Hi Everyone! I’ve been doing home inspections for a year and half now and am as busy as I want to be, but want to grow my business with additional inspectors. Any tips or advice out there on how you or others you know have successfully navigated that growth? Where did you find good people to represent you and your business, that will work hard and be able to intelligently speak with clients without being condescending? Do I look for good people and train them and put them through internachi school or are there inspectors out there looking for work?
Any constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!
Takes a lot to hire people, which will significantly reduce your income for your family and invest the rest into your company, for several years. What if the RE Market takes a dive? You still have to pay your staff.
Home inspectors in general are here to make the big bucks. You can’t afford the big bucks.
You are training your future competition if you don’t keep them happy.
What is your business plan?
To be able to sit out on the beach with Joe Biden while your business supports your retirement?
You will be busy running things from a remote location.
To sell the company later down the road?
HI Companies have limited assets. Your clients are yours. They may go elsewhere when your not doing the inspections for them. One bad move from your guy, and it’s by, by.
You need a good plan to make it happen. Asking here is not going to give you that plan.
If you’re so busy, there is another path you may consider.
I was talking with a retiring inspector many many years ago. He wanted to just slow down because of his age as well as enjoying life that was left for him. So he decided to just slow down the business by increasing his rates (several times). It did not slow anything down. He just had less time to do the inspections that started piling up. So he told his past clients that used him for years, that he was slowing down to get more free time. That made a higher demand for what inspections were available. So he raised his fees again. Rejecting any new clients, his referral clients started calling for available slots, never how much does it cost. He was making more money for half of the work. When he finally retired for good, the phone kept ringing from RE Agents for help on inspections someone else did.
His advice, “I wish I knew all this a lot sooner”!
An alternative to hiring more inspectors might be to raise your prices quite a bit. If you have a consistent backlog of work and are turning down jobs, that’s a good indication you could hire someone. However, it might also be a good signal to raise your prices substantially. It’s ok to have fewer customers if they pay you more and then you can grow your business through better margins. Then you don’t take on the risk of hiring someone new and go through all the effort of training someone who may or may not work out.
Really good job growing your business over a year and half. Good luck with whatever you decide.
Great questions but really hard to answer. I ran a multi-inspector company for 20+ years and can say I never really figured out what you’re asking… despite, hiring a few dozen inspectors over the years. Unfortunately, anyone that “has it all” usually knows it and just runs their own company without giving me a a big chunk of the fee.
In no particular order, here are my thoughts of things to watch for:
Don’t hire someone in a situation where they need a steady paycheck starting two weeks ago - wives with good jobs/benefits, home ownership and basically having their life together are all key.
Hire the personality, communication and general intelligence rather than someone that has a bunch of experience in a given trade. You can teach a lot of things but NOT how to communicate and be a reasonable person.
Related to the last one - watch out for the guy/gal with decades of experience in a single trade. General contractors/remodelers or even people without trade experience are best. Trade guys are too focused on their trade only.
Ask what they are looking for and listen more than talk - lots of guys want to just use you to get training and clients. Many don’t even realize that’s not really how it works and will just flat out tell you that is their goal - to learn and get your clients, then take them and go out on their own.
Again, it’s a tough haul having employees and particularly tough hiring your first one or two. I had the luxury of usually running at least a few employees so if one turned south I still had a couple more. Get ready for the employee and biz in general to test your patience. You’ll answer a lot of phone calls/emails and go away totally baffled at what your employee said or did. The real answer to your question is that you need to figure out a way to multiply yourself since your clients like and want you. And they will rarely happily accept someone in your place. Employees are ALWAYS an acceptance of some problems/circumstances/challenges and you will do a lot of work for the money they make you.
Thanks for the feedback and the rate is especially helpful! I’m in Utah, mainly serving Salt Lake and Utah counties and a little beyond too, sometimes;)
Thanks for the feedback Matt! I have another unrelated business and I agree that employees add a degree of stress and can at times feel more like babysitting than managing
