Ian R
Hey there ITB crowd. Ian Robertson here for a quick solo podcast, because there's something that I wanted to share. So we've talked a lot on this show about raising prices and adding more value to our inspections, not just raising them for the sake of raising them, but elevating our industry, allowing us to expand our services, provide a better service, and make a better living at what we do, elevating our entire industry. So we've had Preston Kincaid on, and he brought out some great points about raising prices. And he's in a very depressed area. I know the area. Some of our guests actually know, know the area too. It's not a great part of New York. It's upstate, very rural and depressed, as I mentioned. But he's killing it, raising his prices and adding more and more value. And interestingly, he kind of got a, got a bit of flack after our last podcast on that. And to be honest with you, I get a little bit of flack too. Some people say they don't like me saying that, hey, we should charge more.
I'd like to share this with you, though, I'm sharing this with permission, but anonymously. I got a message from, from an inspector, and his work week this week, as of the recording of this podcast is scheduled for $6,390 gross, $6,390, and he just raised his prices. Now he's in an area too that's not bad, but it's not any kind of big city. It's not going to be any kind of amazing boom town, or some, he's not in Southern California, where prices are are known to be higher, or anything like that. He's in an area where the prices are a bit lower. But now get this, that's for a four day work week, and he's home by about four o'clock. Let that sink in. $6,390 and he has a low overhead, single inspector, and that's what he has scheduled for just this week. And he sent a funny message. He says, too bad for all the Facebook experts that say you can't raise your prices and make a good living. That's beautiful. I mean, there's guys out there that I know that are working seven days a week, three and four inspections a day, trying to get to that number, and he's doing it in four days in an area that isn't prone to that.
So the reason I bring this up is because we keep talking about this. This guy is also adding a lot of ancillary services that add a lot of value to his clients. And I say it adds value because he gets very good at those things, and he's able to connect dots, like he does septic and the home. And oftentimes, if he had somebody separate do the septic than the home, they wouldn't be able to connect to connect the two issues that he found together. It gives better value to his clients. He's skilled. He takes those extra days that he has that we just talked about. He's only working a four day work week, and he uses it the better his services. He's not rushed through inspections. If an inspection takes an extra hour, he's there for an extra hour.
But not saying that anybody on the other side of that of the pricing thing doesn't do those things. We're not saying that, but I thought this was important because it gives us evidence that, number one, the market does not dictate our prices. We know the market is still hard. We know there's low inventory. We know there's all sorts of things, in my area, this inspectors' area, we're experiencing a lot of the same things, low inventory and people skipping inspections. But this guy raised his prices in that market and is working less, providing more value and raising his prices and making a great living, the living that he should be making, I think he's actually thinking about raising his prices again. Number two, he is not afraid to lose work. We should never be afraid to lose work. In fact, that should be our goal. If we're working 5, 6, 7, days a week, our goal should be, I want to lose one of those days, I don't want to work on the weekends.
I remember that sick feeling in my stomach early on in my inspection career where I'm like, oh, I'm losing agents because I'm no longer available on the weekends. But you know what? I was making more and working less, and actually got to spend time with my family on the weekends. It got to the point where that sick feeling went away. And I would gladly tell people, yeah, I'm not working on the weekends or even charging extra. Charge an extra $200 if you want to work weekends. That's up to you. But we shouldn't be afraid to lose work. In fact, we should, we should seek that out, because if we're losing work, that means very likely, we're making more money.
So if we do 10 inspections a week now, or even, let's say, let's say less, maybe we're doing three inspections a week on average, and we're like, oh man, I'm gonna lose that third one. Maybe we're charging $300 an inspection, but now we charge an extra $150 so now we're down to two inspections a week. But if you're doing the math with me, you actually make the same amount of money, just one less inspection a week, and 90% of the time, we're not going to lose that third inspection. Because if people are hiring us, it's not just based on price. I really don't know where that mentality comes from, that it's totally based on price, because even some of the worst agents that I know recommend some of the worst inspectors, are not going to recommend just a terrible inspector. Yeah, they'll look for a price, but they're not going to recommend the terrible guy. Because they're like, yeah, still makes me look bad. And same thing with most clients that want a good inspection in a market like this, they're like, I really, yeah, prices. I'm looking for price, I'm price shopping, but at the end of the day, they're like, I really don't want to sacrifice quality. So those two things so far, not being afraid to raise our prices in this market, not being afraid to lose work, and number three, adding value.
So we talked a little bit in a previous podcast with David about imposter syndrome. I really do think that's a big reason why a lot of us don't raise our prices, that we're worried that people aren't going to feel, deep down inside of us, maybe not even in the frontal part of our brain, deep down, somewhere very deep, there's this weird feeling that we're not going to live up to that value, that people are going to hire us, or like, oh my goodness, you're twice as much as Joe over there. Okay, we're hiring you because you must be that good. And then we're maybe feeling anxious, like, maybe we're not that good, or they're going to see right through me, or they're going to wonder what they paid extra for. Well, okay, and like I said in that podcast, I'm the king of imposter syndrome. I'm always worrying about that. You guys listening to me right now, I'm worried, oh man, they're gonna know that I'm just a big idiot. I know you guys already know that, but what it comes down to is getting over that. And if we can't get over that with the current value that we have, look at what value we do give.
So let's say we just do a basic home inspection that we can fly through in about an hour and 15 minutes. You know who you are listening to this. I know guys on my market that do that. Okay. Is there more value we can add? Can we add more ancillaries so that the value added is okay, cool with one phone call, I can get multiple inspections that I need. Or can we add things on to the inspection, like, you know, the standard stuff. I say standard because this doesn't really set us apart anymore, but like thermal imaging and moisture meters and things like that, just something so that when we walk into the room, our imposter syndrome gets pushed down a bit. It's less for the client and more for us, but there is a measure of that for the client. You know, if I go to the doctors, and he just pulls out a stethoscope, and it's just a weird, bare room with a bed in it, I'm gonna be like, all right, what am I in? You know, 1900s field hospital, you know, I'm not going to feel comfortable, but I actually went to the eye doctor recently, and boy, they had gadgets. And I don't know why, but that gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling. Actually, I do know why, because it said, okay, they're investing in their company. And it was weird because they were out in the country, and it was just like in an old farmhouse when you walked in. It was beautiful. Lots of tech. Do I know if that tech does anything for them? No, a matter of fact, when I sat down to do my first test, before I even put my head in the little apparatus, they have you looking, and they shoot this green light at you, I don't know what any of it does, before that, the guy goes, I bet you, and he says, XYZ with my eyes. And by the time they got done with the exam, that's exactly what it was, he was almost spot on in everything, just as a, as a guess, because they do it so often. But that didn't make me feel warm and fuzzy. It was all the gadgets and lasers and little scopes, and they had these cool glasses where they put lenses in them to see how you see. You know, that adds value in the mind of the client. I'll admit something here, when sometimes, when doing a sewer scope, half the sewer scope is just showing the client how the tool works, what you can and can't see, and impressing them. Because at the end of the day, you shove the camera in, you find the problem, and you move on. It's like, okay, there's a crushed pipe. I can't get to go any farther, you locate it, and then you move. That warm, fuzzy feeling that we create by letting them know what we're doing and showing them our gadgets adds value in the mind of the clients, but it also adds confidence to us.
So look back through a couple of things if we're worried about raising our prices. Value added in our skill, and value added in our tools. So I mentioned tools first, even though it's the second item, because tools are the easiest thing to give us confidence. You know, if you hire a contractor, and he shows up with the Ryobi power tools. Everybody kind of looks at him like, uh oh, who's this guy? But no, you show up with some professional tools. People are like, oh, okay, you know it's the ladder on the truck mentality. Oh, I knew you were a contractor. Because your ladder, ladders on your truck. You look like you know what you're doing. So that's easy, but don't rely completely on that, because that's like trying to rely on driving a Ferrari for our confidence. All we're doing is borrowing confidence from a piece of equipment. That's only going to get us so far. Look at our skill set too. Now, InterNACHI has some great programs, and we can get great programs elsewhere, but one of the best ways that I found for myself to give me confidence, to raise my prices, was to take every course that I possibly could, and then not just take the course to say that I took the course, but take the course, go beyond the course, and now teach the course. One of the reasons I got into teaching home inspections and all the aspects of buildings and everything, was because, you know what? It made me confident, and it adds a lot of street cred. It's like, oh, hey, Ian knows what he's talking about. He teaches this course. You know how many clients I've won by being able to say that? Like, well, what sets you apart from the other home inspector? I'm like, well, not only do I know how to inspect homes, not only am I a licensed, but I'm also a New York State certified home inspector instructor. I teach other home inspectors how to do this. Oh, wow. So it gives me confidence, and it gives them confidence. I'm not saying everybody go out there and become an instructor, but hey, why not? Can you? And a lot of times we worry about, oh, well, that's a half a day or a whole day, and I'm, I'm teaching, I should get paid for my time. Okay, that's fine. I would do it for free any day of the week. I would pay to teach because it just adds a lot of street cred. But also, when you have to teach something, that forces you to know something really, really well, because there's going to be always somebody in the audience questioning everything you say, so you have to be right on. So I gained a lot of skill by being overly prepared for everything. Actually, that goes back again to our imposter syndrome podcast, over preparing because we're a lot, we lack confidence.
But if we're not raising our prices, are we really adding value. If we are working three inspections a day, seven days a week, is that really giving us the time to research a house before we get there, rethink parts of our inspection report before it goes out, take extra courses, teach, learn new tools, add ancillary inspections. All it does is create a vicious cycle of low prices and an overly busy schedule, and it hurts our industry as a whole. But let's ignore that for a moment. Really, it just hurts us individually. So remember this inspector that I brought up today? He's going to stay anonymous because he, well, that's his business. But with permission, $6,390 in a down market, in an area that isn't known for high prices, charging twice what the average inspector in his area charges, and a four day work week. I want to be this guy. That sounds like an awesome life. So if we're still thinking it's not possible, give it, give it some extra thought, because you're raising your prices does nothing for me. That's not, it doesn't benefit me in any way. So me saying this doesn't, isn't self serving in any way or form. Instead, it serves you and our industry, both of which I care about. So well, I don't know how much I care about you individually. This is getting weird again, and David is not even here with me, but I do care about you and our industry as a whole. Raising our prices benefits you, and it benefits us as a whole. So thanks for listening in, and we'll see you next time on the show.
Outro: On behalf of myself, Ian, and the entire ITB team, thank you for listening to this episode of Inspector Toolbelt Talk. We also love hearing your feedback, so please drop us a line at [email protected].
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*The views and opinions expressed in this podcast, and the guests on it, do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Inspector Toolbelt and its associates.