Tuesday, May 15, 2012
forgetful
So yea I posted about YadZooks but forgot to include the link to it, so here it is <a href="http://www.yadzooks.com/home_inspectors/virginia_va/" title="Virginia Home Inspectors Directory"><img src="http://www.yadzooks.com/images/stateicons/VA.png" alt="VA Home Inspectors" border="0"></a>
First Post
So I am trying this out. This is my first blog on a night where insomnia seems to be hitting me hard.
About a year ago I started a major change in life. I was unemployed and re-evaluating my life in general. As I looked around I knew I needed to make money to support my wife and our home. I applied many different places a few interviews but nothing materialized. I talked with a friend who happened to be a Real Estate agent who suggested I contact this guy named Hollis Brown who runs a Home Inspection training, maybe he could help out. I did and it turns out they had a class starting shortly afterwards. I went, knowing almost nothing about Home Inspections other than when we purchased our house, this guy came out looked over and under everything in the house and told us what were problem areas and what needed immediate attention.
So I went into the class thinking to myself "now what in the hell am I going to learn? I mean I know a little bit about heating and cooling, electrical but that's about it. Is this guy going to teach me how to build a house or is he going to teach me to fix things?" The first day of class I was lost. I was the guy who had done simple maintenance on my house or at work, but never remodeled or built a structure. Meanwhile I'm in a room with 2 guys who had a combined 40 years experience in construction and remodeling, listening to them engage Hollis in conversation about structure and foundations. I recognized few words or phrases but had no clue what it all meant. Thankfully that all changed as the class went on, especially when we got to heating and cooling. Thank you Dr. Miller for the high school chemistry class and also thank you ice rinks for teaching me the theories of heating and cooling. The daily photographs of defects and defect recognition also helped in the learning process. I finished the class, with greater knowledge than when I went in. I still have to take the test but that costs money that I don't have right now.
Hollis also spent time teaching the marketing side of the business. I learned so much from that about widening the internet footprint which is why I'm starting this blog. I am starting out my own business, and so far it is going really slow. By really slow I mean stagnant. I had a friend text me out of the blue in February and ask if I was doing this home inspection gig. I was glad he did. It turned out to be my first and so far only inspection.
I was nervous as hell going into the inspection, it was my first and my friend is the buyer's agent. I have this work ethic where I always want to do my best and help out whomever I'm dealing with. So here I am, first inspection with a friend who has a lot of money riding on this deal going through. My integrity is my livelihood in this business, if people don't believe me then I won't get follow up. I also hope that I don't miss anything. Everything went well, I took pictures of everything I could see of the systems. I did that for a couple reasons, so I could show the client what was a problem, but mainly because there were a few times I wasn't sure what I was looking at. After it was over I ran home, downloaded the photos and then analyzed every detail. Of course there was one that I couldn't figure out until I realized that it was a speck of dust on my computer screen. I spent my time going through and typing up the report and sent it.
The client was happy, my friend was happy, and my integrity was intact. Job well done for now. Just waiting on the next one to come through. I'm finding it hard to market myself when I'm working pretty much full time to get bills paid. So here I sit, insomnia keeping me up, hoping to get more inspections and signing up for whatever free marketing services I can (Angie's List, YadZooks, Facebook company page). Hopefully this gets some views and some Real Estate Agent sees it and decides to give me a try.
About a year ago I started a major change in life. I was unemployed and re-evaluating my life in general. As I looked around I knew I needed to make money to support my wife and our home. I applied many different places a few interviews but nothing materialized. I talked with a friend who happened to be a Real Estate agent who suggested I contact this guy named Hollis Brown who runs a Home Inspection training, maybe he could help out. I did and it turns out they had a class starting shortly afterwards. I went, knowing almost nothing about Home Inspections other than when we purchased our house, this guy came out looked over and under everything in the house and told us what were problem areas and what needed immediate attention.
So I went into the class thinking to myself "now what in the hell am I going to learn? I mean I know a little bit about heating and cooling, electrical but that's about it. Is this guy going to teach me how to build a house or is he going to teach me to fix things?" The first day of class I was lost. I was the guy who had done simple maintenance on my house or at work, but never remodeled or built a structure. Meanwhile I'm in a room with 2 guys who had a combined 40 years experience in construction and remodeling, listening to them engage Hollis in conversation about structure and foundations. I recognized few words or phrases but had no clue what it all meant. Thankfully that all changed as the class went on, especially when we got to heating and cooling. Thank you Dr. Miller for the high school chemistry class and also thank you ice rinks for teaching me the theories of heating and cooling. The daily photographs of defects and defect recognition also helped in the learning process. I finished the class, with greater knowledge than when I went in. I still have to take the test but that costs money that I don't have right now.
Hollis also spent time teaching the marketing side of the business. I learned so much from that about widening the internet footprint which is why I'm starting this blog. I am starting out my own business, and so far it is going really slow. By really slow I mean stagnant. I had a friend text me out of the blue in February and ask if I was doing this home inspection gig. I was glad he did. It turned out to be my first and so far only inspection.
I was nervous as hell going into the inspection, it was my first and my friend is the buyer's agent. I have this work ethic where I always want to do my best and help out whomever I'm dealing with. So here I am, first inspection with a friend who has a lot of money riding on this deal going through. My integrity is my livelihood in this business, if people don't believe me then I won't get follow up. I also hope that I don't miss anything. Everything went well, I took pictures of everything I could see of the systems. I did that for a couple reasons, so I could show the client what was a problem, but mainly because there were a few times I wasn't sure what I was looking at. After it was over I ran home, downloaded the photos and then analyzed every detail. Of course there was one that I couldn't figure out until I realized that it was a speck of dust on my computer screen. I spent my time going through and typing up the report and sent it.
The client was happy, my friend was happy, and my integrity was intact. Job well done for now. Just waiting on the next one to come through. I'm finding it hard to market myself when I'm working pretty much full time to get bills paid. So here I sit, insomnia keeping me up, hoping to get more inspections and signing up for whatever free marketing services I can (Angie's List, YadZooks, Facebook company page). Hopefully this gets some views and some Real Estate Agent sees it and decides to give me a try.
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