Building Your Business Ep. 33: Brent Fletcher, Crossing Into Commercial

CCPIA (00:05)
Welcome Brent, thanks for taking some time and being with me today.

Brent Fletcher (00:08)
Absolutely, how you doing bud?

CCPIA (00:10)
And I am, am to say I’m tickled is is an understatement. What would those that are listening, watching or however you’re you’re ingesting this this little conversation don’t know is recently you and I got to spend and I’m not going to say I’m going to say it the way it’s meant to be said and not the way it sounds. We spent

Brent Fletcher (00:17)
Yeah.

CCPIA (00:40)
three days and nights together.

Brent Fletcher (00:42)
That was, yeah, was a great, great week for sure. We had a lot of fun. We went across town and everything.

CCPIA (00:48)
Yeah.

⁓ Brent just sat through our three-day introduction to commercial property inspections. it’s our, basically, I don’t want to say a boot camp, but it’s our introduction to the commercial inspection world. And it was cool having you in the class.

Brent Fletcher (01:13)
And you know, yeah, absolutely. Not to, you know, not to boost your, you know, boost you too much, but dude, you’re an awesome instructor, man. I had a lot of fun. You were very engaging. I am, I’m horrible at sitting in one spot for a long periods of time and you made sure that the class was focused and it was a lot of interesting topics and the amount of stuff I learned in there was, yeah, I was able to apply right away when I

CCPIA (01:35)
Well, we’ll get to some of that and thank you. I can’t sit either. As you sat through that class, I make sure I get my steps in, no matter the size of the room.

Brent Fletcher (01:38)
Okay.

Yeah, you’re back and forth. I just wanted to follow around with you for a minute.

CCPIA (01:50)
You know, probably that could have been fun too. We could have probably figured out a skit to do. ⁓

Brent Fletcher (01:56)
get a little circle pit going for the class, been great.

CCPIA (01:59)
Yeah,

I think we could have some fun with that. want to start, for those that don’t know Brent, ⁓ you’re a home inspector in Fort Collins, Colorado or that northern swath of the Colorado area.

Brent Fletcher (02:10)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, Northern Colorado,

I’m all over Colorado, but yeah, that’s my home base.

CCPIA (02:20)
Excellent. you run, how many inspectors in your firm now?

Brent Fletcher (02:24)
So we got five employees, I just put out an ad to get a sixth, maybe a seventh. But there are three of us full time home inspectors that are just out in the field every day. Yeah, busting out, I think we’re doing about 100 inspections a month, give or take.

CCPIA (02:39)
That’s fabulous. And so let’s go backwards a little bit, because I think there’s an evolution here. This is the building your business for the CCPIA. So I think we need to find out, we need to find your origin story a little bit. What got you into residential inspections?

Brent Fletcher (02:57)
Yeah, so that’s kind of a fun story. So I bought my first house right when COVID was getting kicked off and I had no idea what a home inspection was or you needed a home inspection. was just, know, my real estate agent said, you got to do this to get the appraiser and all that. So just called this guy up, he came to my house, he had his ladder, he had his tool belt. He did a great job, no complaints there. But I was just like, man, that looks like something that I could really get in with.

history of construction, everything from roofing, electrical plumbing, and then I also always been working different businesses trying to find my place of being an entrepreneur. And then when I saw all that, know, short story long, when I closed on my house because of what he found, I ended up getting all closing cost covers and a $6,000 check cut to me. I took that check and signed up for home inspection classes that very day. And I just started taking all the classes and then yeah, I just kind of grew from there.

it.

CCPIA (03:55)
I know for me, I have a little bit of an attention issue. so, know, home inspections is, squirrel, ⁓

Brent Fletcher (03:59)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, right. And

I think that’s one of the great things about being a home inspector is if you have ADHD and you want to look at a million different things at once and you also love rabbit holes, home inspection or even commercial inspection is a great, great focus for that because you, yeah, it’s you versus a house or a building. I love that aspect.

CCPIA (04:23)
Yeah,

and I used to do three a day. So three different times a day, I got to see a new puzzle, a new client. ⁓

Brent Fletcher (04:33)
Yeah, right. just, yeah, it’s a very fast paced, very, yeah, very vocal job. You’re very interactive with people and I haven’t found anything I disliked about it yet. I even like the addicts and crawl spaces. I don’t do snakes. I will not do snakes, but we don’t have a lot of those out here in Colorado, but that’d probably be the end of my career. I see some inspectors on the, you know, some areas that they show all these photos. I’m like, no.

CCPIA (04:45)
I don’t like spiders and I don’t like snakes and so.

Now, I lived in Colorado for three and a half years and there was a golf course I played twice a week that I knew if my ball went off the fairway, I didn’t go get it.

Brent Fletcher (05:09)
Yeah, you some like rattlers or some? Yeah. ⁓ I’ve seen quite a few of those out here backpacking and whatnot. So there are a thing.

CCPIA (05:11)
Yeah, I heard him.

Yeah. no, I’m happily can say I didn’t do any home inspections in the state of Colorado for that reason. No, I know we’re going to get a little bit of traction on this conversation because you, you have a face ⁓ that’s all over the internet. Yeah. You are, I don’t like using the word influencer. That’s a, that’s, don’t, that’s a sick.

Brent Fletcher (05:41)
Yeah, well, a couple of places.

I like content

creator. I’ll go with that. Yeah.

CCPIA (05:47)
You’re a content creator.

You make a lot of videos and you have a lot of fun in it. What got you started doing this?

Brent Fletcher (05:54)
Yeah.

So, you know, it depends on how far back you want to go. always, you all the time in the world. So, you know, back when I was in high school, you know, those were the big VH1 and the MTV days. I loved music videos and more so, I always wanted to be a part of it. More so than being in the music video, I loved how they fit the vibe of the song by the…

CCPIA (06:03)
⁓ I all the time in the world.

Brent Fletcher (06:22)
or with producers and how they made it all together. So I always kind of wanted to do something like that. And as we’re fast forwarding forward, you know, there’s Vine, I kind of missed that whole one. And then TikTok really came out and had the editor in there and really gave you the option to do it. So now we’re going to the second step. When I first started my business, I didn’t even know how to post on Instagram, Facebook, didn’t have any of the other stuff. So when I realized what was going on with TikTok,

that sparked my interest. Now when I first started my business, I had a lot of things going on in my life and I necessarily didn’t have enough hours in the day to get out and network with people. ⁓ I still work in a full-time job, but I knew if you wanted to be successful, the hardest part is getting clients. And the only way you’re gonna get clients is by putting your face in front of them. So therefore I was like, wow, why don’t I just post every single day and try to friend request every real estate agent in my area.

And then once I started building that platform, I really started diving into videos. And I was like, man, now I can create stuff and market at the same time so I can grow a business I currently have following an old dream that I’ve always had. And by buying those two, now I got Fletcher’s Home Inspections. ⁓

CCPIA (07:41)
So it was really

fixing an itch. ⁓

Brent Fletcher (07:45)
Yeah, pretty much. It’s a lot of small things over the years that led up to make something. This wasn’t my first business either. I had two failed businesses. I tried throughout my 20s and 30s, tried to get those up and running, and I learned so much from every little piece of those. So once you kind of get to that point in your life, you’re trying to figure out what direction you want to take it, you start putting everything together, and eventually it created something, and who would have thought, right?

CCPIA (08:12)
Yeah, yeah. it’s just, it’s interesting to me because I don’t come from, I mean, I am old enough. mean, my wife and I were just having lunch and we were talking about those segments of generations, you know, the boomers, the gen Xs, the gen Zs, you know, and all those classifications. And I really never thought about classifications like that, but I am of an age that

Brent Fletcher (08:28)
Uh-huh.

CCPIA (08:39)
I mean, I remember being at college and I remember having the one TV in our dorm room that was in the community center that never switched the channel. It was on MTV and all going to, I mean, just imagine if that stuff was around when that craze.

Brent Fletcher (08:45)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Good thought.

I remember in high school, you know, we had that old, you know, the shoulder sitting tape and we would still, you know, as kids we grow around doing skateboarding videos and try to piece together. You’d have the two videos record and play trying to make a video happen.

CCPIA (09:15)
Oh, yeah.

But I mean, I remember those days of spring break where they, know, Daytona Beach would have four or 500,000, you know, spring breakers down there. Just imagine if they all had phones making content. Or, you know, they’d have blown up the internet.

Brent Fletcher (09:24)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, right. The crazy stuff you could have seen or saved. Now that’s how it is. Internet’s

forever. So that’s something we’re dealing with.

CCPIA (09:37)
Yeah,

exactly. ⁓ So I have watched your stuff. We have become friends I’ve been catching this stuff and I have to say, I know it’s great stuff and it’s very home inspection centric. And I made an offhanded comment to you and I know I made it during class and

Brent Fletcher (09:55)
Mm-hmm.

CCPIA (10:02)
I repeated it, then apologize for it, you know, when we were having a beer after class is I’m not, I’d love to have a little bit. Maybe you don’t want to tingle it. Maybe you don’t want to let anybody know, but you have ideas, don’t you? And how to take this, this internet idea and the, and the content creating into the commercial world.

Brent Fletcher (10:27)
I do. I have some plans that I’ve been working on. I don’t want to get into them yet because yeah, if you’re about stuff too much, you never tell someone the poem you’re writing until it’s finished, right? All I know is the direction I want to take is what I’ve always believed is true with any of my content I want to have fun with it because if it’s not fun, then why would I do it? So as long as you’re having fun with it and you know, if you can help some people and educate outside of that, that’s kind of the whole goal overall.

CCPIA (10:31)
No.

Yes.

I like that. And I’m looking forward to seeing it play out and I’m looking forward, and I don’t want to say you’ve proven me wrong, because I’ve already admitted that I’m wrong, but you proving now my new hypothesis that it’s going to be spectacular.

Brent Fletcher (11:03)
you

⁓ that’s awesome. Those are big steps to fill right there. I think you know I think one of

CCPIA (11:13)
Yeah, you know, it’s it’s because I think you can do things that

I could never do. ⁓

Brent Fletcher (11:19)
I think one the cool

aspects about it that you’re really going to see is opening the doors to a lot of these places that most people visit every day and they can’t, how cool would it be to do an old pizza hut? You know what I’m saying? Like the behind the scenes, these are what the kitchens are, these are what that, I think that spark a lot of interest for a lot of people to kind of see all these areas that they’ve never seen before.

CCPIA (11:39)
Yeah, a few months ago, I got the opportunity to take 25 of our colleagues into a 12 story building in downtown Phoenix and go through 300,000 square foot of places you’ll never see.

Brent Fletcher (11:49)
yeah?

Yeah, and people have no idea like how do these buildings run and you can get into those areas show what it’s a boiler or whatever the heating and the electrical panels are the size of a house.

CCPIA (12:05)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because

it, and that’s what sparked the curiosity for me a decade or more ago when I divorced myself entirely of residential and focused entirely on commercial was that idea of ⁓ jazzing up, getting a new perspective of.

Brent Fletcher (12:19)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, what’s behind

those walls? That’s it’s yeah, I love that.

CCPIA (12:32)
of simple things.

so I ask you, so what was coming from the three day class that you just attended? What was your biggest eye opener?

Brent Fletcher (12:39)
Mm-hmm.

You know, there was quite a few things that I really took away from that. ⁓ The one thing that I really liked is the clientele is gonna be very different from it. And you did a good, nice touch on that, that this is a lot more transactional and not so emotional like a house. So when you’re getting into this, going in with that mindset, I don’t know, I kind of like that overall feel for it. Makes it little easier. I don’t know if that makes it easier, but you know what I’m saying on that end.

It’s a lot more approachable than I thought it was. You brought that up. I think that’s one of the quotes you said in there that you want to be approachable. Going into commercial inspections seems so…

big and out of reach for so long for me. ⁓ I remember, so I actually signed up for the CCPIA class, started it, felt a little overwhelmed, and I put it away for over a year. And I did not reopen the coursework. And my buddy was like, yeah, they took the coursework, it was awesome, you should try it. So I reopened it with a different viewpoint than that, and I actually got the online certification relatively quickly at that point.

to the class, it’s nothing I don’t already know from doing home inspections. It’s just on a larger scale and focusing what the clients needs are more than the structure of the ComSOP if you will.

CCPIA (14:05)
Yeah, it’s, it’s, I often use the analogy of the shopping cart in the grocery store of every client has a different shopping list. And that’s probably where it becomes a lot of fun is unpacking their shopping list for them so that you can go to the grocery store.

Brent Fletcher (14:12)
Mm-hmm.

Right. Mm-hmm. Because they might not know exactly.

Yeah, they might have an idea what they’re looking for, but you’re also there to guide them, you know, what’s your business? What are you doing? What’s the most important to you? And then kind of get that. I’m guessing that’s an approach you would take,

CCPIA (14:38)
Yeah,

it’s, at least for me, it helps me interact with the client in a more ⁓ grounded, friendly manner than a home inspection, not saying that in a poor way of this is all, this is static. It never changes. This is all we do.

Brent Fletcher (14:52)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

CCPIA (15:05)
because you need this in this small period of time. Now in commercial, it’s a little larger breath.

Brent Fletcher (15:10)
Yeah. No,

exactly. You get a little, you’re moving box A to rack B with home inspections and you just kind of pumping them out. mean, like, so we’re doing a hundred this month and they’re all the same. They’re all the same layout when you get into a commercial. Yeah. You’re, going a little outside the box, which is kind of fun. find.

CCPIA (15:25)
Now you’ve always done commercial, probably in all the years you’ve been in business.

Brent Fletcher (15:30)
Yeah, back in

the day, was a lot more, sorry, did I cut you off? Back in the day, was, ⁓ I did commercials, but it was a lot more like, you know, a 10 unit apartment building. it was a lot, what was residential, but it was still, I probably gave those people way more than they needed because I got every little nook and cranny and scratch on the wall of those reports. But recently, yeah, I’ve done some fun ones. I got to do a firehouse. That was really fun. ⁓

CCPIA (15:36)
Yeah, no,

Brent Fletcher (16:00)
pull to slide down, but you know going through, I know right, that’s all I wanted. But just seeing where they park the fire engines and you have the extra exhaust to take out all the carbon monoxide and all that stuff and really bringing that down was, know, I had a great time.

CCPIA (16:13)
Did you do that before or after the class?

Brent Fletcher (16:16)
That was right before the class.

CCPIA (16:18)
Okay.

Do you think the online training that you did helped you approach that building differently than you would have if you just walked into that thing?

Brent Fletcher (16:27)
Yeah

So what I learned from the online classes, which I got, I feel like I know way more after the class from, but was just the parking lot area and drainage really getting into that and make sure that was all correct. ⁓ Exit signs, especially with the fire station. You to make sure that’s all correct. And I think one thing that was touched on, I believe that was in trace scores, you said something like fire hydrants, you need a three foot clearance around it. They didn’t have it at the firehouse. And I got to call it the firehouse for not having a proper clearance on their.

CCPIA (16:36)
Okay.

Hey.

Cobbler’s kids wear no shoes.

Brent Fletcher (17:02)
Yeah, but no, I definitely got some good takeaways from the online course when I got there, but I still felt going into that I was rusty. There was still some things and I did treat it a little bit more like still like a home inspection because I wasn’t fully prepared to pull everything apart into a ComSOP style. So I was just kind of using my general template and added, you know,

and grounds and then I did a whole safety section but it really my report was kind of the same as a home inspection report. Now I’m going to I’m going to rebuild everything from ground up.

CCPIA (17:34)
Okay, I have to laugh because when you you mentioned about exit signs just as the one thing our number one watched video on YouTube for our entire association is on emergency exit signs.

Brent Fletcher (17:39)
Mm-hmm.

Is it?

Really? Yeah, it’s, yeah, it’s, you don’t think about it in home inspections because yeah, it doesn’t even come up. And I have a whole section just for, yeah, to make sure that those are properly in place and ready to go.

CCPIA (17:51)
as it’s.

Yeah.

Can you think of your most challenged commercial inspection you’ve performed to date?

the one that gave me the most fits.

Brent Fletcher (18:15)
One that I had the most difficult time with, that you learned, and I don’t know if it was actually the building itself, but this one, there was 15 units, is working with all the tenants and getting through every single one of those. And you do have the building manager and they’re on their schedule trying to get you through everything and trying to juggle all of that. I think that was one of most difficult ones I had.

8 hour job and stretch it into a 15 hour job waiting for access.

CCPIA (18:45)
So do

you think after the class you took, you’d have a different point of view and a different way you’d tackle that job?

Brent Fletcher (18:52)
I definitely would because I was tackling it like a home inspector. So each unit I was taking the hour and hour and 15 minutes going through and putting little scratches on walls. The person I by probably did not care about any of that.

and is it structurally sound, that type of thing. So I probably could have cut that time in half if I would have known it. It’d have been a lot less of an inconvenience for other people involved if I would have asked the right questions for the person that was buying it.

CCPIA (19:23)
That’s, I hear that more times than not, especially in this transition, transitional time where you’re wearing dual hats. ⁓ What do you think your biggest challenge is going to be moving forward in the launching of the commercial site for you?

Brent Fletcher (19:31)
Yeah.

I think with anyone it’s always, well one, I’m gonna rebrand, get a new logo, a new website. So call that a challenge if you will. I find that exciting and a lot of fun as an entrepreneur. I love that aspect of building the business. And then it’s always gonna be the next step. Clientele, how are you gonna get the clientele? How are you gonna market yourself and get out there? That’s gonna be a little bit of a hurdle figuring how to bring more of those in. Luckily I already have a brand and I’m decently well known in my area so that right there will generate revenue

itself and then yeah after that building my I don’t know how you’re play your shopping cart how you gonna build your shopping cart list what is gonna be my spiel I’m really getting to tackle these bigger and bigger buildings to figure out what they actually want

CCPIA (20:29)
And I can see that and know as part of it ⁓ as being a member of the association, you can always lean on us, you know, do a coaching call, ask questions. We’re here to help. ⁓ But like when I, when I think of an entrepreneur in the position you’re in, in a cool spot. And what I mean by this is you’ve got three to seven

Brent Fletcher (20:38)
⁓ I got you on speed dial. Don’t worry, Rob.

CCPIA (20:59)
inspectors working for you. Somewhere in there probably depends on seasonality and you’ve got yourself up here as the top of the totem pole or the person that’s the potent taking charge, so to speak. ⁓

Brent Fletcher (21:01)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, the person that gets

blamed. None of the, all the blame, none of the glory. That guy.

CCPIA (21:20)
Exactly. ⁓

are you going to rebrand as a new company? Are you going to rebrand as a new division? How are you? How have you thought through this?

Brent Fletcher (21:33)
Yeah, I think I would probably…

So it’s a little bit of half and half. would rebrand the name. I may start as a DBA and see it go from there. ⁓ but I was going to keep my same black and yellow color schemes. So it is mostly related. you know, if we have two vehicle roles, you know, they’re both black and yellow. We kind of advertise it in that sense. So, and I’m going to keep it, the same family feel kind of did. So, ⁓ I don’t know, just the friendly home inspector, right? So it’s going to be the same brand with a different name. ⁓ but so if I’m.

CCPIA (22:01)
Yeah, I got it. I got it.

Brent Fletcher (22:07)
marketing to a real estate agent that I’ve already been working with the last half a decade, they’re gonna feel like I actually am the same person coming in. I’m not just throwing them a curve ball. ⁓ The relationships I’ve built are pretty strong out here, so I’m gonna keep that.

CCPIA (22:20)
gosh. Yeah. ⁓ cause when I think of it, you know, you could, you know, the challenge would be is if you’re, you know, if you’re rebranding and if you do a complete rebrand, that means you’ve got a commercial side in a residential side. never talk to each other. And, and that’s, that’s difficult. It’s difficult in payroll. It’s difficult in management. It’s, it’s, I like the way you’re doing it because you’re going to

Brent Fletcher (22:37)
Mm-hmm.

CCPIA (22:49)
You’re going to eliminate the home side in your name and be able to foster the commercial side all the while. Like you said it, keep the family feel.

Brent Fletcher (23:01)
Yeah, it’s yeah, it’s the same brand different name. You know what I’m saying? It’s kind of getting in there. So people trust the quality of work that we provide out here. So hopefully that will carry right over to the inspections without skipping a beat.

CCPIA (23:12)
I often talk to people of how they’re going to enter into the business. And it’s almost to a person that they’re going after the latter versus the former. They’re going after that idea of, yeah, I’m an inspector. I’m not an engineer. I’m not a dry ⁓ robot out here doing this. I’m basically doing this. Yeah. Yeah. There’s.

Brent Fletcher (23:29)
Mm-hmm.

There’s a face. is somebody here doing it.

CCPIA (23:42)
there’s actually a service going on that’s of service and not a service that’s being provided to be a service. You know what I mean?

Brent Fletcher (23:51)
Mm-hmm. ⁓

CCPIA (23:53)
And so I like that. ⁓

Brent Fletcher (23:58)
Yeah, I’m really excited to really get the, like I said, get all the branding up and going and making the logos and putting them on the car, getting the first car wrapped and all that stuff. So like I said, I’ve done a handful of commercials over the last couple of years, but really diving into making it more of its own entity. That’s really what I’m looking and getting excited about.

CCPIA (24:19)
How do you plan on helping the clients through some of these larger projects? mean, are you thinking about capping some of them or are you gonna go after every job that comes in?

Brent Fletcher (24:33)
Yeah

That’s a good question because, I, I, I’m definitely a go getter and I’ll say, yeah, absolutely. I can get that done for you. And I’m like, good. How do you get that done? Type of person. But I do want to, I think in the last couple of years, I’ve been learning to scale at a comfortable level a little bit more. So, ⁓ you know, when it comes to anything, residential, ⁓ residential aspect and office building, whatever that, but if you’re getting into more of the industrial type buildings, I might have to take

little step back and look at the size and the components before I know if it’s the right job for me because at the end of the day I want to make sure the clients getting what they deserve as I’m getting into it.

CCPIA (25:13)
Do you think,

I like that. ⁓ Do you think that you’d be able to, I mean, parlay some of now this approachable aspect of it to maybe turn that mindset or ratchet it up a couple of steps going, you know what, maybe it’s not scary.

Brent Fletcher (25:31)
You know.

See, I think that was just happened right there is you can always outsource aspects of it. I was back to a residential home inspector mindset for a second. But yeah, if you get into a large building, I can do the bathrooms, I can do the kitchens, I can do the structure. I know how to do all that stuff. So you start picking apart what you do know. And once you get that out of the way, what’s left? And then, okay, do I need to outsource these? Are these a little bit out of my wheelhouse? You have that option a lot more with commercial than what

residential. that coming in there, yeah, I don’t know if that would scare me then because a structure, I could do a structure all day long. That’s not a problem. Plumbing, basic plumbing, it follows the same rule, waterfalls. It’s pretty straightforward on that. yeah.

CCPIA (26:17)
It only rolls downhill.

Brent Fletcher (26:20)
can only go one way, toilet flush is what it is. But yeah, some of those larger components like electrical, I mean, you shouldn’t be opening those anyways. So if that’s a big concern, then you get an electrician out there for them and you just document what they say and have it for the client ready. That’s one thing we learned in your class too. And online, but yeah, mean, really stuck a lot more in there is yeah, get the right person for the right job and you can oversee it, if you will.

CCPIA (26:45)
Yeah, I think you said it earlier. I really do understand from the point of view of the student or the point of view of somebody coming into this, that this is all approachable. It’s the same language. They don’t write a different code book for commercial as residential. We’re just dealing with a much larger, more complex box.

Brent Fletcher (27:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, but it’s all a box. It’s just like, they all do the same thing. yeah, it’s, yeah, definitely was not as scary as I thought it was. I was really surprised. I put that course down for a year after I signed up getting intimidated in the first week of it. And then then I realized, yeah, it really wasn’t that much to chew.

CCPIA (27:11)
It’s all about.

So being relatively new. ⁓ Again, you’ve been doing it for a few years, but now you’re fresh and invigorated and you’ve got these freshmen eyeballs, so to speak. Where do you see the next five and 10 years going for commercial inspections? Yeah.

Brent Fletcher (27:45)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

As a whole,

I feel commercial in the last two or three years is so much more known now than what it was. The interest of people that I see getting into it, I think it’s, you I feel like that even with home inspection, it’s still the Wild West and what direction it’s gonna go. It’s gonna get shaped, it’s gonna get structured.

As you move forward, you already have the platform of the foundation of the structure. So our companies are going to grow off of that. I think it’s going to be very common practice and everyone’s going to have the people they work with, if they’re investors. ⁓ So I think it’s one of those things, if you get into it now, it’s going to be very lucrative moving forward because yeah, where do people go? Most people don’t know the local commercial inspector now. I feel like that’s going to change moving forward.

CCPIA (28:47)
Where do

you think technology is gonna go?

Brent Fletcher (28:50)
The technology? that’s… Man, you can do just about anything anymore with AI and all that now, can’t you?

CCPIA (28:57)
Well,

if you listen to real experts, it still is going to take the eyeball of the intervention right.

Brent Fletcher (29:04)
Right.

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, everyone says AI is going to take over, you’re going to get all that and technology is going to take over. If you don’t have somebody that understands it and operates it, it’s not going to go anywhere. So you got to grow with it. You know, don’t don’t shove it to the corner. Don’t be like.

No, grow with it because if you don’t someone else will and they’re great tools. know using a chat GBT is same as using a flashlight shining a light on something to give a clearer picture. ⁓ So if you can incorporate that into your commercial inspection I think that’s going to be huge.

CCPIA (29:37)
We’re gonna have a lot of different people ⁓ listening to this and watching this.

What would you say to those people that are on the fence? ⁓ What do you think their most critical mass is to get them to go over and say, you know what, I think commercial might be my next step.

Brent Fletcher (29:58)
I assume.

You don’t know what’s a great fit until you get into it, but if you are already owning a home inspection company or you’re even looking at this, you’re an entrepreneur at heart, and if that’s where you’re at, take the next step. I mean, the classes, I mean, even being a CCPA member, it’s not breaking the bank. Sign up for it, check it out, get to know more about it. You never know what could happen. It could be a whole career path or a future for you.

CCPIA (30:27)
Have you had to invest in any special new equipment just to do commercial?

Brent Fletcher (30:29)
you

I already have a pretty good stock of everything. did like that one was that that moisture detector that know, the RooScanner was awesome. That’d probably be something I’d really like to get into. But man, I like toys. So that’s that’s my past. I was I think I mean flashlight screwdriver. I mean, that can get you a lot of the way around what you need to. And if you want to invest in it you got the radon systems, you got the mole detection systems and all that, too. No.

CCPIA (30:38)
That roof, the roof scanner, yes.

but not the next year in ordinary.

Brent Fletcher (31:02)
Probably even a little bit less because you’re not you know digging into as much as you are in different areas of the house so Tool belt you’re good to go

CCPIA (31:10)
So

I know you said some wonderful, nice things earlier. ⁓

Brent Fletcher (31:15)
were we live for that? ⁓

CCPIA (31:16)
Yeah, I don’t know. ⁓

I don’t take compliments well.

I take beer well, but not compliments. ⁓ Yeah. Your takeaway from the three-day introduction class. ⁓ Give me some deeper impressions you got.

Brent Fletcher (31:27)
Right, well, give me a few beers I’ll take a compliment, and that’s where that goes.

⁓ you know, if you really want to get to, there’s a couple of friends, you, have a lot of great sayings that really helped a lot of things stick. And that, that was one thing that I focused on. ⁓ that dog won’t hunt was a good one. And just kind of going through there. ⁓ but.

Overall, felt like it was easy to process and comprehend and understand on large scale. That’s a lot of information. You had two eight-hour days or so with a break in the middle, and then, the last day. It’s a lot of information to take in, and it felt like it was easy to process, if that makes sense. It was a little bit easier than me doing the online courses, which was fine. It’s still you, but when you’re actually there engaging with me,

CCPIA (32:23)
Yeah.

Brent Fletcher (32:34)
it was a lot easier to get through it all.

CCPIA (32:37)
The, did the mock, we did a mock inspection at the end of the class. was a house of worship built in 1927 in Southern California. So the takeaway is it’s a house of worship in Southern California. It’s a hundred years old. So, it hasn’t fallen down. And

Brent Fletcher (32:41)
That was so much fun.

Old house problems. No it has not, but it has those

old building problems.

CCPIA (33:02)
We went through, we went through and I think that was roughly 8,500, 9,500 square foot with all of the different layers of the building. We walked about every square inch of that building in, in what was it? Three hours, three and a half hours.

Brent Fletcher (33:12)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ Yeah,

somewhere right around that time.

CCPIA (33:24)
⁓ telling stories, touching, feeling, licking, ⁓ all of the aspects of the building. Did you think walking out of that building, walking to that building, it was going to be difficult and walking out of that building have a different feeling?

Brent Fletcher (33:26)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ Looking at that as I was walking up to it I was like, man, if I was to do this one on my own and no one was here with me, what would this take? And it was like, dude, this would be like an all day job. This would be out here and every…

cranny. And then I kind of realized throughout the, you know, as you’re walking through there, it’s a lot, it’s a much broader picture of the condition of the room, not, you know, the little dings and dings here and there. So you’re kind of given the overall picture of the condition of the building. So walking out of there, like I said, it’s a lot more digestible. You know what I’m saying? So getting out of that, I don’t know, I enjoyed it. Yeah.

CCPIA (34:21)
So when you said you were going to be there all day,

now let’s project between we got there and we left. Now how long would it have taken you?

Brent Fletcher (34:26)
yeah.

dude, was yeah, three, three, four hours.

CCPIA (34:34)
the purpose that we have these mock inspections is ⁓ at the end of the three days is to punctuate the three days is to say that this isn’t the toughest thing in the world. It’s a critical thing.

Brent Fletcher (34:42)
Yeah.

CCPIA (34:52)
You got to be good at it, but there’s a comfort level you can garner from two and a half days of really intense education.

Brent Fletcher (35:03)
Yeah, it was a lot of information.

CCPIA (35:06)
And

then actually see it in an active live format. So that’s what makes me feel good is when I hear participants and teammates go through these things and go, yeah, now it’s different.

Brent Fletcher (35:12)
Oh, it pieced me to the right together pretty quickly.

I mean, it’s

a perfect way to stamp it into your memory. You read, you read, you read, learn, you look at PowerPoints, and then you see it in person. Now, everything is just ingrained. You’re filed away into this section that’s all basic psychology. But no, that actually is a way to where you can actually take away what you’ve learned from it. You’re not just reading a book. I’ll forget everything I read in the book the next day.

CCPIA (35:44)
and I have a learning disability, so I don’t have the ability to read. So I get to win on that one. So do you have anything you want to share that we haven’t talked about?

Brent Fletcher (35:51)
There you go. Love it.

Um, yeah, don’t put it in the spot like that. Uh, no, I I’m happy, man. I’m really excited to see my company grow where it’s going and I’m introducing this next chapter. We’re getting to a point where I’m about to let the home inspection company run itself. So I can really take a step back and fully put my, um, my thoughts and my efforts onto the commercial side of things. Like I said, I was all morning today, I was working on a proper logo and I

Ten different ones I’m piecing together to get down to the perfect one. They’re all black and yellow, but Yeah, I’m excited for this next chapter

CCPIA (36:28)
Yeah.

Nothing wrong with that. And it will make it

easier. It’ll make it easier when you don’t have to change shirts in the middle of the day.

Brent Fletcher (36:39)
Yeah, right? turn it inside out. Let’s do the other cup. We’ll just do that.

CCPIA (36:47)
Yeah, I want to thank you. mean, we sat here, we bantered around, but I am excited to see and to live vicariously through what you’re going to be creating in the coming years, first the coming months in the coming years of this evolution, because I truly believe, otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here, that ⁓

Brent Fletcher (37:01)
Mm-hmm.

Right?

CCPIA (37:13)
This is the best next sustainability for the inspection world.

Brent Fletcher (37:23)
Mm-hmm. No, I hardcore agree with that. It’s like I said, about that it’s grown in last couple years alone, it’s gonna be just common practice that every transaction is gonna get an inspection out there. There’s a lot of open holes where we need people to fill at this time, you know?

CCPIA (37:39)
Yep.

You know, it’s I guess I could be silly, you know, and say live long and prosper because of all the stuff behind you. I see it. I love it. you know, can say, you know, some other movie quotes of, ⁓ know, of no, was never a Star Wars fan. You know, what was the line from? ⁓

Brent Fletcher (37:48)
You see

CCPIA (38:02)
the diehard, no, you’re a fan of the fat, no, I was a Star Wars fan. With Bruce Willis’s, that’s, yeah, was it.

Brent Fletcher (38:07)
Yeah, exactly. Wars is alright, but Trekkie all

the way. I love all the Trek stuff. It’s common trick.

CCPIA (38:14)
Yeah. But, you

know, I always, I always end most of the things by, by saying, stay safe and follow the ComSOP But man, you’ve already exposed the fact that, that the ComSOP the way to go and that’s what you’re going to be using. so, so thanks a lot, Brent for being here and I am, I’m going to see you the next time I’m in Colorado.

Brent Fletcher (38:28)
absolutely.

Absolutely,

we’re gonna grab a beer here before you know it,

CCPIA (38:40)
We’ll talk to you soon.