Charlie:
This is the good neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. I’m your host, Charlie McDermott. Welcome to episode number 397 of the good neighbor podcast. And today, it’s a secret interview. Here we have Rick and Hollie Kooyman. Their company is Trade Secrets, Inspections, guys, how you doing?
Wonderful.
Thanks for having us.
Absolutely. And if you listen to our shows, we we love husband and wife teams because I’m one of them. Barbara myself. And we know it takes a special couple to work together and play together and all that. So Great job guys. Number one. So let’s start with your company trade secrets. inspections. Tell us about it. Right, how’d you take this one?
Hollie Kooyman
Alright, so Trade Secret Inspections, we’re a new business just under five years, we provide quality home inspection reports. And really, we’re the advocate for the Client, as well as, you know, the realtor, but really, we, we inspect residential properties. We’re located in North Naples, we serve Collier and Lee counties, we go down to Marco and up to Lehigh if necessary. We like to provide a holistic solution for you and your home inspection needs.
Charlie:
love it. Love it. And I love how you say your new business. And then you said under five years old, so you know, what’s your definition of old? Five plus. There you go. There you go. I love and certainly you guys, and I spend some time on the website. You’ve seen a lot and in in those years and have learned a lot. So it’s great. Rick you have anything to add?
Rick Kooyman
Yeah, sure. We are a one call shop. We want everybody to know that you just give us a call when you are in the property buying part of your world and we will take care of all the needs for you. If you need insurance stuff, I will do that for you. If you have outside, you know things going on at the property. If you have septic and pools and stuff like that, we will get all that stuff done for you just one call and we’ll take care of humans.
Charlie:
Wow. And I would imagine that’s especially important in our where you get a lot of folks from out of the state that come in and they really don’t know anyone, right?
Rick
Yeah, we get we get people from all over the world. In fact, yeah, people are here or not here. It’s not a big difference. We’ll take care of them just the same either way.
Charlie
That’s awesome. about your journey. I mean, how did you guys get into the secret inspections? business?
Rick
Yeah, exactly. The Secrets part. That’s a, that’s my secret. So I have about three decades of background in residential construction and remodeling and all the fun stuff. So I’ve actually worked in the field doing the jobs and the trades, and some sort of form or fashion throughout those 30 years of doing this stuff. So I bring the secrets of actually the trades. So that’s the name trade secrets that I’m bringing the secrets of the work to the the version of the job where we get to teach people about it instead of do the work. So
Charlie
Wow, yeah, that’s got to be so darn valuable to really having me on the background on the other side and know what good construction is versus that not so good. And
Rick
yeah, I’ve been there seen it, know how it gets to be the way it is, and all sorts of different fashions. So, you know, I bring a different perspective to the job. And I’m ultimately here to help the customer and I want to bring that experience for their benefit.
Charlie
Yeah. And, and Holly, how about you have Have you always been involved on the business side with Rick.
Hollie
I’m actually a recent more of a recent addition, I I dabble part time, and I try to keep the office. So I’m still I’m actually working my way in a little more and more. And the goal is to be able to leave my other full time job and help Rick that’s great. So he hasn’t scared you away yet. He’s he’s been a boss lets me get away with a lot in the office. So I can’t I can’t knock it.
Charlie
It’s awesome. How about when it comes to myths in the home inspection business? What do you guys hear that you can talk about?
Rick
I hear a lot. One thing I hear a lot of is a any inspector will do the service for you that to me. That’s not true. It’s kind of like the food industry. If you want better good meal, then you can go to the franchise and get one of those. But if you want to five star meal, then you’re going to have to go find a good job. It’s the same with inspections as contracting. So that’s a big myth. And you can just one size fits all shop. And then the other one I hear all the time is, well, it’s a new home. Why does it needs inspected? Please, but it does or more reason than any that it needs inspected? Because it just got put together a whole different crew people were there and they weren’t working on the same page all the time. So it’s important that
Charlie
yeah, if you ever had a new home bill purchased a new home, you now understand the importance of inspection. If you didn’t do it. You’ll learn right away. It’s great. It’s great about when you guys aren’t working in the business, what are you doing for fun?
Hollie
We tried to get out, take some trips, we’ve made some local trips across the two other coasts with to this space of the space. The space close?
Yeah, down to the keys to the beach, the water, snorkeling, parks, stuff like that. Every time. Yeah.
Charlie
Are you guys originally from the area?
Rick
No, actually, we’re both from Ohio. We were born and raised in Ohio. And we moved from the west coast actually from Colorado to Florida.
Charlie
Oh, wow. Wow. Good for you guys. We talk about one place to another. Exactly. Exactly. Wow. Love it. Love it. So if you were to give a travel tip being that you guys are now experts in travel. Florida. What would you recommend? What’s your favorite destination so far? Ah, the mountains of Colorado are my favorite. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. The Rockies, you guys
Rick
in Florida, my favorites? Probably the keys is probably the keys going to be key?
Charlie
Yeah. Love it. Love it. How about when it comes to a hardship or a challenge in life or in business? What comes to mind? You know, looking back now you can say, hey, it was rough, but we got through it. And we’re better for it. We’re stronger.
Rick
Yeah, that’s a funny story. Oh, it actually coincides with the business because, you know, being that we I have all this background in construction, when we moved to Colorado, we were in a kind of a high pressure situation, ended up buying a house kind of expectedly and went with a recommended inspector and it didn’t go well. And he ended up buying a house with a bunch of problems that ended up really weighing us down for quite a while. So as I as I grew through construction and had several back injuries, unfortunately, I decided that you know, I wanted to do what wasn’t done for me correctly. And that’s, that’s essentially why I got into doing inspections.
Charlie
And how about that? Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s the wonderful thing about if we’re open to it, you know, these challenges painful this all get out, but we tend to make the best out of what you got. Yeah. And that comes with that attitude, right? It’s like, Alright, you know, this sucks, but I have faith itself in my our abilities. We’re gonna get through this, and then you go, wow, you know, I’m not the only one that kind of got screwed here. And maybe I can turn this and help people. Good for you guys. probably better off for a bad situation. Yeah. How about one thing you wish our listeners knew about your company? What would that be?
Rick
Basically, that I’m here to help people. You know, it’s not just home buyers, it’s home owners. We’re here to answer all the questions and help you live with your home. help you deal with your contractors help you deal with your realtors and contracts for that matter.
Charlie
we have listeners who want to learn more, and where should we send them?
Rick
Oh, please just go to the website and give us a call. You can find us at trade secrets inspections, calm. You can get a hold of me anytime. Phone 239-537-1186 emails, the same rep at trade secrets, inspections, calm. Whichever works for you. Just reach out and we’ll help you.
Charlie
Terrific. Well, Holly, Rick, it’s been a pleasure. great meeting you guys and we wish you the best going forward there. Appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast and nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show. Go to good neighbor podcast calm that’s good neighbor podcast.com or call us at 239-224-4105
Transcribed by https://otter.ai