Peace of Mind

Small talk is a part of each of our lives. It’s defined by Wikipedia as ”polite conversation about unimportant things.” On most days, we all engage in some form of small talk, whether in public or in our jobs, and most of us have our go-to questions at the ready, just in case some small talk breaks out. One of the most common ice breakers that we all use whenever we meet someone new is to ask them about their profession. “What do you do for work?” It’s such a commonly asked question, and we’ve all answered it so many times, that we’ve got our own elevator pitch response down pat.

For most people reading this post, we all like to say that we’re in the home inspection business. But, quite often, that answer is met with a puzzled look, as most people have no earthly idea what it is that a home inspector does. (We could argue that lots of inspectors have no idea what it is they’re doing either, but that’s a different conversation for different day…)

So, what exactly does it mean when we say we’re in the home inspection business?

Most business models are built around the idea that a business makes something of value and their customers pay them for that product. Build it and they will come.

But home inspectors don’t sell a physical product. Our businesses don’t have inventory to track, boxes to unpack, or stock to rotate through. Inspectors sell information. We sell knowledge. We sell our intellectual property.

We sell peace of mind to our clients.

In the home inspection industry, typically our clients are the home buyers, and they’re hiring us to inspect their new home. Our job is to attempt to lessen the chances that they’ll be stuck with a big surprise or a major expenditure soon after they’ve purchased their home.

Now, no inspector is perfect, we can’t predict what’s going to happen in the future, and things are always going to break when you own a house. So, we’re not there to give someone a guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen to their home, but we are there to give our clients information. We are there to make sure they know the roof on the home they’re thinking about buying needs to be updated, the drainpipes below the house are pouring sewerage into the crawlspace, and the HVAC system looks like it was manufactured during the Carter administration.

We’re there to try to keep them from being surprised as soon as they move in. We’re there to offer them some measure of assurance. That’s what it is we’re selling.

Peace of mind.

The reality is that, eventually, something is going to break in every home and need repair or replacement. It’s simply part of owning a home; a fact all too familiar to anyone who’s ever been a homeowner. Stuff breaks and, as homeowners, we’ve all got to spend our own money to make it right again.

Don’t get me wrong, every professional home inspector wishes they could predict the future. We’d be able to tell our clients exactly when they’ll be faced with repair expenses in their new home.

Mrs. Homebuyer, be sure to start saving now, as your dishwasher’s pump is going to die the day after Christmas and you’ll have to replace the whole thing, because the repairperson won’t be able to get any parts for it when it does. Your roof’s going to start leaking next summer, about two weeks after the big hailstorm we’re going to have right after the kids get out of school. And be prepared, because your AC is going to crap out in August year after next, the night before you’re going to have 30 people over for your daughter’s big sweet 16 birthday party…

Until someone perfects the crystal ball, it’s unreasonable to think that inspectors can forecast the future for our clients. But that’s OK, because it’s not what we’re there for. It’s not what we do. It’s not what we’re selling.

We’re in the business of selling peace of mind.

Our job is to try to keep our clients from being surprised. Certainly, we can’t predict that someone’s AC is going to die six months from now, but we can tell them if it’s not working properly when we do the inspection. We can let them know that it looks like someone’s been keeping it running using super glue and duct tape. We can recommend that they have a professional check it out, because it’s likely not going to be around for too much longer.

That’s what our clients are paying us for: the peace of mind that information provides.

Are the home’s big money items operating the way they’re supposed to?

Do any of them look like they’re gonna flatline any time soon?

Are there any things that we think a new buyer would want to know about this house?

Do we think any of the things we find will adversely affect their decision to purchase the property?

Those are the main questions that we should be answering when we’re doing our job. As long as we take care of these major points and take the time to clearly explain our findings to our clients (in person as well as in our inspection reports), then we’ve done our job.

Anything else we decide to do for our clients is gravy.

It’s up to each of us to decide how thorough an inspection product we’re going to provide, and it’s up to us to make sure that the product that we’re offering is going to line up with our clients’ expectations. And while all we’d like to believe that we do our jobs perfectly, we know that’s not possible; none of us are perfect.

We all wish we were perfect, and most of us strive for to achieve perfection in our jobs, but the reality is that we all make mistakes. We all screw up sometimes. We all fall short of perfection. The most we can ask for is to keep doing the best we can for our clients, and on those occasions when we fall short, make sure that we do what we can to remedy the situation.

And keep trying to provide them with that peace of mind they’re looking for.

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Thanks, Joe