketing is working is very important, because otherwise you’re just doing it blind. And it’s it’s tough, but in the networking is something that really has paid off. And the 30, 40 inspections were just from one group, the other groups provided more, you know, so it’s like, it’s slowly, which was not 1000s and hundreds of inspections. But from those 30 or 40, I met at new agents, you know what I mean? So and those agents, half of them maybe will do three to five inspections a year, and I’m hoping I can be that guy, you know, when I, time comes and they call me up, you know, but right now our market is more on the heavy on the listing side. So we do a lot of pre listing inspections, a lot of ancillary services, sewer scopes, things like that. And but you know, it’s going to, it’s going to turn down. And that’s a whole other conversation about where the markets going. But it’s right now while you have you have downtime, because our slow season is coming up. So market now if you want to be even the tiniest bit busy in the next three months, and networking is one of those ones, one of those you can utilize really easily. And that’s a good side point. A lot of times we we’ve talked about this on a podcast with Jay Wynn actually one time, we forget that we have a slow season in the busy season. But forget we have a busy season in slow season, so we market hard in the slow season and stop marketing in the busy season. We should be carving out time now for networking like this. And it’s it’s kind of interesting how cumulative it all really is. You know, we worry too much about how many leads that I get here or there. Okay, well, let’s wait and put it all together and say, okay, where, where am I striking my blows that it’s working? Where am I not? And then at the end of the year, kind of take take it all in like that working is really hard to measure. So having a using CallRail, that’s a pretty advanced method. We use CallRail on certain campaigns and stuff like that. But it’s really hard to measure sometimes if you’re doing like broad campaigns, like, you have a phone number on your website, like okay, well, did you call me from my website? Was it a raw search? Were you a referral from an agent? Were you a referral from a BNI group? Yeah. But trying to get that information is extremely important. Because otherwise, you know, I’ll, I’ll go back to your point about not keeping up with the marketing, and not knowing where stuff comes from. You know, it’s funny, I’ll have guys that will become mildly successful from one line of marketing. And I remember this one guy came to me, he goes, I was getting almost 200 inspections a year from Angie’s List. And then it died. Yeah. And then I’m like, okay, and he goes, I have nothing else. I’m like, What do you mean you have nothing else? He’s like I have nothing else. I have 300 reviews on Angie’s List. And, and nobody, everybody stopped using it. I’m like, not not every area is like that Angie’s List is still big in certain areas. But it’s like you look at the metrics, and it just dropped to nothing. Yeah. And I’m like, Well, you should have diversified a little bit. You know, something. And that’s what networking does. it diversifies and it grows organically. So you don’t have to worry about okay, this avenue of marketing got shut off. I don’t, I don’t have leads from that. Yeah, that organic marketing, that organic networking goes on for many, many years. People don’t forget about you quickly. No they don’t. And that’s the thing is that it’s a it’s a one thing I truly firmly believe in, is not having all your eggs in one basket with anything, including inspecting. I mean, you have to I know, I know that I pay attention to trends. So here’s an example. I have different investments that I put money into, you know, because I just don’t like to have money sitting in there. And there’s like a real estate investment firm that does like automatic deposits and all that and then they send out an email letting you know, hey, we’re adding this new company or we’ve invested in a company and a portion of your funds are going to go here so we can watch it grow. And that email said okay, Inspectify is going to be the company work because they’re going to be the next big thing in real estate. And then I read the article over and I’m like, it’s like, it’s going to streamline everything, it’s going to make it easy agent controlled and things like that. I’m reading it from the perspective of the real estate industry. So we’re like, not, not from the perspective of a home inspector. So but when I see something like that, I think to myself, if I truly want to see the way things are gonna go, people want things quicker, faster, easier, no matter what. So a good quality home inspection, if you’re at all complicated, especially when you schedule, when you get the report out. If there’s any complications, people don’t like that they like quick, fast, easy, they’re used to DoorDash, they’re used to Amazon Prime, they’re used to all their apps on their phone. So in order to keep up with that, you have to be able to network with local companies that are doing things successfully, you have to keep an eye on the market trends. Now I myself see things like that and say, Okay, what can I do to make sure that, um, you know, I have a big area that I cover. So my plan for the next three or five years is to hire out in every single city in the area to cover, I don’t mind driving two hours to do an inspection at a home two hours away, I’ll drive I’ll do the inspection, get to know the agent and make a great relationship with them. And then eventually, I’ll get more agents in the area. And yeah, for a while, it’s going to suck driving two hours, two hours. But then what happens is, if I get enough work there, then I can hire someone that lives in that area. Hey, I’m looking for an inspector in the LA County area, which is what I did. And now all those agents that love Homefront that like the way that we inspect, I train this guy, he’s what they want to hear he’s nondramatic, easy, quick, standard report, all that. He’ll do the inspection today. And then now he’s busy. And I am left going to do that again in another is two hours away. You have to be able to cover a broad area, I think that’s the only way it works. And I know that’s not always possible for everybody. But the networking groups help you because they also have like HVAC service or roofers, electricians that cover broad areas, too. And then they meet as much people as you do, probably more because they’re on all service calls. You know, not necessarily someone that’s going to buy a house, but people that can refer out or people that are going to ask questions, or if they even hear one person saying I’m moving out next month. Oh, if you are I have a home inspector that I know, here’s his card, or here’s his info when you’re ready to buy a house, it happens just like that out of nowhere. It’s I don’t know how to explain it. There’s no way to track it or explain it. It just happens. But it only happens if you go.
Ian Robertson
And that’s the thing. It’s the I don’t know if there’s a right term trickle down effect. But basically, it’s that network grows on its own.
Mike Ortiz
Exactly.
Ian Robertson
But you still have to, so it’s like a plant, but you still have to water and joining those groups. And that’s an interesting concept. So if we want to move into a new market, I always have some I always have guys that tell me, Well, I want to move into this market. Let’s just target that market. I’m like, Okay, that’s good. But what are you doing to work into that market? Yeah, I just told you, I want you to make a landing page. I’m like, okay, cool. But nobody knows you there. And that might get you some leads, what plans do you have to network with people? What offices have you visited? There was a guy recently that called me and he’s like, hey, I want to grow my business. And here’s what I want to do. And it’s all the same stuff that you mentioned before. I have email campaigns, I have text message campaigns, and this and that, and like, I have the same speech, I’m like, Okay, that’s all stuff that you can do in your underwear at home, at the computer.
Mike Ortiz
Exactly.
Ian Robertson
So tell me when you when you visited 20 offices in that area for four months straight and then you’ve also taken at least two dozen agents out to lunch or coffee, then call me back. Yeah. And then I’ll help you with your business plan. And invariably, they never call me back if they actually do it.
Mike Ortiz
They don’t want to do the work.
Ian Robertson
Because they’re like, Yeah, well, no, no, no. Well, if they want to do the work, and I’ve had guys call back and say that worked, I don’t need it. I don’t need any more business plan help, you know, the landing page work. But more importantly, I built a network out there. Yeah, I’m like, Yeah, network. And that’s an interesting concept. I’d never thought of like joining a business group out in a separate market. That makes sense. Yeah, it really does.
Mike Ortiz
Helpful. I mean, it’s helpful if you have time for and if you’re starting out, and you have time for it. That’s all it is, you know, you put a lot of money. We fall victim to the quick satisfaction to we want to put 500 bucks into Google ads, thinking that we’re gonna get five inspections right away. It’s not how it works, you know, you can’t create a website one day and hope that people start landing on it the next. You know what I mean? And I think a big thing for our industry is the humility part. I see a lot of situations where I know you’re talking about pricing on the last podcast out here, because it’s such a broad area I cover, there literally is price differences by 50 or even more dollars per county, because there’s five counties and every county has a different medium income, median income, so we’ll get a yes to $500 inspection in one county, whereas the other county house the same size, they won’t do it. They’re used to paying $50 less. And so the good thing is knowing your market, knowing your competitors, seeing what you can afford to do, I get that the pricing hasn’t changed in a certain time. And if you deliver a good product, I think that if you’re okay with that, and that’s how you want to be, that’s okay. There is a lot of add ons, you know, because you have the inspectors that have been doing this for 40 years, and they’re like, I’ve never had to do any marketing in my life. I’ve never dropped off a card or anything. And I just, congratulations, you did it. What is that? How does that help me? I feel like the net that I feel like that what the Facebook groups should be is what the networking groups are. Whereas we’re supposed to be supporting each other and giving each other advice on how to get more business for ourselves, unless we’re obviously in direct competition, but even then there’s still ways to work around it. So I think a networking group is more helpful for a new home inspector than any other because on top of that, you’re going into a place where there’s people that have established businesses, if you’re a home inspector, and you’re going to be working on your own, you’re committed to being on your own, you have to learn about workers comp, you have to learn about liability insurance, your car insurance, most new construction inspections won’t let you go in without any like general liability insurance, E&O insurance, even Commercial Auto, they won’t even let you go into the neighborhoods without them. They’re even trying to block us from going into attics now. So it’s really just, you know, making sure that you’re up to date on all that stuff. And you don’t think about that. Because every time you try to ask a question in the Facebook group, you get reamed. You know what I mean? So it’s really important to make sure that you’re establishing yourself not only as a home inspector, but as a business in your community, because that’s what you are. And I’ve heard this a long time ago, I don’t know when I heard it, who I heard from, but I one day want to be working more on the business than in the business. And it’s important for me that I continue on with the networking, so that I can hire more guys, stay small, and then just take a step back so that I can work on the business and grow it that way. You know, because it’s you know, and you have to think you have to plan ahead, without you, what happens to the business. If you get hurt. If you pass away, the business fizzles up, you have to plan ahead, you know, you have to plan ahead. And that’s something that I’m also learning right now, if I’m talking about weaknesses, right now, we had a talk about that. And one of our networking groups were like, Hey, if you died, what would happen to the business? It’s done, you know, so you’re like, Okay, well, what are you doing to curtail that, you know, life insurance policy, that that’s 30 times your income and, and then plans in place of trust. So that doesn’t go into probate, like all these things that nobody wants to think about, because they’re too busy trying to get work. If you’re serious about this, then do it the right way. And I’m very guilty of missing some of the small steps that are very important too.
Ian Robertson
You know, it’s interesting going back, tying that point in with the point you made before, about these groups are not just advertising pieces, they’re learning pieces. So have you ever been asked to be part of like a focus group or something?
Mike Ortiz
No, not yet, I haven’t.
Ian Robertson
So there was this hospital around the our area, and it was over at a mall. And so they asked me to be part of the focus group. There’s like, no joke. They said, We’ll give you $100 And a cookie. And I’m like, All right, I would have done it for the cookie, but you lead with the $100.
Mike Ortiz
As long as it’s not a white van with a panel door.
Ian Robertson
Yeah exactly. Come on, in. We’re got a cookie for you buddy No, but it was legit. A friend of mine friend of mine had told me about it and stuff like that. And they said, I met the criteria and all that. So I’m sitting in this room, and I’m eating my cookie. Just thinking, I feel like I’m four years old. This is amazing. And I am just cracking up. We are making fun of this hospital so bad. Yeah, but every and we’re just like crying. We’re laughing so hard. Like they’re like, if you came up with a slogan for this business, what would you what would you write in this one? It goes, I’m still alive. I’m like, we haven’t killed you, quote unquote, yet. And, but, you know, it’s interesting, these high paid CEOs and all that stuff are sitting there. As we’re joking. They’re making notes. Yeah. And they did and they did like even follow up and are like, Hey, can we ask some follow up questions and all this other stuff, and they paid all this money to have a focus group so that they could understand the market, get themselves out of their own hea. So we’ve talked about it on this podcast before that oftentimes, we offer stuff that people don’t care about. Well, I advert I spend two grand advertising that I do infrared, great, everybody does infrared. Yeah, it That’s like saying I carry tools with me now it’s it’s not..
Mike Ortiz
I drive to each inspection.
Ian Robertson
Yeah, I drive to each inspection. I don’t bring my bike. But it’s it’s basically a focus group. Yeah. What are they actually talking about? My home inspector missed mold, okay. Now we keep hearing that in those groups. And we’re like, Alright, I need to get some mold stuff going here. Yeah, I need to market that harder. where everybody’s just like, hey, you’re not on TikTok yet? Oh, oh, no, I’m not, you know, maybe that is kind of like this podcast, you get to find out what other people are doing what people actually care about. Yeah. And distill that into something that’s useful. So there’s the marketing and networking component. But there’s also the component of hey, this is basically a focus group. What are they talking about? Because those people are not only other business people, they’re your consumers. Yeah. What do they care about? So I thought that was a great point.
Mike Ortiz
It’s surprising to see what people really not a lot of people are educated on what a home inspector does still. They’ll ask, go straight up ask me that one. Hey, do you look at the plumbing the roof? And I’m like, Yeah, I was like, You mean, I could do this without looking at the plumbing in the roof? Because you said okay to for, you know, for 450, 500 bucks, and you didn’t even think I was gonna look at the plumbing or the roof. But yeah, it’s like, do you and then I think I’ve seen one before. And this is something I never thought of, there’s a guy that charges by the square footage, but he includes the square footage of the garage and the.. like the garage is like extra. And I never really thought about it that way. I always said okay, well, if it’s like a 2500 square foot home, I’m already assuming it’s like, 1000 square foot garage are 1500. And I just think, you know, it’s already in the price, I never thought about charging extra for that. But some people asked me, Hey, it also has a garage..do you..and I’m like, That’s a silly question. Why would you ask me that? But I guess it happens in some areas, because people have different expectations. And you don’t know about that unless you ask the questions. And you know, who you’re gonna ask, you know, your spouse, you have to ask people that don’t know anything about inspections. And that’s how you in these networking groups, you can use them as opportunities to say, hey, you know, do you guys have any questions about home inspections? Like it’s not all agents sitting there, just regular people who might buy a house or have bought a house and they don’t really generally know, because honestly, most agents know a little bit about home inspections. Yeah. But then I ran into a brokerage, like two weeks ago, I don’t even want to mention it. I walked in, and I’m like, Hey, so we do. We’ve been doing some new construction. They’re like, wait, you can get a new construction inspected? And I was like, who’s doing your guys’ continuing education? Who’s telling you that? There’s like, 50 of you here. And all of you just asked me if new construction homes should be inspected? They said, Oh, yeah, well, the builder tells us that the city inspector comes. And I tell him like, Look, I’ve met a couple of these city inspectors, I really think you should get a home inspection. Because they have to do they have to do 40 houses a day. And they walk through with a checklist. And that’s it. And then so the electricians, the plumbers, they know and they come by they do a small fix, while the inspector comes in, and then they go back to what they were actually trying to do to try to Mickey Mouse their way around a situation. And unfortunately, it happens a lot. So these questions are good ways to build your own business like, Okay, if you’re in an area that has a lot of new construction, or if you’re an area that’s established, and there’s no new room, no room for new homes, and you just do condos and townhouses because it’s a tightly packed urban area, which LA, Los Angeles is for us. We do a lot of, you know, condos, townhomes, things like that, a lot people don’t know what’s not included and what is included, HOA issues, you know, when a roof is shared, it’s an HOA issue, well termites are covered by HOA and we have to let our clients know, most people don’t know that. And getting questions and fielding questions from these groups, helps you build your own brand. And it gives you unique selling points, too. If you see that it’s enough of a problem. You never saw one specific part of your inspection as a unique selling point. But everybody’s asking about it then becomes a unique selling point. You know what I mean? It’s easy, but you won’t know unless you go out there. And if you only market to agents, you’ll never really know what the general public thinks about home inspections.
Ian Robertson
Yeah, and that’s a fantastic point. So my big takeaways are, join at least one or two, not too many business groups BNI, or whatever it happens to be in our particular area, make it make a good one, make our blows count. Yeah, work the room and don’t expect immediate results. And view it as a two part situation, networking and focus grouping. And it’ll make us better at business, but also basically, hopefully bring in extra work. But, Mike, I can’t thank you enough for being on again. You have basically led us along your entire business, business growth journey and everything that you’ve done, and you’ve shared your expertise with everybody. So I thank you immensely for that. We appreciate it.
Mike Ortiz
I appreciate that. I never considered myself an expert on anything, but because I’ll tell you when it doesn’t work. But right now, it’s just it’s everything that I’m trying and seeing what works. I’m telling you the good stuff, and the bad stuff. I yell in my car.
Ian Robertson
Well, you’re sparing people a lot of the bad stuff by giving them more of the good, great discussion. Thank you very much for being on.
Mike Ortiz
I appreciate it. Thanks, man.
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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*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.
