Crushing someone’s dreams. The deal killer. Being the bad guy. It’s one of the worst things about being a professional home inspector. No matter how good we are at our job, how creative we are at writing reports, or how empathetically we deliver our findings, eventually we’re going to be right there in the middle of things when someone cancels …
New Agents
Working with new agents can be a challenging proposition for a home inspector. On the one hand, it seems like we’re having to do some of their job for them, walking them through the home inspection process and instructing them on what they should be doing next for our mutual client. Doing some of their work without any of their …
(Not) Lazy on a Sunday Afternoon
I hope this brief note finds everyone healthy, happy, and busy. Today’s post is going to be a bit different from my regular offering. I’ve been posting weekly articles about being a professional home inspector since February 2017, and I hope that you’ve been enjoying my take on our profession. I know that you probably haven’t agreed with everything I’ve …
The Other Side of Fear
Fear. The word itself strikes (ahem) fear in our hearts. Fear is often defined as an important psychological response to a physical or emotional danger. For our ancestors, fear was incredibly important. It’s what kept them safe and allowed them to survive. They would be afraid of an erupting volcano, and head to safety. Hungry predators would strike fear in …
A Face in the Crowd
In my home inspection school, I often get the chance to talk with people who are considering making a career change. Most of them are excited for the opportunities that the inspection industry provides, but as with any life-changing decision, they’re often filled with apprehension. They typically come armed with a long list of questions about the industry. In addition …
What Did We Expect?
We all go into business with certain expectations. We imagine that we’ll make a lot of money. We expect to work with the best people in our industry. We anticipate that we’ll have scores of frenzied clients, posting to social media, raving about how great we are. And we’re certain that the number of problems that we’ll encounter will be …
Simple and Hard
We all have a job to do, and with that comes the requirement that we assign a value to what it is we do. How much is what we do worth to us, and how much is it worth to those we serve? Is there a price that we can assign to our services that our clients would be willing …
Obstacle Course
Sooner or later, it happens to all of us. The best of us, the worst of us, and every one of us in between. It’s unavoidable. It’s inevitable. It’s unescapable. It’s coming for us, and there’s really nothing we can do about it. Eventually, we’ll all hit the wall in our jobs. No matter how hard we work, no matter …
Leadership
Being a professional home inspector is an interesting job. We get paid to go into a stranger’s home, walk around testing stuff, opening things, and generally checking to make sure that all the different items in a house are functioning like they should. We do our investigating, we report our findings, and we’re on our way, out the door, heading …
Thanks (Giving)
As we bring Thanksgiving week to a close, and I’m finally finishing off (most of) our leftovers, it seems like the perfect time to reflect on some of the things that I’m most thankful for in my home inspection career. All too often, in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, trying our best to keep our businesses on …