PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Ian Robertson
Welcome back to Inspector Toolbelt Talk to everyone. So today we have on a podcast within a podcast within a podcast. We have Shannon Gatewood on, Shannon, great to have you here.

Shannon Gatewood
Thank you. Glad to be here.

Ian Robertson
I wanted to say that it’s a podcast within a podcast because Shannon is actually the host of Homes Unscripted, another home inspection podcast, and we’ve been talking back and forth. And we’re like, we should be on each other’s podcasts and talk a little bit. And so I’m really glad you’re here today, Shannon.

Shannon Gatewood
Thank you. Yeah, we’ve been like, so we’ve been talking for a couple months, just trying to try to match up schedules and everything. So glad we were able to finally get the time to sit down and do it.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, so look up Shannon’s podcast, it’s really great how you laugh at it. And I especially love your show runner. So the little little blurb that you have in the beginning of the podcast. I chuckle every time I see that. That’s awesome. But tell us a little bit about yourself, Shannon and where you’re located, your business and things like that.

Shannon Gatewood
Yeah. So Shannon Gatewood. My, my company is Gatewood Superior Inspections. We’re in the San Antonio, Texas market. I live just outside of there in a little town called LaVernia. So 2017, I retired from the Air Force and didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up. So talking to a realtor that that we had used to buy and sell a few years prior. And she said well, you know, what are you going to do when when you retire? I don’t know. I’ll figure something out, you know. Well, you have construction background, right? Yeah. So you should look into home inspections, because we’re always looking for more home inspectors never never enough to meet option periods and everything. I thought, well, we just bought a house a couple of years ago and kind of followed that guy around, in turn is now one of my really good buddies, didn’t really know him at the time, he was just a friend of a friend that went to church with I was like, Hey, you use this guy, I’m like, ok, whatever, but I followed him around, you know, I thought well, I kinda, you know, have an idea of what I’m doing. So let me look into this looked into it thought, well, I didn’t really want to be a boss. And I don’t want to have a boss, I’ve kind of dealt with anybody, for anyone in the military, they understand that you have, you know, 50 different bosses, and they change on any given day, I’m kind of finding that it’s not that much different in the civilian world, sometimes, but the military, I was like, I’m done with this, I’m just gonna go out on my own Uncle Sam is going to pay me a little bit in the morning to awake or pay me a little bit to wake up in the morning, you know, with my retirement. So if I can just do a few inspections a week, great, you know, and I can have the time off. And you know, the things I didn’t get to do, while I was in the military, of getting the girls on the bus and going on to field trips with them. And being there when they get off the bus. Now I can do all that stuff. Because you know, it’s got to be my own my own business, been able to do most of that. But it went from the ones, two inspections a week to where I’m turning away work. Because I just can’t get to it in time, especially during the COVID years when they were doing those crazy option period, three days and stuff like that, but grown enough to keep myself basically full time employed. doing inspections, which is not something that I really envisioned when I when I started this thing.

Ian Robertson
Wow. So and you’ve been in the inspection industry eight years, you said?

Shannon Gatewood
I’m going into my eighth year, so yeah. June will be eight years.

Ian Robertson
Wow. And so that’s really good. You know, a lot of times we we think, you know, all these guys talking about, you know, growing into a full time home inspection company in the first year, the first year, this the meteoric rise to success happens overnight, usually after five years of building it. Right, right. You’re a good example of digging in the trenches, building your business with your own two raw hands and putting your family first, I’m glad you mentioned that because too many times we say, well, I want to work hard for my family and be there for them have more time. And then we end up having less time for family and that’s just not healthy, we should put our family first. That’s what we’re doing this for.

Shannon Gatewood
And that’s almost where I’m at now is I spend more time working on inspections and everything because I’m so and I don’t want to pat myself on the back. You know, I’m not gonna give myself a bruise patting myself on the back. But I’m so busy with inspections that it’s like, Okay, I’ve got to tamper this down a little bit somehow.

Ian Robertson
That’s a good, good problem to have. It’s like the horse saying he has too much hay, you know, oh, darn, I bought too much food to put in my refrigerator. And now it’s overflowing. So good for you.

Shannon Gatewood
Yeah, I don’t want that to come off as I’m complaining. So that’s for sure.

Ian Robertson
No, no. That’s good for you that you’ve worked hard for that. So congratulations. Now, tell us about your podcast a little bit so that the audience can listen in on your podcast. Tell us how they can find it and what things you talk about.

Shannon Gatewood
Yeah, so I listened to every one of your podcasts. I’ve listened to multiple different inspector related podcasts and stuff like that. And then of course, you know, the true crime podcast that everybody likes to listen to it, I just thought, well, maybe getting out of my comfort zone and doing something like that will help me grow in other areas because like I joked in the intro podcasts that I did is I have a face for radio and a voice for newsprint. This is definitely not my comfort zone, my my cup of tea, but doing it and getting to talk to, you know, the Ian Robertson’s of the world, the Buck Lemmings, the, you know, the other Stokes Chris Story, excellent, you know, home inspectors, that’s now doing a whole another industry of of repairs and stuff like that with, with plumbing sewer lines, just getting to talk to those folks. And having a reason to sit down and take some time out of my day to talk to those folks, has really helped me to be more comfortable talking to others. And one of the things that I’m working on right now is I got a call asking if I would be willing to teach, write and teach an eight hour electrical course to present at the next year is to create a conference, which for those that may not know, Texas Professional Real Estate Inspectors Association, it’s the largest association in Texas. And it’s basically InterNACHI, like InterNACHI kind of runs everything under their umbrella. And then we have a couple of directors that that kind of run it in the Texas market. But when I got that phone call, you know, to say I was honored and flattered to be asked, you know, that goes without saying. And then I thought, oh, man, I got to stand up in front of like, probably like 200 people in the room. Because there’s like, multiple different classes going on at the same time, multiple different tracks, man, I’ve sat in those chairs, and listened to the instructors. And now it’s going to be me, man, and the little bead of sweat starts coming down, like aww crap. But you know, if sitting on a podcast and talking to people can get me more comfortable just talking in general and getting out of my comfort zone in general, then great. So I started Homes: Off-Script with the intent of just talking to not necessarily inspectors all the time, just anyone in that home real estate market. So I’d like to get you know, some contractors on here, a plumber on here, a whoever to talk about what they do and how we can help homeowners or inspectors or those looking to buy a home or just anyone in that that realm to learn something with their with their home. So about five episodes in really kind of dropped off. You know, I did the, before I was staying on real good on schedule and stuff. And then life, you know, life happens get busy again. Can’t complain, because I was busy with work, you know, busy with inspections. So trying to get back into it. I do want to keep it going. You know, I feel like the four listeners that I have two of them being my parents deserve, deserve some Homes: Off-Script, you know? Yeah. So great. I’m glad to want to get get you on there and, and have an episode with you. And yeah, yeah. So like I said, just trying to get out of my comfort zone and do something, do something fun and growth minded for me.

Ian Robertson
Well, that’s good. And then it’s expanding you into other things. Like it makes you more comfortable with public speaking and teaching and things like that. So everything’s always connected that way. And you know, what I like about your podcast is that it’s, it’s real, like, your podcasts are relatable, like, the one with you and Buck there. I was. And I like Buck. He’s my buddy, you know, it’s just relatable to listen to, your real guys talking. And I think that’s why I wanted to have you on for this episode that we’re going to call the “Windshield Perspective”. Hopefully that doesn’t, I think that just means, you know, like driving perspective, but in this case,

Shannon Gatewood
Hopefully I’m not a bug.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, I don’t know what if it means something different than what I’m saying. So if it does, I apologize to anybody, I don’t know. But basically, what I mean it as is, you know, you’re a home inspector, you’re hitting the windshield every day driving to inspections, and your perspective is in between inspections, what’s going on in our industry, you know, it’s you drive, you do your inspection, you collect your payment, and then you move on. And then we have this 20 to 40 minutes of windshield time, where I don’t know if it’s like it is if it does the same for you, but that’s where all my internal reflection happens. And I start to contemplate life and the universe, dark matter and you know, gravitational wells, and also the state of our industry. Right? Yeah. So it’s very real world because we have guys on here and it’s really great to have a high level perspective of you know, vendors and Nick Gromicko was on and you know, others that are have this high level view but I want to hear your windshield perspective. What are your thoughts on the changes in our industry, you know, things like big companies coming in and buying up portions. And even though the buying process has, I guess it really hasn’t slowed down because I mean, even Home Binder and other aspects were just purchased up. So what are your thoughts on all of that?

Shannon Gatewood
Yeah, so driving behind that windshield on those, those drives, I agree, I get some of my best thinking and some of my deepest thinking, I just wish like, Heck, I remembered it when I actually pulled into the driveway and, or had the ability to write something down while I was driving. But that’s, you know, that’s not quite safe.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, you shouldn’t write while you’re driving.

Shannon Gatewood
Yeah, all my all my good thinking happens when I’m driving, none of it translates to the office. No, so industry perspective, you know, from not minimizing myself, but from a low level, you know, low level guy just doing out there on the grind every day, man, it hasn’t slowed down in my market, at least, you know, I look on the Facebook groups, and there’s a lot of guys out there struggling right now. And, and I feel for him, you know, I wish him the best of luck. But I can’t relate too much right now. Because I mean, San Antonio is, is just been booming and hasn’t slowed down.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, it’s very regional what’s going on.

Shannon Gatewood
It really is. And so San Antonio, for those that don’t know, we call it military City, USA, because we have all of Air Force basic training, we have a huge army base, a huge army presence, big army training area, we have Randolph Air Force Base, which is the Air Force personnel center. So all the personnel actions and as big operation that is, so our town, I mean, you can’t go to the store without running into somebody that was either in the military current, active duty, retired, or works for the military as a civilian. So between the number of people coming and going all the time, I really don’t think and I haven’t seen it, in the eight years I’ve been doing this that this area will slow down much, you know, obviously, it’s gonna go with the ebbs and flows of the industry as a whole. You know, of course, you know, interest rates go up, you see, every body takes a little bit of a pause. And then two weeks later, we’re back to back to being busy again. So for those that are not in a, a market, such as this one, I think now’s the time where you really have to just evaluate your processes and see how you can, how you can increase that that profit margin so that you’re making a little bit more money per inspection that you do get, how can you cut down time on site, you know, whether that’s, you know, looking at into a new software? Hint hint. Or just streamlining your your comments and your routine? Yeah, I mean, I think like you said driving, that just sitting behind the windshield, day to day, you know, two ways every day, it does give you a lot of time to try to reflect on on ways that you can do better in your own business, or grow. And whether that’s adding ancillary services or whatever, I always tell people when I when I talk to new inspectors, I always tell them get really good at inspecting before you start looking at adding septic and pool and sewer scopes. And yes, all that stuff is value added. And we’ve we’ve talked about in other podcasts and other forums and stuff like that, eventually that the home inspection will become the loss leader. Ancillaries are really where the money is. I’m not sure I agree that there’ll be a loss leader, as in when I think of a loss leader, it’s the plumber that offers a free service call so that he can upsell everything. Well, we’re not doing inspections for free. I think we’re I think it’s going to be a a pinch point in raising prices. Yeah, I think eventually, you know, clients and home potential homebuyers will only spend so much for home inspection, they only see the value as being x, you know, they’re not going to pay more than that, which, you know, is a is a hurdle that we have to navigate. Everybody has their own methods and their own markets. I think where we do gain a lot of our business is adding those ancillary services, but kind of like with anything, I mean, I don’t know if I think that professional inspector in Texas should be able to take some classroom hours and online hours a test and then run their own business. You know, I’m kind of a hypocrite in that way because that’s exactly what I did. But should they have to go to work for another company for a set period of time to do a an apprenticeship like program, that plumber has to do, the the electrician has to do, that the HVAC guy has to do, and home inspections is one of the only industries at least in Texas now, I’m not exactly sure what all the laws are in in other states that you can just take the courses, take your test, and hang a shingle.. And now your own company. I know unlicensed states, you know, they don’t have to go through that much which, you know, that’s neither here nor there because I don’t control any of that. And I’m not sure licensing is is any better, either. I mean, what is licensing? Like, I know, I know you’ve talked about on your podcast here, licensing makes it look like all are equal, you know, well I have the exact same licenses this guy? Well, he’s been doing it for 30 years. I mean, I just started yesterday. I don’t think that does anybody any good, either. But getting back to the point of ancillaries and stuff like that get really good at doing your main job. And that’s being a home inspector. Once you once you’ve done that, then yeah, you can add on the WDI, you can add on the sewer scope. And that’s, that’s where the potential to actually make the money is.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. And Shannon, just so everybody knows, Shannon has been trying to get me to promote our home inspection app on our podcast a little bit more, that was his hint hint earlier. We’ve had other ones like George Karampoulis, he’s like, you need to, you guys need to promote your app more on your podcast. And I’m like, I know. But I’d like to just bring value. But thank you, Shannon. You know, it’s kind of funny, you’re focused on the aspect of the question of the changing industry of the slowdown that’s happening right now. And it is we just did our q2 Market Outlook podcast a little while ago, when we talked about this this year just kind of stinks in a lot of areas. But Shannon, you’re, you’re kind of killing it right now your areas is really hot, and you’ve built up a nice business for yourself. So it’s not just hey, it’s a hot market. I’m just riding the wave, you built something there that you do a great inspection. But I will say I have said that in this podcast before that a home inspection is like a loss leader. But I know what you’re saying. I really view it as a way to get in the door and upsell ancillary services, because like you said, that’s where we make our money. And it also brings more value to the client. Oh, if I was buying a home and the home inspector knew that he could do a sewer scope and pool inspection and a mold assessment and all this other stuff, but never told me. I’d be like, What in the world, man? I could’ve used that, I have a sewer line break. You know, it’s not just selling people fish oil or snake oil or anything. Rather, it’s selling them things that they need. They just don’t know they need them yet.

Shannon Gatewood
Absolutely.

Ian Robertson
It’s amazing. Maybe like you, when we’ve had callbacks, it’s oftentimes been for things that a service that we offered that they refused our sewer line backup. Okay, well, we said right in the report, we recommend a sewer scope because it was acting funny. We ran 200 gallons of water in a vacant house, but that wasn’t going to even fill up that, you know, six inch pipe that went out the wall. So we did the load calculations for you. And you said no, right. I’m like, well, there’s not much we can do about that. If you if you say no, it’s, you know, sewers scopes, like proctologist. You know, he says, You need to get that you need to get that sewer scope done, so to speak. And we don’t do it. And then we have problems later on. It’s not the doctor’s fault, he wrote it on a piece of paper. Something’s wrong with your behind, man. We’re gonna we gotta scope this out. So that was probably a terrible analogy as everybody’s driving listening to this podcast kind of cringing a little bit.

Shannon Gatewood
It might have been but I mean, I get it. I liked it. But yeah, it was terrible.

Ian Robertson
It was totally terrible. But you get my thinking, Shannon. What about other aspects of the industry. So besides the invariable slowdown. And I liked your point about getting better at inspections. Because you know, if you have an athlete in the offseason, they don’t just lay around, wondering when the season’s gonna start, they train, they get better. And then when the season picks up, then they’re ready to go. We should be doing that. What about other aspects of our industry? Because you’ve been around for almost eight years now. You’ve probably seen some changes. What about things like corporations buying up vendors in the industry, the whole data grab thing that that’s happening where everybody wants our data? It’s like, ooh, home inspection data. Let’s get our hands on that. What’s your windshield opinion on that?

Shannon Gatewood
Yeah. So I’ve, you know, I honestly I kind of waffled back and forth between it. I listen to, you know, you listen to one side of the coin, and they’re like well our data is not really worth that much. It’s only worth, you know, a few bucks per inspection, then you listen to some others, and I don’t know how accurate it is. And they’re all it’s worth 1000s of dollars. So I guess it’s worth 1000s of potential dollars if that one company can get a hold of the client and sell them every tool in their bag. But if they can’t get a hold of him, I guess that’s what it’s worth $5 You know, I don’t really know. I guess I’m not educated enough on the business side of the porches and the fans and whoever else is buying up the industry. There was a lot of Horizon.

Ian Robertson
Elon Musk. Elon Musk is buying into the industry. No, I’m just kidding. Nobody quote me on that, Elon Musk is not buying into the industry.

Shannon Gatewood
You got to have a blue checkmark next to your your home inspection company. But yeah, I mean, I don’t necessarily like big corporations buying up little companies. And that’s just from a probably tipping my hat to my politics on that. You know, with that comment, I like keeping things small and and family friendly and all that stuff, although not getting into politics, it’s the, you know, the well they say the the right wing and the left wing are on the same bird or something like that are two sides of the same coin or whatever. I think it’s kind of inevitable that you know, somebody with money is going to come along and buy up people that are looking to sell. And their entire job is not nefarious. I mean, look, you know, the elephant in the room, Porch, their job is, you know, their goal is they’re not nefarious, you know, they’re not trying to damage anybody, they’re trying to make money. You know, they’re not, they’re not calling up our clients and, and just blowing smoke up there. But just to put a rattle in the industry, you know, they want to they want to make money, the the same as any of us do. Have they gone the right way. Nah, you know, and I think they’ll admit that too. I know, they have admitted it that times on some of the other stuff that they’ve done, but honestly, I don’t think they realized how opposed a good majority of the industry is to them just from a, their a big corporation. Yeah. And I don’t know, I mean, I’ve never used Home Gauge. So I don’t know how that worked out for them with with AmFam, whoever it was, again, whoever bought Horizon, I can’t remember, they got bought out by somebody else there. I guess they’re still doing good. I don’t pay any attention to them, you know, but I do use ISN, I do use, my software is one of the ones that got bought up. So I’m deep in the in the mix of it, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I really don’t I’ve, as we were talking before, I’ve I’ve given Inspector Toolbelt a test drive. But change is hard. You know, just saying, Yep, that’s what I’m gonna go to. I like Inspector Toolbelt. I’m just not to the point where I’m like, yep, time time to make the shift. And a lot of that’s just me being scared me being a procrastinator in general. But yeah, I don’t I mean, I don’t think those corporations are out to cause harm. I just don’t think that their methods are going over well, with, with the industry as a whole.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, and you know, going back to your your point about to go over our software, you know, we always say that, and I’ve used this illustration with you on your podcast is that it’s like putting on a new pair of pants, the old pair of pants fits so perfectly, we get them all worn in and they feel good. And then we’re putting on a new pair. Switching software is is always difficult. Even if we had really, really bad software, say we were just using something from the 90s. And they don’t even support it anymore. And they got mailed to us on a CD ROM, we would stick with that rather than change. Because change is hard. But I agree with you that the big corporations don’t necessarily have a nefarious. It’s not like they said, Hey, there’s an industry of happy people. Let’s go and destroy them. But at the same time, the road to hell is paved in good intentions, right? Is the expression, you know, like, oh, let’s go make some money. And you know what we can really help the industry and now in the industry is at its windshield like you. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how this affects me right now. And I think the data, it’s important to remember, we’re selling raw meat, you know, you buy raw meat, and it doesn’t cost as much as the finished hamburger. But in my opinion, if you’re the only one that can produce the meat. Why sell the raw meat at a discount when the burger finished burgers being sold at a premium? You know what I mean? Or it’s like, you know, McDonald’s has gotten in trouble over the years.Man I use McDonald’s in a lot of illustrations. I don’t really eat there. But I can really go for a Big Mac. But anyways, yeah, that sounds good. And they got in trouble so many times because they cornered the market. And they say all the meat producers will only pay you this much money for the same burger. And they’re like, but our costs are up. This is all we give you. And so they basically price fix them in the poverty or they start producing a substandard burger, which was one of the problems they were adding filler in because they couldn’t produce that much meat for that price. So McDonald’s is like what we’d have no nefarious reasoning here. We just want to pay this much money for raw meat and then we sell it at a higher price. That’s kind of how I relate it. And I don’t think anybody listening to this podcast goes Whoa, that’s a new opinion Ian’s never expressed. I’ve expressed it 1000 times. I think there’s more than one way for us to be able to use this valuable data. We just don’t know how to use it yet. It’s kind of what it comes down to. Big companies, they know how to use it. They knew how to use it before they got into it. So that doesn’t mean we can’t do the same thing.

Shannon Gatewood
Yeah, that’s why they got into it.

Ian Robertson
Oh yeah, I mean, I don’t know why nobody got into it sooner. I remember first getting into home inspections and like man, shouldn’t insurance companies or I even said that to my brother one time, shouldn’t insurance companies and like even contracting companies and some of these big national companies get into this because this is the doorway into a person’s home. The agent isn’t, really good agent sent sells five to 100 houses a year. I mean, for a lot of us that’s just a halfway decent month. You know, so it’s a home inspector does more transactions than a real estate agent does, so I never understood why it took them so long. But now that they’re here, I’m kinda like, crud. This isn’t as great as I would have hoped it would be.

Shannon Gatewood
No, I think you’re exactly right.

Ian Robertson
But do you find any effect on your either your business or your psyche, so to speak, how you think and how you feel, and all that like market slowdown corporations, not that they’re related, but just unrelated? Do you find that having any effect on your windshield time, so to speak?

Shannon Gatewood
No, not really.

Ian Robertson
That’s good.

Shannon Gatewood
It’s one of those things, it’s in the back of your mind all the time. As as a home inspector that uses the scheduling software, the reporting software, all that in the Porch umbrella. Now, there’s, I spend a lot more time thinking about getting out, or what the cause and effect is going to be down the road than I probably should. I mean, I don’t think I should have to be thinking, it should just work. You know, my scheduling software should just work. My reporting software should just work. I shouldn’t have to give any thought to the back end type stuff. And what could happen..

Ian Robertson
The larger picture.

Shannon Gatewood
Right. Yeah, I mean, I’m just a home inspector, you know, I just want to go out and inspect the home, do a good job, write my report, then go tuck my kids in bed. So to say that I don’t spend any windshield time on it would be would be a lie. But I don’t think it really affects my day to day game plan. I’ve got to figure a way out, you know, every now and then it’ll pop up when you when you hear like ISN was down this morning, I don’t know if you if you saw that. It was..

Ian Robertson
I did. And that was a big deal. And they didn’t open up until 9am. And I forget which 9am was east coast or mountain time or whatever it was. But there was a lot of unhappy people. Yeah, we’re recording this podcast just for everybody listening on a previous date. So that just so that you know that it’s not today today.

Shannon Gatewood
Yeah, no, this is long sure been solved. But like I logged in this morning, it didn’t affect me. So I don’t know if it was a regional thing, if it was just certain accounts. What. But I mean, that pucker factor went up a little bit when I log into Facebook, and it says, ISN is down, we can’t get to our anything. And I’m like, Oh crap, you know, and I logged in just fine. But I shouldn’t have to worry about it. It should just work. Now, does that have anything to do with being bought by a corporation? Probably not, you know, or maybe it did, because they’re trying to change everything up now. I don’t know. Well,

Ian Robertson
And every software is going to have like a glitch here or there. I guess the connotation is what the guys were expressing online was, you know, it’s not like the old days where you could to Dan or somebody and say, Hey, what’s going on man? And you know, it’s another inspector talking to us, or, you know, a community. Now, it’s like, what are you going to call the CEO of Porch and say, Hey, why can’t I get to my inspection? It’s a different level of distance. Maybe? And then there’s also..

Shannon Gatewood
Yeah, that’s a great point.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. Yeah, it’s a level of distance, right? I think that’s, you’re not as connected. It’s not like you can just call them and say, Hey, what’s going on? It’s okay, well, chat doesn’t start till nine, nobody’s answering emails, and then I get the corporate response and go through the prompts. But um, you know, I always kind of wonder, and not just Porch and AmFam and others. What happens if one of these companies goes under? Like, I’m not that much of a financial guy to know what actually happens. So like Porch, we’ll pick will continue to pick on Porch, I guess Porch’s numbers, as of today, were severely down and made me wonder I’m like, okay, so what happened if, hypothetically, you know, porch just disappeared one day? What would happen to all the software, I imagine they would get sold as part of like, some sort of deal, either in pieces or in whole? And then who does that go to what would happen to the software, I always kind of wonder about stuff like that. And that, that affects our whole industry. It’s amazing how you could not affect the home inspection industry 20 years ago, when we were still doing things on paper. My software, I was one of the first guys to use software, you couldn’t affect my software, it was desktop software. Like you couldn’t take my data. You went out of business and I Okay, everybody’s on a pencil and paper anyways, you know, now, but let’s say one of the big software companies goes down, gets sold again, or disappears with some sort of weird, you know, Wall Street transaction. What do we do? We’re the guys in the windshield. What how do we handle that? That’s what I kind of wonder about, not trying to give you extra windshield worry here, but I just wonder.

Shannon Gatewood
Oh, no, no, that’s honestly that’s not a, it’s something that has, like come in this year and not that year, because you know, there’s not a whole lot of space in there to hold things in. So I’ve thought about that over over time. Like what happened, you know, I said what happens? But you bring it up that way is Like, yeah, what the heck? What is gonna happen? Because AmFam is not going away? You know that. If, yeah, that I don’t think I don’t think they’re one of the ones to worry about. But you’re right, Porch is. I mean they I saw something on one of the groups or something that, hey, can somebody decipher this for me. And it was something about they sold off a bunch of stuff to pay for this to take another loan or some this financial role and shuffling so that they could cover all their debts or something. And I was like, Whoa, that’s, that’s big to me. I mean, again, I’m not a financial guy either. So, but just knowing and maybe that’s a common thing. You know, I could be making it sound like it’s bad. And it’s something that that happens every day? I don’t know. But it sure from you know..

Ian Robertson
I don’t know, either.

Shannon Gatewood
This little industry called home inspections should be raising some flags, I think. And then when you brought that up just now it kinda Oh, yeah, that’s right. I do remember reading about that. But no, I think it’s a great point.

Ian Robertson
And even like, things like venture capital, like, there’s very few independent home inspection software companies out there. Most vendors, I would say, well, better than half have been purchased by somebody. So what happens if like, venture capital comes in? They typically, you know, we’ve been approached by, I have to ask Beon, but I think it’s about half a dozen or more. And they’re like, oh, yeah, we’ll give you a bunch of money. But we want this, this, this and this. It’s funny, we’ve said no to all of them, we kind of laugh or like, I don’t think you know us guys, you know, me and Beon just kind of, you know, doing cool things and making cool things. And then they want to give us money and make it big. And we’re like, that’s, you don’t know us. But I think about it. I’m like, oh, man, so a venture capitalist stepped in. We have, you know, so many 1000s of user profiles. Now we change how we do things if that were to happen. And that affects all of those inspectors, or what if one of the other independent software companies gets bought up or gets invested in by venture capital, they change and affect 1000s of home inspectors, day to day, how they operate, what new features come out, who gets a hold of their data, how that data is treated. privacy policies, literally, how you go into your inspection and take a photograph is determined a lot and in part by your software company now that’s being determined by a board of directors with wingtip shoes in a room with no windows. So that’s, that’s the kind of stuff they’re also my head in the windshield time.

Shannon Gatewood
Yeah. Now, now you’re, you’re making me nervous.

Ian Robertson
Now I’m making you worry, Shannon, I’m sorry, man.

Shannon Gatewood
Tightness. Got tightness in my chest.

Ian Robertson
No, don’t get tightness.

Shannon Gatewood
Got bead of sweats coming back.

Ian Robertson
Oh, no, don’t do that. Yeah, you got an electrical course to teach. Oh, we’re just kidding around. Yeah, but no, it’s just, it just makes you wonder. So for the most part, things have been relatively stable. You know, it’s like, oh, okay, you know, ISN or another company’s software goes down for a bit stuff happens, you know, it’s software. It’s not like it’s a post apocalyptic zombie situation. But I don’t know.

Shannon Gatewood
I think it just adds another level to it, though. You know, like, if it was Joe’s inspection scheduler, and it goes down, you’re like, Well, Joe, must Joe need to fix it, you know, but when ISN, the embattled Porch subsidiary and all that goes down, they’re like, Oh, what the hell, you know. So it’s, you know, it’s a much bigger thing. And obviously, ISN is a ginormous, you know, conglomerate of inspectors that use it. So when it goes down, it literally is a much bigger deal than Joe’s scheduling software that has his, you know, 200 users or whatever. But I think the the thought process on it is also blown..is it out of proportion? I don’t know, you know, but it’s, it’s a much bigger impact and it makes you think of, you know, what is what is going on, you know, why? You know, you almost want to say well, they’ve got all that money now that should just be flawless all the time. You know, as well as I do that. That’s not how software works. But..

Ian Robertson
Yeah, no, that’s definitely not how software works. But that’s why we were asking you you know, I didn’t want a vendor or someone who’s not hitting that windshield day in and day out giving me another opinion. I wanted a guy like you, who has a good head about him, runs a good business, and is hitting that windshield day in day out inspecting, and you know, fingers in the dirt so to speak. And your perspective, Shannon is is spot on. So you know nothing to nothing to freak out about nothing new was happening with the industry. I just wanted to get a fresh look at a fresh set of eyes and I thank you today for your opinion. We appreciate it a ton.

Shannon Gatewood
Well, yeah, absolutely. Thanks for, thanks for having me on. And hopefully I didn’t butcher everything too bad. I mean, as far as I mean, it is a low level view of things. So..

Ian Robertson
Yeah, even if you did, which you didn’t, but even if you did, it would have been even awesomer. So you did a great job and look up Shannon’s podcast, Homes Off-Script, it’s great. I make an appearance on there. You can skip my episode though. But Shannon, great to have you on and we’ll talk soon. I appreciate it.

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.