Does anyone here earn over $100,000?

Originally Posted By: Rey Williams
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I’m being nosey, but does anyone in here earn over $100,000?


Originally Posted By: Blaine Wiley
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Yes.


Originally Posted By: gjohnson
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Yes, but not from Home Inspections. I am involved in a plethara of things.



Gary (Snicker’s) Johnson - Free NACHOS


The NACHI Foundation


Executive Director


301-591-9895

Originally Posted By: joconnell
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Yes, every two years (with 2 jobs).


Of course, that figure takes into account what my wife takes out of each check!


--
Regards,

Joe O'Connell

Originally Posted By: jmyers
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Sure and every now and again, I do inspections too. icon_biggrin.gif


Joe Myers


Originally Posted By: arosenbaum
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Yeah… we know what your other job is…


*cough* drug dealer *cough*

Just kidding ![icon_smile.gif](upload://b6iczyK1ETUUqRUc4PAkX83GF2O.gif)


Originally Posted By: gsutterfield
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Mr. Williams


Why should it matter ![icon_question.gif](upload://t2zemjDOQRADd4xSC3xOot86t0m.gif) Do you work for the IRS


Originally Posted By: ekartal
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I asked that question to an ole’ timer in the biz, and he said it depends on what you charge. I know a guy in the northeast who gets $600 per inspection and is usually busy. He’s in the high demand category of inspectors. Just goes to show anything is possible. The overhead is what kills us.


Erol Kartal
ProInspect


Originally Posted By: Nick Gromicko
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When I was a home inspector, several years ago, I never took home less than $1,000.00 a day and often more. Of course I was doing at least 2 jobs, often 3 a day and always had at least one assistant inspector on every job. I also offered ancillary inspections like WDI and water quality. I worked 6 days a week and pocketed $100,000 + a year.


I also cheated in my marketing which kept me swamped.

Nick


Originally Posted By: jvanloo
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I am just getting started in this business… What is the average salary for a home inspector?


Originally Posted By: Blaine Wiley
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Jason,


The average home inspector does about 150 inspections the first year. Multiply that times your average fee, less expenses and you'll have your answer.

The last survey I read said that the average inspector who has been in business for three years does 325 inspections. Sounds low, but you can use it as a guide.


Originally Posted By: kleonard
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gromicko wrote:

I also cheated in my marketing which kept me swamped.

Nick


Nick,

Would you care to elaborate? ![icon_idea.gif](upload://6VKizmOm2U7YYmfXNtFW4XTwFVy.gif)

Kevin


Originally Posted By: Nick Gromicko
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Sure:


When I first started out I was some kind of stupid "ASHI Candidate with logo privilage I'll never get any work cause everyone knows I'm just another new ASHI idiot" or something. Anyway, I was a NACHI member too. Everyone in my market was charging about the same: A little over $200 at the time. Nearly all the inspectors were ASHI and they were all charging about the same.

I decided not to play the ASHI hand for fear I'd be unable to distinguish myself from the run-of-the-mill inspector. There were almost no NACHI members in my area. Actually, there were almost no NACHI members period. So I told all the agents I was the best. I told them only the best could belong to the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors.

The problem was I had no way to support this contention that I was the best. So I also called all my competitors pretending to be a potential client. I listened to their sales pitch. I then wrote down the 2 worst... in other words I made a note of who was my worst competitors. Not worst inspectors, just the worst at converting a phone call into a scheduled inspection.

Then I changed "basic" home inspection to "full" home inspection on my flyer. I didn't want to be "basic". I plastered NACHI all over it. I put "Only the best can be NACHI." But what I did next is the key: I put a price of $389 on the front of my flyer. Mind you this is nearly double my competitors at the time. I put the price on the front in big font.

This did 4 things:

1. Instantly, every real estate agent thought I was the best home inspector in town. You see, anyone can say they are the best. But if your pricing doesn't support that contention... no one believes you. My pricing supported my contention that I was the best. Only the best would charge that much. My NACHI affiliation permitted me to distinguish myself from the crowd. Agents would cry "Wow that's way too expensive." I would say "if you want a NACHI member it costs more."

2. I got all the upscale clients. The home inspection business is different than other businesses in that your client never gets to meet you until after he/she hires you. You meet for the first time at the inspection. The only way a client in America can get a feel for how good you are is by your pricing. In America people think the best costs more. If you say you are similar to your competitor, then the client compares apples to apples and chooses based on price. I'm no apple. I'm a Peach.

3. I had an easier time of it. By attracting better clients, I ended up doing easier inspections. Expensive homes are usually better kept. The clients pay well. A discovered defect normally doesn't kill a deal.

4. The pricing acted as a screen, screening out the cheapskates. If someone balked at my pricing, I would refer them to the 2 ASHI guys who had the worst conversion skills in my opinion. I'd say, if you want a cheap inspection I'll give you the numbers of 2 less expensive inspectors in town... and then I did. Some potential clients would stop, think, and say... "No, we want you." Others would take the numbers from me, call the ASHI inspectors, and then call me back and say..."We decided to pay extra an go with you." Still other potential customers were cheapskates and would take the numbers and book their inspection with my competitors... pity on those competitors.

Nick

PS The reason I said it was "cheating" is because I probably really wasn't the best home inspector in town. NACHI however has since evolved into the home of the world's best inspectors and I'm happy to see it.


Originally Posted By: jfarsetta
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You weren’t cheating… you were too busy carrying your balls in that wheelbarrow… I mean to pull off what you just described took a big set… icon_lol.gif



Joe Farsetta


Illigitimi Non Carborundum
"Dont let the bastards grind you down..."

Originally Posted By: Nick Gromicko
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But eventually the market almost caught up.


I should confess/disclose a few things which makes my situation different. In fact, each inspector's situation is unique and what works for one might not work for another... so Don't try this at home!

1. In my area Villanova's average house sale price exceeds a million dollars while Upper Darby's average house sale price is about $45,000. In other words, outside of Philadelphia, the very rich and the very poor commingle.

2. I had just sold a huge environmental company and could financially afford to take a marketing risk. Actually, part of the reason I wanted to charge more is so that I could do home inspections part-time. Ha! I incorrectly figured that keeping my prices high would leave me with less work.

3. I didn't just charge what my competitors were charging, or a little more. I charged a lot more. If you charge a little more than your competitor... you look the same only expensive. If you charge a lot more than your competitor... they ask "why?." I love it when someone asks why we charge more. What they are basically asking is "I'm all ears, sell me on your home inspection service."

4. Back then I was about the only NACHI inspector around. No agent ever heard of NACHI. So no one could compare apples to apples with me like they were doing with ASHI inspectors. Some agents, and even some clients, think all home inspectors are the same, especially at that time when all my competitors belonged to the same association. I used NACHI as a way of distinguishing myself from the crowd. Now in PA,... NACHI is the crowd.

5. Living near the Main Line in the North East of the US meant I could reach many millions of people within a short drive. I actually marketed different prices in different areas.

6. I knew a little secret which I'll share now: When a guy is buying a 2 million dollar home, he chooses the inspector who bids the job the highest. Not the best inspector. Not the longest living member of ASHI or NACHI. Not the inspector with the coolest brochure. He chooses the most expensive inspector. Homes are huge investments and inspectors are investment counselors in a way.

Nick

PS We always charged $1 for every $1000 dollars over $300,000 in value. So a $700,000 home would be charged an extra $400.


Originally Posted By: ekartal
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Great ideas Nick.


What kind of reporting system did you use?

Thanks

Erol Kartal
ProInspect


Originally Posted By: Nick Gromicko
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The first time I went into the home inspection business must have been in the late 80’s. I used Dee Irby’s checklist from Home Reporters. I was one of her first customers. I think PC’s just came out. I was just getting rid of my Commodore 64. Radalec was using my radon chambers to test this new-fangled charged Teflon circle which was inside a plumbers glue can…today’s E-Perm electret. I had just written the algorithm to analyze diffusion barrier charcoal kits…still used today by most labs. Reagan was woopin’ Mondale I think. Me being a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army reserves, I figured my inspection career was over and that I was heading to Libya. This is all pre-NACHI. No I didn’t have to go to Libya.


Anyway, the numbering on Dee's checklist corresponds to the numbering within a book that came with it and you give the book to your client. This way if your client has any dumb questions they could look them up in the sister book that came with it. This is a 10 page, 3-part NCR form. They have some deal with us at http://www.nachi.org/deals.htm to this day. I put a big sticker on the book with my company name on it.

The second time I went into the business was in the mid 90's. Al Gore had just invented the internet. I had lost touch with computers for a few years and was unfamiliar with Windows. I started with my letterhead in WORD. WORD is great. It has auto correct, spell check, grammar check, it is stable, emails well, and everyone can open it. Most importantly though it takes digital photos well. I used a digital camera. I think I was one of the first to have photo reports. The cameras back then were about $600 and laptops were close to $3K. This is before there was (or at least before I knew there was) inspection software. I pre-wrote about 80 small paragraphs for use when I needed to drop them in. Between these pre-written paragraphs, digital photos (which acted as my own memory on an inspection), a laptop, and a color printer... I generated reports on-site quickly.

Chris Morrell, a young inspector assistant of mine, wrote my other reporting systems (like water quality) in Visual Basic I think. I'm not much of a computer geek. NACHI.org was all built by Chris. Chris built me my own site editor and between that and wordpad I am able build pages and maintain NACHI.org without going into html code. Thank goodness.

After I sold that business... CD burners became available on laptops. I think my former partners, Joe Myers, and others now give their reports on CD-ROM in a custom printed jewel case.

No there won't ever be a third time.

Nick


Originally Posted By: Dan Musielski
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Nick,


I like what you had to say about how you drummed up business. I'm in the pre-licences class at a local college in Illinois. I was a Regional Sales Engineer for an automation company. I was a sales engineer for 15 years. The CEO was a Harvard MBA Grad. Needless to say whenever he touched a deal it was ruined (no offense to any Harvard Alumni). I had 9.8MM out of the 14MM our division was doing. We charged the most, said we were the Best, and Always brought in Pizza. When I first started....I returned all my business cards to the printer and told them I wanted them Peel-n-Stick. My cards were stuck everywhere!! I also dated the receptionist so I got all the leads (years later we are still togather).
2 months ago I didn't no the difference between a ASHI, a NACHI, OBRE, TUSHI(oops), Standards of Practice, etc..but you learn fast, and what's what!
I started a Remodeling business in an afternoon after the CEO MBA grad made some poor financally decisions. Now thats not ideal, but it worked. As I was driving home from work, I saw a Realtor standing in the front yard showing a house. I pulled over, and pointed out the failing front steps. I new the house only because I had looked at it a couple days before... and it was a pit. He asked who I was...I said, "the owner of 'ASSURED CONTRUCTION'...it sounded good"! I ended up doing the stairs, bath, fench doors, all the windows, the porch, etc. I was in business!
I have been told home inspection can be a tough market to break into. Nothing today comes easy! I may be new to this field, but any Inspector, Realtor, Sales Engineer, or Girl Scott, needs to learn how to sell.
The 80/20 rule can't be forgotten.

Dan Musielski


Originally Posted By: phughes
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Shame on you. I never put money first in my life.


I just work for the love of it, and the personal satisfaction of doing a good service for good people.

Seriously, I really don't make a lot, nor do I try to. I know a lot of people get into the business because they hear there is lot of money to be made. That's true in any business. Most of those who are into this profession don't make what they hope.

So I'm not disappointed, how about you.


Originally Posted By: dbowers
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My sister works in an accounting firm and tells me one of the 1 man inspection firms she does the books for, grosses between $150K - $175K a year for the past 5 years in a row. She didn’t tell me who but said he is a PE inspector and she indicated that Home Inspections and Radon Tests are all he does. No engineering consulting, design work etc.


Dan Bowers