Episode 65 of The Ride Along brings together Brad Lowery, Matt Brading, and guest Brad Zirlott (Due South Brad) for a year-end conversation on inspection visibility and demand.
Due South Brad shares how inspection content shifted client expectations long before an inspection was scheduled. Not through selling – through showing the work and letting it speak on its own.
The discussion moves into inspection volume, the challenge of saying no, and why availability plays a bigger role in growth than many inspectors expect.
It closes with a year-end rundown of field moments inspectors are ready to leave behind – a reminder that experience changes how you work and where you draw the line.
Don’t forget to subscribe to The Ride Along newsletter for episodes like this delivered straight to your inbox.
Transcript
Brad Lowery
Man alive Matt Braiding. We’ve reached the end of the year, sir.
Matt Brading
Yeah, dang near, man. We were very close. I’m feeling the spirit.
Brad Lowery
Just, mean, Christmas is only two weeks away, but first year of the ride along as co-hosting the show in the books, I couldn’t be happier. Merry Christmas to you, Merry Christmas to every single one of y’all who’s watching. And thank you for subscribing, thank you for following along. It’s been a hell of a year. But Matt, nobody looks hollier or jollier than you right now. What’s going on, dude?
Matt Brading
Merry Christmas to you. I am in the spirit. I mean, for one, I mean, it is, you know, it is the tis the season, right? But no, no, there’s a reason. There’s a bit of it. You know? Yeah, I know. I feel like it’s possible that I’m turning into Santa Claus. No, not entirely. You know, this whole beard thing was just an accident. I just got lazy. It didn’t trim it. And then next thing you know, like, I don’t know, it’s just this thing now. But yeah, no, yeah, I’m feeling the spirit. So why I’m wearing a Santa suit, is that what you’re saying? Santa jacket? I had the whole suit on.
Brad Lowery
You’ve been working on that Santa beard all year. Are you going to be going sneaking into houses and delivering? Okay.
Matt Brading
I’m not. I’m not. No, I know, but I did do a some paid content for a company earlier that was Christmas themed. And I had I had the suit on and I still had the jacket on. I went to Lowe’s today with his jacket on, by the way. And but I might honestly. And I thought, well, man, why not? I’ll just leave it on for the podcast. But I went ahead and dressed it up a little. I got my Santa hat. This is like I got this hat from
Brad Zirlott
Sorry.
Brad Lowery
I think you should go everywhere with that jacket on. was for the rest of the year. Yeah.
Matt Brading
Branded bills at Santa and he’s got a big old stogey So that’s right up my alley. And I got the most wonderful time for a beer shirt. I found this shirt recently. It is, it’s a really good time of the year for a beer.
Brad Lowery
Uh-huh. That’s important. Wonderful time for a beer. It is man dude porters and stouts are in session brother. That’s it. I love it. But you know what else is in session a long overdue guest on this show and honestly dude Matt from the day. Overdue that’s it. Yeah, we’re I didn’t intend it. Well we’re rolling with it. Sometimes my best ideas are unintentional y’all but truly I.
Matt Brading
That’s right. Did you say over due?
Brad Zirlott
Right. Pun intended.
Matt Brading
Hahaha!
Brad Lowery
Brad’s are a lot aka Due South Brad. It is so good to have you on the show, dude, because I have been telling Matt from the day that we started talking about cohosting this show, I’m like, I want to Due South Brad on this freaking podcast. So welcome, man.
Matt Brading
True.
Brad Zirlott
Well, I appreciate it. Yeah, I appreciate it. Looking forward to it.
Brad Lowery
No, totally, man. No, I’ve been following you for a hot minute, not to sound like a creeper, but seriously, it was a little bit. I mean, it was a little bit odd, But no, seriously, like just you’re following us. There’s so many home inspectors on there and everybody’s got their own bit, but yours is one of the most unique takes simply because
Brad Zirlott
Hmm.
Matt Brading
I mean, he does, it was that way though. Ooh, a creepy.
Brad Zirlott
You
Brad Lowery
It’s freaking hilarious. I have never seen anybody else. know, some will take the educational approach. Some will go a little bit over the top with the personality and yours is so understated that.
Matt Brading
Nonchalant, you’re the definition of nonchalant.
Brad Zirlott
I’ve been told that I’m not very excitable and a lot of it just has to do with just, you just get beat down after a while and nothing shocks you.
Brad Lowery
That’s it man. Yeah, it’s like you’re just not even shocked anymore. It’s like I don’t know how many of your videos start with just a sigh, you know
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, yeah, that’s how start my day.
Brad Lowery
That’s it. You just wake up about to do this. Yeah. How did you get rolling with it, dude? Actually, you know it before, but we, we got something we got to do before we get into it. Cause I mean, we could go on a nauseam. So first things first, we haven’t done this in a minute because we had inspection fuel and all this other stuff, but we got to bring the drink of the day back. It’s the end of the year. And I think we’ve learned it.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, just let it along with it get going.
Matt Brading
You
Brad Zirlott
yeah, go ahead.
Matt Brading
Yeah. Yeah, that’s right.
Brad Lowery
So first of all, as you guys saw in the last episode, we have a sponsor on here. So the drink of the day today is sponsored by Matt.
Matt Brading
Charles Bellefontaine, right, from Get Sync.
Brad Lowery
GetSync. That’s it. Yep. And if you guys are wondering what GetSync is, first of all, drink of the day is sponsored by GetSync and GetSync is an automation and support platform built just for home inspectors. And if you want to grow your business and keep overhead low, make sure you check it out and go to GetSync.pro. So without further ado, I will drink to that. And Brad, let’s start with you, man. What are you drinking? And as you’re sipping on it, tell us how you got started with this whole thing.
Matt Brading
I’ll drink to that.
Brad Zirlott
So Crown and Coke, actually it’s a vanilla Coke. Yeah, I’m easy to please. Coke has some kind of special vanilla Coke out right now. Yeah, it’s just a little bit more leaded probably. It’s just a little heavier. I don’t know what they got going on with it, but I tried it out. That’s pretty good.
Matt Brading
Hey, that’s good. I like that.
Brad Lowery
Vanilla, you know, easy going.
Matt Brading
Yeah, it tastes like vanilla coke to me. I think it’s, they’re calling it extra creamy, you know, but like, I didn’t get that either. It’s just a vanilla Coke with a different label on it. But like, it’s this holiday on it. They got me whatever. It was good. I mean, it well with bourbon.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, which I didn’t get. Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Lowery
Some extra corn syrup in there.
Brad Zirlott
They got me too.
Brad Lowery
The things he does with corn is impressive.
Brad Zirlott
But yeah, so how I got started, you know, my daughter was kind of into TikTok, right? And I had a real estate agent who had kind of told me, said, you need to kind of work on a social media presence. And because she was kind of into TikTok, that was just kind of where I started. And kind of like everybody else, you know, you get on there, you get, you know, a couple of few hundred followers and you post videos that get a hundred views and twenty, thirty likes until you do one that hits, right? And then it’s kind of off to the races then. But yeah, it’s kind of how I got into it. And then kind of to your point, I’d always watch people’s things, right? I’m not very articulate. So I didn’t ever feel like I was one to educate anybody. So I kind of felt like a fish out of water doing it. I thought, I mean, I am kind of a smart ass, I guess, but I just kind of went that route, right? And then… Again, I was making these more so for just people I knew. And then you start to realize that it kind of resonates with other people who’ve either had bad experiences with houses they purchased or contractors. And then you realize, okay, so everybody feels this way. It’s just not a lot of people are saying it.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, no, that’s accurate,
Matt Brading
It’s pretty crazy how many people and I’m not talking about like home buyers or real estate agents, but like just general public are actually interested in watching home inspection related content like that. I never saw coming.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, you can. No. No.
Brad Lowery
No, honestly, it’s a with video, especially I mean, I remember when it started with Facebook and people were suggesting posting on LinkedIn and everything was horizontal. And it was strictly just for realtors to find you or to keep your page at the top of people’s feet. And that was it not because people liked it. But they do.
Matt Brading
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that’s how I started. I mean, that was what it That’s what it was all about. You know, trying to connect with realtors. I remember actively going and following because this is when Facebook was a little bit heavier than Instagram, but I would go and connect with like a follower or friend as many realtors as possible just to make that connection. You know what I mean? Just I just wanted them to see that request and any of
Brad Lowery
Mm-hmm.
Matt Brading
Anywhere like just a real estate related person. I focused primarily on like my area, but I went, you know, as far out as it said real estate, whatever, I’m just going to try to add you and, and, and did the same thing kind of over on Instagram, just trying to connect with real estate. That was what it was all about in the beginning. I never had any idea that was actually going to be something people actually wanted to watch.
Brad Zirlott
Right, yeah. I thought the home inspection aspect of it, we would be so far down the totem pole, right, that we were lucky our clients knew our name. And then to see people, because I’m sure it’s happened to you guys too, but people will walk up to you in public and say your name and it’s like, hold on a minute. This is on the internet. This is not real life. But it is weird that, yeah, you’ll get a reputation and then you’re just kind of known. And then even though you have a follower count, you see how many people watch your videos, it still doesn’t quite click that, yeah, people around me are seeing this. It’s just weird when it happens to you out in public.
Matt Brading
Yeah. For sure. I mean, I do get people in public that are like, Hey, you’re that guy. It happens every grocery store or whatever. I had to happen out of town more than once. I was sitting at lunch in Austin with some guys that I felt like were really well known on the internet. And I’m the one that somebody recognizes the weirdest thing. Right. I mean, but, but to that point, like I had a client that got booked there on inspection tomorrow and they, uh, I mean, when you guys are watching this, will be way done.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Brading
But, but as of today, they’re on an inspection for next week, actually. But, and so, but they paid today and they sent an email today and they were like, Hey, looking forward to it, looking forward to it. Like a great inspection or something. And they were like, I hope we find a lot of things that are supposed to do that. And I’m like, wow, you know, like it still blows my mind that like these people, mean, they want a home inspection. They believe in me because of what they’ve seen, but it’s like,
Brad Zirlott
Yes.
Matt Brading
It’s because they watch my videos. That’s crazy to me.
Brad Zirlott
Well, you know, that’s the other thing that’s so weird about it is because, mean, you know, obviously you’ve been inspecting a while, but think about before social media, you kind of had to prove who you were, what you knew, what you did. And now you can just send them a video or better yet, they’ve already watched the videos. They know what you’re about. And you know, like, that’s the one thing that’s, you know, been just kind of game changing in terms of how we use this for businesses. The fact that we’re not really competing for work anymore.
Matt Brading
Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
Like we used to. You used to it was, I had a conversation with a guy today and then, you spec tour, so I’m sending out sample reports, but you know, everybody is gonna say, do you check this? And then, you know, and I get it, everybody’s gonna do it. We’re all guilty of it. And it’s like, yeah, we look at everything. But when you have the videos and you have the content library, you can show people like, this is what goes on during these. And I think for, you know, especially people, home buyers, agents, any of that. You know, it’s a resume that you can’t touch any other way. You know, it’s out there and people see it. And then it really hits when it’s something that they didn’t expect. You know, it’s like new construction stuff. know a lot of the Texas guys, you know, it’s new construction heavy out there. And when you see that stuff and you’re thinking like, well, I thought because it was new, I didn’t have to have this inspected, you know, like it really, but it really does it. It brings in a whole different level of clientele that you would have had to kind of convince before.
Matt Brading
We do a lot, yeah. Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
And now they’re coming to you, know, begging you to do the inspection. So I mean, it really has opened up a lot of different avenues.
Brad Lowery
Well, it’s, I’ve often found it interesting that real estate content, as far as like long form shows was always fascinating. HTTV has been around for ages DIY, but I, I thought that home inspections would be something fascinating for those platforms, but there’s only, mean, Mike Holmes is maybe the only one that’s cracked it, you know, as far as having something that lasted long-term as far as a long form show, but maybe short form and Tik TOK was really what
Matt Brading
Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
yeah.
Brad Lowery
Caters best to people like us who do well with individual, like you can showcase one little problem here, one little problem here, and you have an endless stream of content from one property, you know, that you could use, you know what I’m saying? So, and it’s more bite size. So it could just cater more, know, or cater better.
Matt Brading
Think it does. Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, yeah.
Matt Brading
I so. I mean, like, I think that there’s a way to do it. I do think it’s a little bit more complicated to do a home. It’s like, because even Mike Holmes and like, who’s the other guy? Because there was another guy up in New York that was doing it. Yeah. But these guys are really contractors and that’s why this show works because
Brad Lowery
Spectre Pro Joe. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Matt Brading
I mean, everything we’re doing is like confidential and all that. Like it’s like, can’t really, but if you’re going in there and be like, Hey, all this stuff’s wrong and I’m going to fix it. Well, that turns into a show. I think that there’s a way for, I it home inspection needs to be, I even got approached one time about somebody that was talking about a show where they were going to have an inspector. wasn’t a show about the inspector. There’s an issue when they bring in an inspector, to, to do, you know, that would be part of each show.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah. Right.
Matt Brading
You know, and so, that makes sense. And I think that could work. I think there’s ways to do it, but you got to think outside the box. Let me ask you something, Brad, like how long you been doing this?
Brad Zirlott
We might have that. So eight years, yeah, eight years as an inspector, yeah. Yeah.
Matt Brading
Okay. We’re about the same time. So.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, yeah.
Matt Brading
I was just, I was just curious if like, you know, you were like trying to find traction, or, or, or had established traction before you started getting on social media. like what was that like? And then what have you seen a change after that? Or, were you like, just like rocking along pretty good and just decided to do this just for the hay of
Brad Zirlott
Ugh. Yeah, kind of that. So I was a repair and remodeling contractor for plus years before doing this. And, you know, not to get too… Yeah, yeah, like I’ve seen it all. And then, you know, the other thing is I tell people that all the time. They’ll ask like, why would they do it like that? And it’s like laziness. The common denominator in all of this is laziness. you know, so I did that for a long time. And then I had a guy that worked with me for close to years.
Matt Brading
That’s why you’re so put out.
Brad Zirlott
And then he was getting close to retirement age and he had some health issues. And I just really, I did not want to go through the whole thing of trying to find some, because he was literally, you know, just irreplaceable. And, you know, this was something to where I didn’t have to have people. I didn’t have to have a lot of overhead. And I kind of gradually eased into it, did it part-time for three years. And then when COVID hit, you know, obviously real estate market varied everywhere, but here it took off. So I went from doing, I think in twenty nineteen, I did one hundred eighty part-time. And then from March to, or like the end of March to the end of December, I did a little over three hundred. And then from there, you know, it just kept going up. But the social media aspect of it, because whenever like, you know, my channel’s kind of evened out a little bit, but whenever it was really rocking and rolling, you know, like twenty twenty one, I mean, we were turning them down left and right. mean, my best month, I think I did fifty six in a month. And then, you know, at that point in time, it was close to five hundred for the year. And that was, I had another guy working with me, great guy, but I mean, like we were hustling. Like as great as it was, like I don’t really wanna be there anymore. So I am kind of glad that it kind of, you know, kind of simmered down just a little bit. Cause I mean, you’re talking about six, seven days a week, you know, and then of course three a day.
Matt Brading
I hear you.
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Matt Brading
Yeah. Well, and like you’re what you’re trying to keep up with is like, you know, you never really know when that’s going to stop. Right. And like you got if you aren’t able to make these, you know, appointments that like say realtors that you’ve tried to work at advertising to if you’re having to tell them, I’m booked, they’re going to find somebody else. They’re not going to call you next time. And so you kind of it’s like part of our job when you have worked.
Brad Zirlott
Mm-mm. Right, it somewhere else. That’s right.
Matt Brading
You know, put money and time into marketing when that phone rings, like you want, mean, obviously we can’t take every job, but I mean, the goal is to try to take as many of them as possible because jobs turn into other jobs and jobs that would pass on turning into loss of future jobs. And so, I mean, like, it’s like, you really want to grab that phone and say yes. And it’s hard to say no when you’re working for yourself.
Brad Zirlott
Right?
Brad Lowery
Now, Brett, how long are you on the job site? Because I used to, the most I did was I think four hundred ten to four hundred fifteen in a year. But for me, I was plowing through up to three inspections a day, two to two and a half hours per job site. I know other inspectors are a little bit different. They take a little longer. So what’s your, what’s your kind of your, your workflow and how do you fit the content side into that?
Brad Zirlott
Mm-hmm. Well, so I’ve been, you know, kind of in both camps, right? You know, doing three a day, especially in the summertime when it gets dark so late. But the sweet spot for me is two a day. And then I like to set out at least, you know, three, three and a half hours per inspection. Now know, you everybody’s different. I like to be, for the most part, finished before I leave the house. I don’t want to take a lot of stuff home because if something happens at the house, then you’re up, you know, to all hours. But you know, I’ll block it out like that and then you try to fit the content in between. But here’s something that I don’t know, you know, how you guys, you know, deal with this, but the one aspect of the social media that kind of, it’s like a blessing and a curse, right? Because now your personality’s out there and when people show up at these, they kind of want to talk for a minute and hang out for a minute. that. kind of changes the pace a little bit as well. But, you know, most of the time it’s just me by myself, but I’m a mentor for new inspectors in Alabama. So I’m on the state’s website, you know, to do ride alongs, no pun intended. But, you know, these guys will come through me, they do their thirty five ride alongs, and then of course, you know, help them get their license. And then depending on what I have going on. Sometimes they work with me, sometimes they kind of jump off and do their own thing, but I try to be real supportive of them and like their goals. One of the guys that worked with me for a few, know, right at two and a half years, you know, I’d let him wear his branded shirts and hats and stuff because at the end of the day, his goal and he was always very upfront was to run his own company. And then at the same time, you know, he didn’t have enough business to do that. So, you know, he’s a great guy, awesome inspector, so I let him work with me until his business got to where it was taken off. And I wish I had enough work to where I could do more of that, because I do enjoy helping people, especially on that side of it, because when I got started, there was nobody to help me, which was weird in itself. But yeah, that’s where I like to be, two a day, and then five, six days a week.
Matt Brading
Man, I got to commend you on that. I love helping people too. I mean, I try to teach and try to give things away for free, just like knowledge, experience. I try to show people that experience. I try to help other inspectors. I answer a ton of DMs. I try to guide people as much as I can. But I wouldn’t be down for somebody working with me wearing somebody else’s I couldn’t do that.
Brad Lowery
It’s a good workflow.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, the only reason that I did this and then like, you know, so it’s a lonely profession, right? Especially if you’re by yourself, think about it if you get hurt or you’re sick or something comes up, right? And you have things scheduled, well, they can’t, you know, wait indefinitely for you. And the upside to what I kind of had going on was, you know, could, these guys worked under me and then of course, you know, they use my software, they…
Matt Brading
Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
… did things the way that I wanted them done. But what that allowed me to do was if I couldn’t do an inspection, you know, a couple of years ago, I got in a wreck, no, serious. But, you know, I had to miss my morning appointment, but I was able to call one of the guys that I helped get licensed and plug him right in. And because the Realtor saw him, you know, and knew him, like that was just a non-issue. It was seamless. You know, it was plug and play. And, you know, when I got started, I always tell this story. So I went to a meeting. It was like a network meeting between like home inspectors. It was a interNACHY thing. I’m not gonna say who ran it, but it wasn’t anybody you know. It was just a local guy, he, no, it kind of was. I’ll tell you, I’m not as some people, but like I’m not Tom Petty, but I am Lori Petty. I mean, so they say that like a crow.
Brad Lowery
It sounded personal there.
Brad Lowery
Are you lower Alabama Petty like you’re like Bible Belt Petty like?
Matt Brading
Hahaha
Brad Zirlott
Has like generational grudges. So like if a crow has a grudge and that crow has kids, that kid also hates it, that’s me, right? That’s my spirit animal. But I went to this meeting, you know, I’d only done like sixteen inspections at this point. And I just wanted to kind of get a feel for what everybody had going on. And as soon as I got there, it was kind of like, you know, one of those anonymous meetings where everybody kind of said who they were, what they did and how many inspections they’d done. Well, of course, when they got to me and I said, I’ve only done sixteen. Right? Everybody in the room kind of cracked a smile and, you know, kind of looked down their nose at me. And I was sitting there at a table, got to a point where we were kind of talking with each other and I asked a guy about, you know, his summary. At the time, I mean, I hadn’t seen very many inspection reports. I knew what I was looking for. I just didn’t know the best way to present it. And the guy told me that he’d be happy to answer any of those questions. All I had do was pay for an inspection. And then there were other guys the same way. So I politely asked for their business cards and I kept those business cards in a drawer. And then I would look at those business cards and then I would get on Google and look at their reviews and see what their business was doing in relation to mine. And whenever I would pass them, I’d throw that card away, right? And then I kept going. but you know, so I’ve got a little over, well, it might be actually close to six hundred fifty now.
Matt Brading
just chomping away. That’s all.
Brad Lowery
that’s beautiful.
Brad Zirlott
five-star reviews and I’m the highest rated single inspector firm in my area. But you know, wasn’t through like dumb luck. You know, I worked like obsessively hard for it. know, the episodes you guys had with Nick Grimico, I love that episode. Because one, I love his intensity, right? And how, you know, like there’s so much great information you could get just from that podcast alone. But you know, whenever I went through InterNACHI, that’s…
Matt Brading
Great.
Brad Zirlott
Whenever I did all my training and stuff, as far as my online stuff, the marketing, I guess it was like a video course that they gave, but I got the most out of that. And then of course, when we went to Dallas, that’s where I met you guys, he did that class on that. And then of course, he’s up there and he’s being very humble, but talking about the people here that do the social media stuff, but he was still just dropping bombs in terms of like great information for new inspectors. But you know, it is, you have to know your competition, know the market, right? Not in like a terrible way, but if you don’t know what people are doing, how they’re doing it, why they’re doing it, right? You can get lost in the shuffle. And I kind of took, you know, all of that to heart when I got started and like just really went after it. But you know, I could credit a ton of my success just to like that class in international loan. You know, that really helped.
Brad Lowery
That’s awesome, man. I love it. Now, I’ve got a follow up question to what you do with training other people, obviously, because this comes again from people weren’t very helpful to you. And so you’re kind of paying forward the help that you wish you would receive maybe, but or doing things differently, which thank God there’s a lot of inspectors I feel like that are so much more approachable and community minded than they used to be. But, but really, my big question, it’s a two parter.
Matt Brading
Interesting.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, yeah.
Brad Lowery
When people recognize you in public, do they recognize you or do they recognize your shoes? And two, does everybody that trains with you get a pair of Sperry’s?
Brad Zirlott
So to answer the first part, I have been catcalled over my shoes, right? Twice. So one time I think they did it with love in their heart and then the other time I think there might have been a henna malice because they were like, nice shoes, dick. But yeah, so I get known for that. That’s such a crazy thing that took on a life of its own. So I have an abnormally wide foot. Right? I’d show you guys on here, but I got another site for that and I’d have to charge you for it. But I’ve got like this four E foot. Yeah. It’s only feet. Do South Brad on only feet. I’ve got this abnormally wide foot and there’s probably three or four shoes on the market that I can wear, you know, all day long. And they just so happen to be these sparrows. But the nutty thing about it is if you knew me ten years ago, fifteen years ago.
Matt Brading
Go ahead and plug it if you want.
Brad Lowery
And drop it in the description.
Brad Zirlott
You know, got more gray, got less hair, got some wrinkles, but the outfit is the same. you know, people are like, man, he’s really setting his ways. And it’s like, no, it’s availability. I don’t have a lot of that. And then, but, you know, to go back to like your second question and then the point before that, you know, that’s one of the things that I tell these guys whenever they come to me to help get their license is, you know, the expectation is, it’s, I’m going to learn how to do an inspection. And the truth is we all, the end result is the same, but the process might be different, right? Like how I do it and how you do it is gonna be different, even though they may be the same report or great reports. But what I tell them is, it’s like the things that you’ll learn from me are the things that you don’t expect. I’m gonna tell you all the stuff that I failed at, all the stuff that was a colossal waste of time, even like down to where I get my shirts or different things like that. And…
Matt Brading
Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
You know, out of all the guys that I’ve helped get licensed, that is the one thing, and I tell them that upfront because, you know, I don’t want them to feel like they have to, because, I mean, you guys know this as well as anything else. If I see somebody doing something that works, I’m gonna do that, right? I’m not so proud that I’m gonna, you know, die on that hill. I’m gonna do what they’re doing if it works. So I don’t want anybody to kind of get into this with me and think that, you know, it’s my way or the highway. And some of them are kind of shocked when it’s like, oh, okay, so I can just kind of do this, how I feel like it needs to be done. And it’s like, yeah, you’re the one doing it. But that’s something that I think a lot of guys have gotten the most out of me is like the things that I did. And it’s like, yeah, nobody cares about serial numbers and model numbers in the reports and things.
Matt Brading
Yeah.
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Matt Brading
I’ve, I’ve probably said this on the show before, but I’ll say it again, cause I feel like I mean, it’s something that should be said, but, you we learn from our mistakes, right? I mean, that’s, that’s the only way we grow, right? But there’s an even better way and that’s to learn from the mistakes of others. You know, you can, that’s real growth right there.
Brad Zirlott
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s what I tell him. I was like, you know, if my learning curve was as such, right, I won’t choose to be as close to flat as it can be, you know, because again, just because it was tough for me or whatever, it doesn’t have to be tough for everybody. And then, you know, my dad, was great guy, built boats. I mean, I’ve always been around self-employed people. So his demeanor, you know, definitely inherited a lot of that. But he had an expression and it was nobody’s on top forever. Right. So even though I might be the guy calling the shots today, what if this guy takes off and then five years from now, ten years from now, I don’t wanna do it full time. I got no problem going to work for somebody else, but you don’t get to have that kind of opportunity if you’re the guy that never gave opportunities to anybody else. So, and in social media is the same way. I met some of you guys in Dallas and then there’s people that are on the way up. And then there’s, I kind of consider myself, I’ve kind of got where I’m at and I’m just kind of holding steady. But when you approach anything, it doesn’t have to just be home inspections, but there’s always gonna be somebody better. So your attitude and how you treated everybody under you might affect your placement later in life. So I don’t know, I’ve just always tried to help people. Kind like you said, I give it away for free because what, I mean,
Matt Brading
Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
You gatekeep that kind of stuff. And then one day you look around and it’s just you, you know, and you don’t have any helper, anybody that’s kind of sympathetic to what you got going on.
Matt Brading
Yeah. When I early on, was a friend of mine was just kind of open and helped me, lent a lot of knowledge and just I was able to ask questions and learn a lot from him. And like ever since then, in order to like repay that favor, I mean, I’ve been just trying to give back to others, not necessarily him. He doesn’t need it. I mean, he’s my buddy. I do what I do anything for him. But I mean, you know, I just decided from that moment forward, like I’m just always going to pay this forward. And sometimes
Brad Zirlott
Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Brading
It’s through social media. Sometimes it’s in person, but yeah, I do that. I like it. It’s a good attitude, man.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Brad Lowery
It was one of the one of the reasons that I moved from Florida to Nashville. Florida, I love living down there grew up down there, moved in moved away and moved back again a couple of times. But when I when I moved up here, it was because one I saw a need in the sense that not that there’s not home inspection companies up here. But I had launched clarity inspections down in Florida. It’s still active down there. I’ll come back to it at some point, but, home inspections of Florida, you can skip a rock and you can hit one about as the same way that you can hit a realtor, you know? but up here, I don’t know. was talking with a buddy of mine here about this. I’m like, man, there’s a real opportunity to use inspections to, pay it forward in the sense of, there are hardworking musicians and tech guys up here. You know, work on the band crews and tour crews and things like that, that are very, very physically capable and mechanically minded and they’re barely scraping by and either they’re waiting for their big break or they’re going gig to gig, just making ends meet. And when I started this, I was a youth leader and someone was like, Hey, you know, you want to still help kids and, be able to volunteer in your own time, but not be beholden to some church’s money? How about I teach you to be a home inspector and then you can afford to live your life and also manage your own schedule and do everything you want. And I was like, okay, well, what if we take that same concept to Nashville and use home inspections as an opportunity to give people a flexible work schedule with a living wage, you know, while they’re while they’re pursuing their passion? So it’s but that kind of pay it forward mentality, I think is massive, because it helped me when I was when I moved from down to Florida. And, you know, again, what’s the point of accumulating all of this for yourself if you’re not looking to give it away? If there’s not a why to your business, you got nothing.
Brad Zirlott
Right. And then, know, too, how many people have you heard say this? I wish I had got started sooner. Right. I haven’t met one home inspector that said, man, you know, I really I’m glad I waited this long, you know, because. Right, because, you know, like you said, as far as like the freedom, you know, now, Matt, you touched on something earlier where, you know, we were talking about, you know, kind of striking when the irons hot.
Brad Lowery
Mm-hmm.
Matt Brading
We should have waited a few more years, yeah.
Brad Zirlott
One of the misconceptions that a lot of guys that I’ll talk to, kind of when I’m feeling them out to see what their goals are, know, when they want to get licensed is, I just want to do ten or fifteen a month. Okay, and that’s great, right? I hope that works out for you. But what happens on a month to where all of the agents that kick you jobs all the time and they’re good agents, right? They’ll stand up for you whenever these contractors try to throw you under the bus. You know, what happens when it’s thirty? Are you going to tell them no?
Matt Brading
Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
You know, you can’t, right? Because like you said, you can, you might be able to get away with it once or twice, but if you make it a habit, they’re gonna call somebody else. And that is one thing that, you know, people, it’s like a misconception because you do want it to be, you know, I want to make my own schedule and make my own hours, but at the same time, when somebody needs you, you do have to kind of weigh like, you know, this person’s been so good to me, I need to go, or a repeat client. You’re not gonna let them find somebody else, you know, so. You have to be willing to kind of do it, but the freedom it does give you, you know, too, unmatched. You know, I’ve been in that rat race. I’ve been self-employed since I was nineteen, twenty years old and, you know, wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s tough, but at the same time, I’m probably the busiest I’ve ever been, but I’m also the happiest I’ve ever been because one thing that this job did for me, so, I mean, not to toot my own horn, but I was a really good contractor. I did really good work. But anybody with a hammer is a carpenter, anybody with a paintbrush is a painter, and you’re constantly fighting with those guys to get jobs, to get work. And at least in this profession, because I know some states are unlicensed, but Alabama is a licensed state, it is a professional license. And then you are kind of being able to really kind of be what you’re worth and tie that to your knowledge. Whereas before, know, I’d had to take a lot of jobs I didn’t want, but I needed them. So with this, at least you can kind of set your rate and then also make your rate kind of what your actual value to that is. Because there’s not a lot of jobs where you can do that. Professional jobs, doctors and lawyers, but there’s not a lot of blue collar jobs like that.
Brad Lowery
Definitely not, definitely not.
Matt Brading
One question I get a lot from people either online or in person is, you know, can I do this on the side? I’m thinking about doing this on the side and whether or not that’s a good idea. And like, I’m not saying that you can’t do that, but I always kind of, I don’t want to say discourage, but I always just like try to give my input is like, I don’t really, I don’t really think it’s very conducive because you got a lot of money that you’re going to spend getting started to getting tools.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah.
Matt Brading
And especially if you’re a licensed state or something like that, insurance, things that you got to carry. then like the only way you’re going to get jobs, you do some sort of marketing, right? And so then you got to put all that money into marketing. And it’s like, if you want to do this, like on the weekends. And so like the realtor calls you on Monday and it’s like, Hey, think how soon can you get there? And you’re like, yeah, Saturday. And they’re like, no, you know, like that’s just not, that’s not going to work. I’m not saying it can’t work. You put enough into it and give it enough time.
Brad Zirlott
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Brading
Then you can kind of be a whole bunch of people’s backup guy and that might work, you know? But I just, think that the idea, cause I even had it. I had another job when I started doing home inspection. I thought I could do this on the side. And it just turned out like, I realized pretty, pretty soon, like that’s not really going to work. You know, it’s not going to bounce out very good. And I don’t want to, I don’t want to put all this into, if I don’t plan to just do it full time, I don’t want to put everything into it to not make anything, you know, like.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah. Yeah. Nose.
Brad Lowery
Well, the biggest
thing is in same way that it takes, think, you know, business is relationship and with agents, you know, you have a relationship with those agents. I think with any relationship, any friendship, marriage, whatever, where it’s like, it takes a whole lot of attaboys to make up for one whoopsie, you know, and so with one no, can’t make it today. Like you said, Brad, first of all, great name, but second of all, it’s…
Matt Brading
Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Lowery
Truly, mean, you might get one or two times that you can say no because you’re busy, but by the third, they’re going to find somebody else. so those ten to fifteen inspections can easily become three to five in a minute. And there’s always ebbs and flows in markets unless you’re in Florida, you know, where it’s just constant. But yeah, it’s people remember when you say no more than when you say yes. it’s, you know, how are you going to turn down the work if you hope to keep them?
Matt Brading
Yep.
Brad Zirlott
Right.
Matt Brading
You know, guys, I this is an awesome topic, but I there’s something bugging me. I got to change the subject real quick. Okay. Like we keep talking about giving something away and I keep looking at your hat and I keep looking down at this and there was back Brad. didn’t make it Brad Lowry. We have to we have to distinguish today. We being Brad did a podcast just the other day with another Matt. I was so pissed the whole time.
Brad Zirlott
Hahaha!
Brad Lowery
See, this is the difference between Matts. You had a chip on your shoulder. Who was the best Matt? Meanwhile, Brad Browder here, we’re just like, nice.
Matt Brading
Yeah. Whatever.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, yeah.
Matt Brading
Man. It is what it is. Yeah. You’re probably right. I told I said it from the moment we started. I only like to be the only Matt in the room. Okay. You chose to have another Brad on here. Okay. I didn’t do that. You put me in another Matt situation.
Brad Lowery
I thought it was cool. It’s like if I go to the bar and another guy’s wearing this same fleece as me, I’m like, good taste brother.
Matt Brading
Yeah, there’s only, you know, there’s only room for two of us here. Get out. I walk into another bar and there’s a Santa guy there. Okay, like we got a problem. Okay. So, uh,
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah. Matt lives by Highlander rules, right? There can only be one. Right. Well, see, because my last name starts with a Z, I’ve always been the last, right? So I’m just, I’m okay with it. When I went to kindergarten, you know, kindergarten, I just wanted to, you know, be a teacher’s pet, right? Not on purpose, but you know, just wanted this teacher to like me.
Brad Lowery
It can be only one, that’s it.
Brad Zirlott
I was never first in the line for snack. I never went outside first for PE. And I told my dad, I’m like, you know, this teacher hates me. And I think it was at like the first PTA thing or whatever. My dad asked the teacher and most kids would be mortified. And I’m like, yeah, yeah, let’s find out about this. Let’s get it all out right now. And then she told me, she said, it’s alphabetical order. And I’m looking at my dad like alphabetical what? And that’s.
Brad Lowery
I need to go.
Matt Brading
Hahaha. What does that mean?
Brad Zirlott
That’s when he explained to me that the letter Z is the absolute last letter of the alphabet, so I needed to get used to it. So I guess for me, I’ve just always had that step-kid mentality, you I’m never first.
Brad Lowery
That’s fine, you can have it, yeah.
Matt Brading
Look, the truth of the matter is I wasn’t really mad at Matt. I just felt like it was fun to do and whatever, you know, but back to back. was talking about giving things away or actually gifts, right? Like and so when I was in Dallas with do South Brad, he wasn’t there at the time, but I was there with him. A guy walked up to me, his name. I’m probably going to get it wrong. Is Michael. Volpe Volpe, V O L P E. How would you say that? Volpe.
Brad Zirlott
Thanks
Brad Lowery
Absolutely. Yes. Volpe. Volpi. Yeah.
Matt Brading
We’re going to go with that. Michael Volpe from Coastal Empire Inspections. What?
Brad Lowery
I’m a Yankee fan. That’s their shortstop. He’s not a good one, yeah, I said I’m a Yankee fan and that’s their shortstop and he’s not a good one, but that’s how they say his name.
Matt Brading
Well, I don’t think this guy’s short. He’s a home inspector out of Savannah. Coastal Empire inspections. He made us these and I haven’t sent you these yet because I don’t have your address. I held on to him till you moved. But these are some leather coasters that he that are stitched with the logo here and I just thought they were super cool. And so I wanted to I wanted to show you that and I wanted to call him out because he’s
Brad Zirlott
Right inspector then.
Brad Lowery
It’s so hardcore.
Matt Brading
A really nice guy. I spoke to him for a while and and so thanks Michael love I’m gonna get these to Brad. He’s finally settled in the new place and so I’ll get your address to send you some.
Brad Lowery
Well, how many did he give you? Appreciate you, man, but how many did Michael give you?
Matt Brading
He gave me a few. think it was like, like five or six. I think I gave one or two to Dave Kogan and then I got one or two and then I, with you. So something like that. didn’t count them.
Brad Lowery
Okay, yeah, yeah. Dude, let’s give one away. Seriously, look, if you comment in here, if you’re the first to comment coaster in the YouTube comments, I’ll try and get in touch with you and we’ll send it to you, man. That’d be fun.
Matt Brading
Yeah, I got, I got, I got three in here. So I got a couple for you and one to give away.
Brad Lowery
Let’s give one away. Yeah. Comment, comment coaster. First one gets it. dude, that’s awesome. And thanks. Thank you, Michael. That’s, that’s fantastic. But guys, there’s, there’s one other thing that, that I think we should do because look, it’s the end of the year. There’s a lot to be grateful for. And, you know, we’ve seen some things in the field this year, some things that, we hope to never see again, maybe is the best way that we could describe it. And so I would like to hear what y’all’s gratitude list.
Brad Zirlott
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Brad Lowery
Of things that you would be very grateful to never see again in the field in twenty twenty six.
Matt Brading
Who’s going first?
Brad Lowery
Yeah, rock, rock, scissors. Now, Matt, kick it off, man. And first of all, tell us what you’re drinking. We didn’t even, we didn’t even say what you’re drinking.
Brad Zirlott
Well,
Matt Brading
I’ll go first. I’m having a old fashioned with Buffalo Trace bourbon.
Brad Lowery
I had an old-fashioned, it’s gone.
Brad Zirlott
Nice.
Matt Brading
Mine is almost gone. I almost had because I have a beer advent calendar.
Brad Lowery
Hoo hoo!
Brad Zirlott
Nice.
Matt Brading
And I did wear my most wonderful time for a beer. And so I almost had that during this, but I just really wanted an old-fashioned. And so I’ll have that here in a minute. Like I’ll have it before I toss out tonight, but okay. So yeah. Okay. Thankful. It’s like thankful, not thankful. Right.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, yeah. Thankful, not thankful. That’s it. Yeah. Things we would be thankful to never see in twenty twenty six.
Matt Brading
I’m going to go with either realtors or buyers. Just people in general that walk in when I’m doing the inspection and I’m running the heat and they feel the need to say the heater works. I could do without that. That happens every single time I’m running the heat. What do you say to it? Yeah, yeah, I’m running the heater. You know, I mean, like, I don’t know. I just I could do without that. Just bothers me every time. Maybe I’m maybe I’m petty.
Brad Lowery
Just calling out the obvious. Yes.
Brad Zirlott
No, God, this is a whole podcast in that one statement because, so, so, do you guys do this? So like, will always, and I don’t really announce it, this is probably the first time I ever told anybody this, but when it gets towards like the end of a year, I always get like, there is a level of like, thank God this is over. And then I’ll always say to myself, like next year’s gonna be better. I always gaslight myself.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, yeah.
Brad Zirlott
I like to do that. I like to really gas myself up. That way I’m super disappointed, right?
Brad Lowery
My sister and I do that financially where it’s like that unexpected expense comes up and it’s like, well, next month will be better. Next month will be. Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
It’s gonna be better. But yeah, to go back to Matt’s point, that is my favorite thing. It doesn’t matter where I’m at, which house I am, and it could be buyers, sellers, agents, especially like when we’re in the summer, right, and we’re gonna test the heat, the smell, right, of the heat strips. Is something burning? Yes, the house is on fire. I’m very calm. I’m just gonna let her burn to the ground, but yes.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, bring your co-migrants here.
Brad Zirlott
And then the other thing that I absolutely cannot anymore, and I don’t know why it bothers me so bad, but it’s the overzealous seller, right? Who’s like, I just didn’t know if you had any questions for me. And it’s always like the first thing that pops into my mind and I have to really just is, why are you here? You know? And then, you know, like I’ve been in these houses where it’s like, I just wanted to show you where the attic was. And it’s like, let me guess, up there, up above us, like above the ceiling. God.
Matt Brading
Yeah.
Brad Lowery
Hahaha
Brad Lowery
In the ceiling, yes.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, and then I did start to do this. I quit though, because I didn’t feel like I was getting the right pop that I should have got for this joke. But anytime a seller would just be like, I didn’t know if you had any questions, I’d be like, thank God you’re here. This is my first one. And I did that a few times. But you know, the tag on my truck says Deal Killer. That’s my, that’s my actual license plate.
Brad Lowery
Hahaha
Brad Lowery
Just wearing it just outed it the whole way.
Matt Brading
That’s awesome.
Brad Zirlott
I can tell you, I’m gonna give you guys like the cliff notes on this, but there’s a realtor we won’t name names. But she was going around telling everybody that I was a deal killer and always wanted the nickname. So whenever I found out about it, I was like, this is amazing. So then I made the tag for my truck that. But you know, I had a seller one time who’s just like, should I be worried about that tag? I’m like, God, I hope not. I need an easy day today.
Brad Lowery
I’ll scare you with.
Matt Brading
Excellent.
Brad Zirlott
But yeah, if I had to say like the one thing that I could just completely do without, it’s got to be the gray and then the gray vinyl plank. Like I really feel like it’s like, know, cause there’s people who suffer from like seasonal depression. I want everybody that does not understand this. This is every day for our entire life. It’s like you go into a house and it’s like a Wizard of Oz in reverse.
Matt Brading
That is legendary. That’s my whole ass.
Brad Zirlott
We come off of the yellow brick road and then we get back into the black and white house and we’re there for like three hours, right? And then we’ve seen things we didn’t wanna see. We’ve had to write up things we didn’t wanna write up. And it’s very hard to like step back out into the color world, right? But it’s so bad. It really is. It’s like a storm cloud that follows you around the whole day. Did I get to do it?
Brad Lowery
Are people still doing that? Because like, at least in Florida, you know, everything was much more white than it was when I was inspecting in DC and Virginia. Cause everybody up there for the longest time was doing the whole gray thing, which I was like, why, why are you painting your walls the color of primer? Do you want me to shine a flashlight down this thing and show you how many imperfections it’s already going to show? Like you’re just making it worse. Yeah. It looks ten times worse now.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you should get an old car. You’d love this, right? It’s still going strong here. And I went into a house, was maybe a month and a half ago, and it was a s house. And it had a lot of the paisley and a lot of the forest green and a lot of the maroon. And then my client comes in and is like, you know what, we’re gonna have to upgrade a lot of this. And I’m just like. I don’t know guys, it of feels like a breath of fresh air if we’re being honest. Because you just see so much gray. I mean, it is too much.
Brad Lowery
The wallpaper’s back. Yeah, it’s made a comeback.
Matt Brading
My house in twenty fifteen. It like the, the start and probably the peak of like the gray world. It’s everything’s great. Cabins gray. I mean, walls aren’t gray, but like, you know, yeah, there’s a lot of gray and white. We, we vary it up a little bit with the colors around the house. I mean, you ever have this weird feeling? Like when you go and inspect a house, like maybe you have to go back for a re-inspect or you have to, or, like maybe your friend bought it and you actually go back to the house or like you go back a year later. Like if you ever had to go back to a house, like sometimes when I’m in that work mode, I don’t even I don’t see that stuff, man. I just see work. And so then when I see the house later, I’m like, whoa, it just doesn’t even feel like the same place. Or I walk out of it and like, or I’ll see that pictures of houses that I inspected. And it just seems like another dimension that I walked into or something like I’m in there for this couple of hours. Then I’m out of there and never going there again. Wow.
Brad Zirlott
Well, what about the people who call you two or three days after the inspection? And they’re like, in the bathroom on that tile. And it’s like, brother, that was six hundred pictures and six inspections ago. Let me look this up. Yeah. You gotta let it go. You gotta let it go. You can’t carry all that around with you. Right.
Matt Brading
No. Yeah. I know it’s crazy, but like, yeah, I, I don’t remember. I explained it like there’s only so much space for stuff here.
Brad Lowery
To the first, yeah.
Matt Brading
Right. And so like once it’s all in there, it’s got to move out of the way so I can put other stuff in there. Like I can’t, I can’t just keep throwing stuff on it. I do have an uncanny ability to dredge that stuff out of my memory. But I mean, like, I don’t really,
Brad Zirlott
Right.
Matt Brading
I have to kind of force it and I don’t really want to do that. I don’t want to think about that. So I don’t want to get that specific unless I know where I’m looking at a picture. Like I don’t want to do that. But
Brad Lowery
See the first guy that I ever inspected with, he told me that the guy that trained him said that as soon as you can’t remember a house that you did two or three years ago, you need to retire. And I went, I can’t remember the one that I did last week. Yeah.
Matt Brading
I don’t think there’s any truth in that at all.
Brad Zirlott
I can kind of relate to that because I just did one, what’s today, Thursday? I just did one yesterday that I did in twenty twenty one and I remember everything about it. But it’s weird, but it’s kind of like Matt said though, I didn’t like reminisce about it for four years, but whenever I went back into it, it’s like, yeah, I remember this place. You just kind of get into it.
Brad Lowery
Do you? Okay, that’s good.
Matt Brading
Yeah, I think. Yeah, I can see that totally happening to me, but like, know, like if somebody was like, Hey, you remember that house that you did on such and such drive or whatever two years ago, I’d be like, no, no, you guys give me more than that. You know, you know, it’s the one that had that water leak. Nope. You’re gonna have to do better than that. know, want them all back.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah.
Brad Lowery
Absolutely not.
Brad Zirlott
Show me a picture. Right, send me a picture I might remember. know, craziest thing happened, right? Today, just today. I’m on dolphin island down there on the beach. I’m doing an inspection and a bug guy shows up. This is on the beach, right? He’s looking for termites, sand. You know, I’m asking him like, have you ever found termites in the sand? Cause I’ve done termite remediation. I’ve never seen. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, I’ve just never seen it. So we get to talking and I tell him about the last house that I did that had bad termites. And I had a video on TikTok, so I pull up the video. This dude is like the Sherlock Holmes of termites, right? It takes a lot to get me impressed. I’m still, I’m fanboying a little bit over this termite guy. Three seconds into the video, he sees the mud tube. I don’t show the house, I just showed the mud tube. He asked me, where’s this house? And I said, oh, it’s off of this road. He tells me the address. He saw that house a year ago and recognized the house from the shape of the mud tube. And I was told, I know, I told that dude, I’m like, brother, I’m in the presence of greatness. I need cards. Because if ever there had to be a bug guy that was worth his weight in gold, it’s this dude. Because I mean, I’ve got a pretty good memory. Like we were just talking about. You know, can go into a house and remember some stuff, but I’ve never.
Matt Brading
What?
Brad Lowery
Wild. Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
Had somebody see something so small. I mean, he’s looking at something that could have fit in the square foot box. He sees that and is like, I think I know where that’s at. Is it off this road? And it’s like, you gotta be kidding me. I had to look it up. I went into Spectora and pulled up the address and I’m like, how’d you do that? And he was like, yeah, I saw that house like a year ago, which is insane to me. But there are people out there like that.
Matt Brading
That’s crazy.
Brad Lowery
So, no, so you won’t name the name of the agent that you were talking about earlier, but I feel like this is worth naming the name. Who’s the bug guy for everybody in what I guess mobile area.
Matt Brading
That’s wild.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, let me look it up real quick. His name was Dallas, but I think the name of his company was, I just want to make sure I don’t butcher this.
Brad Lowery
Well, while you’re looking it up, keep people looking it up. I’ll go ahead and say, guys, the one thing that I can do without in twenty twenty six is the dads asking asinine questions. Like this was one of the last inspections that I did in Florida before moving. I think it was a week, the week or two before I moved. And this was a twenty year old neighborhood. All of the homes are slab concrete block and wood framing for the roof.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, yeah. Brother.
Brad Lowery
But the dad goes, have you inspected any of the houses in this neighborhood before? And I went, actually, this is my first one. He’s like, OK. So by looking at the other ones, can you say whether or not you think this one will hold up pretty good? I’m like, I really can’t tell you that. Well, how come? I’m like, well, let’s point this out. Your driveway is sealed. Your neighbors has grass growing through the cracks, OK? Yours has properly maintained trim. is there’s no rot. Everything has been painted. Your neighbors is falling apart. And he’s like, Okay, well, what does that indicate? I’m like, that indicates that if with every single house that was here, within not just ten months, but ten weeks of ten different families living in the ten different houses on this street, every single one of them was going to look completely different. At the end of that period of time, based on who was living in it and how much care they take up. I’m like, get
Brad Zirlott
Yeah.
Brad Lowery
I can’t guarantee just looking over at your neighbor how after twenty years they’ve taken care of their house and what implicate that has no implication on yours. Like if unless I’m looking and noticing major structural issues over there that would pertain to yours as well. No, this was owned by people that cared for it right next door. They don’t. And I could tell because you can just look at it, dude. Just look at it. And it’s
Matt Brading
And if you don’t maintain it, it’s not going to last. So.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, it’s serious.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah, well, you know, I always tell people this, that you can’t fake ten years of maintenance in the last month you own it, right? So you can tell, like even if they slapped the gray paint on it, but even if they do all of that, you know, you’re not gonna cover up ten years of neglect, right? You’ve prettied it up a little bit, but you can’t. And then, you know, I just had that discussion with somebody the other day. You know, one thing that we do,
Brad Lowery
Great.
Matt Brading
Ha ha!
Brad Lowery
No.
Brad Zirlott
Have the benefit of is we see so many houses, right? If you talk to the average client and you ask them how many houses they’ve looked at, it’s probably ten or less. And you know, I looked at ten last week, right? And then I will tell them this, because this is, we’ve all had this question, would you buy it? Right? Yeah, I made money, I buy every house I inspect, Jesus. But you, I will tell them though, you know, if you like this house and this is the price point you’re looking at,
Brad Lowery
Mm-hmm.
Brad Zirlott
And this is the area that you’re looking at, how many houses have you looked at, right? Because if I knew of a house that was better, right, I might tell you, you know, like, hey, go across the street or go down the road. But it is hard because we do have to tow that line, right? We can’t tell somebody like, you should definitely buy this house. But there’s been houses where I wanted to do that. You know, where it’s like, guys, I’ve been looking at hundreds of houses this year. This right here is the one. You know, if you…
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
You’re going to look for another six months before you find one that compares to this, that really, you and it happens at every inspection. Would you buy this house? I’ve never heard that before.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, well, my old area manager had a great way of addressing it. He would, he would give them a percentile, right? Because people would ask and he would at the end of the inspection, he would go, I would definitely qualify this within the top eighteen to twenty percent of houses I see. Yeah. And if there’s ones that and this has happened at least, you know, once a year.
Brad Zirlott
I do the same, right.
Brad Lowery
And it’s the only time that it’s ever happens when I won’t tell a buyer that they shouldn’t buy it But I will ask would you like me to continue this inspection?
Brad Zirlott
God, all the time. That’s where I got the nickname. I will, you know, I’ll get into a house and you know, my videos are full of them, you know, but one of them, you know, I’m sticking a pocket knife through Oak hardwood floor and the pine subfloor underneath. And I’m just looking at him. I’m like, guys, come on, we want to do this. Like, do you really need to pay me six hundred and fifty dollars to tell you that this is no good? Whenever I might could tell you the same thing right now for three.
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Matt Brading
Yeah.
Brad Zirlott
You know, like we’re friends right now, but it’s not gonna get any better. And that’s really the thing, you know, it’s like, and then, I can’t tell me clients I’ve had who will, I mean, they’d go to bat for me tomorrow if I asked them to because I saved them from whatever extenuating circumstances that goes on with those. But yeah, sometimes you do wanna just tell them like, no, not this house.
Matt Brading
I mean, it just depends, you everyone needs.
Brad Lowery
Yeah.
Matt Brading
I was doing an inspection. It’s actually, I was going to take a look at a problem. Somebody was having, it wasn’t a full on inspection and the wife was there and she asked me, I was telling her about, uh, cause the, I, the problem that they were experiencing is actually, seemed like a big deal, but it wasn’t. And, uh, and I had seen it at another house that somebody was renting and then they were going to buy it as years ago. Uh, very similar things like the floor tiles were, were tinting like this, right? It’s a, uh, basically I’m, I’m,
Brad Zirlott
Yeah.
Matt Brading
Ruled it down to being poorly installed. The, the thin set, the substrate, something’s wrong down there. there’s no structural issues going on or anything. And that was how the other house was too. I had seen it before. And I was telling them about this and I was kind of comparing what they were seeing to what I’d already experienced. And, and she goes, well, so they were renting the house and they were buying it. Why would they buy it with all those problems that I go, look, I don’t know what the percentage is, but I would say it’s very high that most of the people that
Brad Zirlott
Yeah.
Matt Brading
Hire me to do the inspection by the house, regardless of what comes up in the inspection, almost all of them. Like it’s funny because you’re called deal killer. Like I would venture to say it’s the same for you. Like most people, you can throw all kinds of crazy stuff at them. And they’re like, they still just go through with the purchase. They’re not negotiate some things. They might repair some things, but sometimes they won’t do a damn thing. They just buy it they just deal with the issues. Cause somebody’s living there right now and then they’re going to, it’s going to turn over.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but… Yeah, yeah. I do tell people that. I’m like, look, somebody’s gonna buy this house, right? And if it’s not you, it’s gonna be somebody else. It’s just how much can you stomach, right? How much are you willing to put up with? But yeah, to your point, like I’ll get phone calls sometimes and I’ll be like, son of a gun, you bought that thing, all right. So you inspected this house on such and such and then I’ll look it up while I’m talking to them about it. And it’s like, I’ll be darned, I did not see that coming. Yeah.
Matt Brading
Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Brading
Figured you were still renting.
Brad Zirlott
No kidding.
Brad Lowery
Now did you find that that bug guy’s name?
Brad Zirlott
Bossed Pest Solutions. Bossed Pest Solutions. But yeah, boss, yeah. Which, you know what? If anybody earned it, it’s that dude. Yeah, he, I mean, just to look at it. And then, like I said, it was from a year previous. And then he was at, he wasn’t even looking at that house. He looked at the house next door doing pest control stuff, right? And then he just so happens to look across
Brad Lowery
Okay.
Matt Brading
Like B-O-S-S. Yeah, that was impressive.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, no doubt. We gotta get him on the show. That’s amazing. Definitely.
Matt Brading
Yeah, great.
Brad Zirlott
He took a video of it, he showed me the video, so I know he wasn’t lying. The video was from April of last year. He shows me the video he had sent to one of his coworkers like, ooh, that’s the house we should be at. And it was a little short video. And I’m just like, it is amazing that that guy, and then like I said, just knew it from looking at the mud tubes. But you know, we all do this, right? Everybody’s got their own little area of expertise and I’ve walked into houses, businesses, whatever, like what’s his name? Sean. He made a video about it the other day. was talking about like going to a meeting and then you’re trying to pay attention and then something catches your eye and you start thinking about it. But, you know, we all have that. But I mean, this guy was like, again, it’s like you talked about a TV show earlier, like this guy needs his own show where he just goes around and is like, I know that bug. He probably knows them by names.
Brad Lowery
Absolutely.
Matt Brading
He named the bugs.
Brad Lowery
It’s a Steve’s house, yeah.
Matt Brading
That’s pretty impressive, man, for sure.
Brad Zirlott
Yeah.
Brad Lowery
I love it, dude. Well, this has been awesome guys sound off in the comments with the the top things that you don’t want to see in twenty twenty six. We’ve shared ours. We want to hear from everybody listening. Brad, where could everybody follow you if they don’t follow you already? I’d be surprised with you.
Brad Zirlott
It’s Due South Brad everywhere. Yeah.
Brad Lowery
Okay, I love it. Well, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for joining the show. Matt, we did it, man. One whole calendar year of the ride along. Let’s do it again next year. What do you say, All right, we’re doing it.
Matt Brading
Heck yeah, man, I’m down.
Brad Zirlott
You guys put on a great show and I really appreciate you having me.
Matt Brading
Thanks, Brad. Thanks for being on.
Brad Lowery
Dude, our pleasure. We’ll bring you back next year for sure, Seems to be a regular thing. Thank you guys so much for watching. Go follow Brad, go follow Matt, go follow me, go follow the show and sound off in the comments. We’ve enjoyed having you here. This has been a wonderful year. Thank you so much for joining the ride along here twenty twenty five. We’ll see you all again in twenty twenty six.