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A Great Home Inspection Helps Buyers Make Confident Decisions with Matt Ruggieri, Pillar To Post Home Inspections · Epic Entrepreneurs

0:49
SPEAKER_00: I think we're climate activity growth partners where we work with local business owners to turn big ideas into real scalable growth.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Today I'm excited to be joined by Matt Ruggieri with Pivotal Post, the High Point team.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Matt, thanks for being here.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing today, sir?
1:06
SPEAKER_02: I'm doing absolutely amazing, and thanks for having me.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: We're really, really excited to have you here.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: You got a lot going on, so really excited to get into the conversation.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't mind, let's go ahead and jump right into it.
1:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: All right, perfect.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, Matt, I know you're an army veteran, business owner, and a girl dad.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: Which which of those three roles has shaped you most as a leader?
1:28
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, as a leader, I think everyone's default wants to be like you feel bad if you don't say it's your kids.
1:34
SPEAKER_02: But no, as a leader, I I had I'd be remiss if I didn't say the United States Army.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I just there's things that I learned in the Army that I never understood until years later, right?
1:45
SPEAKER_02: Like concepts of authority versus responsibility, right?
1:48
SPEAKER_02: How authority can be given to someone else, but if you're in charge, it's still your responsibility.
1:52
SPEAKER_02: That never clicked with me until I was in my 30s, right?
1:54
SPEAKER_02: I had no idea what I was actually saying when I did stuff.
1:57
SPEAKER_02: So, but the people I met there, the leaders that I met there, and the opportunity to be a leader when I was in there has really shaped whatever attributes that I have that are positive as a leader, I think.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: Nice, very nice.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, yeah, let's get to the business.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, what does uh Pillar to Post provide for the community?
2:16
SPEAKER_02: We provide home inspections, right?
2:18
SPEAKER_02: And that's like the easy T-word answer.
2:20
SPEAKER_02: But what I like to think is we provide a partnership for the realtors and the customers that we work with because you know, our our home buyers or our home sellers, because we do pre-listing inspections, you know, that's our customer.
2:32
SPEAKER_02: Our clients are our realtors, and we give them repeatable excellence as far as being honest, giving them information that they can act on.
2:40
SPEAKER_02: There's a difference between information that you don't know what the heck it means and what is this all supposed to mean and how scary is this.
2:46
SPEAKER_02: And there's a difference between having something that's laid out well that people can understand and action on.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: I've always been of the opinion that if you're good to great at what you do, you can explain it to anybody.
2:57
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's what we try and do in both the way that we lay out information and the way that we communicate.
3:01
SPEAKER_02: You know, and when we participate in, you know, things community-driven-wise, mostly realtor-driven things, but where we can help out in golf outings and things of that nature and drives and stuff is ways that we try and associate with that community and what's important to them to let them know that, yeah, I mean, we're here to do home inspections, right?
3:18
SPEAKER_02: And we're obviously here to meet people that can be potential clients, but when we can intermix that with things that make sense to help out the community or certain or certain organizations within, we most certainly look for those opportunities.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I kind of talked a little bit about you there because I did a little bit of research on you.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: So who's Maj Matt Roger as a person?
3:38
SPEAKER_00: What do you got going on personally?
3:40
SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
3:41
SPEAKER_02: Uh wow, uh loaded question, right?
3:45
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, uh I mean, Matt Matt is probably one of the luckier people on the planet, one of the people that probably is isn't as deser or is has things that he shouldn't deserve.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: I was just talking about this at a meeting the other day when the first slide that I put up was my wife and my kids.
4:03
SPEAKER_02: So um I have a three and a half year old and a one and a half-year-old girl, both girls.
4:07
SPEAKER_02: My wife's absolutely incredible.
4:09
SPEAKER_02: I I often say if anyone does football or anything similar, I I way out kicked my coverage because she's younger, better looking, and she runs a more successful business than I do.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, obviously, but yeah, I'm, you know, I'm someone that worked around after the army, you know, kind of went through the construction side of things from logistics to management to project management and realized that, you know, the money was great, but I don't know if the headaches and the person that it turns you into, especially in commercial and industrial construction and the scale of those projects and the people you have to deal with and all that stuff.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know if that was making me the best person.
4:48
SPEAKER_02: So I looked for something else to do.
4:50
SPEAKER_02: And I think the biggest thing I've discovered about myself and talking to people is I am someone that likes to win.
4:56
SPEAKER_02: And I don't want I I used to shy away from saying that, Cliff, but I I try not to now.
5:01
SPEAKER_02: Um, I want to do well.
5:02
SPEAKER_02: I want my business to do well against the people around me, against the people within my organization.
5:06
SPEAKER_02: I want it to do well.
5:07
SPEAKER_02: But I realized that the way to do that is to give really, really great service and give really, really good, have really, really good people skills and you know, help out wherever you can and you know, do all the things the right way.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: And that equate in my mind, I think that's the best way to equate to revenue, especially in a service business.
5:25
SPEAKER_02: It's not trying to get the quick buck, it's doing the right thing and doing it repeatedly excellent over and over.
5:31
SPEAKER_02: And I think naturally, um, if you're really doing that well, that that will help you grow, you know, the business in leaps and bounds.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: Now, Matt, I know most people don't think about a home inspection until they're buying a house.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think home inspections are one of the most misunderstood professions?
5:51
SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you the first thing right here, the first the first exact thing, and I thought it too, right?
5:55
SPEAKER_02: Is you will have people ask, did it pass?
5:59
SPEAKER_02: Right?
5:59
SPEAKER_02: I'm not a city code inspector.
6:01
SPEAKER_02: I don't work for X and X County or whomever that's going to come out and say, hey, until this happens, this house can't be sold, right?
6:09
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to, and the best that I can, unless the house is exceptionally large, you know, about three hours, three and a half hours max, take a comprehensive look at that house from top to bottom.
6:19
SPEAKER_02: Think of a home inspector as a general, as your general practitioner in medicine, right?
6:24
SPEAKER_02: I may not know everything about the knee, but I know though that doesn't look right about the knee.
6:29
SPEAKER_02: And I can tell you right off the bat, that's not what we usually want to see.
6:33
SPEAKER_02: Let's call the orthopedic person in, or whomever that may be.
6:36
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of the same relationship there.
6:38
SPEAKER_02: And it's misunderstood.
6:39
SPEAKER_02: It's like, like I said, the biggest thing.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh, my house would never pass inspection.
6:43
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm not passing an inspection.
6:45
SPEAKER_02: What I'm doing is giving, let's just say most commonly it's the buyer.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: I'm giving that buyer a comprehensive look at that house from top to bottom within the scope of, you know, the contract of what I'm there to do, to let them make a really educated decision about, you know, one, how they feel about the house, and two, you know, how they want to move forward working with their real estate professional on what the items are they'd like to have addressed.
7:07
SPEAKER_02: Do they want credits?
7:08
SPEAKER_02: All that stuff gets out of my lane very quickly.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: I'm not a realtor, right?
7:11
SPEAKER_02: But we give them that information that gives them the confidence, hopefully, to move forward.
7:16
SPEAKER_02: And we try and give them the backup and a really well-written report with photographs and stuff that backs up any request they may have.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: It's not just a checklist with like a red X next to it.
7:27
SPEAKER_02: It's, hey, here is a defect or an example of this defect that we noticed over and over again.
7:32
SPEAKER_02: Here's what's typically expected, and here's what's recommended.
7:36
SPEAKER_02: I think that's the biggest misconception is that, you know, well, we could better hope the home inspector passes the house.
7:42
SPEAKER_02: There's no such thing.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: That's not that's not what happens.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, yeah, okay.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm sure you've inspected countless homes, you know.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: What's something buyers get emotionally attached to that you immediately look past?
7:57
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think that buyers if anything, you have to sometimes you almost feel like you're breaking an emotional connection, right?
8:08
SPEAKER_02: Because I like to do my rundown with my buyers at the end.
8:11
SPEAKER_02: Every situation is a little different.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: And it's not like I won't call anything out or we won't chit-chat, but you try and go through those very those very sequential steps of doing a good home inspection.
8:20
SPEAKER_02: Because I always say, hey guys, let me do a really good home inspection for you first, and then I'll let me see if I make you like me as a person at the end, right?
8:27
SPEAKER_02: Give me, let me do this to make sure we're doing this well.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: I think sometimes it's almost a misconception that because everything looks great, it is great.
8:37
SPEAKER_02: And that's when you kind of walk people back and you use those comments like, you know, hey, this isn't overly unusual, or you say, Hey, we see this a lot.
8:44
SPEAKER_02: This is something that can be worked through.
8:46
SPEAKER_02: I think, you know, because they're attached to an idea of the house and it not having anything wrong with it.
8:55
SPEAKER_02: Or sometimes we find Cliff, people are on the fence, you know, and and that one thing comes up that's really not a big deal, at least to me personally, right?
9:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm not the buyer, it's not my house, I'm not buying it.
9:04
SPEAKER_02: It's not, but that one thing, and that's all right, you know what?
9:07
SPEAKER_02: We gotta like we're done on this.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: So we really have to kind of walk the middle there and be common sense and you know, call things for what they are.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: There's no doubt about that.
9:16
SPEAKER_02: You need to be truthful and contrite in this business.
9:18
SPEAKER_02: One, you have a moral obligation, two, there's obviously legalities to that, right?
9:23
SPEAKER_02: But, you know, you don't want to break anybody's heart, but you don't want to give anyone a false impression either.
9:28
SPEAKER_02: So I think that's a line that we walk.
9:30
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times, first-time home buyers is a classic example, right?
9:34
SPEAKER_02: You have to, that's I think what I alluded to before is you have to get really good at being able to explain things that may not necessarily be that person's area of expertise, right?
9:45
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you're talking to an electrical engineer and you're saying something about the electrical panel, and and he or she goes, Hey, I'm an electrical engineer, and you're like, Hey, I'm gonna leave that, right?
9:53
SPEAKER_02: I'm not even you you got it.
9:54
SPEAKER_02: Um some sometimes, you know, they don't know, and that's the nicest way possible.
9:58
SPEAKER_02: This isn't about it.
9:59
SPEAKER_02: Some people, that's not their thing.
10:00
SPEAKER_02: They're either very tech oriented or something, but you know, they couldn't change a toilet mechanism out if they had to, right?
10:06
SPEAKER_02: But you explain, hey, this is a very handyman or a YouTube video way, it's a non-permanent thing, it's just not running well, and vice versa, when it's something, uh, you know what?
10:15
SPEAKER_02: I really think, in my opinion, we need a qualified professional because this can be, you know, this is permanent work, this is could be potentially dangerous.
10:23
SPEAKER_02: You never want to be the person that told someone to change out their own receptacles and then someone gets shocked, you know?
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, definitely.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, starting a business connected to real estate means navigating, you know, interest rates, market slowdowns, changing buyer behavior and uncertainty.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Was there ever a time you questioned whether you made the right decision to get all the time?
10:45
SPEAKER_02: And not not because of we've been blessed.
10:47
SPEAKER_02: One, there's two things we have my market, the Pittsburgh market.
10:51
SPEAKER_02: I work in Pittsburgh and the surrounding counties.
10:54
SPEAKER_02: We have a pretty resilient market overall.
10:57
SPEAKER_02: We have a thriving home market for sales and resales and things of that nature.
11:03
SPEAKER_02: So we're blessed in that way.
11:05
SPEAKER_02: We've been blessed to link in with a bunch of good realtors that have helped us grow organically throughout the years.
11:12
SPEAKER_02: But, you know, there's the things that come up, you know, just I mean, you know, I'm not afraid to share.
11:17
SPEAKER_02: I'm hoping other people that are doing this or planning on doing this, you know, I have all these plans for expansion and things on the table that we may get to later, but you know, I get a knock at my door just last Thursday, you know, and my full-time inspector that's going for me and is a great guy, and I love the guy, tells me he's he's done in two weeks.
11:35
SPEAKER_02: He just wants to go back to running his own business, doing, you know, uh handyman and that type work.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: And he's built up more time in doing that.
11:42
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, there's no nothing against him.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: I I love my guy to death and I still will.
11:46
SPEAKER_02: And if he ever needs anything, and I know the same that I can call him.
11:50
SPEAKER_02: But, you know, it's a that changes everything, right?
11:53
SPEAKER_02: That changes your your what your revenue outlook is, what your how many jobs you're gonna do.
11:58
SPEAKER_02: That changes my life personally, how much I'm not gonna be around, right?
12:02
SPEAKER_02: You know, uh trying to keep all that up and then balancing the home and life.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, are there sometimes that I think about should I have taken that job?
12:11
SPEAKER_02: Just a quick digress, you know, I had a I had a job offer on the table, signed and sealed, and you know, starting in three weeks and everything, that would have been probably as common as an eight to three thirty or four type job that you can think of.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: And uh I just thought to myself, is that really what I want to do again?
12:32
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I still think about it now, right?
12:34
SPEAKER_02: When I'm running around crazy.
12:35
SPEAKER_02: But what I like about running my own ship is that one, I have some control over it.
12:41
SPEAKER_02: Two, when things are going sideways or it's just crazy busy or you know, getting into the house at whatever time, you know, whatever it is, I can look in the mirror and look at who's responsible for that and look at the person who either needs to change that or accept that that's the position they've gotten themselves in.
12:56
SPEAKER_02: I have no one else but to blame but me, which I like.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: So sometimes these don't get me wrong, there's sometimes on those days where I'm sitting there looking at something or I'm standing outside someone's house and it's, you know, I don't know, freaking 28 degrees and it's 530, and I think, you know, I could have already been drove home and in the garage, you know, if I was at X and X Corporation, right?
13:17
SPEAKER_02: But you know, that's what you have to do to grow in this business and the way that I want my business to go.
13:22
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm hopefully working myself out of being that person that's standing outside all the time on a regular basis.
13:28
SPEAKER_02: But you always have, I think, regrets with anything.
13:33
SPEAKER_02: But as far as uh what the market and how that's been going, we've always been blessed with being uh busy, which is which is a a a great problem to have, right?
13:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely better than opposite.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: So uh Matt, if you could instantly let's say if you you know, it might be hypothetical, but let's say if you could wave a magic wand and you could instantly fix one one of your biggest challenges in your business tomorrow, what would you fix?
13:59
SPEAKER_02: I would have uh two amazing full-time home inspectors uh on the roster tomorrow that have been trained not just to the standards that are required, but to my standards and my expectations of how we treat a customer, how we present, and the way that we notate things.
14:19
SPEAKER_02: That would be the that would be the biggest thing.
14:21
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I always tell people, you know, I have a miniature sheep a doodle, shout out to Arlo, you know, and he's pretty he's pretty quick, he's pretty smart.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: I could train him to do probably 50% of the home inspection tasks if he if he had opposable thumbs, right?
14:36
SPEAKER_02: That's not the hard part.
14:37
SPEAKER_02: Now, there does have to be some aptitude there, and I'm not disparaging the industry.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: I am one, I'm a certified home inspector.
14:42
SPEAKER_02: What I'm saying is there's the book knowledge, there's the actual practical application of it, and then there's the standard that I expect, the way that we are going to treat people, the way that we're going to talk, the way that we're going to present information.
14:58
SPEAKER_02: And that's that's the biggest part of it because there's no shortage of home inspection options, at least where I'm at, right?
15:05
SPEAKER_02: I I know that much.
15:06
SPEAKER_02: You do a quick Google search, home inspector Pittsburgh, you have every option you ever wanted, from mom and pop to you know, franchises and everything in between.
15:15
SPEAKER_02: It it's how it's how we choose to interpret and present that information to people.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: It's making ourselves available.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I just had a call this morning before we were ready to get on, and I didn't take it, but I got the text message, and it's from the realtor who's selling a property that I inspected.
15:34
SPEAKER_02: My buyer backed out.
15:36
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's a bunch going on there, right?
15:38
SPEAKER_02: But she said, Hey, I've been given the report, so now I know she has access to the report.
15:43
SPEAKER_02: There's, you know, that that report was given by my client to them, which is typically contractually obligated.
15:47
SPEAKER_02: She's like, I would just like to understand some things better to be able to explain to my seller what's going on.
15:52
SPEAKER_02: Would you have some time to talk?
15:53
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Absolutely.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't know her from Adam, right?
15:56
SPEAKER_02: We've never met.
15:58
SPEAKER_02: But you know, anything that's reasonable like that that we can do to help out, I think that's important.
16:04
SPEAKER_02: So having, I don't want to say two me's, right?
16:07
SPEAKER_02: Because one, that's super egotistical, and two, the world would be a worse place for it.
16:11
SPEAKER_02: But two people that had their own style that aligned with the values, the way that I want to put things out, that I could trust, you know, to be doing that well.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: It takes a while to develop someone like that, right?
16:22
SPEAKER_02: And that's what hurts losing someone that you have that's there or almost there, kind of short notice like that.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, those are things that I think as leaders, you know, and this is kind of going back to the beginning, you know, some of those things you learn in the army is when you look at failures, you could easily say, man, I'm gonna lose a bunch of revenue this summer and stuff, and and so and so's leaving.
16:43
SPEAKER_02: But you have to be introspective on yourself and look to take responsibility, right?
16:47
SPEAKER_02: You have to say, what can I have done to insulate myself better from that?
16:50
SPEAKER_02: Should I have started hiring the other guy that's in training now earlier?
16:54
SPEAKER_02: Right?
16:54
SPEAKER_02: Should I have accelerated that timeline or or what can I do in the future, right?
16:58
SPEAKER_02: Because the mistake's only a mistake if you don't learn from it.
17:01
SPEAKER_02: So those are things you have to take away from stuff like that.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: And that's a lot of that leadership background.
17:06
SPEAKER_02: I I know if this would have happened to me 10 years ago, the person that I was, I'd be raving and sparking mad, right?
17:12
SPEAKER_02: And I and I'd be looking to blame, oh, he's leaving me in the summer and this and that, and that's not it.
17:17
SPEAKER_02: You know, I know the character of the person, so I just know, you know, different things come along in life.
17:23
SPEAKER_02: But you really have to look at yourself and say, okay, in my case, okay, Matt, you know, what can we do better to better protect this business and to better insulate ourselves from these factors, you know, that you're not always able to control.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, I mean, I'm sure you've seen a bunch of different things, but what is the most expensive issue you could think of you've ever discovered during a home inspection?
17:45
SPEAKER_02: I can generalize and say, you know, if you have, I'll just give you maybe two or three here that generally speaking are the most expensive and that we're kind of partial to as home inspectors, at least I I am.
17:57
SPEAKER_02: You know, foundation issues, you know, I give classes and talks on this to like realtors all the time to help them identify things there in walkthroughs.
18:07
SPEAKER_02: But anytime you start seeing a foundation wall that's bowing inwards, right, that has like long horizontal cracks, and if you put a level on it, that level rocks, that almost nine times out of ten means that the ground or the hydrostatic pressure, the weight of the ground, whatever it may be, is pushing that wall inwards.
18:24
SPEAKER_02: And why is that so expensive, right?
18:26
SPEAKER_02: Is because one, we're gonna have to take care of likely a water situation as well.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: But two, there has to be some type of additional support put in.
18:35
SPEAKER_02: Back in the day, it was, you know, a lot of soldier piles.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: Think of that as just a big steel beam you dig into the ground that sticks up out of the ground, right?
18:42
SPEAKER_02: Then there's, you know, anchors that can be put in.
18:45
SPEAKER_02: You kind of dig out in the yard and put them through, and they kind of just pull the wall back and you use the natural force of the ground, you know, that rod's long enough to kind of hold that wall.
18:54
SPEAKER_02: Nowadays you'll see like Teflon straps that are installed, a little bit cheapier, a little bit less work.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: But generally speaking, anytime you're putting a shovel in the ground, your cost is dubbed enough, right?
19:04
SPEAKER_02: So I used to work in electrical power, and you know, the cost of an overhead power line that brings big power, like the ones you see when you're driving out somewhere, the real tall ones, the cost of overhead power per linear foot is nine, eight to ten times cheaper than the cost of installing underground power.
19:24
SPEAKER_02: So that's when I say whenever you bring a shovel into the equation, the cost goes up, right?
19:29
SPEAKER_02: So even when it may be relatively minor or we're seeing some cracks, or maybe it looks like it's been recently painted and we're seeing that horizontal cracking come through, we want to give our buyers the opportunity to make sure that's vetted out by someone that does that as their everyday so that we avoid or can account for potentially a large money fix, right?
19:50
SPEAKER_02: Then anything when you start getting into a large-scale structural, I can just off the top of my head, I was just in a house where I had, you know, termite damage from front to back, besides everywhere throughout the basement.
20:04
SPEAKER_02: Lord knows how long that that termite damage has been going on, but it was pervasive, right?
20:08
SPEAKER_02: A lot of times we'll catch it in spots or in general areas.
20:11
SPEAKER_02: And that's going to be, in my, you know, professional opinion, probably some really significant replacements to, you know, the structure of a home that's already old as it is.
20:24
SPEAKER_02: And I know one time I remember, you know, typically you see that termite damage in and around basements is where your best you're is where you're gonna find it nine times out of ten in our experience, right?
20:34
SPEAKER_02: It's close to the ground, just easy way to segue.
20:37
SPEAKER_02: I know one time I was in an attic of a house, you know, two-story house in an attic, and I was like doing a sweep with a flashlight.
20:43
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, in my head, I remember, I was like, that can't be termite damage up here.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: We ended up finding that, and that was one of the few instances where you know that termite damage was so pervasive that uh I got a call later from the realtor just to kind of fill me in.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: She was like, Hey, thank you so much.
20:59
SPEAKER_02: You know, those folks, you know, ended up having so-and-so come in, and they looked and they said, Hey, this is going all the way from the basement up to the attic.
21:06
SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is, you know, ripping down all the walls, this is everything, right?
21:09
SPEAKER_02: This is gonna be, you know, on a good day, you know,$40,000 of work, right?
21:14
SPEAKER_02: So things like that, things that are structural for the most part, you know, because of the amount of work that they take to do, or are some of those things that are gonna be on the more costly end, right?
21:28
SPEAKER_02: And then there's things that I'd say the most common costly thing is an electrical panel that needs replaced, one of the older electrical panels that's either had a node recall to it for safety issues, one that has water coming into it and it's you know needs to be replaced and all that.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: You know, that's not exorbitant, but that's a pretty common one.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: It's one of those ones because I listen, I love my electricians out there.
21:51
SPEAKER_02: They're busy and they're proud of themselves, right?
21:53
SPEAKER_02: They're an expensive trade because of what they do, and you know, that's all permanent work and it's dangerous, and you shouldn't do it on your own if you don't know what you're doing.
21:59
SPEAKER_02: But you know, you need a panel replaced, you know, it's not a couple hundred bucks, right?
22:04
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's usually not 10,000, but it's usually not under 3,000, you know.
22:08
SPEAKER_02: So, and that's just generally every situation's different, obviously.
22:11
SPEAKER_02: But that's one of the most common ones we see that you know can cost a little bucks that comes up fairly regularly.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, in and this kind of is a recommendation, but let's say if you know every home buyer listening to the podcast episode today spent an extra$1,000 on their home on due diligence.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: Where should they spend it?
22:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I would say, and I'll tell you this right now, and this is comes from realtors.
22:34
SPEAKER_02: This comes from, and not just me, because I'm in the industry.
22:37
SPEAKER_02: I would never waive my home inspection.
22:39
SPEAKER_02: Listen, before I was a home inspector, I was in the construction industry, right?
22:43
SPEAKER_02: And there were a couple offers that I put in, my wife and I put in, and this was during the time when, you know, COVID time when I mean offers were crazy.
22:50
SPEAKER_02: Everyone was dropping inspection, right?
22:53
SPEAKER_02: Um, and you had to do it to be competitive.
22:55
SPEAKER_02: If I was back there now, knowing what I know, I would never do that.
22:58
SPEAKER_02: So, whatever that inspection cost is, your home inspector, a choice, someone you're comfortable with, you know, whatever that cost looks like.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: The other things that I would invest in on top of that, um, if I'm moving in somewhere long term with my family, get the radon test.
23:11
SPEAKER_02: Now, depending where you're at, if you're in somewhere that has like never had radon ever because of the soil conditions, that's up to you to make that decision.
23:18
SPEAKER_02: I'm not telling you that, hey, just because there's a very low chance it can't happen.
23:22
SPEAKER_02: But I know in my part of the country, you know, it's very common, right?
23:25
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, that radon people that don't know, you know, it's silent.
23:30
SPEAKER_02: You can't tell it, you can't smell it, you can't see it, right?
23:33
SPEAKER_02: And it comes from the ground.
23:34
SPEAKER_02: It's a naturally, a naturally producing effect of naturally occurring rate radon breaking down over time in the ground.
23:40
SPEAKER_02: And it releases radon and radon comes up through the ground.
23:43
SPEAKER_02: And if your house is on top narrative, it has a lot of radon coming up through it, it usually can infiltrate the house because it's you know, it's not like you can see it, it's subatomic or atomic level stuff.
23:53
SPEAKER_02: So, like long-term health, right?
23:54
SPEAKER_02: You know, we don't want anyone because radon, you know, the the quick elevator speech is, you know, I always tell people it's not like uh you see in like a movie where someone has in a submarine has to go in next to a nuclear reactor and they get a high dose and they come out, right?
24:09
SPEAKER_02: It's not like that.
24:10
SPEAKER_02: You can be in a house with high radon for a couple hours doing a walkthrough and inspection.
24:14
SPEAKER_02: You didn't come out with this high dose of radon that's going to impact you for the rest of your life.
24:17
SPEAKER_02: It's prolonged exposure that's going to get that's going to potentially impact your long-term health.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's the second leading cause of lung cancer deaths outside of obviously smoking.
24:28
SPEAKER_02: It'll, I think, I believe it negatively impacts smokers more.
24:32
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what the data is that necessarily there on vaping, just because I don't know what the long-term studies have been.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: So I would get that.
24:40
SPEAKER_02: And then water quality tests, that depends on your area.
24:45
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I personally, I guess I should say when I bought my house, what I did was the, you know, I did the home inspection, I did the radon, and I did an air quality test just to get a base level read, because, you know, mold, you know, I it's actually from most home inspectors' contracts, is not part of our contract to identify mold.
25:08
SPEAKER_02: And that's not because we're lazy.
25:09
SPEAKER_02: That's not because we don't want to do it.
25:11
SPEAKER_02: That's because if you rip down a wall in two years and there was a bunch of mold that I couldn't see, I'm not responsible for it.
25:17
SPEAKER_02: If I see mold or something that looks moldish, you're darn sure it's gonna be in that report.
25:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna say, hey, there's a possible organic growth here.
25:24
SPEAKER_02: You know, we didn't test it today, and now we can if they want, but we're gonna call that out.
25:29
SPEAKER_02: But I did a mold test on mine just to make sure maybe there was something I couldn't see, you know, and just to know, you know, okay, if they're just common allergens, what are they?
25:38
SPEAKER_02: If we have kids or, you know, another kid and they're reacting really bad to something, maybe we can look at that mold and allergen test and say, well, there's highest feragellus down here, maybe they're sensitive to that or whatever it is.
25:49
SPEAKER_02: So I would say, you know, don't wave your home inspection just for your own good.
25:53
SPEAKER_02: And I like the mold test myself.
25:55
SPEAKER_02: I like the radon tests.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm and I'm sure you got a bunch of crazy stories, but what what can you think of the one craziest thing you've seen on the home inspection?
26:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what's always fun is live animals, you know.
26:09
SPEAKER_02: Uh so you learn, especially you kind of get a feel for it in a house of, you know, do a good sweep with that flashlight as soon as you open it up to see if you see anything looking back at you, right?
26:20
SPEAKER_02: Because the last thing you want to run into is something with his kids in an attic space that's it feels like it's cornered, right?
26:26
SPEAKER_02: You know, I was at one not that long ago, and uh it was a house on a crawl space and then a big detached garage.
26:35
SPEAKER_02: And I uh I'll tell you, Cliff, I'm not the type of person I even if the attic access is typically smaller than what would be recommended, or you know, this or that, there we have limits on what we're supposed to do and what we're not supposed to do.
26:48
SPEAKER_02: As far as like entrance, I'm gonna get into most places because I I want to look, right?
26:52
SPEAKER_02: And I don't want to tell people I couldn't.
26:53
SPEAKER_02: Now, if it's unsafe legitimately or whatever, then that's just is what it is, and we'll notate it.
26:58
SPEAKER_02: But the amount of snake skins in and around this crawl space and then in the garage, you can tell from them like slithering on the rafters and stuff when they're molting or say, you know, the amount of snake skins, and we're in Pennsylvania here, we're pretty low on like dangerous snakes.
27:14
SPEAKER_02: That that risk is fair, like pretty low.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: Um, we're not in Arizona, right?
27:18
SPEAKER_02: But, you know, the amount and length of these snake skins that were in and around this crawl space and then out in the detached garage, you know, I said, hey, listen, I'm gonna take a poke in this crawl space here, but you know, this is to the level of like someone that works in pest control, right?
27:35
SPEAKER_02: Like I'm not gonna start crawling around in here because, you know, Lord knows how many snakes and stuff were around.
27:41
SPEAKER_02: And the previous owner, you could tell, had been working at it because I mean, he'd been keeping some of the snake skins out in the garage, like has them hanging.
27:49
SPEAKER_02: I mean, and you know, they're every bit of you know, six, eight, ten feet long, you know.
27:54
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not overly afraid of snakes, but I can tell you that's one where I was like, hey, we're gonna cool the jets a little bit on this one and you know, recommend the pros to come in to see how much of this may actually be going on.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, Matt, how did your military experience shape the way you run your company today?
28:13
SPEAKER_02: You know, I remember back when I was going to like a primary leadership school.
28:20
SPEAKER_02: So when you become a sergeant or you're about to become a sergeant or you're on that track, it's called something different now.
28:27
SPEAKER_02: But at the time, I believe it was called Warrior Leaders Course.
28:31
SPEAKER_02: And you go down there and you have people there two ranks, generally two ranks above you, teaching you things about leadership, everything from making sure we know how to put together and present a class to counseling and all that.
28:45
SPEAKER_02: But and I kind of knew this before, but one of the things that most stayed with me is, you know, I was an infantry guy, so we had everybody from, you know, people from the not, you know, the not best parts of our country that were looking to do something for themselves to just average people, which you would whatever you think that is in your mind, to people that graduated Carnegie Mellon University and were in, you know, making crazy amounts of money that wanted to reset their life or wanted to do something different and they enlisted.
29:15
SPEAKER_02: They didn't even become an officer, they just enlisted, right?
29:18
SPEAKER_02: You have to know, in my opinion, I think one of the biggest interpersonal skills to have is knowing what works with that person as far as you know, how to guide mentor correct, right?
29:32
SPEAKER_02: Knowing what works with them and what clicks with them.
29:35
SPEAKER_02: It's not a one size fits all approach as far as like how you either get something to click with them, how you I don't want to say scold, but if there's something that can't happen, like, hey, listen, I'm out here shadowing you today or whatever, and like this can't happen, right?
29:49
SPEAKER_02: This is one of those things, but talking that over or just knowing that that's dependent on person to person, because we're not all built the same in the things that click with you, I think is was a really big takeaway, just because you can't treat you can't treat everyone the same and not everyone develops the same.
30:06
SPEAKER_02: And then I think another thing when you're looking at people, because I think it's mostly people type stuff.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: Every business is a people business that I know of.
30:16
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure there's one out there that isn't, especially nowadays with the advent of technological things.
30:21
SPEAKER_02: But every business I've been a part of, at the end of the day, there's a personal relationship there.
30:25
SPEAKER_02: Some way, somehow.
30:26
SPEAKER_02: Every business somehow breaks down into being a people business.
30:29
SPEAKER_02: It's also putting people in a position to succeed, right?
30:33
SPEAKER_02: You gotta see what people's strengths are and see what their weaknesses are.
30:37
SPEAKER_02: And it's not that we ignore weaknesses, but you know, especially if you start opening up and like I have an administrative person that works for me, and like I'm looking to build that business, is start to, you gotta know that person and know what their strengths are because you may find something that's really perfect for them or a secondary role if you understand them and what works with them, right?
30:56
SPEAKER_02: If someone's really good at, I don't know, one of my new guys that's getting trained up and going, he's really good at like reviewing and like standard comments in our template, right?
31:06
SPEAKER_02: And going through and categorizing them and moving the ones that we use most often up to the forefront and kind of increasing operational efficiency that way, right?
31:15
SPEAKER_02: And that's you learn that through conversation and letting them talk to you and them feeling comfortable because it'll just, hey Matt, I think we could probably do better at a lot of these things in our template.
31:23
SPEAKER_02: And I say, Yeah, you're right.
31:24
SPEAKER_02: I I don't have the time.
31:25
SPEAKER_02: They're classic, I don't have the time.
31:27
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I know that.
31:28
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Do you mind if I help you out with that?
31:30
SPEAKER_02: I won't make any changes that are permanent, and I'll let you see what they look like.
31:33
SPEAKER_02: And absolutely, absolutely, I want you to help me out with that, right?
31:37
SPEAKER_02: If that's something you're kind of prone to, like the person that you are.
31:41
SPEAKER_02: So I think those two things and making sure you learn what makes people tick and then learn what people are good at and where they have potential at, and seeing if you can utilize that because people like doing what they're good at and they like feeling appreciated.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: And if you can find someone that finds something in a way that they're able to help you that you appreciate and they feel appreciated, that's just going to make for a better relationship within the business.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, if your daughters described you in one sentence, well what would you hope they'd say?
32:09
SPEAKER_00: I know I know they're probably not talking too much.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe maybe the three and a half, you said three and a half.
32:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, three and a half year old is.
32:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, if so if she could describe you in one sentence, what would she think about her dad?
32:21
SPEAKER_02: At three and a half, uh, she would probably say something ridiculous, but above the line, I you know, I I hope I I hope what she would say is she trusts her dad, you know, that she feels comfortable and more confident around her dad.
32:37
SPEAKER_02: Like even from when it's you know being afraid to go down a big slide or learning how to climb on something or or just you know doing something new, like getting on the ride on mower or something and knowing that if I'm telling you it's okay, it's okay because I'll never hurt you.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: That's what that's what I would hope that any child would have to say about you know their father.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, what legacy do you hope people think of you when when they hear the name Rat Rajiri?
33:05
SPEAKER_00: What do you what do you think what do you hope people think of you?
33:07
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I hope they didn't know me in my 20s.
33:12
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I hope first and foremost that my kids are better people than me, and my children are better positioned to be productive people in this world than I was.
33:26
SPEAKER_02: I think first and foremost our our kids are a legacy.
33:29
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, that's when you come down to the end of the day, you don't get it until you're a dad.
33:35
SPEAKER_02: I don't mean I won't say everybody.
33:37
SPEAKER_02: I didn't get it until I was a father.
33:39
SPEAKER_02: I didn't get it even when I thought that I got stuff before I had kids.
33:43
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, but that's our legacy, and that's where the time and energy should go.
33:47
SPEAKER_02: And that's a lot of the worry in my day is the you know, the split between, all right, how much revenue do we want to make and how much work are we putting, and how much are we missing on the front end, right?
33:56
SPEAKER_02: At home, where it's really important and not losing sight of that.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: And then I hope from a business-wise perspective, I I just I would hope that you know, to say that, you know, hey, you know, say we went out of business or you know, I sold this business and moved on to something else.
34:12
SPEAKER_02: I'd say, you know, when Matt was here, you know, he definitely, you know, he they they did it the right way.
34:17
SPEAKER_02: You know, we could always trust Matt and his guys to stand behind their work and to do the right thing.
34:21
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, they were always a you know, always a partner, always there to help if we needed something, be it a phone call, an extra write-up, or just whatever, right?
34:29
SPEAKER_02: I just hope, you know, that uh the way that we try and go about business from a moral and ethical standpoint, you know, is remembered.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: All right.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so we're gonna head into what's called the quick fire round now.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: So basically how this works is I'm going to give you one word, and then I just want you to give me, you know, kind of one word back, the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear each word in regards to running your business.
34:50
unknown: Okay.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: And then kind of give me a like a small paragraph on why you chose that word.
34:53
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: Right.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: First word is integrity.
34:57
SPEAKER_02: Oh, integrity.
34:59
SPEAKER_02: It has sorry, it has to be a small blurb.
35:01
SPEAKER_02: It's doing the right thing when no one is looking.
35:04
SPEAKER_02: So uh the quick, the little bit more of a blurb about that is that's a really simple one.
35:09
SPEAKER_02: Integrity, it's really easy.
35:11
SPEAKER_02: Part of leadership is checking on people, right?
35:13
SPEAKER_02: Because it's you make it really easy on someone to do the right thing when they know it's going to be checked on.
35:18
SPEAKER_02: It is infinitely easier to not do the right thing, not do the hard right, but take the easy left when no one you know no one's gonna be checking on it.
35:27
SPEAKER_02: So integrity is doing the right thing even when nobody's looking.
35:30
SPEAKER_01: Leadership.
35:32
SPEAKER_02: One word for leadership.
35:34
SPEAKER_02: Effort.
35:35
SPEAKER_02: And why I say it's effort is leadership.
35:39
SPEAKER_02: You know, leaders have vision and they need to inspire vision.
35:43
SPEAKER_02: They need to inspire like the way that things are going.
35:46
SPEAKER_02: That's the difference between leaders and managers.
35:49
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes you have to do both depending on the size of your company or things that go on, but leadership's inspiring vision, and and and what you're doing is it's effort because it's hard to provide people with purpose, motivation, and direction.
36:01
SPEAKER_02: But if you want to effectively lead, those are the three things.
36:03
SPEAKER_02: Hey, here's your purpose, here's your motivation, and here's the direction I want you to go.
36:08
SPEAKER_02: It's not easy to do that stuff all the time.
36:09
SPEAKER_02: So it takes effort to be a leader.
36:11
SPEAKER_02: Army.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: Good time.
36:15
SPEAKER_02: Uh back back back when I was in, listen, I there's some places around the world that I'd never want to go back to that I've been, but the friends that I made and the laughs that I had, be it overseas or in the States, with when I was an instructor, sitting out behind some Humvees in the middle of the night in Louisiana or, you know, in tents somewhere or just in the worst conditions you can think of.
36:37
SPEAKER_02: The laughs that I had with my friends and the inside jokes and just the things that you can't help but build with people you spend that much time with is something I'll never forget.
36:47
SPEAKER_02: I'm saddened that I'll never laugh as hard as I have in the Army, I don't think ever again.
36:52
SPEAKER_02: But it was a good time.
36:54
SPEAKER_01: Home ownership.
36:56
SPEAKER_02: Responsibility.
36:57
SPEAKER_02: You know, you're going from, you know, that apartment or whatever where you call someone else when your drains leak into, hey Buck, either you know how to do it or watch a YouTube video, or you gotta call someone to pay them, right?
37:08
SPEAKER_02: You gotta cut your yard.
37:09
SPEAKER_02: Don't bring down the property value.
37:10
SPEAKER_02: You've got things you need to keep up for appearances, and you know, you've got to make decisions on what's needed to do now and what you can push off to the future.
37:18
SPEAKER_02: So it's a big responsibility owning a competition.
37:21
SPEAKER_02: Well, bring it on.
37:23
SPEAKER_02: I I absolutely have absolutely no fear of competition, not because and that's nothing against anyone else that does this.
37:31
SPEAKER_02: I I and really it's not.
37:32
SPEAKER_02: That's not like a backhanded thing.
37:34
SPEAKER_02: It's just that I know the level that I expect myself and my people to perform at.
37:40
SPEAKER_02: And I think if we're doing that on a regular basis, that you know we we're up there on par with anyone else that offers services.
37:47
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
37:48
SPEAKER_01: Education.
37:50
SPEAKER_02: More important than people think.
37:52
SPEAKER_02: So I'd say important.
37:54
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I think it's important because you need to have a knowledge base behind what you're doing to be able to know how to talk it, being able to know how to explain it and giving people the confidence that you know what you're talking about, right?
38:08
SPEAKER_02: You don't need to be an electrician to be a home inspector, but you need to be able to talk competently about common electrical defects.
38:14
SPEAKER_02: So I think being educated in whatever your field is, it goes a long way, right?
38:20
SPEAKER_02: You don't I I have I have a master's degree in business, right?
38:23
SPEAKER_02: Do I need that on a day-to-day basis when I'm in the field?
38:26
SPEAKER_02: No.
38:26
SPEAKER_02: But I'll tell you what, it sure helps me on the back end.
38:28
SPEAKER_02: So I think education is important in a variety of ways.
38:32
SPEAKER_01: Family.
38:33
SPEAKER_02: First thing, you know, that that's the first thing, that's the only thing that's important.
38:39
SPEAKER_02: I've always been proud of my family.
38:41
SPEAKER_02: I've always stacked myself up against my family when I've done things wrong in the past.
38:46
SPEAKER_02: I've been more ashamed because of my family.
38:49
SPEAKER_02: When I used to find things that I was doing hard in the army, I'd look down at my name tag on my chest and remember my last name, right?
38:56
SPEAKER_02: And what type of person do I want to be to carry on that legacy and to, you know, and to, you know, just honor like where I come from, right?
39:04
SPEAKER_02: Think about that before you quit, or think about that before you do something that may embarrass yourself.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: Legacy.
39:10
SPEAKER_02: Uh that works out perfectly is family.
39:13
SPEAKER_02: I definitely want to start a legacy with my business, but you know, my legacy is hopefully going to be raising two and maybe more.
39:20
SPEAKER_02: Who knows how that goes?
39:21
SPEAKER_02: Two's a lot, so who knows?
39:23
SPEAKER_02: But you know, is raising two people that are kind, strong, and contributors to the world around them and not takers.
39:33
SPEAKER_02: If I could do that, then I think that we've done the right things as parents.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, no, I agree.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: And the last word is freedom.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: What does freedom mean to you and your business?
39:45
SPEAKER_02: Freedom to me and my business uh means that one, we should be thankful to be in a place where we are able to uh start a business and run a business and have people that freely work for a business and can be duly compensated for it to what they, you know, to what their value is and hopefully what they think their values were worth.
40:07
SPEAKER_02: And to be able just to just to be thankful to be able to we're able to be here somewhere to do that.
40:13
SPEAKER_02: I think that the freedom of being able to do that is a luxury that in some places isn't around.
40:20
SPEAKER_02: And we have a great, great, great atmosphere for it to be able to thrive.
40:25
SPEAKER_02: So we have the freedom to be successful if we want to be.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: All right, perfect.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: All right, so I appreciate you getting for that quick fire round there.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: So a couple last things.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, with all this talk of AI and self-automation and everything, how do you think AI technology would change the home inspection industry over the next 10, 80, 15 years?
40:44
SPEAKER_02: You know what, Cliff, that's a great one because I I I don't I don't know the answer to that.
40:50
SPEAKER_02: And because it's something that I've been obviously thinking about.
40:54
SPEAKER_02: What I do know, and you know, AI is much different from other technological leaps that we've had, right?
41:00
SPEAKER_02: This isn't a cotton gin that's making work go quicker, but only a very specific task or you know, a motorized tractor over a horse plow type of advance.
41:09
SPEAKER_02: This is potentially world-altering to many businesses, and depending who you listen to, it could be scary for a lot of people in the future, right?
41:17
SPEAKER_02: But I think to our business, I think that there is an avenue to make it better in the sense that you know, being able to more quickly and competently identify things that need looked at.
41:31
SPEAKER_02: I do think that the home inspector business and many people-oriented businesses where you actually need to get into places and do things and people like to talk to people, at least nowadays a lot of them still do, I think is you know, well placed to still be a viable business for the most part and how they are run and operated and presented to the customer.
41:53
SPEAKER_02: You know, until there's you know fully functional, you know, robots and robots on our eye, the brain's AI, but you know, or something that can do that and people are comfortable with that method.
42:05
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I think that we're not we're not insulated from it, but I think we're pretty resistant to it being something that's a complete takeover of the business.
42:14
SPEAKER_02: I I don't think that can be said for a lot of, or or I won't say a lot of many industries out there may not be as resistant just due to the tasks and the delivery method that at which you know that product is presented.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, do you think homes are being built better or worse today than they were 30 years ago?
42:34
SPEAKER_02: Completely dependent on who's building it.
42:37
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
42:37
SPEAKER_02: There are folks out there in the trades that are just great people and know what they're doing and have been around for a while.
42:44
SPEAKER_02: There are project managers for new builds that are really on top of their stuff and you know, take personal offense if something's wrong.
42:53
SPEAKER_02: There are organizations that are staffed well enough to be on top of their people, right?
42:58
SPEAKER_02: I I I've never the person to go out here and name names, but I know from being in the construction industry that you know the quality of your work is many times a product of the amount of supervision, checking that things are done the way that they need to, and the quality of your subcontractors.
43:16
SPEAKER_02: And that's not always the easiest thing to do, especially in home building and where it's rampant, right?
43:21
SPEAKER_02: Because if home builder B tells your roofing, your roofing crew, hey man, we'll jump everybody up a buck fifty an hour and the supervisor's five dollars an hour.
43:29
SPEAKER_02: If you guys come work on our houses, they're gone, right?
43:32
SPEAKER_02: So it it's it's really, really, really, really tough for them.
43:36
SPEAKER_02: And I have empathy for that, but that doesn't play into the inspection.
43:39
SPEAKER_02: We have to just call it as we see it.
43:41
SPEAKER_02: So I would say it's either, and I would say one community by the same builder could be of different quality than the other because of those reasons.
43:48
SPEAKER_02: Maybe the quality of subcontractors that were had.
43:50
SPEAKER_02: The one thing that I will say about old-time construction is, you know, there's just something about because we have a great variety out here in Pittsburgh.
43:59
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I'll be in a basement that, you know, the original foundation was from 1870, and the next day I'll be at a high-end home builder, you know, home.
44:06
SPEAKER_02: You know, the the folks from back in the day truly made some impressive things with very, very simplistic ways of ways of installation, just of structure and everything that have withstood the test of time.
44:21
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, yeah, maybe if you put a golf ball on the floor, it rolls towards the middle of the house, but that's not all.
44:25
SPEAKER_02: Stuff sits.
44:26
SPEAKER_02: Settles over time, right?
44:27
SPEAKER_02: It's been here for 120 years.
44:29
SPEAKER_02: That's not to say that there may not be something larger wrong, but we need to find that.
44:33
SPEAKER_02: But you know, and one of the biggest things that I tell people when it kind of calls into that lane is like if you could cut open a piece of wood in this 1900, 1910, 1920 basement of one of these floor joists and see how thick the grains are compared to like sustainable wood nowadays, it you would you would be amazed.
44:50
SPEAKER_02: So you could get away with things right now that would nowadays be like, oh, you shouldn't notch the end of this this much.
44:55
SPEAKER_02: Guess what?
44:56
SPEAKER_02: With that old timber that had been grown for 200 years before someone cut it down and cut it out by hand, it's not going to bother it.
45:01
SPEAKER_02: It's not me telling you the house is perfect, nothing's gonna go wrong, but there were a difference in materials and things like that that we don't quite honestly, builders today don't have the luxury of.
45:12
SPEAKER_02: Now we do have the luxury of advancements in how we use the materials, maybe making wood floor trusses and things of that nature, or fabricated manufactured beams and stuff.
45:24
SPEAKER_02: But you know, to answer your question, it's an either-or, I do like a good old house.
45:29
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I don't like how long I'm in them because they're just more to document.
45:33
SPEAKER_02: But there's something nostalgic about it and the respect for what people were putting together.
45:38
SPEAKER_02: And if I were to be talking to people on the new builds, be comfortable with that builder, right?
45:44
SPEAKER_02: The reputation, but really be comfortable and ask really good questions, like, hey, how long have your crews been around that are doing this?
45:50
SPEAKER_02: You know, and you know, get to know your project manager or whatever that home builder calls it and get a good feeling from them of how much they're able to keep up on the projects and stuff, because it's really easy to catch stuff before drywall goes up.
46:03
SPEAKER_02: It's not so easy to find some things when it doesn't, right?
46:05
SPEAKER_02: So I think it's a lot of oversight and a lot of quality of the people that they have working for them.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: Where do you what do you see your your business, you know, payload post home inspectors to be by 2030?
46:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, if we hear that with that uh that number 2030, you think it's a long, it's a big number, it's a long ways away.
46:23
SPEAKER_00: It's only three and a half years away.
46:24
SPEAKER_00: Where do you see your business by then?
46:26
SPEAKER_02: You know what, Cliff, I'm glad you said that because when you said 2030 initially, the first thing I thought in my head is like, why is this guy asking about 10 years out?
46:32
SPEAKER_02: But no, I mean, seriously, that's what I yeah, that's what I thought until you until you came back and you're like, I guess that, yeah.
46:38
SPEAKER_02: Right.
46:38
SPEAKER_02: So one, that's scary, that that's only three and a half years away.
46:41
SPEAKER_02: Two, you know, we are I'm looking to expand this business because I think as I alluded to earlier, uh make no mistake about it, I I like doing home inspections, but I don't love doing home inspections.
46:54
SPEAKER_02: And before everyone freaks out, if I'm inspecting your house, I like coming out and doing them.
46:58
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm I'm good at them.
46:59
SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna stand the second coming of home inspectors, but I've built a reputation at being good at them.
47:05
SPEAKER_02: I build my folks that work for me to be up to that same standard.
47:10
SPEAKER_02: But I like doing them because I like doing a good job and I like running a successful business.
47:15
SPEAKER_02: And like I said, I'm not afraid to say this.
47:17
SPEAKER_02: I think years ago I would have been afraid to say this.
47:19
SPEAKER_02: I like revenue.
47:20
SPEAKER_02: I like doing a lot of inspections.
47:21
SPEAKER_02: I like stacking up well against the people around me and the people within my organization, but I like doing it for the right reasons.
47:27
SPEAKER_02: I like doing it because we do good home inspections, because we treat people great, because we say things that are factual and can be actioned on and all those different things, right?
47:36
SPEAKER_02: And I I don't feel bad about saying I like revenue if that's the way that I say I like building it.
47:42
SPEAKER_02: So we're actually, we have a great acquisition team behind us.
47:47
SPEAKER_02: I call them big pillar to post or pillar to post corporate.
47:50
SPEAKER_02: So if they have a franchise owner that is looking to expand, that they feel confident in is doing good work and you know all that stuff, right?
47:58
SPEAKER_02: They will help us look for people out there without us having to do much of people that are looking to get out of the home inspection business.
48:06
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's not their thing anymore, maybe it's just not doing what it needs to change a life, whatever.
48:11
SPEAKER_02: And saying, hey, listen, if you're interested in getting rid of this business or you just don't want to run the business anymore, or whatever that looks like, we may have an opportunity for you to get something for what from what you built and not just shut it down one day.
48:25
SPEAKER_02: So we're actually, we being my team, we just closed on an acquisition of another business where the um inspector is just going to go doing other things besides home inspections, but in the inspection world.
48:40
SPEAKER_02: So we're essentially going to integrate his realtors into our system and you know, let them know that, hey, so-and-so's leaving.
48:47
SPEAKER_02: But listen, Matt's here, and him and his folks are taking over, and you've probably heard of them, and you know, they have a really good reputation in area, and you know, we'd like to pass you on to them as one of your home inspection options moving forward.
48:59
SPEAKER_02: And then potentially, which I can't say a lot about just because it's all very potential, but there's a multi-inspector business that does a multi-state area down in the sort of like the tri-state area that's looking at the same thing.
49:12
SPEAKER_02: He's been doing it for a while and doing it at a really high level.
49:15
SPEAKER_02: He wants his folks to keep on working, but he's ready to move on to whatever's coming up next in his life.
49:21
SPEAKER_02: So those are, you know, one that's a closed opportunity and one that's upcoming.
49:26
SPEAKER_02: And I think what that gets to is, Cliff, I'd like to, I'd like to be running this business.
49:32
SPEAKER_02: I'd like to be marketing this business.
49:34
SPEAKER_02: I'd like to be doing all those things more than I'd like to be the one that's actually driving the numbers and stuff in the field from doing the work.
49:42
SPEAKER_02: I would like to be here when someone gets sick, you know, something comes up, whatever.
49:46
SPEAKER_02: Yep, I can run out and do an inspection.
49:47
SPEAKER_02: I got some really good realtors.
49:49
SPEAKER_02: We're really busy in the summer months.
49:50
SPEAKER_02: Yep, I'll take a few.
49:51
SPEAKER_02: But stopping in and checking in, shaking hands and checking out, and then in the basement, hey, everything going okay?
49:56
SPEAKER_02: Do you see anything here that's okay, cool?
49:58
SPEAKER_02: Did you see this?
49:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you did.
49:59
SPEAKER_02: All right, hey, just want to make sure we're on top of stuff and being the quality control and being the face of the business, you know, running a large, successful multi-inspector business is is definitely where I'd like to be by 2030.
50:13
SPEAKER_00: Now, and I want you to be as can and as honest as you can for the you know this next question, but you know, let's say if uh a fellow business, a franchise owner is listening to the podcast episode with you today, Matt.
50:22
SPEAKER_00: Let's say they're they're having a rough go of 2026, we're already halfway through the year.
50:27
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe it.
50:27
SPEAKER_00: So it's been gone by quick.
50:29
SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, let's just say they're having a tough go of 2026, they're just not profitable, they're feeling stuck or overwhelmed in their business.
50:36
SPEAKER_00: What piece of advice would you tell them or give to them today?
50:40
SPEAKER_02: Save yourself because help isn't coming.
50:43
SPEAKER_02: So, what I mean by that is when you're the person running a business and you're the point person on that, you have to figure out what you're not doing.
50:54
SPEAKER_02: Now, listen, that that discounts it.
50:56
SPEAKER_02: Like, say if there's a business that has is completely non-sustainable, maybe it was a bad idea, take all that out of the window, right?
51:02
SPEAKER_02: There's always exceptions.
51:03
SPEAKER_02: So take that, you know, out of the window, right?
51:06
SPEAKER_02: Like we fix Model T's.
51:07
SPEAKER_02: Well, okay, we don't have many.
51:10
SPEAKER_02: But look at yourself, that whole, like I said, that whole responsibility and authority thing.
51:16
SPEAKER_02: And what do you need to be doing?
51:19
SPEAKER_02: You know, we I always say, you know, I run a home inspection, uh I run a marketing company that does home inspections.
51:27
SPEAKER_02: I've one of my things that I've always said is if people don't know you exist, they can't use you.
51:32
SPEAKER_02: So I would start back to the basics of marketing.
51:35
SPEAKER_02: And if you're offering a service and people other people are offering that service and they're doing well, you know, see why don't people know that I'm around or I exist, if that may be the case.
51:47
SPEAKER_02: And then two, I mean, call some people if you have people you can get back to and get some feedback.
51:53
SPEAKER_02: Don't rely on the Google reviews.
51:55
SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, there may be something that you're not doing as well as other people, or just something that came off wrong, or something you don't know about one of the people within your organization that is turning folks off or isn't up to the standard you want.
52:06
SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, like I said, you have to self-extract from this situation.
52:11
SPEAKER_02: And that that's I think vitally important.
52:16
SPEAKER_02: You know, I've always taken, you know, uh when I started this business and you have a whole marketing plan and all the stuff you need to do to get your name out there, right?
52:24
SPEAKER_02: I was never one to sit down in front of a list of people and make calls and say, hey, I'm Matt, you know, pillar to post, blah, blah, blah.
52:30
SPEAKER_02: I know you're a realtor.
52:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm not good at it.
52:32
SPEAKER_02: My my personality doesn't lend to it.
52:35
SPEAKER_02: In the beginning, when it was touch and go and things weren't going exactly the way I wanted, did I get my behind down in front of a computer and get my list of 200-sum realtors and start making calls?
52:45
SPEAKER_02: You're damn right I did.
52:46
SPEAKER_02: Right?
52:46
SPEAKER_02: I didn't like it.
52:47
SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, but I did it.
52:49
SPEAKER_02: So figure out what you need to do to get back in front of the people that are going to fill up your little bucket and that are going to start bringing you sustainable business because like no one is going to do it for you.
53:02
SPEAKER_02: There may be people out there that may help you, but they need to know you need help too.
53:05
SPEAKER_02: So start looking for is there someone else that's successful doing this?
53:08
SPEAKER_02: If I'm in a franchise who's doing this really well at a high level, I mean, Cliff, I was just on a call last night for uh essentially a focus group of people that are in my level of growth across the organization, and we had someone in that's a someone come in and speak to us that's a level or two above our level of growth, right?
53:27
SPEAKER_02: Been there, done that.
53:28
SPEAKER_02: I'm now up here.
53:29
SPEAKER_02: Really great guy.
53:30
SPEAKER_02: I can put his name out there.
53:32
SPEAKER_02: Ryan French in Columbus, Ohio.
53:34
SPEAKER_02: If you need a home inspection, I strongly recommend getting with him because he's just amazing.
53:38
SPEAKER_02: But things I took from that call, and I wasn't even asking for stuff.
53:42
SPEAKER_02: Things I took from that call, I'm already implementing like since last night into my business.
53:48
SPEAKER_02: So don't be afraid to look out, especially, especially if there's a lifeline out there.
53:53
SPEAKER_02: This is your business, this is your legacy, this is what you want you to do to sustain yourself.
53:57
SPEAKER_02: Put it on the table, but take responsibility for fixing it.
54:01
SPEAKER_02: Don't it's not gonna come from somewhere on its own.
54:03
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
54:04
SPEAKER_00: That's excellent advice.
54:06
SPEAKER_00: So, what's next for your company that people should be excited about coming up in the near future?
54:11
SPEAKER_02: I I think what we talked about was the acquisition.
54:14
SPEAKER_02: We're looking to expand.
54:15
SPEAKER_02: We're a healthy company.
54:18
SPEAKER_02: I want to get a lot of people going that do this really well, that do it to my standard, that the realtors that I work with can trust with their clients.
54:29
SPEAKER_02: Because like I said, I, you know, I I I don't I don't want to be the one doing the most inspections per month, right?
54:37
SPEAKER_02: I want to own and run the business and market the business and um participate more in activities that market us out there and give me opportunities to do more things with our people, right?
54:46
SPEAKER_02: Because we're doing so well.
54:47
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, have them, you know, appreciate some of the let them appreciate some of the benefits of what they've been doing.
54:55
SPEAKER_02: So that's why we're looking at the acquisitions and expansions as being a vital part of where we're going.
55:02
SPEAKER_02: It's very, very hard for me.
55:05
SPEAKER_02: One of the things that I'm dealing with personally, you know, as being the owner, the prospect of taking on other home inspectors and making sure, because there's a lot of great home inspectors out there, but just making sure that one, I mean, one, there's a change in software and some of the things that we offer, and that's, you know, got to make sure that's there.
55:25
SPEAKER_02: That has to be a skill that's there.
55:27
SPEAKER_02: But there's got to be a willingness and a buy-in.
55:29
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm already starting to look at myself, say this potential opportunity with three inspectors that are ongoing, right?
55:35
SPEAKER_02: Is like, how am I going to present myself?
55:37
SPEAKER_02: And if I were in their shoes, what would I want to hear from somebody?
55:40
SPEAKER_02: You know, I've been working for so-and-so for 15, 20 years, and I love the guy, and you know, we work well together.
55:46
SPEAKER_02: Here's this new person coming in.
55:48
SPEAKER_02: You know, you've got a little bit of a badge of approval if you get there, if the current owner says, hey guys, I've talked with Matt a couple of times.
55:55
SPEAKER_02: I think there's a way forward here.
55:56
SPEAKER_02: I like what he does.
55:58
SPEAKER_02: But how am I going to get those people to rally to do things the way that I want to do them that may not necessarily be their normal?
56:09
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, it's you have much more control over someone you get off the streets that's not a home inspector and you bring them through that whole process.
56:18
SPEAKER_02: But that's a very long and time-consuming and expensive process, right?
56:21
SPEAKER_02: And then a failure with that is doubly expensive right there.
56:24
SPEAKER_02: You know, what what's the biggest cost in every business I've been in is, you know, one hiring and then two getting the wrong hire.
56:31
SPEAKER_02: It's just sunk cost, right?
56:33
SPEAKER_02: So I think what people should look forward to is meaningful growth in my business and the pillar to post high point team being a name that you can depend on that can serve you because of the capacity we want to build.
56:45
SPEAKER_02: Now, that's I'm honest, that's taken a hit recently with the most recent thing that's coming up with my most trusted employee.
56:52
SPEAKER_02: But we've got stuff and we're gonna build that back.
56:54
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, if this is, I guess, specific to real estate, but if you don't know, you know, it used to be realtors were kind of loon wolves and single offs, and you know, you wanted to get in with an office, which you still do.
57:09
SPEAKER_02: You want to get good with an office and they're the office manager there and all that.
57:12
SPEAKER_02: But the most successful folks that do real estate now are what?
57:16
SPEAKER_02: They're teams.
57:17
SPEAKER_02: They're the so-and-so team, the, you know, the the the Matt Brigeri team or the whatever team and their team of realtors, be it three, five, six, nine that work in a team.
57:26
SPEAKER_02: And we're trying to build ourselves to be able to support those high-producing large teams, right?
57:32
SPEAKER_02: Because they can do 20 deals, 25 deals a month, right?
57:35
SPEAKER_02: If they have someone they know they can call, hey, Matt, or my scheduler, Brooke, hey, Brooke, we got one, but you know, we need this inspection tomorrow, or like we need it within three days, and or whatever that is, we're building a team that is able to accommodate that, to not able to be able to meet the demands of the timelines in the real estate world, but also be able to give you the best product and support possible.
57:57
SPEAKER_02: That that's what you should look forward to from my team, the high point team, over the next couple of years as we continue to grow the business.
58:04
SPEAKER_00: Good, good, good.
58:06
SPEAKER_00: All right.
58:07
SPEAKER_00: And finally, Matt, what's the best way for someone to connect with your team or or learn more about what you all do?
58:11
SPEAKER_02: If you just type in anywhere the pillar to post high point team, you can find us.
58:17
SPEAKER_02: My Instagram is Mr.
58:19
SPEAKER_02: underscore inspector pgh, just a standard spelling, I guess.
58:24
SPEAKER_02: You can reach out to us there.
58:26
SPEAKER_02: You can find us anywhere.
58:27
SPEAKER_02: The biggest way you can book online with us, you can reach out, my direct business number.
58:32
SPEAKER_02: If anyone, even if someone heard this that isn't in the business, and I don't know, I hopefully I've added some type of maybe I've added some type of value to someone else running their own business or getting into it.
58:42
SPEAKER_02: If you want to shoot me a text or give me a call to talk about something or anything, if I'm able to help, I will.
58:48
SPEAKER_02: My my direct business number is 412-2920293.
58:52
SPEAKER_02: Don't hesitate to reach out if you know you found some value or you have some questions.
58:56
SPEAKER_02: But end of the day, you'll you want to know anything about us, pillar to post the high point team, you'll be able to find us.
59:02
SPEAKER_00: Love it, love it.
59:04
SPEAKER_00: All right, Matt.
59:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's been fantastic.
59:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you for coming on and sharing your story, your perspective, and your real behind the scenes of building your business.
59:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, any last words you want to give the audience before we go ahead and sign off?
59:14
SPEAKER_02: Well, one I would just like to say thank you for reaching out and thank you for giving me the opportunity to come and, like I said, hopefully some share, share some things that are useful.
59:22
SPEAKER_02: And just to like the on, you know, entrepreneurs or potential entrepreneurs or whatever, it's a big leap.
59:29
SPEAKER_02: Believe me, I know it's a big leap.
59:31
SPEAKER_02: I had only worked in places where I had a set salary and schedule and you know, all those things.
59:35
SPEAKER_02: And I made a decision that I thought would be better for my family and really being a better person for them.
59:42
SPEAKER_02: And just, you know, I I found I found this business by typing in veteran-friendly franchises.
59:48
SPEAKER_02: That's how I found what I was gonna do.
59:51
SPEAKER_02: If you want to do it, go out and do it.
59:53
SPEAKER_02: There will be ups and downs, but if you're the right type of person that can take that responsibility, that understands responsibility and that, you know, has that drive to learn and know your craft and all those things, it can be done.
1:00:06
SPEAKER_02: Goes back to you said the freedom.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_02: We have the opportunity to do that.
1:00:10
SPEAKER_02: So if you want to do it, go and do it.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_02: Have a plan, right?
1:00:15
SPEAKER_02: Don't want to get off color here, but piss poor preparation leads to piss poor performance.
1:00:19
SPEAKER_02: Have a plan, do some research.
1:00:22
SPEAKER_02: But if you want to go out and do it, do it because no one, no one's gonna do it for you.
1:00:26
SPEAKER_02: No one's gonna give it to you, but you do have the opportunity.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_00: Strong words.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Matt, we appreciate everything you're doing for the community and with you and your business and continue to thank you for coming on.
1:00:37
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_00: All right, thank you.