
Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Dave Dibelius, a dedicated home inspector and veteran. Dave shares his inspiring journey from being a 911 dispatcher and a medic in the Air Force to becoming a successful home inspector. He emphasizes the importance of integrity, family support, and community involvement in his work. Dave discusses his plans to obtain a real estate license and his commitment to serving others, highlighting the value of mentorship and personal growth throughout his career.
Resources and Links from this show:
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- Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
- Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
- Mike on Facebook
- Mike on Instagram
- Mike on LinkedIn
- David Dibelius’s Website
- David Dibelius on Facebook
- David Dibelius on Facebook
- David Dibelius on Instagram
- David Dibelius’s Phone no.: (267) 718-4475
- David Dibelius’s Email: [email protected]
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Dave Dibelius (00:00)
Listen, my sellers don’t pay me anything for their pre-listing inspection. I get paid from title when their house sells. And when they want to do an inspection and save a little bit at that end table, ⁓ then we do what’s called a modified pre-listing. We look at the major stuff, like not the walls, the ceilings, the islands. Now, like the HVAC, the water heaters, the electrical foundation, like that big ticket item stuff.Quentin (01:58)
Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. Y’all know I say it a lot. I’m excited to be here. And you know I said a lot. I’m excited about my guests. And today is no different. This guy has already got a special place in my heart just because of his passion, him being a veteran, the way that he sees things, his passion, his stick-to-itiveness. Y’all know I love that word.Dave Dibelius (02:00)
youyou
Quentin (02:24)
but this guy has overcame a lot of different things, but that’s not my story to tell. That’s his story to tell. So I don’t know how much he wanted to get into it, but one thing I do want you to know that he is a home inspector, but what separates him from the others is the integrity that he has, the way that he cares for people, the way that he wants to bring integrity to everything that he do, especially when it comes to business, but just really in overall life. So.Dave Dibelius (02:39)
youQuentin (02:50)
It gives me great honor to introduce you now. I’m not gonna say his government first name, so I’m gonna call him Dave, but I am gonna say Mr. DibeliusDave Dibelius (03:00)
I’m doing great and for anybody that’s watching you’ll know exactly where I’m from when I say Go Birds!Quentin (03:07)
There you go. didn’t even let it off the bat. So listen, Dave, ⁓ man, I’m truly, truly excited about our viewers getting a chance to peek through your lens. so, Dave, I want you to take us into your world, Tell us what it is that you do, what your main focus is these days. Maybe tell us what market you’re operating in. And maybe if you want to even give us a backstory on how you got started.I know people would love to hear it, again, I’ma leave that to you, but let us into your world, D.
Dave Dibelius (03:41)
So my world’s been pretty busy over the last 45, 48 years. ⁓ So before I got into home inspections, I was actually a 911 dispatcher ⁓ in Southeastern Pennsylvania. I did that for 18 years. ⁓ Spent 25 years in the United States Air Force and the Air National Guard. So the theory of one weekend a month, two weeks a year, which was never one weekend a month, two weeks a year. ⁓ But I did that as a medic and as a medic instructor for the military.And I’ve been a volunteer firefighter now since 1993. longer than probably some of your viewers have been alive, but that’s what makes us unique when we get old. But I decided to get into home inspections. had a big life change back in 2016. I went through a major life change and I decided to change careers. I decided to hang it up and leave my former career to do this.
in a way that nobody in business would ever sign off on. ⁓ know, like said, I have a lot of years working in buildings, being a firefighter has always been a big passion of mine ⁓ and helping people. I mean, when you think about 911 and firefighting and being a medic, you those all have those common themes of I like working with people. ⁓ So I decided I want to become a home inspector. And how is the best way to do
I retired from my job.
cashed out my pension, bought a new house, got rid of a nice car, bought a used car with no payments, and dropped about $80,000 altogether in the span of about 30 days. anybody that’s proficient in business would tell you that is insane to do that, right? ⁓ Because when you do this, when you leave something that you’ve had for almost 20 years, that full-time career,
You know, everybody would say, what’s your plan B? And I didn’t have a plan B. ⁓ It was, this is the plan. Failure is not an option. Failure can’t be part of my vocabulary because I got a little one at home that I got to take care of. And if this doesn’t work, like I can’t be 45 and doing, you know, $10 an hour jobs and provide for a kid. That’s just not going to happen. So.
I went all in. ⁓ bought into a franchise which was a very smart move. I’m not with the franchise anymore. ⁓ Not because they were bad, but because it was just time to change. ⁓ And I think every five to 10 years you have to experience some type of change or you’re not doing something right. ⁓ But the franchise helped me build to what I am today. It allowed me to develop relationships and really the people in that franchise especially
those peers that I had that first year of me being in this business, it would not have been as great as it was without that type of help. And I think that’s what, that’s what my biggest thing is like, you know, going through life changes, life experiences. ⁓ you know, something we didn’t talk about earlier, but I had a major accident back in 2011. It shattered my right leg. took me eight months to learn how to walk and
You know, things like that humble you, but it also brings you out of that mindset. Like as adults were like, you know, I got to do this on my own. I got to figure this out. When you have things like that that happen in your life, you find out real quickly that it hurts the first time you tell somebody I need help or I need help to do this. And then after a while, it gets very comfortable. You know, like when I when I talk to people now, like, listen, man, you’ve done this before I did, you know, how do I do this?
You know, how can I make myself better? And it doesn’t, after you do it enough times, you start feeling like, man, it doesn’t really hurt to ask for help because when you’re asking for help from the right circle, they, they’re invested in your success as much as you are. So I decided to do home inspections. Uh, I love going through addicts and crawl spaces. I’d rather do addicts in the winter than the summer. I’d rather do crawl spaces in the spring than the summer, but I still do them. Um,
It’s a family business. teenage daughter has worked with me now for three summers. So a 17 year old girl knows how to do electric HVAC plumbing. She hates doing the plumbing portion, but you know, that’s that’s par for the course. But I love the fact that I get to meet people every day. Every day is a new experience. Every day is an opportunity for me to show somebody what’s going on with with their investment.
You know, I think other than children, and nobody will ever change my mind on this, this is the number one, because it doesn’t matter when they turn 18, you’re still putting money out for the rest of your life. Buying a house is the second largest investment you’re ever going to make in your life. Having kids, and that’s okay, because you plan for that, you ask for help, that’s what grandparents are for. They can help you. But you know, with business,
You know, you have the opportunity to work with real estate professionals in every facet of the industry. ⁓ Contractors, realtors. ⁓ As a friend of mine told me earlier, don’t call them realtors. They are realtors. You gotta get it right. Otherwise you get crucified.
But I love the fact that every day is something new and that I get to go into somebody’s potential new home or a home that they’re selling.
to tell them like, this is my professional opinion on what I see. These are things that are showstoppers. These are things that are ⁓ minor, cosmetic. ⁓ Being able to tell somebody that when they read this report that they’re gonna get, that’s when you print it out, it’s like 80 pages nowadays. But being able to tell them like, hey, this is a red list item for me, this is a safety issue, but it’s only a $20 safety issue.
You know, being able to kind of not get rid of their stressors, but to manage that stress of the home buying process. ⁓ and, being able to, to put myself in that position where, where somebody actually says, thank you. ⁓ which sounds silly, but when I was dispatching and being an I one operator for 18 years, ⁓ I think dispatchers are the most, ⁓ unthanked heroes in the public safety area because.
Quentin (11:20)
Hmm.Dave Dibelius (11:49)
We’re dealing with people at their highest stress, like their worst time of their life. It’s very seldom anybody says thank you to a dispatcher. So that was an unexpected perk of my career choice now because people do say thank you. Realtors say thank you. Sometimes it’s not a thank you, it’s something else you, but that’s typically when people don’t like what I say about their house. ⁓you know, cause it’s
a double edged sword, you know, one party saying thank you. The other one’s like, I don’t like this guy. He just told me what’s wrong with the cast. You know, because when you own a home, your home is your castle. Your castle is perfect just the way it is. And then you bring me in there and then the appraiser comes in and then all these other people are like, yeah, your castle’s like a shanty, you know, but
Quentin (12:25)
youDave Dibelius (12:44)
I try to minimize it as best I can, you know, it’s and it’s hard. You know, you can’t make everybody happy all the time, but I do my best to manage expectations. And that’s the best you can do in any real estate profession is give your professional opinion. Give it 120%. Too many people are like, I’ll give it 100%. I’ll give it that 110 % because that’s that tagline. If you’re not giving 120%, then you’re not even giving 100 % of myQuentin (13:15)
Yeah, yeah. Man, listen, Dave, the more you talk, the more you share, the more impressed I get with just you as a person. And so, man, thank you for taking this into your lens, taking this into your background. And I’m getting more more impressed with you just as a businessman. And I know one thing you said that people are starting to do now is that they’re not just calling you as a home inspector when they’re buying a house, but even the seller is starting to call you in.to do an inspection on the house. so I just, know everything, all these different moving pieces are not especially easy. So what’s been the key to kind of keeping you running smoothly, keeping that machine kind of actually going at a very continuous pace.
Dave Dibelius (14:00)
⁓ you know what, honestly, the number one thing that comes to my mind is my family. ⁓ you know, we’re, are a family business. Yeah, we’re veteran owned, but we’re a military family. ⁓ you know, my, my wife, we’ve been married for, since 2018 now. ⁓ and she doesn’t have any part of my business. She has her own career. she’s a high school guidance counselor. So when she comes home and we got two teenagers, it’s like, she gets to go back to work over again. ⁓You know, but having that constant support, especially when things get tough, you know, when, things get rough and the finances take a hit because the pendulum in real estate swings and maybe it’s a slow month, just that, that once in a while hearing, you know what, babe, you’re gonna, you’re gonna rebound from this. it doesn’t matter that things are getting tight. I’ll help pick up the slack. You know, I’ll do this or we can do this or
You know, let’s refocus here and what can we do to, to help you here at home? That’s the biggest thing. Like, yeah, the, the, the career itself, things change like dynamics change. And we are doing more pre-listing. Like we’ve, we’ve modified our pre-listing process. Um, there are times I don’t even do a full top to bottom inspection because people want to have something less expensive because as a seller, you don’t want to spend money.
⁓ so how do I market that?
Listen, my sellers don’t pay me anything for their pre-listing inspection. I get paid from title when their house sells. And when they want to do an inspection and save a little bit at that end table, ⁓ then we do what’s called a modified pre-listing. We look at the major stuff, like not the walls, the ceilings, the islands. Now, like the HVAC, the water heaters, the electrical foundation, like that big ticket item stuff.
to make sure that when somebody comes to look at their house, now they got a document in front of them saying, hey, all that stuff that’s gonna cost you 10, 15, 20 grand, it’s been looked at by an independent guy. And it’s picking up, it’s a hard process because it’s regional. I have a friend of mine that’s an inspector in California and 85 % of his business is pre-listings. Here in Pennsylvania, it is definitely not that high, but it’s growing and…
Quentin (17:00)
Wow.Yeah.
Dave Dibelius (17:08)
You know, now we’ve got, you know, people are starting to realize like when you get a house renovated and you want to sell it. Now people are also starting to call us to come in and, look at how the contractors did their job. So now contractors get to be, um, you know, but we do new constructions and some of the builders out there great to work with. Because like I said earlier, it’s all about, know, sometimes you get that thank you and it means a ton. When I get to work with a renovator or a builder.who literally says, tell me what’s going on as you’re going through and I’m gonna have my guy go fix it right now. Those are the people that I refer to everybody because they know they’re gonna screw something up. Not even that it’s a screw up, but they know they’re not gonna get everything right the first time, right? So when they open their arms and they’re like, hey, bring your guy in, I’m proud of my work and I find something wrong. And their answer is, all we’re gonna take care of that right now.
Quentin (17:43)
Mmm.Dave Dibelius (18:03)
Like, you know, and that’s happened a couple of times over the last few months. ⁓ one house in particular, like I’m sitting there jotting stuff in my report and then I got to change my report because five minutes later he’s actually fixing it. It’s done before I was finished my job. ⁓ I love that. ⁓ but it’s, it’s, it’s gotta be family. Any business you have, if you don’t have, ⁓ not necessarily a strong family support.Quentin (18:16)
Wow.Dave Dibelius (18:31)
But if your family doesn’t believe in you, how are you going to believe in yourself? And it’s vice versa. If you don’t believe in your product, if you don’t believe in your own vision, how is your family going to believe in it? If you want to build and have employees and you don’t invest in your employees and you don’t believe in your employees, how are they going to represent you? How are they going to represent your vision? So you got to have that support. think that’s the root. That’s the base of everything.Quentin (19:00)
Absolutely. Man, when I told you, you and I have a synergy, man, my wife is an elementary school counselor. And so when I tell you, man, you and I have a synergy going on, brother, you’re like, oh yeah, oh yeah, man. This is amazing. So listen, man, I love it, man. I love your family. It’s the driving force, the passion behind what you do. And let me ask you this. So what are you most focused on scaling next?Dave Dibelius (19:09)
we’ll put them in touch.Quentin (19:25)
Like, what’s the next real goal for you?Dave Dibelius (19:28)
Right now I’m in the process of it. I’m actually doing my real estate course to get my real estate license I’ve been I’ve been tossing around for a couple of years and You know what I just said about like people believing in that vision, right? ⁓ I’ve made some very good friendships through doing what I do with other realtors and ⁓ When I get the link for this I’m gonna have to put it out there but I have to do I hate using the term shoutouts, but I have to shout out to my friendsQuentin (19:41)
Yeah, yeah.Dave Dibelius (19:58)
⁓ Jeff Nathan and Mark Gatta at Opus Elite Real Estate up here in Bucks County ⁓ who have really Jeff and I have been working together since he was at previous brokerage and he kind of brought me into Opus as his inspector and being able to work with Mark it’s blossomed into charitable work through the community they’ve got a charity foundation like that’s that’s what I want out of real estate.A lot of people are like, I want to be a millionaire and I’ve got the millionaire mindset. In my mind, I’m already a millionaire millionaire, even if I drive a 2012, right? But Mark and his team up at Opus are so community driven that they’ve started a community charity organization. And I, I’m that guy that’s like, all right, if I got to give up a piece of my commission, cause it’s going to go into a community thing, that’s a good firm for me to look at and be involved with. And the mentorship has been the agency.
So those are people that have been on me ⁓ to
get my button gear and get my real estate license. And another person is Anna Daley. She works with the Wolf Pack through EXP Realty up in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Anna’s been a friend of hers for years. We found out that her kid takes karate and her karate instructor was the best man at my first wedding. ⁓ So he’s been a good friend of mine for decades. ⁓ But Anna, we were talking recently about three, four months ago.
And she’s like, Dave, why aren’t you getting a real estate license? She’s like, you know, you could market yourself great because of your inspection background. You would bring so much to the table for any buyer or seller. And, ⁓ you know, and they really, those, those people really have pushed me to, to take this step. And I’m not trying to knock anybody out when I say it. There’s guys from KW like Chris Stevens, Gaurav Gambhir, ⁓ KW and Power that gave me my first shot.
as a vendor for a real estate agency. Like without guys like that, that listen, I was a little cocky about it. I’m not going to lie. Like I walked in, I went to KW had a bold training and at the end of bold, meet Chris Stevens. He’s like the CEO down there. And I’m like, Hey Chris, I’m Dave. And he’s like, Oh, you’re the home inspector. And I was like, Hey, I wanted to talk to you about your home inspector problem. And he’s like, Oh, what problem is that? I’m like, well, the problem is that I’m not your preferred vendor at your agency. And that’s costing you guys. Like I had to get a little
I hate to use the word, but I had to like a little brass to it. I’d be a little cocky, but he gave me an opportunity based off of that. That helped me grow my business. bringing all that in, like when I’m looking at getting my real estate license, it always reminds me about that sphere in that circle of people. know, something I’ve learned trying to get more involved in real estate. Apparently there’s like two things that realtors love. They love donuts and pizza and they love golf.
So, you know, my wife’s family’s big into golfing. I’ve started golfing more, but the reason I bring that up is because it’s about business and that sphere of people. If I’m golfing with three other people in a foursome and they play worse than me, my game is going to suffer. But when I’m playing with a guy like Chris Stevens, who likes to get trophies at tournaments because he plays so good, I am stepping up my game. And those people that I just mentioned, ⁓ Jeff Farrell, Nate Hodson, Mark Gatta,
His turn mark dad is tagline used to be I got a guy and it because his name is Gatt and And they’ve really pushed me up my game and Anna Daly has pushed me to to up my game. Oh, I have to expand because your business expands to the point that you do and If you know there yeah, that’s a KW bold thing anybody from KW that’s gonna watch this be like, oh, that’s a bold. That’s a bold walk
Quentin (24:00)
Mm.Dave Dibelius (24:15)
It is because I use a lot of both laws in my in my work. No diamonds equals, you know, no diamonds without pressure or no pressure, no diamonds. ⁓ There’s a lot of things that I use on those affirmations that that keep me going. Hey, listen, there’s one sitting on my shirt right now. You know that you are enough. I’m really going to talk to me about that at some point, so I’ll just bring it up, but.I’m very big into veterans causes and suicide prevention ⁓ because it’s a very personal thing with me. ⁓ But you are enough isn’t just about suicide. You are enough is business. You are enough is family. Because we always question, am I enough for this? And that question, listen, you start a business on your own, you’re gonna question every move you make for those first few years.
Because what do the experts tell you? got to be in business five years to really know if you’re going to make it or break it. Listen, it’s been almost 10 years and there’s still times I wonder like, I doing this right? But I remind myself I am enough for this. If somebody doesn’t like me, there’s 10 other people out there that do. And you know, I don’t, it’s going to sound callous when I say, I don’t care if you don’t like me. I care if you respect me. I care if you trust me. You don’t have to like me.
But I want you to trust that I know what I’m doing for you. And hopefully I can do that as a realtor. Hopefully, listen, I want to close on 20 fields a year. I want to be driving around a 20, 20 instead of a 2012. I’m not all about being big and flashy. Like y’all look at my office here, like all my military stuff’s in my office. Cause my wife pretty much told me like she’s tired of my basement being the military homage. So it’s all in my office. But like I go to work like this, like on September, suicide awareness month.
Quentin (25:46)
Yeah.You
Dave Dibelius (26:09)
I got hoodies, I take them to work. I’m driving an older car because who drives a Mercedes to do a home inspection? But yeah, I’m more involved with veterans initiatives, ⁓ which doesn’t pay me anything, but it pays me something here. I’m part of my veterans from your township.Quentin (26:32)
Yeah. Yeah.Dave Dibelius (26:35)
Because we’re a commonwealth here just like you know a couple other places But you know on my first ever suicide awareness walk in October So when you ask like what’s on the horizon? It’s not just things that pay me and money. It’s things that pay my And that’s and that’s that’s real and people that know me would tell you like that’s not a tagline. That’s That’s who I amQuentin (27:02)
No, man, listen, you have committed your life to serving others, it was the Air Force, whether it was the 911 dispatcher, volunteer firefighter, even with the home inspection, like you have committed your life to making sure you serve others. So I know it’s not a game with you. I know this is who you are through and through, and you’re shining through.Dave Dibelius (27:21)
youQuentin (27:30)
Even about the relationships that you built, giving us shout outs, taking your time. Here it is your time, the platform you can talk about just me, me, ⁓ and you shout out about 45 to 55 people. Now I’m exaggerating, but no, but you made sure that people know who has helped you along the way. so listen, man, before we wrap, if, yeah, Yes, sir.Dave Dibelius (27:37)
Hahaha.Well, and you know what? And I got to interrupt you for just one second, you know, cause I, I
would be remiss if I didn’t say it. My wife’s name is Lauren. My daughters are Alina and Paige. If you think I have no time left in the world, I also coach softball. I attend chorus recitals, you know, like, but that’s the thing you’ve got to make time. And, and listen, if I didn’t shout out to my, daughter’s page and Alina and to my wife, Lauren and my mother, Claire,
⁓ God bless my father. We lost him in 2017. He’s the guy that told me to do this. And ⁓ my father had a business in the 80s where his business failed. And you know, and you and I are probably old enough to remember the market took a bad hit in the mid 80s. And he lost almost a million dollars in the stock market in less than a week. And they foreclosed their house. He had to close his business and they never recovered.
And shortly before he passed, I told him I wanted to do this. And he said, listen, I went to him for advice. And his first piece of advice was, don’t do it the way that I did it. And he said, get yourself a financial advisor. Get yourself an attorney. Get yourself somebody who has done this before and knows what they’re talking about. Because if you try to do this by yourself, you’re going to be 65 years old living in an apartment.
and never recovering. like, don’t want that for you. I don’t want that for your family. And I wasn’t even remarried then. You know, he says, if this is what you want, marry this woman. She is good. She’s going to be great for you. And, you know, to hear your father say, don’t do it this way, it’s stung. It’s still stung. I’m like, I’m so proud of my dad for what he has done. And then he tells me like, don’t do it the way I did. And the thing is,
I was about to do everything the way that I had seen him do it his whole life. And to hear him say that, you know, the man saved my business and saved my livelihood by telling me to go a different course. So my biggest shout out goes to my pop, who if he was alive would tell me I can’t call him pop. But it was terrible.
Quentin (30:06)
Man, I love it, man. That’s all I call my dad is pop. I’ll tell you there’s so much synergy. I’m literally finishing up a book that I’m writing with my dad about his legacy. so, man, I just, man, you impressed me so much. Like I said, there’s so much of a synergy. But listen, we’re coming up on time, Dave. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you, sir?Dave Dibelius (30:30)
So thankWell, they can come up to any softball game my kid is playing they can reach me there But now we are greater Philadelphia home solutions. I said I’m not wearing the company shirt today, but ⁓ You can find us at greater Philadelphia home solutions on Facebook GP home solution on Instagram they wouldn’t let us add the s Www.gp home solutions calm and You can reach out to me directly my cell phone is two six seven
718-4475. If you want to reach out to Ashley, my office girl, she handles all my digital media. I gotta do the shout out. Ashley is, she just relocated down south, but she does all my Instagram, all my Facebook. You can reach out to her through our website, ⁓ email directly to me, david at gphomesolutions.com. ⁓ I have to do this because she’ll kill me if I don’t.
Look at our Instagram GP home solutions because I’m going to give my final shout out to Fletcher from Fletcher’s home inspections in Colorado. The guy gave me an idea on something to do. So we do a clip called Yes or No, where we’re looking at things in a home and she tells me I got to send her videos every day. But we’ll look at a defect and be like, Hey, yes or no, sometimes we’re looking at something good. Maybe it’s a yes. A lot of times it’s a no. Follow us on social media and
Even if you are using another home inspector, I don’t get hurt feelings about it. If you have a question, you can always call me. you have ⁓ anything you want to pick my brain on, I don’t get hurt by you using the other guy. I get hurt by you not exploring the questions and answers you need answered.
Quentin (32:23)
I love it. There it is, Mr. Dave. Thank you, man. Thank you so much for your story, for your perspectives. Thank you for being you. Thank you for being an overcomer. Thank you for being a veteran. Thank you for serving this country. Thank you for serving your community. Thank you for your volunteer work. Thank you for what you sacrifice. Thank you for being a great dad. Thank you for being a great husband. Thank you for being a great person. Sarah, you are definitely enough.And I appreciate it. was an honor to do this podcast with you today,
Dave Dibelius (32:55)
Q I appreciate everything and listen, I appreciate you because you give them the opportunity to do this. Like I could tell this to anybody I want all day long, but I don’t have that platform. Like I got 500 some followers on Instagram after five years, you know, but being able to have that opportunity to come out and have that energy. That’s so mirrored. Like I don’t know, man. It’s, it’s, it’s what nine, 10 o’clock here. You have way more energy than I could have this time of day.Quentin (33:21)
Yeah.Yeah, yeah.
Dave Dibelius (33:24)
⁓ But I reallyappreciate you ⁓ and honestly, anytime you want me on, if you want me on to talk about something specific, I’m always, happy to and I want to see this grow even more.
Quentin (33:36)
Absolutely. Well, listen, man, thank you so much. Listen to everyone else. You’ve heard the conversation. I keep telling you, we have amazing people that keep coming on day after day. And so you do not want to miss out on these conversations. So please make sure you subscribe. Mr. Dave, thank you again. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time. -


