The weather’s heating up – and so is episode 46 of The Ride Along. Matt Lowery and special guest co-host Matt Brading are sweating buckets (literally) as they kick off stories from the field, including attic heatstroke, soggy inspections, and why being an independent home inspector is not for the faint of heart.
Then, they sit down with Adam Long, who’s been on both sides of the business – as a franchise president and now as Porch’s Head of Revenue. He breaks down what it takes to build your own brand versus buying into a franchise model, and how Palmtech and Porch tools can help new inspectors grow smarter and faster.
There’s bourbon. There’s marketing wisdom. There’s even a Capital One commercial cameo. And yes, it’s all inspection-related.
Hit play, grab your “Drink of the Day,” and catch the ride.
Don’t forget to subscribe to The Ride Along newsletter to get episodes like this delivered straight to your inbox.
Transcript
Brad Lowery
Wait, we gotta play the intro. We gotta play the intro. Here we go.
Matt Brading
Play the intro.
Brad Lowery
And we are back and better than ever everybody here on the ride along with my partner in crime here Mr. Matt Braiding. How you doing dude?
Matt Brading
Doing all right, man. I am doing all right. The weather’s been fantastic for inspecting out here, and so yeah, I’m ready to go.
Brad Lowery
David Art, what’s fantastic weather inspecting in Texas? Because I can tell you what it is in Florida and what it is not.
Matt Brading
So it hasn’t been raining. That’s good. It is warm, but not like hot because the heat is coming, right? And the humidity has been somewhat lower too. while it’s warm outside, it’s just, you know, manageable. You can get out there. You don’t have to sweat to death. The attic’s not completely miserable and you’re not all soaking wet. So I don’t know. It’s good weather for me.
Brad Lowery
This is good. Okay. Yeah, it’s not the heat of summer yet is what you’re saying. Oh, dude, we’re getting there. We had a sneak peek of that this past week down here in Florida. was about this past weekend. was about , not the July humidity yet, but it’s coming. It’s coming. I’m just like, as much as we tell home buyers that when it rains, this is great inspection weather. That’s like saying it’s football weather, right? Every weather is football weather, but that doesn’t mean we like it.
Matt Brading
Right. Right. Yeah, that’s coming. We’re going to cook.
Yeah, it’s brutal. I actually can’t stand inspecting in the rain. I mean, I get it. It has some benefits on the inspection, but I’d rather do it after like after a rain than during the rain. I mean, it can play a negative effect too, I think sometimes because, you know, it’s very hard for us to work in those conditions, especially on the exterior. So yeah, I don’t know. I’m not. It’s there’s some benefits to it, but there’s some drawbacks in my opinion. But I don’t know. But this weather though, man, I can inspect in this all the time, but I ask myself literally every year.
Brad Lowery
You’re good.
Matt Brading
How do I do this because that heat hits and man, I literally start to question whether or not I can continue every year I get through it and I’m thankful whenever fall hits, you know, but it’s just like man. It is brutal out there during the summer the Texas and Florida have some brutal summers.
Brad Lowery
Yeah! I mean, we’re just on the other sides of the same pond here, you know, that’s about it. yeah, that humidity hits. The attics is just the worst part, right? At least back in Virginia, like basements were cool enough. So it’s like, I could do the attic last, but like there was that basement that was, you know, I could at least cool off a little bit there. like down here, you know, if I’m doing a wind mitigation up in an attic, I’m just, it’s extra long that I have to be up there and not just die a little bit inside.
Matt Brading
Yep. Honestly, you got to be careful. Like it’s so hot up there that in the attic, you really have to be careful. People think the roof is very hot and it is right. And sometimes with those black shingles, you can get a lot of radiant heat off of those and it can be very, very hot. But there’s usually some type of breeze to cool you off a little bit or something. But when you’re in the attic, it is just straight rough, sometimes degrees and just sweltering, humid and gross.
Brad Lowery
And then when the buyers like, know, like, must be hot out there, right? Like my favorite thing is like, just take the infrared camera. I just feel like, no, you want to see? Right here. Yeah. Let me show you the service temperature, the other side of this roof. All right. By the way, looking at your, looking at the logo on your shirt, your hat was sponsored in a commercial. Yeah, some guy gave me this at a conference last year. One that we’re actually,
Matt Brading
Yeah. I’m usually sweating out of my skin, so I don’t have to do that. They’re like, wow. Like, you are really. Whoa! Look at that! Wonder who that could have been.
Brad Lowery
Going to be at the conference as the sponsor of this show today, as a matter of Yeah. But you were at a Capital One commercial. Yeah. It was. Yeah. I was, last year I got to film with Natalie Rose and Austin Jenkins at InterNACHI’s House of Horrors. So go back and watch that show, guys, if you haven’t. anyway, so Natalie was down in Tampa and Capital One was painted to be at
Matt Brading
Wow, awesome. Well, would you look at that?
Brad Lowery
The final four, the women’s final four for the NCAA. And she was like, hey, since you live so close by, you help me film? And I was like, yeah, absolutely sure. And so I go up there and Capital One social media teams there and they had wanted to film some stuff with her where I don’t know, guess there’s this trend where you’re kind of like running from scene to scene. And they looked at me, I’m standing here holding this camera equipment and stuff and they’re like, hey, do you want to be in it? And I was like, I’m dressed about like this. You know, I was not prepared for this.
Matt Brading
Ha
Brad Lowery
But anyway, yeah, if you all go to Capital One’s Instagram and watch, you can see a Texas Edge inspection hat that’s just making its way around the women’s Final Four. Yeah. Yeah, man, definitely. So, that’s it. We’re just representing everywhere, But catch me up on you. What’s been going on in the field on your neck of the woods?
Matt Brading
I’m gonna have to check that out. Yeah, I’m gonna have to take that That’s pretty cool. A little cameo there. Right? Right.
Man, mean, just busy, busy, know, just the life of a content creating home inspector, right? Like just out there working as much as possible. Of course, my other guy, Lewis, he’s been out there working too. So we’ve been very busy. And of course, you know, I got to make time to film that content. I think I got a pretty solid YouTube video out of today’s inspection. So I’m excited about that. But I mean, yeah, nothing new, just good weather and getting out there and doing inspections. Lots of new construction here lately. The market seems to have picked up. Yeah, we’re busy.
Brad Lowery
Spring’s cooking, baby, let’s go. That’s a good sign. Well, so the guests today, guys, we’ve got something interesting. This is a pre-recorded interview that we did back at InterNACHI. If you haven’t watched the last two that we did, I definitely recommend you go back and do that. The ones with double scope, the ones with Sean and Kelsey. Fantastic conversation with all of it. Actually, we’ve been getting some feedback from a lot of people commenting on the one about the conversation that we were having with Kelsey about inspection vehicles and using trucks versus using alternative means of transportation from job site to job site. yeah, that’s it. Yeah, yeah. But no, I’ve enjoyed seeing the comments. So y’all keep commenting, subscribe if you haven’t, definitely be sure to do that. The other one that’s been getting a lot of conversation is over on Facebook. There’s a lot of people commenting on the AI episode. That’s been pretty cool too. The one that we had with with good old Bo. So.
Matt Brading
I mean, everyone has their thing, you know. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I mean, that’s all. I think that’s a very hot topic. And I mean, it’s, it’s AI is just so popular right now. I mean, literally chat GPT is like my, my Instagram feed is it’s consumed with people using chat GPT to do silly stuff. You know what I mean? But it’s there for at our fingertips for so much. somebody asked me a question. Hey, how do I find out this the other day? said, I don’t know. Ask chat GPT. And they’re like, good idea. You know? So, I mean, you know, it’s, definitely a thing. I do not hate AI.
Brad Lowery
Yeah. You can use everything.
Matt Brading
But yeah.
Brad Lowery
You don’t hate it, but you’re just a little averse to it.
Matt Brading
Watch the episode that I have with Bo. just I have some I have some issues with it’s uh But I don’t hate AI. So-
Brad Lowery
Yeah, yeah. No, no, we’ve really enjoyed engaging with everybody. mean, you’re really doing a lot of conversation over on like the Instagram side of things, you know, some of the stuff you’ve been posting with the show over there. But we just enjoy hanging out with you guys. So again, hey, actually, if you guys even have stories from the field or your experiences either with any of the things we’ve talked about this year so far, whether it’s AI, whether it’s with, you know, your inspection vehicle, you know, keep the conversation going. And if you have a story you want to share, you can definitely drop that off to my email as well as bradleyloweryatPorch.com, feature your story on the show. But before we get to the guest today, who is the he’s now the Porch head of revenue. And if that sounds uninteresting, it shouldn’t because one, he’s a really cool guy, too. He used to be the president of home team. So we’re going to we’re going to talk about that guy in a bit. But before we do, we’re going to do our drink of the day. And you’ve got yours ready to go. I’m going to pour mine as we talk. But I today’s drink of the day is sponsored by Inspection fuel . So if you haven’t signed up already, you should that the drink here is not the sponsor, but go to inspection fuel.com sign up it’s going to be September eight through the the at the Marriott in New Orleans. So if you’ve never been to NOLA, it’s gonna be a good time Matt you’re gonna be there.
Matt Brading
I’m gonna be there. This is not my first. I’ve been to New Orleans a couple of times, so I’m looking forward to it. There’s always a lot of good stuff, a of good food, a lot of good times to be had out there. So heck yeah, man, I’m gonna be there, the whole thing.
Brad Lowery
And we’re actually going to be recording live. So if you guys want to get on the show, we’re going to be recording live from inspection fuel. That’s going to be a lot of fun too.
Matt Brading
We’re going to do a live podcast. Yeah, we’re going to be doing podcasts the whole time we’re there interviewing different people, but we are actually going to be on page doing a live podcast. I’m excited about that. Cheers to that.
Brad Lowery
That’s what I’m saying. Yeah. No, no, but like on stage, yeah. Well, yeah, that’s gonna be really good. Gonna be really good for sure. Okay, go ahead and give us your drink of the day,
Matt Brading
All right. So I am, you know, they had some storms out in Kentucky this week. I think it was this week. And, and so in honor of that, I am drinking some Buffalo Trace. Cheers. I hope everyone over there at, the distillery and everyone in Kentucky is safe and sound and gets back normal really quickly. So cheers.
Brad Lowery
I love it, I love it. And for me, I’m kinda trying to cut calories right now, get that beach bug going. So I have not been drinking as much bourbon as I usually do, but you know, it’s a drink of the day. So I got a little bit of tequila right here and we will just pour a little shot of that in the glass. Little tequila over ice. But then here’s the thing, look, if you try and do that skinnity thing, you can mix that. I found this, this is at Publix, man. It’s like low sugar.
Matt Brading
Nothing wrong with that.
Brad Lowery
Juice, carbonated water, crap. I don’t know, but you know what? I won’t feel bad about it when I go to the gym later. didn’t that sound good in the microphone there? Yeah, no, that’s not a special effect. is live. Cheers to you, sir. Cheers to y’all. And come out to Inspection Fuel this September and have a drink of the day with us right there live on stage. So, Matt, what is your experience
Matt Brading
Poor. Sounded awesome, by the way, like, I don’t know, you wouldn’t thought like, were gonna think that we added that afterwards, but that was like, thank you.
Brad Lowery
Before we jump to the interview with franchises. And what made you choose to be an independent contractor?
Matt Brading
Well, to be quite honest with you, whenever I kind of got into the industry, I didn’t even really know franchises existed. I guess I found out very late before I got licensed. And so it never really occurred to me to do anything like that. mean, whenever I was actually working another job, whenever I started looking at a home inspection and ideally in the beginning, it was like, okay, this is just going to be like in my spare time and on the weekends. And I wasn’t going, I kind of always want to own a business. And so I never really, I didn’t think like, I’m not gonna work for somebody else my spare time. You know what I mean? Like if I’m gonna do this and put my spare time into it, I’m gonna do this for me, for my business. Like I said, I thought it was just gonna be kind of a side gig, but that wasn’t the case. I knew that wasn’t gonna be the case very, very early on. And also it’s not very conducive because of what you have to put into marketing and everything to actually get business. And I think that’s where I’m going with this franchise thing.
So a guy in my class. There was a class that I took. Most of my training was in person. There was a class I took right before we were getting licensed. It was like a pre-exam prep class and the guy from that class, a really nice guy kept up with him for a few years. He bought into a franchise and I think he paid like grand. Okay. Now I didn’t pay anything, but I’m not really even a hundred percent sure what they supplied him with except for he was associated with their he had to use the software. I think they provided him with software. I still think he had to provide his own tools, but they had some promotional material and they had a lot of things that had like their name and logo on them. They probably, you know, in terms of like, because it was their company name. So I think like probably clothing and things like that. He probably either got from them or they paid for, you know, to be embroidered or whatever it was. So there were some perks.
But I think it was really, it was a bigger company. And so I think it was like name recognition. And so like, you know, there’s a lot of them out there that, you know, if you buy into them, you can kind of start getting business because people associate you with them. And I think there was some additional training he had to go to. It’s like you had to become certified with their franchise, I guess, within their franchise. So there’s an additional training, some additional support that they gave him some software that he had to use.
None of that really seemed awesome to me. And I was kind of glad I made my decision because I didn’t have that kind of money to put up front. And I don’t know if they’re all that much, but that was a number that I think he threw out there to me. I can see it making sense if you have the money. I think it can make things a little bit quicker to get things rolling. But no, I just started putting my money and time into marketing and building my business and I was building my business slowly, but that was okay with me. I wanted to build it slowly and I wanted it to be my own. And eventually, you know, here we are. It took a few years, but I got to a point where I could make a living on my own doing it. And that’s reason why I chose the path that I did. What is your experience with franchises?
Brad Lowery
So I’ve actually worked for, it wasn’t a franchise, but for long-term listeners of the show or listeners to Inspection Connection back before that, I used to inspect with BPG inspections out of Washington, D.C. and Virginia. And down here I’ve got my own LLC in Florida. there’s definitely benefit when, if you’re somebody that doesn’t have a mind for marketing per se, where you don’t necessarily want to develop or design your whole brand, your brand language. You don’t have a thing or a knack for graphical design or you just want somebody to hand you what you need to get started so you can get rocking and rolling. And if you got the capital for that, it definitely makes sense to me. BPG was great. They’re not a franchise, but they are owned by Fidelity. And so they operate in a very similar way to a lot of the pillar to posts and home teams.
Matt Brading
Pillar Post was the one that my friend got, yeah.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, yeah. You know, you don’t have to buy in, they give you there’s there’s a a network of income for them as a nationwide organization where they can kind of tap into their funds and give you some of that startup in terms of uniforms, marketing materials, tools that can help you offset some of that. So some of the perks with being part of a franchise existed there. And truly, mean, I having come from a small mom and pop shop, I think.
The most inspections I ever did in a year prior to joining BPG was maybe like , . And I finished at before moving down to Florida. Yeah, yeah. But there were tools there that really helped me to scale the business, but also to see that, like they price things a little bit higher. And I actually brought my kind of my concern to an old area manager. was like, dude, this is gonna be way more than my agents are used to having to pay, know, for their buyers having to pay.
Matt Brading
Good. Big difference.
Brad Lowery
He was like, look, look where we live. There’s a lot of money around here. People can afford houses in the half million dollar to million and a half dollar range. A couple hundred bucks extra is not going to affect the transaction. Then he wasn’t wrong. So that allowed me to make more money. so there was definitely some perks to it. now, a lot of times when you’re working for a franchise or for a large company like that, you’re not keeping 100%.
Obviously you’re having to pay in, whether it’s upfront or dues or, but, you know, franchising fees, but it’s with this one, I think I was making about 60 to 65% splits, but still making great money. But you know, for a lot of people, there’s appeal and saying, no, I want the full a hundred, know, which we know is never a hundred, you know, there’s, yeah, you like to see that, but you’re just assuming the cost of, you know, like, like you were doing all of the, all of the marketing. So-
Matt Brading
That’s pretty good. Yeah. Right. 100%. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. And just the overhead. I think people always kind of, um, they don’t think about it. They think that we just go out there, uh, as owning our own company and we just make all of the money that we, you know, we charge $ for an inspection, man. I got gas. got toll road fees. I’ve got credit card fees. We’ve got association fees. mean, man, by the time it’s all over, I’m probably making only about 50% myself.
Brad Lowery
That’s what I’m saying, yeah. And I mean, like, dude, cost on the vehicles, know, back to the vehicle conversation, it’s, I just rolled over , on my truck. And a lot of that is because it’s been used, it was a use for the majority of its lifetime as a full-time inspection vehicle, you know, it adds up. But anyway, but yeah, so yeah, so the guest this week, Adam Long, head of revenue, former president of Home Team. But listen to the whole thing, because we do get into how,
Not just for Porch products like ISN, Palm Tech, Guardian, how those things can help people, whether they’re an independent contractor or one of ISN’s largest customers, home team for franchisors. There’s a lot to go around, but a lot of the conversation centers on how both of those setups are completely relevant and applicable depending on what you want to do as a home inspector in the industry. So a lot of ways to this cat.
Matt Brading
Looking forward to listen to it because I wasn’t even there. I had to leave.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, that’s right. You had already taken off, man. But anyway, without further ado, guys, here is Mr. Adam Long. So I’ll put it right there. I think we nailed it, man. Good job. Good work. All right, I will hit stop.
Matt Brading
All right, we did it.
Brad Lowery
All right, everybody, welcome back. Another episode of The Ride Along live here from, well, it’s not gonna be live when you watch it, but it is while I’m recording it, live here at InterNACHI in Orlando, Florida, . This has been an awesome conference. Seriously, we’re on the last day of it. You can probably hear the voices a little bit strained. And the co-host that was with me for the episodes that you’ve just watched is he’s already flying home with his family. So riding solo today, Matt will be back in future episodes. So be sure to subscribe to the show, first of all, check that out and enjoy all the awesome content that we got coming up. Really incredible guests. And I’m joined by an incredible guest here today, Mr. Adam Long, our new head of revenue here at Porch. And if you’re wondering, why are you bringing an executive on the show? Well, one, because he’s awesome, and two, because he’s no stranger to home inspections himself. So Adam, first of all, thanks for joining, and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Adam Long
No, glad to be here, Brad, and yeah, head of revenue. I what does that really mean? I can tell you it’s all about customer experience, and that’s where my background comes in. I’ve been in the home inspection industry for well over a decade. Right from Porch, I came as the president of Home Team Inspection Service, which is a large multi-unit franchisor, and really just fell in love with the home inspection world and the real estate world. And so it was a natural progression to come to Porch. I’ve spent the last years working with small businesses, working with individuals just like the ones that I’m meeting here at the NACHI conference. And my experience with home inspections really gives me some additional insight that’s going to help with what we can do with Porch to really make the experience better for our clients, which are home inspectors. So again, that background of working with home team for many years, working with the franchises and with inspectors and with many of the companies that we’re here with at NACHI has just really given me a great insight that I can share with the rest of executive team and make sure that we are making decisions that are going to best support home inspectors and agents.
Brad Lowery
Dude, I love it man. And you know, it’s always fun when we get to hire somebody away from one of our best customers. So yeah, I mean, I don’t know who’s replaced you over there or, you know, probably are irreplaceable. But truly, no, like, I mean, Home Team, we’ve had such a great relationship with them for a long time. So let’s actually talk about this. I mean, we hadn’t really discussed this one, but I think you could totally answer it. What was really the value that Home Team provided to home inspectors? Because here at InterNACHI, there’s a lot of first time inspectors that are wondering, how can they get started in the field? What opportunity did Home Team provide in the form of a franchise that might give somebody a leg up over maybe going the solo inspector route? Not that there’s, you know, what’s right or wrong.
Adam Long
That’s the great thing about home inspections is you can really do it many different ways. But in reality, it’s really about support. Anybody coming into the home inspection world, depending on what kind of experience you have, what kind of connections you have, what you’ve done in the past, those are all helpful, but you need support. Now whether that’s extreme support, like a franchisor, where you actually purchase into their system, and they’re giving you your website and your marketing materials, they’re helping you with legal support, software, all those different things, or if you’re just partnering with a company like Porch and you’re saying, I need inspection software, I need to be able to provide a warranty to my customers, I need somebody to answer my calls. That’s really what InterNACHI is all about. InterNACHI as an organization is a support organization. And that’s what Nick has really built it about. How can we help home inspectors? How can we educate them? How can we give them the tools, et cetera? But with Home Team specifically, if someone’s looking to build a business and they’re wanting to be in the home inspection world and they’re wanting to really build it bigger than themselves in the long term.
That’s really where Home Team came in. You’ve got the personality, you’ve got the experience, you’ve got those different things that make a home inspector what a home inspector does. You’ve never met a successful home inspector that doesn’t have a phenomenal personality. So you take those tools and then you add in all the custom features that a franchise would build and basically say, can we help you take what you already have, combine it with Home Team and what they offer to really create a partnership? And that’s what franchising is all about – that long term is going to make that individual more successful than they might have been on their own.
Brad Lowery
Sure, yeah, no, that totally makes sense. And I love that now it’s like, by coming over to Porch, it’s proof of the fact that we’ve got stuff that is flexible for everybody. I mean, whether you are a franchise, like home team, whether you’re the single inspector shop, whether you have multiple inspectors on your own under your own LLC, there’s so many different tools that we offer that are gonna help any inspector, no matter where they’re at, no matter what model they’re working with, really level up.
Adam Long
Yeah, that’s really what drew me to Porch. mean if you think about it Porch has offerings for every aspect of the business You know, that’s why home team was a big client of Porch and and just so that you know Everybody knows you know, I give a home team a year’s notice when I when I left, you know I was the president so that’s a big position and I wanted to make sure that not only the franchise or but all of the franchisees all the home inspectors We’re left in the best condition possible story and so, you know when I transitioned over to to Porch after you know giving all that time with Home Team, I looked at what does Porch offer? And they offer so much. Rather than having just one particular product that offers report writing or offers a call center or offers payment solutions, Porch has this suite of products that they can offer to a brand new inspector or a multi-inspector firm that’s going to give them either that start that they need or it’s going to take their business to the next level. That’s really what I saw with the opportunity with Porch is they offer so many different things, but how can we best communicate that to the client? That’s really where my position comes in, and working with the sales department, working with the customer success department to say, okay, we’ve got all these great tools, but how do we educate the individual inspector on how best to use them so that they can drive their revenue? So it’s not the head of revenue at Porch, it’s how do we get more revenue to the inspectors that use our products?
Brad Lowery
Well, it’s in the sense that if they succeed, we succeed. Exactly. Right? Yeah, that’s it. Like, we’re not just here to offer systems as a service. We’re here to help people make money. We’re here to help people achieve the things that they want with their businesses so that they can live the life that they want.
Adam Long
Exactly, it’s all about customer success. And we took, the customer is the inspector, it’s inspector success really. How can we make them more successful? Because that’s what everybody’s looking at. How do I get more inspections? How do get more revenue per inspection? How do I spend less time on the inspection, after the inspection, before the inspection? And a lot of the things that Porsche offers are automations. Things that are going to just simplify.
Brad Lowery
That’s exactly it.
Adam Long
That world that the inspector lives on and let them do what they’re really good at, which is the actual inspection, meeting people, talking to real estate agents, talking to clients, building relationships, but with the tools that are gonna make them more effective because it’s gonna save them.
Brad Lowery
Right, no, absolutely. that was honestly the whole reason that I joined Porch as well. it’s a, what I saw over here, because I, and I’ve talked about this, my own little story as a home inspector, I started out with a single man, well, it’s a small family business. And I mean, there was maybe four or five inspectors, but I was doing, you know, inspection reports on a tablet at the time, but our contracts were all on paper.
Payment was collected with a check or call in the credit card. No offense to that business at that time. But it was just a little bit of an old school way of doing it. And then went over to BPG inspections, another big franchise. And they had a full suite of services that made your job as an inspector so easy. And then when I met Porch and saw what they had to offer, I’m like, these are tools that will help any inspector at any level really compete on the level of a of a massive nationwide organization.
Adam Long
That’s exactly true. I mean, when you look at the different suite of tools that Porsche offers and you look at how they can help, like I said, the individual inspector or the multi-unit inspector, know, Home Team’s a big organization. you know, but we have franchises within the organization. Some of those franchises are brand new. Some of them had been around for years. But the reason that we partnered with Porsche was twofold. One, was the people. You know, I’ve just, I really enjoy the people at Porsche, you know, whether it’s Brad or whether it’s, you know, other individuals that I’ve met.
They really care about the client, they really care about the product. know, Porch has been able to partner with a lot of different organizations that just really share that same sense of how do we help the customer. But the product is really what stands out. These are things that actually make life easier. Because I’ve been in the inspection industry for well over a decade, and so yeah, I remember paper reports, I remember non-automation, I remember when social media came out, all those different things. And it’s a lot as an independent to say, I’ve got to do all these different things. That’s why people are drawn to franchising. But as everybody knows, not every inspector joins a franchise. In fact, the vast majority don’t, but they still need all of that support. And that’s where organizations like InterNACHI and these different products and Porch really come in is finding out what does this inspector need? Because not everybody has the same needs. Not everybody has the exact same needs. That’s why you have to different products that have different levels, different price points. But at the end of the day, if you find the right products and you find the right services, you’re gonna be more successful, not just in the revenue you create, but in the time you save. Because at the end of the day, everyone will spend more time with their family, do the things they love. They love inspections, but they also love surfing or rollerblading or whatever it be. And so this gives you more time to do that because you’re saving time on the inspections.
Brad Lowery
In your business to build the life that you want. this is the other thing too. Home inspections is about people because real estate is about people. And so you hit on something that I think is awesome. Go back and watch the episode that Matt and I did with Double Scope Inspections. If you haven’t watched it yet, you need to. Because they were talking about something that I was honestly flattered. We don’t prompt anybody for any of this. But they were saying, were like, man, we absolutely loved hanging out with you guys. We had no idea, one, that the people at Porch were you know, great people, but honestly, we’re actually now interested in learning more about your product because we kind of thought you guys were just this, you know, Seattle-based software company. And I’m like, no, I’ve never met anybody that hung out with the folks from Porch that have been here over the years where they didn’t just come away with a completely different understanding of what the company’s about.
Adam Long
So, it’s a fun group of people, but it’s also a very knowledgeable group. I mean, there’s people within the Porch org that have plus years of experience in inspections. You know, there’s people that are leading these different companies with credit card processing and the report writing and different things that have seen and heard everything from homeless inspectors. And so, it’s not just about providing products and services, but it’s actually about how can we help listening, listening to the customer say, you know, what are your needs?
What are you looking for? What can we do for you? And that’s what drew me to Porch as well. Because I wanted to stay in the home inspection world. I loved Home Team and everything that I’ve done there. The home inspection world’s not that big, so there’s only so many opportunities. I mean, that’s why it was such a great fit for me to come to Porch. I already knew the people. I knew the products. And I understood the mission, which was how can we improve the customer experience? How can we help home inspectors? And so that’s what I’ve been doing as a franchise award president for the last seven years is taking individuals and saying how can we help? And really listening, I think that’s an important part of any type of culture. From a franchising standpoint, everybody thinks franchise or they have systems and procedures and processes, but all those systems and procedures and processes came from inspectors. That’s the great, you build on the feedback that you get. And I think that’s where Porch has so much opportunity is they have all these connections with customers that are telling them what they like, what they don’t like, about products, about services, et cetera. And it allows us to improve by listening to those people that are doing the inspections every single day. Because if you’ve never been on a home inspection, unfortunately I’ve been on hundreds of home inspections. Most people have been on a couple. And they’ve been on it as the home buyer, maybe sitting along with a home buyer. But they’ve not really understood what’s going on. And so I think having that background of understanding the inspection world. And being able to then take the second step, which is listen to the home inspector, including that crazy bird. Anyway, the point is, is that the connection between the people and the services they provided based on my background, it put me in a position where I thought I could be a help to the company and drive their mission, which is to be the best provider of software and services in the inspection work.
Brad Lowery
Hahaha. Yeah, definitely man. And I’m so glad you’re here truly. We also share another little common point as well in that I did home inspections for eight years in the same place that you guys are living now.
Adam Long
Yep, the great city of DC. Yeah, my wife and I moved to DC about four years ago as you know And that was a big part of what brought me to Portion in the first place But it’s a it’s a great world. It’s surrounded by you know older homes and expensive homes, you know, so.
Brad Lowery
Something interesting. I just saw this yesterday in one of the real estate forums that I kind of follow on there. There are hundreds of homes going up for sale and getting listed all around the DMV right now.
Adam Long
I had a couple people mention that to me, like is everyone selling their homes in DC? So I looked up those articles and you know, it’s like anything on social media. know, they’re taking some numbers and they might be skewing them a little bit. But in reality, there’s a lot going on with the government right now and there’s a lot of uncertainty. And so, you know, there are a higher number of homes, especially with those people that say, you know, maybe this isn’t long-term where I want to live.
But at the same time, DC is full of company headquarters, Amazon’s second headquarters, et cetera. So I think it’s still a great place to come in and out of But if anything, it’s great for home inspectors. The more homes that go for sale, the more that need to be inspected. So I’m always up for people putting their homes for sale, because that helps our industry.
Brad Lowery
Let me hit the brightness on this thing now that that’s sun cutting the clouds No with a with DC The one thing that I loved about working there There’s two places in this country that I feel like are super insulated from like major real estate market shifts as Florida and Washington DC Because down here it’s like you could skip a rock and you hit a home inspector You know I’m saying or and a real estate agent everybody either You know, they’ve got their one job and then also they’re a real estate agent down here, but up in the DC area
Adam Long
It came out good.
Brad Lowery
It’s like, is the market a little bit slow right now? Give it two to four years. It’s big terms or the new election.
Adam Long
I mean Florida, it’s because people are moving here because it’s warm. And there’s retirees and there’s a lot of transition with people. But with DC, it’s the same way. There’s a ton of transition. A lot of people don’t know, DC has some of highest per capita of single individuals that are coming there for college or first jobs or government jobs or whatever it may be. But then the government is all over the country. It’s not just in DC. And so they’re moving rapidly in and out. So it’s kind of that same high turnover that makes it a really great place for home inspectors.
Brad Lowery
It just made me miss it because when I saw those numbers in a real estate agent did send me some of the MLS listings. Yeah.
Adam Long
I wish. It’s as real as social media said, but it’s good opportunity right now.
Brad Lowery
I know it’s like hey if you’re an inspector up there you need to get on it you need to get into realtors offices and here’s the thing even if that real estate agent already has a home inspector you need to just tell them hey look if he’s busy because he’s gonna be busy call me as backup that was one of the best lines that I ever used with real estate agents and I got so many follow-ups because they’re like hey my guy’s busy but then I would do one inspection for him maybe two and they’re like so I’m sticking with you now and I’m like well don’t tell your other guy but you know
Adam Long
No, that’s the advice I’ve always given to new inspectors. Because you’re new, know, people don’t know you, you haven’t built relationships and most realtors have a guy, a girl. I mean, they have somebody that does their inspections right now, but being that backup and then also offering something that their current inspector doesn’t offer. I mean, that’s the other thing. That’s why you come to InterNACHI. It’s like, what am I not doing? Am I not doing sewer scopes? Am I not offering a day warranty? Am I not offering, you know, pay it closing, whatever it may be.
These are things that help you differentiate yourself as an inspector and say, hey, you know, I’m not busy right now, but these are some of the tools I offer. And the ruler’s like, well, my guy can’t get there for seven, eight days. I’m gonna try you. They like your tools. And then all of a sudden, you’re their guy.
Brad Lowery
Well, especially now that it’s back into a buyer’s market up there. Pay it close has never been a better product for right now. Because when it was a seller’s market, everybody was cash. It’s like the only people that could afford to buy up there were the cash buyers that could beat everybody else’s offer. It’s, or we’re waving the home inspection where, you know, no contingencies whatsoever. But right now, it shifted back the other way. So if you’re a buyer that wants to, if you’re a home buyer, not even a home inspector, and you want to jump on that, find a home inspector up in the D.C. area that has pay a close as an option. That’s just another way to grab a property as quick as you.
Adam Long
Yeah, I think it’s one of the most exciting things that has come to market is that pay at closing because the average client is really strapped. They’re buying a home that’s way more expensive than they’ve ever bought. know, repairs are more expensive, know, loans are more expensive, everything is more expensive. So they can shift off that that cost of the inspection, just like they shift off all the other costs to closing. It’s a huge win and it can separate you because if that’s something the real estate offer, real estate agent can offer as saying, well, this home inspector offers pay at closing, there’s a good chance that client might pick you up instead of the competitor.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, definitely man. Now are you going to be on the road at some of these other conferences throughout the year? mean, not just kind of the big one, but.
Adam Long
I’m hoping to, mean, you my goal is to not only work with the Porch staff from Seattle and from the world that we live in, which is all over the place, but really to also spend some time in the conferences talking to home inspectors and talking to other vendors and other companies, et cetera. So, you my goal is to definitely visit some of these different places. Now, if they’re in Florida, as you can just see from the sun coming and blinding us, although at the same time, it just gave us this heat wave. So anytime it’s in Florida,
Texas, you know, in the South. You’re be there. When it’s degrees in DC, I’ll be there. But you know, I’ll look at some of the Northern conferences too, I hope.
Brad Lowery
I love it, no, I love it. anyway, look, if you’re going to be in a conference in your neck of the woods, we’ve got some big ones that are coming up throughout the year. Inspection Fuel is going to be back in the fall as well. there. Come out and meet Adam. Seriously, come out and meet some of the other awesome people that represent us here at Porch. Come get on the podcast because we podcast live from a lot of these conferences throughout the year. But anyway, sound off in the comments if you’re using Payette Clothes, if you’re using ISN or anything right now. Or if you just have any questions, you know, we’ve got plenty of people here that can help you.
Adam Long
If you see me at the conference or any of my staff, we want to hear from you. We want to hear how things are going. We want to hear ideas. That’s really what inspections are all about, is building off of each other as a network of professionals and how can we do it better and how can we save time.
Brad Lowery
That’s it, man. Let’s get out of the sun. Seriously, it’s starting to get, starting to heat up out here for sure. Getting a little bright. But thanks so much, Adam, for joining. It’s definitely been awesome having you on. And thank you guys so much for watching. always, tune in next time. Because again, you me and Matt will be back. We’ve got an awesome group of guests that are going to be coming up. We’re to be talking things like AI, roofing, inspection vehicles. If you haven’t watched that episode yet, you need to check that one out. Anyway, all the best in the industry on the show here. And we look forward to seeing you next time, right here on The Ride-A-Long.
