Standing Out in Ohio Podcast
Listen and learn how some stand out from competition and gain market share. Information helpful to agents and buyers. Conversations with professionals and entrepreneurs regarding their stories and what makes their companies and themselves stand out and gain competitive advantages. Listen to stories from Ohio real estate agents and related businesses to help you know how to improve and who to consider using for yourself or friends. Created by the owners of a highly rated home inspection company in Ohio and the Winners of Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest https://homeinspectionsinohio.com/
Standing Out in Ohio Podcast
Join us as an inspector! Locally Driven Success in the Inspection Industry
Winning the Consumer's Choice Award for home inspections in Columbus has been a remarkable journey for us, and there's so much we've learned along the way. Laura and I, Jim, talk about the systems and consistent service that have been our backbone, emphasizing the freedom we've found as a locally owned business without the constraints of a corporate franchise. You'll hear how our proactive measures have helped us maintain control while continuing to deliver exceptional service. We're excited to explore the challenge of meeting the rising demand for licensed home inspectors, and we're on the lookout for passionate individuals eager to join our team.
We’re also thrilled to share career opportunities now available through our website's career page. The application process is straightforward, and we invite enthusiastic team players to explore the possibilities with us. Don't forget to subscribe on Spotify or Google Podcasts to catch our latest episodes, and engage with us on social media and through our website. We're committed to providing valuable insights and resources for both aspiring professionals and our loyal followers. Remember, keep learning and taking action—there's always room for growth and excellence. Thank you for joining us on this journey!
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Two-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
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For home buyers: What to expect from a home inspection. YT video for home buyers
Home Buyer and Seller Resources | Habitation Investigation
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If you would like to be a guest on the podcast contact us and let us know. You can visit Home (jimtroth.com) and go to the podcast page or message Habitation Investigation.
Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast, where we discuss topics, upcoming events, news and predictions with real estate professionals and entrepreneurs. Listen and learn what makes their companies and themselves stand out and gain advantages over the competition and gain market share. Subscribe for the latest news and discussion on what it takes to stand out from the crowd. Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to the Standing Out Loud podcast. This is Jim and of course I have Laura, the office goddess, here. Hello everyone. All right. So I can't remember if we actually announced this or not. I know we did somewhere. I know we did online. Something maybe, yeah, but anyway, we won a Consumer's Choice Award for home inspections in the Columbus area. Yay, which is nice. We didn't know anything about it and they have some method for figuring that out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it has to do with reviews and website and AI looking through and finding stuff.
Speaker 2:So I I don't know what their formula is gotta love ai well there's gonna be a lot of hate thing down the road. We'll sell it. Yeah how that goes. So that was big for us because we're choice awards with a nice little like lunch little award ceremony, kind of thing. I see we got pins that we can wear. So if we go to real estate events, we should wear these.
Speaker 3:Yes, I was thinking that too. And we got cute little stickers. Consumer's Choice Award 2025.
Speaker 2:I don't know if we're going to stick those.
Speaker 3:I don't know either. We got a little sticker.
Speaker 2:We could put those on our brochures that we leave at places.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah, that could be possible.
Speaker 2:We can do something like that. So with that we're sitting. Good, we have great systems.
Speaker 3:We've got great reviews.
Speaker 2:People ask us if we're a national franchise, which we're not. It's Lauren and I own it. That's it, and then we have our inspectors, so we just do it. We've done a very good job of systematizing things and just really keep it proactive and everything yeah.
Speaker 3:It makes it so that everybody gets the same service. It's all equitable across the board. It's easier for everybody because those are all systems that are set up and have been for years.
Speaker 2:And we did not want to have to ask some corporate office go hey, can I do this? Can I do this for marketing? Neither one of us do that well, no, no, so we have control.
Speaker 3:We do it ourselves.
Speaker 2:And we have very good systems and everything and we have a lot of things that we've done over the years to help clients and agents take care of it things that we've done over the years to help clients and agents take care of it.
Speaker 3:Pretty much any service we offer has been a request from a client for help yep, now we are struggling a little bit yeah, yeah, we are right now one area we just one we need home inspectors.
Speaker 2:we we have good demand for our services.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, except for, like Christmas, new Year's Eve, slowest time of the year for it, but it's already. We're having some capacity issues.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're busier now than we've been in years at this point.
Speaker 2:So if you know of a home inspector, or if you are a home inspector. Yes, we are looking and we don't take just anybody, that's for sure. We've had licensed people not be able to write a report and then some other inspectors. They all were nice people they really were. It just didn't really work out well, for whatever reason Right Things happen. But we are looking for inspectors and we need them to be licensed, because this is Ohio and we have the licensing now.
Speaker 3:So that will make it easier to get them up and running faster for busy season for busy season. So if you or someone you know is licensed and struggling and not sure what they want to do, I mean maybe they work for a franchise. One of our inspectors right now was working for a franchise and I don't think this person had much of any business at all. Like they were forced to do inspections with other people and split everything because that was the model for that company yeah, yes, so I've seen some weird.
Speaker 2:I've seen some weird models.
Speaker 3:Yeah, system, what way people do things um but yeah like if you work for another franchise and you're not quite getting as much as you want or need give us a call, which all right.
Speaker 2:So, new inspectors, you can be new.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can be new too.
Speaker 2:There's still training involved with us. Just because you're licensed doesn't mean you're mainly able to go.
Speaker 3:Whether you've been doing it for 20 years or two months. There's training with us, there's the habitation investigation inspection way. We've got our own system and we do it that way and it doesn't change, yep.
Speaker 2:But if you listen to the schools, it teaches a homeless training. Oh, yeah, it's. Uh. I'm like, oh, you'll make, you'll make a hundred thousand your first year. Yeah, no, no, no, that is nowhere, nowhere low. There's probably some inspector who've done that, so I'm, that's my.
Speaker 2:They've done that but they're also in a large metropolitan area and the ones I know they have crashed and burned hard because they didn't have the systems and they were doing really some of them I know were doing really bad reports, report systems. Yeah, because they were expecting like, wow, people like I'm there's only a small percent that will actually ask for money back or sue us and they were like, well, if we get away with it most of the time, we're still making money.
Speaker 3:That's not how you think.
Speaker 2:That's not how we operate. So we want good service, mentality, people that aren't afraid to do a good job and put effort into it. So, anyway, that's what we're looking for. So the team approach. We need more people to help us. Right, join us so we can continue to grow and serve other people Right? You and I live now in southeastern Ohio.
Speaker 3:It's a little bit harder for you to get out there. Office in.
Speaker 2:Columbus. So we still have Columbus Inspector. We still cover Dayton, delaware. Now it's so much easier to do Athens because we're down here already here.
Speaker 3:So yeah, pretty much anywhere in the state, as long as you would be able to get to Columbus or wherever to do inspections and and get used to our process.
Speaker 2:I would kind of like that. I'm kind of torn if I want brand new, never did an inspection, yes, inspector, um, or yes, or somebody who does, who's been doing for a while and and they need some trend.
Speaker 3:But you have to retrain you had to retrain on that report, and that that's the biggest problem that we've seen is the re, because they get into their own habit and their own method of doing things in their own report and then they have to unlearn all that and learn ours, and that's where it's been throwing people it's. I think it's easier. I think it probably is a brand new person or at least or not a very old one, well, the one spectrum I'm thinking of.
Speaker 2:He had a different system but he spent one, two days just going through our report system versus the spectrum I did with him. He had like 90% of everything was correct and everything. I want five more like him. And then we had another guy who was wanting mentoring Right, so also somebody who's learning to be a homeless inspector. We can mentor you and help you get going.
Speaker 3:Of course, we need to follow up with that guy too.
Speaker 2:Of course we're hoping that if you decide not to do it on your own, you'll join us and we can support you and basically we do the marketing for you and then we just send you off.
Speaker 2:Right, you and basically we do the marketing for you and then we just send you off to the inspections. You're part of our employees. But the one guy first inspection he'd ever been on With us. He may have done a mock inspection with his training class when I'm at the coffee shop, didn't it, victor? Oh, okay, I don't know if he'd ever been been on one no, he hadn't been we were his first, first one he did.
Speaker 2:It was a mock and he didn't follow our inspector and he gave him a stamp report sending. We have here, it is he had it down, it was yeah, it's an easy system I'm sad.
Speaker 3:So he went somewhere else. He wasn going to stay as an inspector. He never even got started as an inspector.
Speaker 2:He was trying to get a license, but he decided to do something else.
Speaker 3:I think he decided to become a real estate agent.
Speaker 2:Went to the dark side.
Speaker 3:He went to the dark side.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm glad he didn't spend time doing inspections and go, oh this sucks Right, and not want to do it.
Speaker 3:At least he figured it out before he got too far down the rabbit hole and money.
Speaker 2:So good for him. But maybe he'll decide like ah, let me do this instead. Either way, as long as it works out for him, that's cool. But yeah, that's about it on this one. If you know anybody, send them our way, send us up. Somebody will be an inspector. We would definitely like to do that, and they do not have to be directly in Columbus. Central Ohio is probably the best location, at least for the amount of business that we have. We do a lot in Columbus.
Speaker 3:Yes, we do.
Speaker 2:Columbus and all the surrounding counties. So there's something driving. Of course there's driving. We never know where it's going to be the inspection, but definitely send them our way. If I remember, I will put a link in the show notes that has a link to a form that they filled out the employment form, the career page. Yeah, I'll do that. So thank you everybody, bye, bye-bye. The employment career page yeah, I'll do that. So thank you everybody, bye.
Speaker 1:Bye-bye. You've been listening to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast. Be sure to subscribe on Spotify or Google Podcasts to get new, fresh episodes. For more, please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or visit the website of the best Ohio home inspection company at homeinspectionsinohiocom or jimtroffcom. That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H and click on podcast. Until next time, learn and go do stuff.