EP# 135 - Navigating Home Inspection Realities and Community Building with Brett Onasch

Have you ever thought a brand-new home was a safe bet? Brett Onacsh from Python Home Inspection joins us to shatter this common misconception, bringing to light the often-overlooked necessity of inspections in new constructions. Swapping New Jersey's brisk construction sites for Florida's balmy breeze, Brett uncovers a worrisome trend of quality decline in modern homes. As he walks us through his meticulous approach to safeguarding clients' dreams, you'll learn why it's essential to look beyond the surface even when the paint's still fresh. Beyond the nuts and bolts, we get personal, peeling back the layers to reveal the philosophy and life experiences that have cultivated Brett's resilience and zest for living in the moment.

Wrapping up, our chat takes a gentle turn as Brett imparts a dose of positivity and love, echoing the ethos of the Good Neighbor Podcast. It's more than just an exploration of his role in the Estero community; it's a celebration of the spirit that binds us as neighbors. Through stories like Brett's, we're reminded of the unsung heroes who fortify our communities. If his tale motivates you to shine a light on another local gem, we're all ears – because every nomination is an opportunity to weave a stronger, more vibrant neighborhood tapestry. Brett's journey is a testament to the passion and dedication that truly make a place like Estero feel like home.

Python Home Inspection
Brett Onasch
6017 Pine Ridge Road #104,
Naples, FL, 34119​
239-431-5100
bonasch@pythonhomeinspection.com
WEBSITE

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.

Speaker 2: 0:11

Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 135 of the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Brett Onacsh from Python Home Inspection. Brett, welcome, hey, thank you so much. Yeah, absolutely Always good to meet good people in the neighborhood. So that's the truth, yeah, so why don't we start off by sharing a little bit of what you do over at Python Home Inspections?

Speaker 3: 0:35

Well, we do general home inspections for people purchasing new homes, Collier and Lee County. We blanket ourselves all over Collier and all over Lee County and we, just we do our inspections prior to people purchasing their dream homes down here in Florida.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Always an important part of the process, right? Oh yeah, there's always something too. I hear you. So how did you get started in this industry?

Speaker 3: 1:02

It's actually. It's something I've. I've been in construction basically my entire life. Started out doing some summer work for my uncle up in New Jersey pushing brooms, picking up the trash around the lots stuff like that teenage stuff and then graduated high school and packed my car up, moved down to Florida to be an electrician and it just went from there. And my one day I was visiting my grandparents up in Bonita and my grandfather came to me and said hey, you ever think about home inspecting? Uh, we just had a guy inspect our house, uh, as they were selling it, and he, uh he showed me the news article, I read it and then it went all straightforward from there.

Speaker 2: 1:43

Right, just found it and you went right after it. That's it.

Speaker 3: 1:48

It's a dream job, it's just. It's not even a job, it's just something I love to do, absolutely. It's a great, great career path.

Speaker 2: 1:56

And then that's what you got to do. You got to find out what you're passionate about and follow that as well. Exactly so we've all had some type of challenge or obstacle on our journey. That that you know. Maybe we struggled through and maybe we can look back at now and say, you know what? Uh, I'm in a better place now, but you know, I did go through. That Is something that happened along your journey.

Speaker 3: 2:17

Uh, not so much. I mean, I guess every day would be a journey. Uh, I like to live in the present. I don't really like to look back in the back and I don't want to look too far in the future. I like to stay present and observe what's going on around me now and that's all that really matters. Any hardships, really, really can't complain about anything, because that's molded me into the person I am today, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 2:40

No regrets right.

Speaker 3: 2:41

No, no regrets. You can't look back and have regrets on things. You got to keep moving forward and be present.

Speaker 2: 2:47

Exactly? Has there something that's happened, maybe within the industry over the years you've been involved in it, that maybe has changed or is trending?

Speaker 3: 2:59

Not really the home sales, I guess, have slowed down a little bit, but for the most part it's transitioned from basic sales of homes for inspections and it's transitioned more into new construction. So we've been primarily doing our inspections on new home builds in the area versus, you know, resales. So that that's something that has changed. I have seen that a lot of the quality isn't really there. You know the quality of professionalism and you know building.

Speaker 3: 3:36

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with any of the builders, but you just see some of these things that just scratch your head and wonder how did? How was this allowed on the job? Why are they allowing contractors on the jobs that just seem like they don't care? There's no pride in workmanship anymore, it seems like, but I'm optimistic that it will get better.

Speaker 2: 3:55

Absolutely yeah, and it's tough down here. It's tough to find good help and being good people. Is there, are there any maybe myths or misconceptions surrounding what you do that we could clear up for our listeners?

Speaker 3: 4:09

I don't know, I don't. I really never hear any misconceptions for anybody.

Speaker 2: 4:15

I mean when somebody thinks about a home inspection like I don't need one of those, you know, do you get that a lot, or?

Speaker 3: 4:20

They sometimes yes, sometimes no. It just depends. You know you get you can. Sometimes you get the guy that's a contractor or whatever you know goes in there and knows everything, and you just let them do their thing and let them know everything. I don't know everything, but I'm the first to admit it. But when we go into doing the inspection there's always something silly. You know, when we get into these places, whether it's you know something that you can't see or something that's been hidden, there's always something.

Speaker 2: 4:50

And then most people probably assume they can walk in the house and look at it.

Speaker 3: 4:54

Well, you know, actually thinking about it now, the misconception. I would say that you know, people that are buying the new construction have the misconception of oh, I'm buying a new home, there's nothing going to be wrong with it, and it seems that the new construction has the most problems versus the resales, uh, which have already had people living in them. Uh, there's a ton of problems with I wouldn't say problems, but imperfections with the new construction. But that's why we do the inspections to make sure that people are getting the most out of their investment.

Speaker 2: 5:27

Yeah, and avoid those obstacles or added expenses down the line as well too.

Speaker 3: 5:32

Headaches and money pit bills. You know, you buy a house and all of a sudden the warranty is expired and then we go to inspect it for a resale and you find out you got, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars of issues going on in the property which I don't want anybody to have to. You know, have to experience that Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 5:50

So you mentioned you weren't from Southwest Florida. What brought you down here?

Speaker 3: 5:56

That's a good question too. Well, I had went to I'm from Marlton, New Jersey, it's South Jersey, it's in Burlington County Graduate high school. Up there I did some trade school, I got certified in electrical trades and I came down here with, you know, all these dreams of being an electrician and then found out that I cannot compete with the workforce down here because the pay wasn't there. You know, you come down here, you know, certified, and you got all these degrees and education and they want to pay you $8 an hour to, you know, do electrical work, which is you can't raise a family with that. It's just terrible. So I got out of that trade and and this is where I'm at today.

Speaker 2: 6:42

So Running your own business, which is much better, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 6:46

Yeah, that's definitely a lot better than work for someone.

Speaker 2: 6:49

I hear you, I hear. So when you do have some free time, are there certain things that you like to do around here down in southwest florida?

Speaker 3: 6:57

yeah, uh, I like to take the boys out. We go out, do a lot of stuff in the woods. We I don't know if you ever heard of what uh geocaching. Let's say, yeah, yeah, we do a lot of that. That's uh treasure hunting. It's a global gps driven treasure hunt thing where they take the kids out and they got to solve puzzles and do math equations and you know they got to use the uh decipher keys to solve a problem. Uh, and that's something we like to do. We also like to go out and do we're just outdoors a lot. You know swimming, going fishing back in the woods. You know basic stuff like that outdoor stuff.

Speaker 2: 7:31

That's why we live down here, so we can do that year round? Absolutely so. Is there one thing, maybe, that you wish our listeners knew about what you do, that maybe they're not aware of?

Speaker 3: 7:41

uh, yeah, I mean, I have a very unique uh and it's currently being copywritten. Right now it's in the process of of my inspection reporting system. I've custom written entirely different than what most people are used to seeing report and rating system. It's not your basic, you know satisfactory marginal. I don't know if you even know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2: 8:09

There's a basic.

Speaker 3: 8:10

There's a basic rating system and it's just boring, it's hard to understand and I have rewrote the whole reporting software to the point where it's written around the Nabor contract, which is for Collier County's realtors. I've written the report based off of their contract, so there's no interference of you know. Is this cosmetic? Is this a contractual requirement? So we've simplified that in order to make it more easy to read and understand and there's a lot more photographs that you're used to seeing and the rating system is like a report card. It's the letter A, which is something's there, it's fine, nothing wrong.

Speaker 3: 8:53

We have the letter B, which would be something to say like your light bulb's burned out, go change your light bulb, or you know you need to caulk around the sink or something, something silly, low maintenance, not expensive. Then I have the letter C, which would be equivalent to an F, but it just went into where ABC. So the C items would be on the back of the report and a summarized part of the report where the realtor can say okay, I read the report Now. Here's everything that we really need to address and here's the important things that are located in the back of the report which they can print out share with the other side and it's just very simple terms, nothing technical that somebody couldn't understand. It's written so everybody can understand it and it's been simplified Nice.

Speaker 2: 9:37

And that's important, so people can understand what they're looking at and what it all means. Nice, and that's important, so people can understand what they're looking at and what it all means Exactly. So how would our listeners go about getting ahold of you if they're interested in learning more or having something inspected?

Speaker 3: 9:51

Well, they can reach us at 239-431-5100 and reach out and talk to Amy. She is the master of the office. She controls all the scheduling, the billing, the everything. She takes care of everything. Without her I couldn't run this business. But yeah, and there's also pythonhomeinspectioncom. We do have an online calendar. So if say, you're a realtor and you're out to dinner and you're closing a deal and getting contracts signed and you say, well, it's nine o'clock at night, I need to get an inspection scheduled, Well, you can go to PythonHomeInspection. com schedule online and the next day we'll reach out to you and confirm everything. We try to keep it as simple as possible.

Speaker 2: 10:33

Simplicity, you got to love it. Perfect, perfect, any last words for our listeners.

Speaker 3: 10:40

No, I love it. Perfect, perfect. Any last words for our listeners?

Speaker 2: 10:42

No, just stay positive and spread love. That's it. That's it. I'm with you. I love that, brett, thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you out here in the community soon.

Speaker 3: 10:51

Thanks, sir, appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 10:53

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpestero. com. That's gnpestero. com, or call 239-296-2621.