The Transition To Commercial Inspections - Harder Than it Looks

Ever wondered why so many home inspectors struggle when they try to break into commercial inspections? James Hooper, owner of Bridgetown Inspections and Oregon Commercial Inspections, reveals the stark reality: it's not just a bigger version of what you're already doing—it's an entirely different business requiring a complete professional transformation.

Hooper's journey began like many others, juggling a full-time job at UPS while building his home inspection business. After receiving increasing inquiries for commercial work, he recognized the need for a dedicated approach, eventually establishing Oregon Commercial Inspections as a separate entity with its own professional identity. Now running five commercial inspections in a single week, he shares the critical lessons that made this transition successful.

The conversation dives deep into why the typical home inspector approach fails in commercial settings. From professional appearance (no more shorts and untucked shirts) to sophisticated client communication systems, commercial clients expect business-level service at every touchpoint. As Hooper puts it, "It's not even a marketing edge—it's a completely different ballpark." When potential clients mention finding him specifically because "everyone else is just a home inspector," it highlights how crucial proper positioning is in this market.

What truly sets successful commercial inspectors apart is their understanding of business beyond buildings. Hooper recommends studying various industries to understand client needs better—whether it's knowing what a brewery requires for operations or helping a client navigate triple net lease terms. This broader business acumen transforms an inspector from a vendor into a valuable resource that clients return to repeatedly.

Want to elevate your inspection business into the commercial realm? Start by creating a separate professional brand, developing sophisticated communication processes, and investing in education through organizations like CCPIA. The commercial inspection industry is experiencing its "golden age," but only those who approach it with the seriousness and professionalism it demands will thrive.

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*The views and opinions expressed in this podcast, and the guests on it, do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Inspector Toolbelt and its associates.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting James Hooper
• 6:25 Growing From Home to Commercial Inspections
• 13:01 Separate Brand for Commercial Success
• 18:05 Professional Communication and Presentation
• 24:40 Understanding Business Beyond Inspections
• 32:55 Triple Net Leases and Advanced Knowledge

Transcript

Ian Robertson  
James Hooper, welcome to Inspector Toolbelt Talk. How are you? 

James Hooper  
I'm doing well, Ian, how are you?

Ian Robertson  
I'm doing good. I'm really glad to have you, because we're going to talk today about commercial inspections again. And you are a good example, in my opinion, of somebody who has done very well transitioning from home inspections into commercial inspections and being able to manage both. And that's what we're going to talk about today, the hard transition from home inspections to commercial inspections. But before we get into that, tell us a little bit about yourself, James.

James Hooper  
Well, I live in Portland, Oregon, and started Bridgetown Inspections in 2018/2019 and was working at UPS at the same time. And so I just got, I don't want to say lucky, I got blessed meeting the right people at the right time. So I think my first year, I did almost 200 inspections or something like that and working a full-time job. So we're talking about doing conference calls in crawl spaces and conference calls in addicts, and trying to navigate that. And I was getting calls for commercial inspections around 2020/2021 and I was doing in part as Bridgetown, but I didn't know squat what I was doing at all. And I was getting more and more phone calls. And finally, in 2024 that's when I launched Oregon Commercial Inspections. And now I've been running both companies.

Ian Robertson  
I can't imagine working a full-time job and doing 200 inspections a year. Did you like, just pass out December 31?

James Hooper  
It was hard, and the saving grace on it was UPS had hired like a new CEO, and they were trying to do, like cutbacks and all that stuff. And I was making pretty good at UPS. And so then they offered a buyout. So they offered to give me cash, like a severance package for me to leave. And so, it was May 1 was the day where I just did May 1, 2019, was the first day where I'm like, I didn't have to worry about that, and I just did that. But it was hard. I won't lie.

Ian Robertson  
Yeah, I can imagine. And, you know, people have paid me to leave too, but for different reasons. No, that's, that's awesome. I mean, that was a really good time too, to get into the home inspection industry. We had the 2020 through 2022 boom-ish, you know, like late 2021, that was a big boom period for the home inspection industry. It made and broke companies all over the place. So you got in just before that, you were able to ride out that wave, have an established company. And then you transition into commercial inspections, which is really what we want to dive into, because you've been there, you've done that. And from what I understand, like even scheduling this podcast, you're like, oh, I got three commercial inspections, or I got this big one, and all my guys are on it, we have to...you're busy commercial inspecting, aren't you?

James Hooper  
Yeah, yeah. I think last week was our first time when we had five commercial inspections in one week. That's a lot. So I think last week, or two weeks ago, that was the first time when I had to actually say no to a home inspection, you know, and mostly just because I had it, I could have done it, but I strive not to do a commercial in a home on the same day. But yeah, last week was the first week where I actually told somebody, I was just like, I can't, I can't do it this week, and I was able to actually push it this week, but still, you have to find that balance, and you have to just project your time and ride the wave.

Ian Robertson  
So let me ask you, because maybe this leads into our subject even a little bit more. Why don't you like to do a home inspection and a commercial inspection on the same day?

James Hooper  
I don't even like to do two home inspections on the same day. One is, you're wearing different hats. You're utilizing different systems and then the last thing for me is, by the time you get done, you, I mean, honestly, just exhausted, you know, commercial inspections, I feel like are more fun. They're easier.

Ian Robertson  
Less emotional.

James Hooper  
Less emotional. But, man, I'm doing a lot more walking. 

Ian Robertson  
Yeah, you get your steps in. 

James Hooper  
You definitely get your steps in but I just don't like to do two. It's, I think, is a personal preference, not anything else.

Ian Robertson  
Yeah, you know. And that was always my personal preference, too. If even on a small scale, if I did a small scale one, like a small scale commercial inspection, like I like the quintessential pizza place or something like that, it was hard for me to even just change my mentality, because we were talking about this before the show, about our subject, transitioning from home into commercial inspections. Most inspectors, they'll email me, hey, Ian, I have a logo and I do commercial inspections now, can you one, my favorite, add a page to my home inspection website, and then they just say they do commercial inspections, or they just throw something together and ChatGPT made their logo, and it's cartoony. You know? It looks more like a home inspection logo. And as we get into the discussion, you know, one guy asked me, what do you mean it looks like a home inspection logo? It's a commercial building. It's even the perception of it. And it's a whole different world. It's a lot harder than most of us really realize when we transition into it. Would you agree with that?

James Hooper  
100%. You know, your contacts are different, your communication style, what you did in homes is not going to float you. And sooner or later, as you are performing more and more, it's like, okay, the commercial industry is small, right? I would say that it's on the incline, and it's, it's young, right? Versus home inspection is kind of older. Home inspections, I always say it's like the older brother of commercial inspection. So the industry is relatively young, and this is a time for you to set yourself apart from everybody else, and if you are just fumbling through it and not communicating well, that's going to scar your name immediately. So, you know, it's like, well, I would use so and so, but you know, you can get it away with misspelled words and all that stuff in home inspections, right? It's like, you know, you shouldn't, but I'm just saying with commercial, it's just a different league. You know, you're not playing minor baseball anymore, in my opinion, so for that reason, I think that's what is one of the main difficulties is, you think of that as a home inspection, but it's not.

Ian Robertson  
Yeah, you know, we as people just like to do what we know. And I've always said just because we're good at a business doesn't mean we're good at business. A lot of us, like I, was a contractor before. A lot of us have a background like me, the transition from contractor to home inspector was easy. And you were talking about this before the show, you know, if you run a home inspection company, like you're a contractor, you'll still be okay, like you'll make it. And you can refine a little bit over time. You have to change your mentality a bit, but it's not a huge leap. And interestingly, even I thought when I started doing commercial inspections, oh, it's the same thing as a home inspection. I just replicate what I do. And man, I kicked my butt, especially my first couple of big ones. I'm just like, they expect way more out of me professionally, like the reporting, ironically, is way easier, like there's more of it, but it's way, way easier to report on a commercial building in my opinion. It's so much easier, and especially on big ones, I always use contractors, so I would just take their information, scan it in, type up my own comments on it, and like that whole section's done, you know, and depending on how we choose to do it, but it's the professionalism part that really makes a difference. This is the question I get all the time, and I bring this up almost every commercial podcast, separate website and business name. What's your opinion?

James Hooper  
I can't tell you how many people have called me and said that, hey, we found you because, you know, it seems like a lot of other people are home inspectors, and I will say this as gently as I can, you're my competitor, and you're performing commercial inspections as a home inspector. I'm specifically telling people, you know, if they decide not to use me, that's good. Just don't use a home inspector because, you know, and I can tell you why later.

Ian Robertson  
I mean, it's not even a marketing advantage. A marketing advantage says, kind of denotes, like, just a little bit of an edge. It's not even an edge. It's a completely different ballpark. It's kind of like, I relate it to doctors. If I'm looking for a podiatrist, that's a foot doctor, right? Yeah, foot doctor...

James Hooper  
Your guess is as good as mine.

Ian Robertson  
Let's say a cardiologist. I know what that is. So I'm looking for a cardiologist, and I see a doctor who does like, you know, chiropractors, they crack our backs and stuff like that, chiropractor and I also do cardiology. I'm gonna be like, well, I'll just find somebody that does cardiology. And I'm not saying that that's an exact illustration, but that's how commercial buyers and building owners see home inspector versus a commercial inspector. Will you still pick up some commercial inspections here or there? Yeah, sure. You know, you'll get the pizza places and maybe a small warehouse or two once in a great while. But if they're calling James Hooper and me, who has a commercial page on our home inspection website, my company's name is ABC Home Inspections...

James Hooper  
I simply say, just make sure that they're certified. Make sure that they, you know, I also have a million dollar insurance. A lot of home inspectors don't have that because they don't need it. And I've already been asked to get to have a million dollar insurance policy on some of these inspections I've done. So I simply say, you know, look, I have a million dollar insurance policy because I'm serious about what I do, and I have the education, the background to do it, and we're certified and licensed, you know. And I mean, you guys have built my website, so thank you for that. But do you know how many times people call me and say, do you guys do small commercial inspections, you know?

Ian Robertson  
Because you look too big and fancy, yeah.

James Hooper  
And I was like, how many people do you have on your team, you know? So I would say a few. But you got to do what you got to do.

Ian Robertson  
So I also notice and people can't see from our podcast here if you're listening to it and not watching it, but you have your commercial inspection logo on a nice button up shirt. So, I mean, we've talked about how home inspectors can and, in my opinion, should dress, and even then, we kind of skirt the the edge of it. We're told the story about next door, home inspector was there, and I just thought it was like the father-in-law, like he was holding the camera up and his guts hanging out of the bottom of the shirt, sloppy shorts, you know, sneakers and then turns out he was the home inspector. You know, even in the home inspection industry, that doesn't give you an advantage, but you can get away with it. When you show up on a commercial job, half the people there have suits on, the other half, you know, have a nice button up shirt and slacks and clean cut.

James Hooper  
You're just not dealing with, like somebody who's buying a house. You're dealing with, usually board members. You're dealing with Vice Presidents. You're dealing with COOs, CFOs, you know, sometimes CEOs, engineers, I mean the amount of people that come, sometimes to an inspection and walk it with me, you know, I remember the first time I pulled into a parking lot and there were probably about 12 trucks, you know, because I had sub'd out the HVAC, and I was the leader of that, right, because I had called all these people, but I pulled in. By the way, it was one of my first commercial inspections, you know, and I was just, I was like, gather around guys, you know. But you just got to, like, I said before, man, the amount of people that come to it, the profiles are different. What they do for the business is different than just buying a house, you know, and if you go joking around with them and all that, you got to read the room. So it's just different. It's a different breed of people.

Ian Robertson  
So let's kind of pick this apart a little bit. So, dress code, in my opinion, little bit tighter. If I'm showing up to a commercial inspection, nice tucked in polo at the bare minimum, but a nice button up shirt with the logo on it is going to be a standard, in my opinion. Still not a tie situation in my opinion, I've seen guys do it just looks weird. You know, your company really should have a, I personally like to do a DBA depending on your state, a DBA of my main corporation, so then it can be ABC home inspections and XYZ Commercial Inspections, fall under the same umbrella. Makes it really good for my scheduling people, for insurance paperwork just makes it easier. And everybody talks about liability and all that. 

James Hooper  
Don't get me started on the word liability. 

Ian Robertson  
Yeah, everything is liability, and it's not that bad, you know, I've gone 20 years without getting sued, you know, and if you do, it's rare that somebody wins, and it's less in commercial.

James Hooper  
Yeah, that's a buzz word for me. That's like, it's a pet peeve, because I think we hide behind that, you know, I don't want to do it because the liability. You're scared. That's why you're not doing it, right? You're scared.

Ian Robertson  
There's an old proverb, I can't go to work because there's a lion in the street. 

James Hooper  
Yeah.

Ian Robertson  
Well, they'll always be a lion in the street when we don't want to do something or we're scared.

James Hooper  
Yeah, I have a DBA, so it's Bridgetown Inspections, DBA, Oregon Commercial Inspections.

Ian Robertson  
Perfect. And that works. And then obviously, as you mentioned, we built your website. You have a whole separate website. When people land there, and I said this with Lance Kaufman a few weeks ago, when somebody lands on a website and they see home inspection, but they're looking for a commercial inspection. It's like shooting that lead, dragging into the woods, and then burying in a 10 foot hole. The lead is dead. You'll just pick up scraps once in a while. We need a dedicated commercial website.

James Hooper  
And I think your workflow is 100% different as well. So I have an entire workflow. I have a process. If you don't have the process and a workflow, you won't succeed. It's fast moving, right? People are not paying 700, 800 bucks for an inspection. They're paying an upwards of a 3000 you know, at minimum. So it's communication, it's your process, it's your workflow, it's all the above. And you should do that in home inspections too. But your follow up, as soon as people, if you go to my website and you go request a proposal, there's a questionnaire that they fill out. Right when they get that filled out, it automatically goes into the CRM that I use, and immediately it creates a lead. I get a text message saying that there's a new lead. They automatically get an email saying, hey, we have received your request for a proposal, and our team is working on it, and we should get it to you by the end of the day. Thank you for your patience and thank you for working with us.

Ian Robertson  
That's beautiful, and I think that's a key part of the whole thing. Home inspections, sometimes we cast a wide net and we just get people. We schedule, we throw out prices. We're driving down the road, just answering questions, throwing out prices. Okay, for a $600, 700 inspection. Okay, again, we can get away with it. You do that on a $15,000 hotel inspection. You're probably not getting that. When I fill out a form online and a B to B, so business to business situation, I like a response like you do. I like to say, okay, we got it. We got this. We'll try to get to you by XYZ period of time, end of day, within 48 hours. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy as a business, because when I work as a business to business, I expect the same level of professionalism that I give to them, subconsciously or consciously. I don't know. So oftentimes I'll just skip by businesses if they don't have a good process. Matter of fact, there was this company, I needed to manage some people for an event, it was like 700 people, long story. So I wanted to get this software. Oh, my goodness. The software looked amazing, but their process was so broken. They had my wrong information. The one lady argued with me about my information, and I'm like, I know my own information. That's not my phone number, that's not what I gave, you know, that kind of stuff. And then they missed an appointment, and they were late for an appointment. I gave them every chance under the sun, and they blew it every time. And it was expensive software. It wasn't like, you know, like, couple bucks a month or something. It was expensive. We're going to be dealing with people on that level, so we need to have a process like you said.

James Hooper  
Yeah, I think you have to keep in mind the mindset of the consumer, the client. So if you wanted a commercial inspection, how would you want to be, if you filled out something online, one of my biggest pet peeves is when I fill out something online and, like I filled out where I was looking at a list of pool contractors, right? Because sometimes these hotels have these pools, and I'm going to be inspecting a rec center, and they have two or three pools. So I thought it'd cool to contract that out. We don't have a whole lot of pools in, you know, in near Portland. And so I thought, I'll reach out to this, this contractor, this company. And so they had an online form, no phone number, no way to reach them, just an online, you know, forum communication thing. So I filled that out, nothing. I don't know if they received it. If they've got it, I've received nothing. By the way, this was last week, and I got no communication. And still I got no communication. So I will never call them again. So when a client calls us for a commercial inspection or they fill out a proposal request, not only are we getting back to them, but the reason why I want to get back to them quickly, sometimes I'll call them too, you know, I'll call them as well and say, hey, I know you got an email, but just to let you know, I'm James. I'm the owner of Oregon Commercial Inspections, and my team is working on your proposal. Do you have anything that might help us facilitate that faster for you? And they love it, right? Because what's happening if you don't, they're going to be like me. If I'm calling somebody and they don't respond, even if I fill something out online, I'm also going to a different website. I'm not calling one person like, I'm not that naive, where I'm like, oh, they're only calling us. So if you can reach out to them first, I learned this in UPS, if you can reach out to them first, then usually the first one will get the bite.

Ian Robertson  
Yeah, and I mean, that's an important sales principle in general, is the first one there almost invariably has as an advantage if they present well. And you mentioned too understanding the consumer, the mentality of a person hiring a home inspector versus a commercial inspection are very different. So typically, when we're being hired by a person to inspect their home, they are the end person. We need to impress them. They hire us. Commercial, i's usually very different. There's usually a secretary or some guy who works on the team, getting a contractor. Now, when we show up or we have a report done, we're usually trying to impress for them. So let's say I'm hiring you to inspect the building that my boss said, okay, go find a commercial building inspector. I need you, James Hooper, to represent me well, like I need to have found a good guy so that my boss is like, hey, good job, Ian. That James guy is great. Use him on the next one. So if we're not giving that overly professional, I say overly professional, because if we think we're overly professional, we're probably just at the minimum of what we should be, because the mentality from home inspections to commercial, completely different. But we need to impress the person and the person they're trying to impress.

James Hooper  
Yep. And it starts from, you know, your website. It starts from the way that you communicate. It continues on with the way that you dress and the way that you verbalize, you know, issues and items with a building. So it's from A to Z, you know, another thing that's important is, you're giving more than just a driveway speech. I'm going to be doing one next week where I'm going to be doing the inspection, but then I have a conference room, so I'll be going over the report in a conference room. This is not just your, you know, mom and dad and uncle. So this is, you know, sharing with the asset manager. This is sharing it with all these people, and so you've got to be able to represent yourself.

Ian Robertson  
So that's never actually happened for me. I've never had to present the report. Is that common for you?

James Hooper  
It's not common for me. And I don't know where I saw it at, I think I saw it online.

Ian Robertson  
Probably with CCPIA, I would imagine.

James Hooper  
It was either that or our good friend, Lance. But I started adding it. So I do charge a fee for that. 

Ian Robertson  
Of course.

James Hooper  
You know, and I always offer it. So in my proposal, I always give them a few options. And if I feel like it's...one is for a government agency, they don't know what happened to the last guy. And so they found us. And so, you know, they have a couple booked with us. And so one of the things that we're wanting to do is share the summary, share the whole report in a conference room.

Ian Robertson  
Wow, that's a killer idea. Okay, so anybody listening, write that one down. That is a killer idea. Because basically, when we give our commercial report, the responsibility's on the person who received the report to kind of disseminate it, talk about it, ask questions, and they send questions back. You offer to say, hey, we'll do a presentation, and especially for things like school systems, when you have to present to the board, and, man, that's a killer marketing opportunity, because everybody in that room is going to be like, oh, this is the guy we want.

James Hooper  
It allows yourself to do even bigger inspections, because imagine doing a large inspection where you have HVAC contractors and then you know, good ones that you can partner with, electrician or whatever they might, roofing contractor, and you can say, hey, I'll pay you to come with me to help deliver this, you know. And well, you know, 50 bucks, fine. I'll pay you 50 bucks, you know, whatever the case might be. And that way you have now, Oregon Commercial Inspections has a team, right? Because they're not looking at it as Oregon Commercial Inspections, A and A Roofing Company or B and B, you know, HVAC Company. They're looking at Oregon Commercial Inspections has a team of people, network of people that will help us get something done. So now, when they have an inspection that needs to get done and it's a larger facility, who are they going to call? Who can do it? Well, James gave that presentation, and he brought five people in. Let's give Oregon Commercial Inspections a call.

Ian Robertson  
So, man, okay, so that one is definitely one to write down, offering to present the report to your superiors, or whatever, however it works out, or to the board of directors or school board, or whoever it happens to be. I like that idea, but I gotta say that's where it also takes things to the next level, because now you're not doing a driveway speech, as you said, you're public speaking. That's a whole different skill set. That's, that's a next level skill set. Do you feel pretty comfortable public speaking like that?

James Hooper  
We won't get into it. I'll just say this. I used to be a pastor a long time ago. So speaking in front of people, it's not a hard one.

Ian Robertson  
Okay. So you're good with it. A lot of people, you know, the old, what do they say, imagine people in their underwear when you're public speaking. By the way, don't do that. It just gets weird.

James Hooper  
Look, whenever you have a, here's a little trick. So if you have 12 people, there's always one person that's kind of like, don't look at the person that's giving you a dead stare the whole time.

Ian Robertson  
Yeah, the engager. 

James Hooper  
Ignore it. Look at the person that's kind of nodding once in a while. You know, that's who you want to key in on it, and if look in the room, look at everybody. Look at people's foreheads. Look at people's hairline.

Ian Robertson  
That was the old Dwight Schrute method. You look at people's foreheads, and from a distance, it looks like you're making eye contact.

James Hooper  
Yeah, that's right. 

Ian Robertson  
But never just look down or not look at people because people want to be engaged, and that doesn't seem engaging.

James Hooper  
And they want to feel important, so they're at this meeting. They have a relatively important role, right? So say you're the one that's paying for the inspection, right? It's your company, your bottom line. And I'm looking at everybody but you, you're like, hello, I'm here too. So, I think you gotta look, you gotta engage with everybody, and yeah, so I think it's important.

Ian Robertson  
Okay, well, I think that's a fantastic idea. And it just shows how things really need to go to the next level. You know, I've always said, in the home inspection industry, if you tuck in your shirt, you've already beaten half of your competition. It's not that simple when we go into commercial inspections and where I see people fail. So Lance was just talking about this on the show, and I have been talking about for the last two years, it's the golden age of commercial inspections. But so many home inspectors, we get into the industry, and then we're like, it didn't work out. It's because you just cloned your home inspection company and how you do things there, and just gave it a new name and a new website. It is not going to do the same for us. 

James Hooper  
Yeah, I agree 100%.

Ian Robertson  
Are there other areas that you see home inspectors kind of being home inspector-y in the commercial industry?

James Hooper  
So yeah, and this is where I actually wrote a bunch of stuff down. But I think one of the things I love, I love reading, and I love podcasts, like leadership podcasts and business podcasts, right? And I think the issue that I see a lot of people having is they surround themselves with how commercial inspections evolves, and what it takes to do. You know, I would challenge people to look outside of that and look at all businesses' practices and how different companies are ran. And I think there's this guy, I think I have his name written down, let me see. Maybe if you've heard of him...

Ian Robertson  
I probably haven't.

James Hooper  
You know a lot of people, though, so I forgot his name. Oh, Alex Hormozi, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, you can look him up. He actually reaches out to a bunch of entrepreneurs and business people. And he and he was asked, what is a business' biggest mistake that you see new business people make? He said they're only studying their business. They're not a student at the game of business. 

Ian Robertson  
Hmm, interesting. 

James Hooper  
When someone starts a business, they look at their business only. They don't look at anything else. So they look at what's working within commercial inspections, what's not working. Go look at all companies and all businesses and how they're ran, and then apply that to the commercial industry. Don't be so glued to our business where we can't grow it. Because here's the thing, you say it's a golden era, the sky's the limit. You know, this is my office that's not at my house. So this building actually has two conference rooms that I could use. The rent is dirt cheap. It's not pretty on the outside. They knew that I was a commercial inspector. But it's a place where I can house commercial brokers for them to come in, you know. So I plan to do a whole bunch of things like that, and what is not being offered at all that we can offer, sky's the limit. So you gotta, almost, like, think outside the box, if you will. What can we do? I mean, name it. That's a part that I love about commercial inspections right now.

Ian Robertson  
That's interesting. So basically, you're saying sky's the limit, like we can form the industry, we can make it go where we want. Yeah, you know, it's interesting that you mentioned too. I was writing it down as you were talking about not just studying our business, but studying business in general. That actually kind of has a two fold benefit, obviously, for us, expand our horizons and expand our business, but it also helps us to understand our clients, because they're business people too, like if we understand, you know, KPIs and derivatives, and you know what is ARR versus MRR, and we can have just a casual conversation about that stuff. You're going to be playing golf with them next week, and you're going to have all their commercial inspections, because we're going to understand them. They're going to be like, you get it, you get what we're looking for in this building. That's an interesting point

James Hooper  
Be a learner. Lance made a good point of like, he does a lot of churches and all that stuff in that area, and so he's kind of honed in on that skill set for inspecting those right? If you're going to go after, be the inspector for universities, learn everything you can about how universities are ran, how they're operated. If you're going to do, you know, we have a lot of tap houses and breweries here and stuff like that. Learn everything you can about the process. So when they're looking for a building and they're calling you with, you know, a proposal, and you can see that it's a brewery, you say, hey, you know what? I know what's important to you. I know that you'll need this, this and this for ventilation. I know that you'll need the power source with this, this...I don't even know, I don't know a lot about breweries, you know, but I have a friend who's a brew master, but I would ask him, and I would say, hey, let's go for a cup of coffee. I want to pick your brain, if you have a building, what do you need in that building? If you're a school and you're looking for, you know, what do you need? If you're a mechanic...the case might be to be a learner of other industries, especially when you do commercial inspections, because those industries are looking for property. They're looking for buildings. If you don't know anything about that specific industry, you're not gonna be able to lead them to a building. And the difference between choosing Person A versus Person B, so if I'm Person A, I'm saying, you know what, I know that you'll need X amount of power source, and you've already contacted him first, like, why would they go somewhere else?

Ian Robertson  
And there's a lot of truth to that. There's a good friend of mine. He's a contractor. Been a contractor for 40 some odd years, and he's kind of like that. I remember he went with me on a commercial inspection one time, and it was just funny how he just walked in. He goes, what do you guys do? Oh, yeah, I've done construction jobs for...they were architects. And he's like, which is funny, architects and engineers and they hired us. He's like, you know, I've done work for you guys. And on the second and third floor, you're gonna rent those out. He's like, well, if you do this, what are you gonna do? Blow out that ceiling? They're like, no, we can't. He goes, then the building's not gonna work for you. You've just ruined the rental for anything except for office space. And he goes, that's Romax cable over there, and not MC cable. He goes, You can't do that here. And I just remember standing there, I'm just like, this guy's working his magic, and he's just like that. And everybody just felt good about it. They ended up buying the building. They adjusted their plans based on what he said. But he had done so many things like that, and he understood so much about their business and the buildings in that area in general even, that he could just have that conversation. So you're right, yeah, understand everything about, learn about everything that, and don't assume that we know. Like we're like, oh, we know how engineers and architects are, yeah, we don't, let's be honest, unless you're there day to day to day and you have that background, spend some time with them, watch how they work. What do they do? What do they need, you know? And I ended up actually working for a lot of architects and engineers after that, and I spent a lot of time. I had a couple of friends that were engineers. I'm like, what do you guys really do? Here he goes, oh, well, you know, they're going to be all...like this one engineering company's like, everything they do is underground. So they're going to need places to store all their piping, because, since it's underground piping, it's not UV protected if you leave that outside. So they're going to need a warehouse. And I'm like, I didn't even think about that. I'm like, they need storage for all this underground piping. But anyways, I digress, yes,

James Hooper  
And I think it's same with anything that you want to offer, you know, we do triple net lease analysis, right? So it's like, I had somebody that was buying a business, but they weren't buying the building. And so he said we just want to look at the building, stuff like that. I go, hey, you know what? I would go over your lease to figure out what's required in your lease. Because if you take over that lease and you're buying that business, if it says that you need to maintain the HVAC systems, but they haven't been maintained, or if they said you need to look after the siding, but the siding but has bunch of dry rot. And I gave him a price, you know. I said, I'll go over the lease with you to figure out what exactly you're supposed to look at or take care of. And they loved it. They thought that was wonderful, you know. So again, it's like Person A versus Person B. If they don't say, hey, we'll also do this for you. Have you thought about doing this, even if it's something that you think that they may not be interested in, the fact that you say, hey, have you thought about it from this angle, you know. We did one that's buying her first commercial building, and I've done a lot of home investment for her, but this is her first commercial one. And she called me up. She's like, you do that commercial business, right? Yeah. So here's the website, all that stuff. And I gave her a proposal. She's like, I have a commercial tenant. I've never done that before. I said, here's what you can do now. Let's call her Beth. Okay? I said, Beth, this is what we can do. I will inspect the building and then we'll come up with a triple net. She goes, well, what's a triple net? And I said, well, that means, you know, they can pay for this, this, this, this, where you have to pay for close to zero. They're responsible for all this stuff. How do I know about that number? I'm like, well, I'll help you get to that number by figuring out the utility bills and the property taxes and all that stuff.

Ian Robertson  
And I guess there's another point of why it's an elevated form of home inspections, because home inspectors, we work on, does it work or does it not? That's our whole, I mean, I guess it's definitely distilled down, but that's it. Walk into a house. Does the door work or does it not? Is the furnace working or is it not? Commercial is such a bigger industry? Just knowing commercial buildings and being able to do a commercial inspection, doesn't do things like the triple net lease, and there's lots of other things like cost to cure, and many different parts of the commercial industry that we really need to sit down and study. We need to get good at it. And just another plug for CCPIA 1,000%. You gotta belong to CCPIA, you gotta go to all the round tables and take all the courses and just absorb everything. Because again, if I'm calling James Hooper and I'm calling John Doe, and John Doe doesn't know what a triple net lease is, and you just explained all that stuff, I'm calling James Hooper back to do the inspection and all my other inspection stuff. It really is important. So we're running out of time here, James, but is there anything else that you wanted to share with our listeners and let them know about the whole transition from one industry to the next? 

James Hooper  
You know, just remember this. Take it seriously. There's a difference between a garage band and, you know, and a real band that's playing in front of 1000s of people, right? I don't want to be a garage band inspection company. I don't want to be the one that's doing a half ass. I don't want to be doing it part-time. So even if you're doing it, quote, part-time, act like it's full-time. So I would say, take it serious and investigate, research it and be an expert in your field.

Ian Robertson  
Yeah, those are wise words to end on, James. Thank you very much. Yeah, make it our whole thing, be a professional in our industry. 

James Hooper  
Yep, 100%. 

Ian Robertson  
Listen, you're a very busy inspector. Took time in between commercial inspections in your remote office to do this podcast with us. I can't thank you enough, even after we had to reschedule. You're awesome, James. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, and hopefully we'll have you back on the show, because we'd love to have you again.

James Hooper  
You bet. Love to be back. 

Ian Robertson  
Thank you very much. Bye.

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