Well I’m a few paid inspections into my new company, been marketing like crazy, getting interest etc and now I just broke my finger and need surgery. Surgery hasn’t been scheduled yet but he said plan on it in 2 weeks. I’m guessing I’ll be out of inspecting for 6-8 weeks. I feel totally defeated, things were happening, agents have been emailing etc as I’ve been hitting it pretty hard.
How do I proceed for the near future? Do I stop marketing since I can’t do inspections? Should I block my online scheduler for the next 4 weeks and see where it goes from there? Not sure how to handle this. Thanks for the tips and advice.
What Roy said with the exception of Google ads, if you have them, keep everything running. Google ads can be turned on and off with a click of a mouse, other ad campaigns not so much.
I would just mark everything “booked” until you can start inspecting again.
Thank you both. So if I continue to market and an agent says they have one for me, how would you reply? It seems weird that I’m out looking for business and someone says “yes lets do it”, then I say “well, I’m actually out of commission for a few weeks, but remember me for next time”.
If it were me, I would shut down the marketing campaigns that you can. Continue to do inspections up to your surgery date if possible. After surgery, follow your doctor’s advice for the quickest recovery. If the phone rings while you are recovering, tell them that you are out for a few weeks or whatever recovering from surgery but will be back at such and such time. You want to keep the phone ringing even if you can’t do the inspection. This may give you an opportunity to connect with more agents.
If you have another local inspector you trust, feed them the inspections and they may reciprocate when they are out of action.
This is just me, but I’ve done field work in an elbow cast. Life happens. But finger surgery might involve pins and such. Not worth the risk if that’s the case.
I suppose I would draw the line at more than 6 stitches, cast or no cast. I’ve worked with 6 stitches in my non-writing index finger, with a finger cast. But with that said, I had a pool guy a few years ago show up and install a liner with 40 stitches in his left forearm. If I had been home, I would have sent him packing.
I had an orthopedic surgeon once tell me after replacing my cast for the third time that if I came back in with it cracked one more time from swinging my hammer he was going to run a plaster band around my waist, add a rod and cast my arm up over my head…that actually got my attention…some doctors have no sense of humor…
I’ll see how things go but I don’t want to miss out on inspections and agent relationships. I may not actively search but if the phone rings I’ll take the call and play it by ear on size and extensiveness - only thing I’m worried about is throwing ladders really.
If it was me, I would take the day of the surgery, plus a couple extra off and then get back to it. Hire a temporary helper if needed.
There have been ordeals where I worked through injuries. The first one was after breaking multiple ribs. I did not take any days off for it. The worst part of it was not taking any pain killers until the inspections and reports were done for the day. Pulling myself up into an attic with broken ribs is by far the worst pain I have ever been through. The second was quadruple hernia surgery a couple of years ago. I was not supposed to lift more than five pounds for two weeks. Then ease back into thing over the next four. I hired a helper for two weeks and she carried and lifted everything besides the dead fronts. It was actually kind of nice having an assistant. Just not nice enough to want one fulltime.
When I had shoulder surgery, I hired a college kid and my retired brother-in-law to help me out. They took photos of roofs, attics and crawlspaces, I analyzed them. Like @jspencer said it was nice having an assistant - just not full time.
First:
If an agent calls, you can say you’re booked. Being busy and booked is not a bad thing, makes you seem desirable. They’ll be back.
Second:
With a good splint, you can still inspect 90-100% of what you need. The issue is what you can still crawl in terms of under a house. And perhaps you could team up or mentor or find a way to get that done also.
Third:
While it’s hard to predict, there are certain neighborhoods or homes on slab or whatever that you can predict in advance won’t require a physical move your doctor will hate.
