How He Built a 7-Figure Home Inspection Business from Scratch

Robert Seth-Ward (00:00)
It was a lot of work. I mean, it was at a place, you know, after the financial meltdown of, of, uh, uh, 2008, um, you know, I was at the bottom. So it was like, I had to completely rebuild. And, um, so it was seven days a week. You know, if I wasn’t doing a home inspection, I was marketing and following up and, and just working my absolute tail off. Um,

to generate the business. And I think it really paid off that a couple of premier, if you like, well-known agents in the area started using me. And I reached out for help. I was just like, hey guys, I really need this. What can I do to, how can I improve and how can I do better service for you and for your customers? And then I implemented.

And certainly with the help of my partner at the time, know, studied and implemented to make those changes, to make their jobs easier. And so then it snowballed. It was like, hey, this guy really cares. And so those agents then recommended me to other agents.

Dylan Silver (02:40)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is based in Southwest Florida and runs Hope Home Inspections, a company that completed over 4,500 home inspections last year while also owning companies in the pest control and insurance spaces. Please welcome Robert Seth Ward. Robert, welcome to the show.

Robert Seth-Ward (03:01)
Thank you, nice to be here. ⁓

Dylan Silver (03:03)
It’s great to have

you Robert and I always like to start off at the top by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.

Robert Seth-Ward (03:11)
Oh wow, that’s actually, unfortunately went through the financial crisis of where it was very popular for a lot of people to go bankrupt. Kind of had to fall back on old, you know, I was involved in some real estate and some development that failed during the 2007, eight, nine financial crisis.

basically went back to being kind of almost like a handyman and just started have to rebrand, you know, realtor asked me to look into and some issues they were having with a home inspection report, which I was not even aware of the industry at the time. And the person that did that home inspection was a really rude individual, had no people skills whatsoever.

Dylan Silver (03:37)
Yeah.

Robert Seth-Ward (03:55)
And I asked the realtor, was like, tell me about this industry. You know, it seems interesting to me. Boom, and I just started doing it. Got it to a stage that I think my first year I did over 300 home inspections. And at that time had a partner who was really good at putting systems together and well.

Dylan Silver (03:59)
Yeah.

Robert Seth-Ward (04:12)
had a friend who became a partner who then we looked at the scale. How do we scale this? How do we take it from a one man band to, you know, a team of 12, team of 15? How do we take it from regional, you know, a county into multiple counties and then across the state? And so we managed to scale up.

Dylan Silver (04:28)
Yeah.

Robert Seth-Ward (04:37)
But yeah, really through chance that someone literally asked me to look at a home inspection report and the guy was really rude. If he hadn’t been really rude, I’m not sure I would have been. Right, I’m not sure I would be in business.

Dylan Silver (04:47)
we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I

find it interesting, you’re not alone in that sentiment. I can’t speak specifically to home inspections, but I’ve spoken to so many realtors, I am a realtor, I’ve spoken to so many mortgage brokers and lenders and the like, and so many people say, well, I had a really odd experience, or I felt like I could have done a better job than the person I was working with or around, and I said,

if they can do this and they’re making money doing this, I can definitely do this. And so it’s funny how sometimes ⁓ people don’t always have the best impression of an industry to start and then they say, let me jump in and kind of innovate if you will. I’m curious, 300 home inspections in year one is a lot of inspections, a lot of inspections. How were you getting so much business in year one? What was year one like for you?

Robert Seth-Ward (05:38)
Um, it was a lot of work. I mean, it was at a place, you know, after the financial meltdown of, of, uh, uh, 2008, um, you know, I was at the bottom. So it was like, I had to completely rebuild. And, um, so

it was seven days a week. You know, if I wasn’t doing a home inspection, I was marketing and following up and, and just working my absolute tail off. Um,

to generate the business. And I think it really paid off that a couple of premier, if you like, well-known agents in the area started using me. And I reached out for help. I was just like, hey guys, I really need this. What can I do to, how can I improve and how can I do better service for you and for your customers? And then I implemented.

And certainly with the help of my partner at the time, know, studied and implemented to make those changes, to make their jobs easier. And so then it snowballed. It was like, hey, this guy really cares. And so those agents then recommended me to other agents.

And as you know, I think in being a realtor,

there is often one really good agent and one not so good agent and the really good agent ends up doing all the work. Right? And the other one’s kind of getting commissioned, not really doing that much work. And so, you know, when you provide a good service, a good team, good backup, good communication, it’s like they just keep coming back and…

Dylan Silver (07:44)
Yeah. ⁓

Yeah.

Robert Seth-Ward (07:58)
And that’s really how it

Dylan Silver (07:59)
the business

built itself, right? And so, I’m curious about, you mentioned a partner that helped you scale the business and was a big systems guy. I don’t imagine you were using AI, right? But what were the systems like back then? And how were the improvements with the partner who really implemented systems, right?

Robert Seth-Ward (08:18)
So I was actually a woman, Teresa. She’s no longer involved in the company, but she was, she’s on our website still as one of the ⁓ founders. And she had a computer background, computer programming, systems operations, systems building. And again, suffered during the financial meltdown like many people and had become a realtor.

And you know, so then she had some insight into mother home inspection companies that I was beginning to compete with. And then she had that background of how do you systematize? How do you come up with the processes and the standardization instead of just winging every time? And so, I mean,

At that time there were lot of home inspectors that were still building reports on a yellow notepad and using digital cameras and putting PDF folders together for people. She was able to take a well way beyond my pay grade, a system where we could photograph and put it in a digital report all in one hit.

and just made our job so much easier that then we could do multiple inspections in a day and scale it that way. And then also she got very much involved in the office and making sure the telephones were answered correctly and I think we both have a sort of a real strong desire for customer service and

Dylan Silver (09:31)
Wow.

Robert Seth-Ward (09:46)
good communication and so again that other things we concentrated on is what is the thing that’s missing in the market and how can we better service our customers.

Dylan Silver (10:32)
And then scale into today, I mean, so many different verticals. You’ve got the pest control, insurance services, but they’re all tied in, and you mentioned this before the podcast here, to the home inspections. How did you get involved in pest control and insurance?

Robert Seth-Ward (10:48)
So the pest, in Florida obviously we have a lot of pests and some banks require what they, down here they call it a WDO in Texas where I know you’re located at the moment. It’s called a WDI. It’s a wood destroying inspection or we call it in Florida WDO, wood destroying organisms. And so you need a special license to do that. And then if you find those issues, they have to be addressed.

you know, for the satisfaction of the customer and or the bank. And so it’s just an automatic sort of almost a referral business. And so.

Dylan Silver (11:22)
Yeah.

Robert Seth-Ward (11:24)
as a owner at actually the Florida law anyway, it’s different across the states, but the Florida law says if you’re a home inspector, you cannot work on that home for a period of one full year. There’s a conflict of interest. But there’s a lot of people that are looking for referrals. So as an owner of the home inspection company,

Dylan Silver (11:44)
Yeah.

Robert Seth-Ward (11:47)
I didn’t, I’m not the home inspector that worked on the home. So I’m not restricted from suggesting a pest control company or you know, whatever. And so that’s kind of how it went on. And again, it was just to really, because what would happen is that a realtor often is the person that’s booking our service.

and they would have to book, they’d have to phone the home inspection company, then they’d have to phone a pest control company, then they’d have to phone a plumber, and all the different things to inspect the home. And so then we’ve just made that a one-stop shop. So we’re licensed pest control, we’re licensed for doing things like sewer cameras and various other insurance inspections.

so that the realtor who’s booking or the customer that’s booking makes one appointment and then either a team of people show up from one company or you know one inspector depending on the size of the home.

Dylan Silver (12:40)
I want to pivot a bit here and ask you about Florida and you’re in southwest Florida, an area that I actually was thinking about moving to. And may still, may still, Tampa, St. Petersburg, you mentioned I believe it’s Sarasota, if I’m not butchering their pronunciation. But I’ve said this to some of my other guests who are from Florida, and I don’t know if all Floridians feel this way, but it comes across this way sometimes, that there’s a…

semi competition or maybe friendly competition between some of the different markets within Florida you’ve got kind of Miami which has its vibe you’ve got Tampa and then I’ve even heard that like Tampa and St. Petersburg if you tell someone from St. Pete that they’re from Tampa they’re kind of like absolutely not and vice versa and then you’ve got Orlando and other cities that I’m probably missing out but I’m curious to get your perspective as someone who’s

in southwest Florida but also familiar with Florida in general, you’re curious of the different markets within Florida.

Robert Seth-Ward (14:19)
there’s definitely different markets. mean, there’s a totally different vibe in on the other coast, really. I think we have more Midwesterners that have come down to this part of Florida and there’s sort of more New York, New Jersey have come down to the Miami area. And so it just leads to a different vibe. In the time that I’ve been here, there’s really been a big transition. St. Petersburg has become

Dylan Silver (14:32)
I’ve heard this. Yeah.

Robert Seth-Ward (14:44)
When I very first moved to Sarasota, there was sort of a joke. was like old people live in Sarasota, but their parents live in St. Petersburg. now that’s the complete opposite. St. Petersburg is a much younger vibe, a lot of trendy bars, a lot of the nightlife I think is probably better in St. Petersburg. Sarasota has kind of got an older vibe to it, but it’s… ⁓

It’s a great place to live. mean, I’m fortunate enough that, you know, I could live in many places, but Tarif Sur has got a bit of everything. We’ve got a great ballet, a great art museum. There’s a lot of culture here, some fantastic beaches, and it has a lot going on for it. We’ve had a lot of growth. And I think one of the things that if you’ve…

Dylan Silver (15:30)
Yeah, I’ve heard that.

Robert Seth-Ward (15:34)
for the people that have been here a long time like myself, one of the frustrations is there’s only so much beachfront property. The bridges over to the beaches have not been developed or modernized enough. And so there are so many people that live say 15 miles from the beach inland. They wanna go to the beach and those roads are still two lane roads.

Dylan Silver (15:58)
Yeah.

Robert Seth-Ward (15:59)
you know, so you get this massive congestion. Really, we could do a better job with some infrastructure. don’t know, parking offsite buses, I don’t know. That’s a bummer.

Dylan Silver (16:00)
congestion.

I’ve said

this before, I’ve said Florida in general, I mean, my goodness. I’m from the East Coast, I’m from Northern New Jersey, I live in DFW, Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex right now. And I’ve been to Fort Lauderdale five times in the last calendar year. It’s so nice. I haven’t been to Tampa since I was a kid, but Fort Lauderdale, Miami… You can’t convince me of that.

downtown Fort Lauderdale. I haven’t been to Boca, but I’ve heard Boca. That’s got to be one of the nicest. And then people, I’ve had multiple guests from St. Petersburg, multiple from Tampa convincing me, hey, forget about that area. Forget about, you know, Miami. Come over here. If you’re gonna, Dylan, if you’re gonna move anywhere, come to Tampa. Dylan, you would really love St. Pete. You gotta check out St. Pete. And so I’ve realized like, you know, you really can’t go wrong. I don’t feel like you can’t.

go wrong with any of these areas and they all have their own unique vibe. know, in Texas we’ve got the four majors which is Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and each one of them is different. You know, I tell people like I lived in San Antonio for five years, feels like a big military city. Austin, and I’d say also too there’s a lot of, you know, Tejano culture in San Antonio. Austin feels like a ⁓ tech hub.

Houston is a little bit of everything. It’s the port of Texas so you get everything that’s being shipped through the port of Houston and then DFW is amazing. DFW is like, I mean, there’s like five cultures over here. I live 25 minutes from Oklahoma and 50 minutes from Dallas, but I still feel like I’m part of Dallas as much as I am close to Oklahoma. So it’s like everywhere that you’ve got your own specific culture, but

Every Florida guest that I’ve had on this show makes me think I really gotta move out there. And now I’m thinking about Sarasota. I gotta go Google or chat GPT what’s out there in Sarasota. And then when I get the home, I gotta reach out to you for the home inspection. But we are coming up on time here, Robert. Where can folks go if maybe they’d like to reach out to Hope Home Inspections or maybe get in contact with you?

Robert Seth-Ward (18:11)
Pretty simple. it’s hope home inspections.com My email is Robert at hope home inspections.com And yeah, if you’re thinking of moving to the area and I know you’re talking about investors and things like that we work with several investors of that by Multi-unit properties and You know picking up rental single-family rental homes and things like that

There’s a tremendous amount of benefit to having a really good team of inspectors that can help investors, help guide them, help… I mean, there’s one group of investors we work with that we do an inspection prior to a new tenant moving in, and then we do an inspection when that tenant moves out.

to make sure the property is in the condition it’s supposed to be and I know that that’s been a real benefit for them. yeah, hopehomeinspectors.com, happy to share. I believe in the world of abundance and I believe in making good contacts and trying to, if I can help you, there’s possibility you can help me.

Dylan Silver (19:11)
That’s right, Robert. Thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Robert Seth-Ward (19:15)
my pleasure. Thanks for having me.