Award-winning excellence doesn't happen by accident. After receiving the news that Habitation Investigation had earned the prestigious "Best in the Midwest" award for the third consecutive year, we decided to peel back the curtain and share what makes our home inspection company different from the competition.
This episode explores the factors that contribute to our continued success, from our customer-first approach to our ethical business practices. With over 1,700 Google reviews and a stellar 4.9-star rating, we've built a reputation on clear communication, thorough inspections, and reports that set the standard for the industry. Our team shares how we've grown from our humble beginnings in 2002 to become one of Ohio's premier inspection companies, expanding our services based directly on client requests rather than arbitrary business decisions.
We tackle a particularly important topic for homeowners: privacy protection. Unlike many inspection companies that generate revenue by selling client information to third parties, we maintain strict privacy standards. Our single partnership with ADT is completely optional for clients and directs benefits to charities rather than our bottom line. We also discuss the value of maintenance inspections every 3-5 years and regular radon testing—services that can save homeowners thousands by catching small issues before they become expensive problems.
What truly sets an inspection company apart isn't fancy technology or marketing gimmicks—it's having inspectors who genuinely care about their clients and communicate clearly without fear-mongering. Whether you're a homeowner, real estate professional, or aspiring entrepreneur, this episode offers valuable insights into building a service business based on integrity, customer care, and consistent quality. Ready to learn what makes a home inspection company worthy of multiple industry awards? Listen now and discover how excellence becomes a habit.
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
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Episode Transcript
Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast,
where we discuss topics,upcoming events, news and
predictions with real estateprofessionals and entrepreneurs.
Listen and learn what makestheir companies and themselves
stand out and gain advantagesover the competition and gain
market share.
Subscribe for the latest newsand discussion on what it takes
(00:23):
to stand out from the crowd.
Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey everybody, Welcome to the Standing Out and
Out podcast.
This is Jim, and with me, ofcourse, is Laura, the office
goddess.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hello everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
So we got some good news to announce, but you know
what?
First, let's listen to this.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs.
From radon to mold towarranties For a great home
inspection, you really can't gowrong.
All right, laura.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
So good news.
It's always good to know thatyou get some verification from
some third party that you'redoing things.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, you're doing things well, correct and it's
appreciated.
So what was it that we won acouple months ago?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
We won the Consumer's Choice Award.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
When did they tell us that Was that October?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
At the end of the year, november, yeah, something
like that.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So we won for the category of home inspections For
the Columbus market For 2025.
Yes, which is nice, very nice.
So we got that.
But we got something, were wetold, maybe two weeks ago, maybe
a month ago, yeah, somethinglike that.
So what was that?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So we won best in the Midwest third time in a row.
So the first year we won wasfor 22.
The second was for 23, 24.
And this one is for 25, 26.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So they kind of started combining the years a
little bit.
Maybe it's like half this year,half another year, yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I don't know, that's just so.
We won third time in a row.
So, they go off.
How did?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
they determine this.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So the Consumer's Choice Award uses AI to go
through all of the websites forthat area with whatever company
they're looking for.
So in our case it was homeinspection.
So they look for services, theylook for reviews, they look for
(02:49):
longevity and all of that stuff, which is very similar to what
the best in the Midwest did too.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Okay, so we get lots of reviews.
That's for sure.
Right?
I'm looking right now.
Right now it says we have 1,726Google reviews and we have a
4.9, which is good.
That's good.
A lot of companies.
If you get four or five, you'rethought of being pretty decent.
(03:19):
But yeah, so that is good.
I like when they take picturespictures they took a car or
check it out.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Check it out the furnace, the the fire gas
fireplace?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
yep, and we definitely have.
You know our systems to makesome down.
Um, so what?
What do you think is reallycontributor?
Are being able to win thisthree years in a row, or even at
all?
It it's not.
I mean, we've been around since2002.
You came aboard like 2007because I had no time, because I
(03:53):
was still working third shift.
You were still working thirdshift, third shift got a factory
which sucks ass.
But if anybody ever, if you'retrying to get your real estate
career or home inspection goingand you're working third shift,
it's possible, but it is goingto really, yeah, you're going to
be very seat deprived and notbe the I don't know your happy,
(04:16):
normal self.
You're going to be really tiredand worn out.
But we did that.
I worked third shift and thenduring the day I did the
inspections, marketing reportwriting, everything goes along
with that.
But some of the things we'vedone is I know we've always
constantly made improvements asneeds come up.
(04:39):
You want to describe how thatkind of happens.
So I think there's a couplethings.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
You want to describe how that kind of happens.
So I think there's a couplethings.
First of all, most of theservices that we offer now have
all been because we've hadclients that have said we need
help Can you figure out how todo this for us?
And so we have added a lotbecause of client requests, and
so we're probably one of the fewlegitimate one-stop shops in
(05:06):
the state.
Yeah, our inspectors this isn'tjust a let's go to work and
collect a paycheck.
Our inspectors genuinely careabout the clients.
They care about educating them,about doing a good job, about
teaching them about their house,and it's you know, very matter
of fact, how they talk to them.
(05:26):
They don't try to, you know,scare them or whatever they just
here's the information.
You do with it what you will.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And then and that's important to note that we're not
there to Fear monger, yeah, tofear monger.
Make a mountain out of amolehill of an issue, because
every house has issues, brandnew ones especially, have issues
which seemed.
I'm still amazed how itsurprises people that the house
is not going to be perfect ifit's brand new or it's still
(05:54):
built by people and it's stillbuilt by people and and
materials sometimes just break.
Yeah, I can't remember what itwas, I think it was like five
percent of the GFCI outlets failBrand new, they're not working
right, so they all need tested.
Yeah, but we always, if there'ssomething that pops up like oh,
(06:15):
that was like.
My first thought is report.
There's something that'sconfusing to the home buyer or
the agent.
I'm going to look at thatcomment and see if it can be
clarified a little bit better.
So at this point we don't gettoo many questions about the
report.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
It's very it's.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
It's it's very clear.
I like how it's organizedorganized we we used to get lots
of compliments about theorganization of the report
because it was I don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I think now everybody's used to our report
is organized and how we have it,because we've been doing it so
long that they just kind ofexpect it yes, I think it's
actually to the point where, ifthey see a report that's not
ours, it's confusing becausemost people have worked with
ours for so long and they knowhow clear and concise it is that
(07:04):
other reports just don't havethe same quality.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yep, and there's always a summary report with it,
yep, so I'm looking at ourreviews.
We have one bad review.
It was the last month or somaybe and you got to take it
with a grain of salt, but hereI'll just read it.
Yeah, it says super impressedwith the extent of the whole
inspection and the process thatBobby Bobby Joe that's one of
(07:29):
our inspectors did on her workand this rate is not to reflect
her work at all work and thisrate is not to reflect her work
at all.
However, the company and itsays, after charging over 500,
sells your information to othercompanies for security upgrades
to your new home, and it goes on.
If I want some of the contactfor certainly server, they'll do
it on them on their own behalf.
They do not appreciateunsolicited call, email, the
(07:52):
text messages because they soldmy information off to other
businesses.
Not true, not true.
We do not sell this stuff.
There are companies and we knowthese companies.
They will give away thehomebuyer's information.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
For discounts on their scheduler For discounts on
their scheduling system.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
yes, so they get paid in other ways.
They may not get cash directly,but some of them do.
I know a couple gets moneyevery single time somebody sells
a security system.
We do not get that money.
What we do, Actually, I can putit down here.
So here's my response to thisone.
(08:34):
You want to read it, Laura.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Thank you for your feedback.
We are glad to hear you wereimpressed with Bobby Joe's work
during the home inspection.
However, we take your concernsabout privacy and unsolicited
communications very seriously.
We do not sell personalinformation or exchange it for
discounts, like many other homeinspection companies do
discounts, like many other homeinspection companies do.
(08:57):
Any benefit from a clientgetting a security system
actually goes towards charitiessuch as Vitamin Angels that
supplies nutritional supplementsto pregnant women, children and
infants.
One year we donated enough tohelp approximately 12,000
infants.
We will investigate this matterfurther, as you should have had
a way to opt out.
Your experience is importantand we appreciate you bringing
it to our attention.
There are two emails set up inour system because they have a
(09:23):
way to opt out.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
It's also an agreement.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
It's also in the agreement that they have that
ability to have ADT get theirinformation.
That's the only company that inany way, shape or form, is
affiliated with us.
We do not sell the informationand if they do get an alarm
system it goes to vitamin angelsand to a um, Champaign County
(09:49):
animal welfare league.
Yes, and it splits between thetwo of them.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yep.
So, and I I don't know theexact numbers because I really
don't, I'm not we don't get thechecks, we don't get the check,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I could potentially you know send an email and say,
hey, how many did we do lastyear, how many this year it's
been a couple thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It's been a couple thousand $4,000 a year maybe go
toward those charities.
I don't know, it's just a guess.
But we do not sell.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Like we have been very, very, very adamant about
that.
We do nothing with any of thosecompanies that will actually
sell your information.
We do not sell your information, it does not go from us and if
somebody has gotten something,just so that you know, a real
(10:40):
estate transaction is a matterof public record and it does not
have to come from the homeinspection.
Like when we moved to our house, like we built our house, we
started to get all kinds ofcrazy crap and I'm like my God
Wow.
Like people were coming out ofthe woodwork trying to sell us
home insurance and this and thatand so on, and we didn't even
(11:02):
take a loan out and we didn'tknow If we took a loan out
there's even more documents.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Because the banks are going hey we have these
companies that you might benefitfrom.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
It's the beauty of the digital age and everything
is out there for everyone to seeand everyone to find, and it
genuinely sucks and I totallyagree, because if it were my
info, I'd be pissed, which iswhy we don't do it.
We treat our clients how wewant to be treated and how we
want our information and thereare some scheduling systems that
(11:34):
are designed mainly for homeinspectors, that they give
discounts.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
They give discounts.
So they give discounts to thehome inspection company for
using their system.
In exchange, that schedulingsystem, parent company or
co-owner of that company, willtake that information, the
contact information for theclients and market to them
information for the clients theysell it and market to them yeah
they.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
And then they sell it like they'll they'll do so much
marketing, and then it getssold to another company down the
road, which is where themajority of that company's
income stream comes from we donot do that.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
We do not do that we are not affiliated with them.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
We have never been affiliated with them and we
never will be.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
But the reason I want to show that is like we have
legit five-star reviews all overthe place and we get some bad
ones as well.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
You can't make everybody happy.
I mean, this is not.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
It's a good review on the inspection process.
They misunderstood as to where,as if, their stuff gets sold.
They misunderstood as to whereas if their stuff gets sold.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah, and even in the email that goes out from us,
like on our initial email andstuff like that, I say we have a
partnership with ADT.
Just let them know.
If you're not interested, I'msupposed to review there's
another picture of Carl.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah right, Carl, that could be a neat little
contest.
You get a review of yourpicture on it.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Maybe we'll do that.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
There's another one with Carl, but he's not in the
picture.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
No, but, but that would still count.
That's kind of funny though.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, most reviews do not have pictures in them, but
the three that have pictures areall Carl's and.
Spectre's Carl's veryphotogenic yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Well, and let's be realistic.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I'm not finding any more pictures.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Carl can talk.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Yeah, let's talk about all the inspectors.
This may be one of the reasonswhy we won Best in the Midwest
again is all our inspectors arevery personable.
They all have differentpersonalities, of course, right,
but they're friendly, they'recustomer service oriented.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
And they genuinely care, and I think that comes
across Like they genuinely careabout doing a good job.
This isn't just let me come andcollect a paycheck.
It's another day, anotherdollar.
It's oh cool.
What am I going to do today?
Who am I going to meet?
What am I going to find?
How am I going to help myclient?
And it's all that type of anattitude that makes the clients
(14:01):
know that they're actuallyimportant of an attitude that
makes the clients know thatthey're actually important.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yes, so I think that's about it for this one.
We could talk about reviews.
There's something popped in myhead that we could talk about as
well.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Well, there's one more thing we forgot to mention.
What's that?
So we do have systems too.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
So when oh, that's from Midwest yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Yeah, so we have Amy in the office.
We have online schedulingbecause, let's face it, I can't
answer the phone 24 seven.
If I'm already doing stuffduring the day, at nighttime
it's getting a bit late.
So you can go to our, ourwebsite, and you can schedule
online.
I get notification of that.
I can put all that stuffthrough and get everything
(14:44):
approved.
We have so many systems inplace.
We have email that goes outautomatically and it goes out to
the buyer's agent, the listingagent, going hey, this was just
scheduled for this date in thistime.
Heads up, it's going to becoming your way.
So there's a lot of stuff thatwe have implemented in terms of
(15:05):
being able to replicate thingsand take care of people.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Well, we're starting to have clients who we did an
inspection for years ago contactus and go hey, can you do a
maintenance inspection for themLike every at minimum every five
years is my first thought.
But radon the EPA wouldrecommend you get your house
tested for radon every two years.
(15:27):
If you have a system every twoyears, if not every three years.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
We have actually a couple of clients.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
You should pair that up every three years, have your
radon level tested and have ahome inspection to keep up on
your stuff, because we seehouses.
That's a to keep up on yourstuff.
We've seen houses that's a verysmall hole in your roof or the
flash or whatever.
But because it's dragged on for10 years now your roof is gone.
(15:55):
Now you got some sheath thatneeds completely replaced when
it first got bent.
All right, here's a little dabof sealant.
Seriously, it can be thatlittle to fix.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
We have a couple of clients actually that have
started scheduling regularmaintenance inspections with us,
like we've got several that arecoming through and they're
calling us every year or two tohave us come out and look at
stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
It's customer-served, which is why we won.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Best Midwest.
Best Midwest and the Consumer'sChoice.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Three years in a row Consumer's Choice, the first
year we won that.
I don't know if they did itprevious years or not.
They have other services thatthey did in Columbus.
I just don't know about thehome inspection.
Do not know that.
Yeah, I don't know.
Know we got a great team andit's it's growing.
Yep found we're very picky onour people it's taking a couple
(16:49):
years to find somebody which,yeah, we don't have a whole lot
of turnover, which is good.
A lot of people.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Some expect me to turn them over so quick they
lose every year, every sixmonths to a year.
Yeah i't know, I don't knowwhat the issue is, that's
something to look into duringour mastermind meeting.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
But we are very selective and which is why we
won Best of Midwest now threeyears in a row Yep Consumers
Choice Awards and we'll see whatthe rest of the year holds out
for us.
All right, thank you, everybody.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Bye, bye-bye you've been listening to the standing
out in ohio podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on spotifyor google podcast to get new,
fresh episodes.
For more, please follow us oninstagram, twitter and facebook,
or visit the website of thebest ohio home inspection
company at home inspectionsinohiocom or jimtrothcom.
(17:47):
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H andclick on podcast.
No-transcript.
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