When Experience Turns Into Stagnation In Home Services

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years” can either mean mastery or it can mean you stopped learning a long time ago. Jim and Laura get blunt about the difference, using stories from the field that hit home for roofers, home inspectors, and real estate agents who want to stay sharp and protect the people who trust them. 

We dig into roofing ventilation and attic airflow, including why adding a ridge vent without proper soffit intake can backfire and why overheated attics are a sign the system isn’t breathing. From there, we shift to the safety details that get waved off until they become expensive, like an exposed light bulb in a closet, and the way new products such as hybrid water heaters force all of us to keep updating our knowledge. If you work in housing, building science and codes don’t stand still, and neither can you. 

We also talk business habits that separate pros from the pack, especially for real estate agents: building a simple review system, earning social proof online, and finding ethical ways to stand out in a standardized industry. If you’re serious about better inspections, better referrals, and fewer bad surprises, this conversation is your reminder to stay curious. Subscribe, share the episode with a teammate, and leave a review so more homeowners and home pros can find it.

Transcript

Surprise Topic And Quick Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hang on, Gil.

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Hey everybody's Jim and Laura here.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Laura has to bring the microphone because I snuck this one up on her.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Yeah, he did. I have no clue what we're talking about.

Experience Without Growth Problem

Roofing Ventilation And Attic Heat

SPEAKER_02 0:12

I know you don't. That's what makes it fun for me. So, alright. Welcome to my world. It doesn't matter what profession you're in. You're always going to hear somebody go, Well, I've been doing this for 20 years, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? Oh, yeah. Hear that a lot. So my thought on the this is probably not going to be a very long one, but it could be it's going to be valuable if if it's if it's you in this spot. It's going to maybe a little painful to go, oh yeah, I am that type of person. Hopefully not, but it'd be a good remembrance to go, yeah, I'm not going to be that type of person. And the type of person I'm talking about is I will say roofer.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

That's an easy one. We hear that one a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

We've had a roofer go, you know what? I've been doing roofing for 20 some 25 years, and this is how we've always done it. And talking about ventilation. And we've always always done it this way. And my first response is okay, you've been a roofer for 20 years, but your ass stopped learning three weeks into your training.

unknown 1:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Never stop learning. Because roofing systems, man, about the 90s, they came out with those uh ridge vents, and what we're seeing with roofers, and and they'll put a new roof in, but they don't improve the ventilation correctly.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

So my understanding is the ventilation is supposed to come in, go out, and like completely refresh the air up there very regularly. There's supposed to be enough air exchange to come in and take it all out. That's why we don't do air quality testing in the attic because it's supposed to be completely fresh air every so often.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Now I've never heard of a rate of air of air exchange. Oh, for the attic. There's air, there's an air exchange rate for the interior of a house, but I've never heard of it for the attic. But the attic, there is, and there's different standards on how to do this, maybe one square foot of ventilation for every square what yeah, one square foot of ventilation for every 300 square feet of floor space.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Why is it just floor space? Because that strikes me as odd. Like how many times have we seen huge attics?

SPEAKER_02 2:38

I know, and I wrote an article on that because that is not the standard to look at, but thinking I don't write code for anybody. So it's either three one square foot of ventilation for every 300 feet of floor space, or, and that's attic floor space, or 150 um one square one square foot of ventilation for every 150 feet of attic floor space. So you got double the amount of floor sp of uh ventilation doing the one fit one for every 150.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Which makes more sense to me because I would assume you would need that.

Safety Blind Spots And New Tech

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Because we go in the attic spaces and we have temperatures 140, 150, well above what is generally considered too hot, is 30 degrees or hotter than the exterior air if not breathing properly. But we're kind of doing mission drift here a little bit. So anyway, but I don't know what the mission was, so explaining that you do not stop learning. Oh, okay. That is that is the message of this one. Well, roofers like, why have you been doing this so long? They need more ventilation, they'll slap on some hat vents. Or or they'll slap on uh a ridge vent, but there's no soft vents. They're going through the hat vents and then the ridge vent, and they think they fixed a problem. Like, no, you You just made it worse. You made it worse. Now you don't have good proper airflow through there. Same thing for like real estate agents and home inspectors. Technology the new like uh there's a water heater, that's a hybrid, hybrid water heater, okay, which is a combination heat pump and electric.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Agents probably have never seen one of those. Major vast majority have never seen one of those type of water heaters. And we've only seen a few of those ever installed, but you have to keep learning and know about them and improving your stuff. So when we had an agent the other day tell us that she's been doing this for years and she's never seen anybody c make a comment on an exposed light bulb in a closet, I'm like, dude, this that is a safety issue for years, and just because you don't you haven't learned of it, or you you shitty home inspectors that never wrote it up doesn't not give you an excuse to stop learning and figure out well, why is that bad?

SPEAKER_00 4:57

What we're just assuming that we're being overly critical and just dismissing what we said.

Building A Personal Learning Habit

Reviews As Social Proof For Agents

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Wow. Well, I guarantee if that house caught fire because the ball burnt, you know, gets too hot because it was in the closet. People put things on the shelves that got too close to it and it catches fire, she's gonna be the first one. Oh, you should have you should blame your home inspector. Home inspiration should have caught that. Like we did. I'm thinking, you didn't even call you didn't want it once us to call that out. You thought it was picky. So never stop learning. In fact, one of my goals this year, Laura, you remember how many books I was gonna try and listen to? 50. 50 books this year. I think I'm I need to get my chart. I I'm ticking them off as as I go through the books. I think I'm uh maybe only one book shy on pace. Nice to do this. So and I I do listen to books. I don't I'm not a real good, not a real fast reader, should say. A little a little hyperactive sometime where I'll lose focus and I'll read the sentence like three times because I lose my place just the way it is. So, but if I'm driving and we do a lot of driving, to and from inspections, commercial inspections, and a lot of indoor air quality for uh environmental consultants of Ohio, which focus on air quality, when we do when we're driving to and from, yeah, I'll put I'll put uh use Audible. So the books I bought through then, listen to them and turn that windshield drive time in into classroom time, which is which is fantastic. So yeah, never stop learning. In fact, the last one of the recent episodes of the podcast, we talked about how we won't had one agent in 20 some years ask us for a review.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Right, which is still crazy to me.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

If you're an agent and you do not have a system that's automated, or at least you have like a checkbox for yourself to make sure this happens, I suggest you learn a system for getting reviews.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

Habitation investigation is the way to go for a home inspection in Ohio. Trusted licensed home inspectors for your needs. From radon to malt to warranty. For a great home inspection, you really can't go wrong. Visit home inspections in Ohio.com.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Otherwise, you're you're gonna get left behind because that's the social proof you need to show people looking for you online. That you're above the rest. Or just stumbling across you online to go, oh, here's this agent, one review. Oh, here's you, 52 reviews. I think I'm gonna go with this one. Yeah. So do that, never stop learning. Or do you have any any thoughts on anything? I mean, we're you and I we learn about everything that we can. We're learning about short, I mean sourdough bread, chickens.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

I'm I'm getting into doing more herbs and doing some stuff like that. And so yeah, I'm I'm still doing stuff too.

How Agents Stand Out Ethically

SPEAKER_02 8:10

I'm gonna learn how to convert a van into a little mini camper. Woo-hoo. I'm not gonna have a sh I'm not doing the bathroom shower or sink. I don't deal with that, but I could, I could put a little sink in there for for washing and for like cooking, because we got a little camp cook stove. I meant I can do that. That would not be a problem. I got a design in my head already how that's gonna happen, but it's all gonna be based around storage and make sure I got plenty of room in there. So my task later on today is build a bed. Assuming it stops raining. Well, it can rain, I can still get the materials. But other than that, never stop learning. Uh I can't think of anything else. I mean, what I mean, real estate agents, you you your main focus, I I would say, if I was a real estate agent, is learning how to get uh clients. How to get found online.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Well, and and not just that, but how do you stand above the rest in in an industry where let's face it, the paperwork is pretty much standardized across the whole industry? How do you stand out? What do you do that's different than others? Like we know of one where the um the group pays for pre-listing inspections so that they can get stuff set up and they walk their client through, you know, what things they need to get fixed before they put the house on the market. Do you do something like that? Do you have something special where you have a different type of advertisements, different type of, you know, um remember open houses where they would bring in um food trucks and things like that? Do you do something like that? What makes you stand out over everybody else? Learn that.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

And that's tough for an agent because your your paperwork and everything is very um standardized. Standardized, it's rigid, it has to be this, you gotta give them this, they must sign these papers here.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

You gotta get creative.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

It's gonna be your your your personality and and your ethics. I I've had some agents I know, well, we've had clients, home buyers, tell us how their agent was trying to talk them into doing stuff. Right. And that gives their um gives that client a bad taste toward that agent.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Well, how many times have we had clients call us, schedule a home inspection for us to find out it was their second home inspection on this house because they didn't trust the inspector that their agent quote hired. Yes, that and that's been more ha more frequently happening.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Correct. So we're the trusted professional who we don't get paid if the house sells or not.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

We are not no home inspection company should get paid if the house sells or not.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

No, no, none. None should. But we home inspection and such a stay out of trouble by giving accurate, thorough information that protects the client and the agent as well. And there have been agents who have been sued because they recommend a home inspector that did a uh terrible job. They got sued for negligent referral. That has happened in the past in other states. I don't know in Ohio, I'm certain we don't hear every every lawsuit that comes through, but that has happened. So anyway, so I would I'm biased, of course, but recommend habitation investigation. We we have the awards to to back it up, the awards and integrity to take care of things.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

And we've been around for a long time. We're not going anywhere.

Coffee Invite And Closing Reminder

SPEAKER_02 11:55

We are not going anywhere. So and then agents, you you need to learn how to get referrals. Set up a system for yourself. In fact, if any agent wants to meet us up for coffee in Columbus area, we do know Lancaster. There's a nice little coffee shop in Lancaster. We just came across the other day. Great meeting area. Um I want to try their muffins, so please call. Provisions. Provisions I think it's provisions, bakery and cafe, something. I don't know if it's provisions on one of the main streets there. Nice. I like that because we had meeting there the other day. But meet with us and we'll go over our system for getting reviews if you want. And I'm certain we can help you find something for yourself as well. Thank you. All right, bye-bye. Bye everyone. Never stop learning.