Commercial Property Inspectors Roundtable Meeting #34: Breaking Down Barriers

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[00:05] Rob Claus: Welcome, everybody, to another month of the Commercial Property Inspectors Roundtable, brought to you by the CCPIA^®. In these roundtables, it’s a great opportunity, as you all know, to collaborate, talk, share… It’s interesting. We choose some topics on some months, and other months, we like to keep it very organic, and the one good news I have is it is broken skies, no storms, no opportunity for me to have to leave to a tornado warning. Last month, one did touch down. It was about a half a mile south of us. So, I guess heading to my basement was warranted, so… I thank Holley for helping out last month. This month, she’s out, and so… Good news, there’s no storms on our horizon. This month I wanted to… spend some time talking about breaking down barriers. And very specifically, it’s those barriers that are separating you from… the job, from winning, from… from closing that inspection. I, I had an opportunity, as I do. All the time. One of the highlights of personally my job, or a given week for me, is the opportunity to talk to members, whether it’s through a coaching call, whether it’s you spontaneously called, or so many of them will reach out, text me, are you around? And we get an impromptu, spontaneous coaching call. And I was talking to a member last week, And… And it’s his first year. And… he had… 27 inquiries. 27 times in… well, not even a full year yet, but 27 times somebody’s reached out to him and said, I need you. And… he closed 7 so far. 7 he lost, and he knows he lost, and 7 ghosted him. And I think to myself. If he converted the 7 ghosts, not the losses, but the ghosts, he’d have doubled his business. Just as quickly as that. And so the whole idea that spawns in my head is, is there’s gotta be a way or something that was missed. You know, whether… and the whole thing is, is we’re training to make this business-to-business relationship, because that’s what we’re in, is a business-to-business relationship between our clients and us, because they’re business people, they’re not transactional homeowners with the passion. It’s a business that they’re running, so they’re looking for business help. To move from a high barrier Concept to a very low, successful barrier. and some of the ways that we can equip ourselves to do that. And so, I wanted to bring it up to the idea that Maybe you’ve got a higher closure rate. Maybe there’s something you’re doing that, instead of being one-third I’ve won, one-third I’ve lost, and one-third ghosted me, is there something that you’re doing That’s… that’s been wildly successful, so that maybe your… two-thirds you’ve won, and one-third you’ve lost, or even a better ratio than that. Is there anything anybody has that’s worked for them, that’s made them more successful, and that you’d like to share to give somebody else a little bit of insight?

[04:41] Vernon Wilkins: I don’t have anything. I think that’s some pretty impressive numbers, quite honestly. 27 hits?

[04:48] Rob Claus: 27 hits I love. So for me, I’ll give you some insight for me. I… I was much, much higher in the 80% successes and the 20% losses, and I never… I can’t think of too many times I actually got ghosted. And, and the reason was… I believe the barrier that I broke very early on is I understood and realized, as I was launching the commercial endeavors that I did. That they called me. They were already wanting Me. Or my firm, or my team. And so, everything I did, I never did in conjecture. What I mean by conjecture is… is I… when I send my proposals out, it wasn’t the… Or read this over and decide if you like me. I did the… I front-loaded everything. And… and one of the barriers that you can break down, pretty succinctly in… in our kind of business.

[06:07] Rob Claus: Don’t ask huge, long questions that take deep thought. In other words, speak to them in their language. Using words like capex, capital expenditure. Okay, I’ll walk through this building. What concerns do you have? I’m concerned with the roof. Excellent. I can handle the roof for you. Or, I’ve got a guy for you, or something, so that you’re taking their communication And directly bringing it to them. I also think of tailoring my responses. Does anybody use tailored emails? with their proposals. I don’t get a lot of head… you know, I know there’s a lot… there’s a lot that aren’t on camera. What I mean by a tailored email. If I’m gonna send a proposal to a client That’s thinking about buying a multifamily. My email… That has my proposal attached to it is only about multifamily. If it’s a warehouse, it’s only about warehouse. If it’s an office, it’s only about office. Has anybody tried to look at that in their proposals or in their conversations with their clients? Did you know that we have those templates available on our website? That you could use?

[07:44] Jonathan Cartwright: I didn’t know that.

[07:45] Kerry Staudt: I know that, and I used your template and found out pretty quickly that only parts of it work. you know, just because of what you said, that that email had… it’s not… it’s not like a home inspection at all. It has to be tailored to your client, so they know that you’re actually involved with their project. And it worked extremely well. I took parts of your emails, and I think I had 3 from you guys, and I had 2 or 3 from a colleague, and I had what I wanted to put in there, and I kind of mixed it all together to create one. And I’ve kept all those templates, because I know the next time I’m going to have to do it again.

[08:22] Rob Claus: Yeah, I use, and have used for… better part of a couple of decades, the Google Suites, and not necessarily the Microsoft Suites. But I have templates created in all my emails, and all I gotta do is fill in a couple of blanks and remove a couple of things from that template. and send, and it becomes… and it becomes pretty darn simple for us to send that stuff out. It doesn’t have to be so heavy-handed or heavy-loaded on my side. But the key has to be is the listening to break down the barrier. Not necessarily pitchy. You’re not necessarily doing a sales pitch as, you know, focus on Using words like asset protection. Or risk management. Or, you know, heaven forbid you use the word negotiation leverage, rather than the technical tools. Do… when you’re… I found it successful, for me. in that research phase, and I’m not talking about Section 5 of the ComSOP, Researching deeds, and rent rolls, and… and… county stuff. I’m talking about my personal research. of the building. You know, walking around it. You know, some of you have driven by buildings. Some of you might, use, use all the, the, the, the CoStar, and LoopNet, and Swixie, and Google Images. I found… One of the best barriers for me to be successful breaking is I actually talk to my clients as if I was inspecting the building with them on the phone. When we look at this building, I’m going to be going on the roof through the back right corner. I noticed in the back right corner, we do have a ladder access, it might be locked, please make sure it’s unlocked. And now all of a sudden, they’re seeing it, and not necessarily, you know, talking like I’m Mike Rowe, and… Going on the deck using a Freer E8, I’ve used… I don’t think our clients need that type of dialogue. But if they have a question about HVAC, using things like, well, I’ll use my infrared camera to help diagnose any heat loss that we might have coming from here and here. Oh, no, by the way, I’m not sure if you saw on my website, I am a Level 1 thermographer, I’m able to help you with those things. Because so many times you’re going to be up against somebody. Again, you’re not being a sales pitch as much as you’re being consultative. This is what, you know, this is what we’re trying to do to leverage these jobs, because again, it doesn’t take much. to make 7 wins and 7 ghosts. 8 wins, 9 wins, 10 wins, 12 wins, and hopefully 14 wins. Because I find if you got ghosted on a proposal. They probably didn’t like your phone conversation. And they probably didn’t like whatever you presented to them. in whatever context you presented it. You weren’t listening. You weren’t… you… you weren’t acting on… on what they wanted, and so consequently, you were… you were, you were definitely not They’re… their person. Anybody else have anything they want to share on barriers, or… They’re leveraging these leads.

[12:18] David Van Vurst: Rob, let me add to that, because And I was waiting until I got… I was pulling in my driveway, I just finished a residential. But you… I told you I was doing that, and I think I might have even said it on our last call. I had a, 19 or 18 building storage facility in Augusta, Georgia. And, I had that same scenario where that was the first one I’ve ever done. So, do I really know everything I’m talking about? Honestly? Probably not. But! the phone conversation, and I tailored my email, and I tailored my conversation to exactly what she needed. And I told her, this is what I’m doing, it’s gonna take me a day, maybe a little bit more, I’m gonna spend the night while I’m out there, so I’m not in a rush, I’m going to check the roofs in these buildings, then I’m gonna do… so I gave her kind of a tailored pitch of how I was gonna inspect it. And then I just kept her in the loop of what I was doing. And when I got all done, and literally, it took… it was so easy to do. While I was out there, I talked to some of the people that were out there, added it to the report of what I was doing. So she got information. She’s spending almost $3 million on a storage facility. And when I got all done, I sent her the report, kept her on the loop, even told her, hey, I went early on Friday morning, so this way I could see all the lighting in the parking lot, so I know what’s going on. And when I got done, she drove out there. So I followed up with her, I’m like, hey. what could I have done better, or is the report exactly what you needed? And she said, you saved me 2 days worth of work. And I don’t have to do hardly anything, simply because I asked the questions, gave her what I was doing, made it easy. Book one inspection, $3,600.

[13:59] Rob Claus: Yeah.

[14:00] David Van Vurst: Can’t complain.

[14:02] Rob Claus: One of the… thank you, David. One of the better… Barrier breakers is rapid verbal responses. Keeping them in the loop. You know, it could be as simple as, I’m texting you from the roof, and I, you know, hey, just wanted to let you know I’m in the middle of this. If you think of your two partners, you might have The buyer being the most important partner, but if you’re building a commercial inspection business on referrals, keeping them in the loop of yeas, nays, highs, lows, whatever it is. they can see that you want to be a partner with them. Yep. And that’s gonna… that’s going to… seriously increase your wins, certainly, because you didn’t put it there, you didn’t break something. Remember, you’re a deal facilitator. There’s nothing in the commercial building that’s going to be a deal-killer. it’s gonna be whether it meets the money that they need it to meet. That’s all it is. It’s, you know, that’s the difference in the passion business. Thanks, David, for sharing that. I do remember you talking about that storage unit.

[15:14] David Van Vurst: I took a picture when I was on the roof. I took a picture when I was. I was on the roof so she could see me.

[15:20] Rob Claus: That’s terrific. Anybody else have anything to share? Then I’ll open it up, if not, to just our typical Roundtable conversations. Excellent. Again, we have things. I know we have a class coming up in the fall on on Pathways to Success, where we’re gonna, we’re gonna talk about business. This is… but we don’t do this to hot classes or anything. I’m doing this to raise the boats. Rising Tide raises all, you know, raises all the boats in the harbor. And the more successes each of us has across the entire spectrum, the more we’re going to be successful as a complete industry. And so, to that order, just know that we’re here for you as an association. I have a lot of conversations, you know, about this with a lot of people in a week. So… just keep… keep pushing. Anybody have anything to share that, or questions they might have? I’ve seen, in the last… since we’ve talked a month ago, I’ve looked at a lot of regions, and I’ve looked at a lot of Google business listings. And… and I’m still being overwhelmed with… when I do coaching calls with people, of doing a Google search, and the majority of the firms that show up say home inspection. in their Google business listing. And… and for all y’all that have been running successful residential companies for a while, and are looking to transition to commercial. And your residential is screaming along, Steady Eddie, predictable rates. consider changing your Google Business listing. because you already got those strong referrals on the residential side, consider changing your Google business listing to include commercial, or be commercial, or be Property Inspections, because on the absolute instant glance. Those potential jobs and those potential searches We’ll see you more valuable Than a residential home inspector. In their listing. So I encourage you to consider that, and look at that as you’re moving forward. We’ve got a quiet, a quiet group this month.

[18:08] David Van Vurst: I mean, you know I can talk, Rob. Let me add to… and we talked about this probably about 90 days ago, and so everybody knows, I’m just really getting into commercial. Austin Jenkins forced me to get my commercial certifications by end of 2024. Went out to Pennsylvania with you, Rob, had a great class. Started doing it in 2025, very little, but this year, I actually updated my website, redid my website, have a guy put my cookies out there, which is a little above my pay grade to understand all that. When you talk about that, because I told people, but I didn’t do anything with it. Little scared, to be perfectly honest. Still building my residential. So I went all in, and last month, probably about 45 days ago, I went live. And I got… the first 45 days, realistically, I got 7 leads. Which is more than I got all of 2026 so far. One, I actually turned down. It was just too big for my bandwidth right now. one ghosted me, didn’t ghost me, I actually gave him a price. He wasn’t happy. He was doing a commercial kitchen, and he’s like, well, it should only be, like, $500. I’m like, yeah, that’s not working for me. So it was kind of a ghost, kind of, I turned him down, kind of he turned me down. And the other five, I’ve actually already done so far. But it’s getting those referrals I find, for me, when I go to do a commercial building, I always contact the listing agent. If there’s anything special I need to know about the building, how do I properly get in? I was told this, but it’s another way for me to put my name out there, and it’s… I’ve had two other agents, like, oh, you do commercial. I don’t have somebody that specifically does commercial. I’m like, well, you do now! here’s all my contact information, would love to help you out. And I’ve met 2 agents right now. that I talk to regularly, like, hey, I might have a commercial building coming up. Well, I have time for you. So, it’s doing those things to get my name out in the first 45 days.

[20:10] Rob Claus: Besides your… this is great, David. Besides your business cards. Is there any other collateral that you carry with you that talks about, what you do, i.e, I call it a tech… we call it a tech stack. Is there anything else in your tech stack that you provide that new… that new… Hi, how are you? My name is… my name is… is David.

[20:33] David Van Vurst: I’m looking for it, and I don’t have them right in front of me, because they’re in the truck. My wife had one, I’ve got… and you might have seen them, I have notebooks that are this big, and they’ve got, like, 20 pages in them. But it’s got my logo on the front, it’s got my website on it, on a QR code, it’s got everything I do on it, and I can give that to them. They don’t want to throw away a notebook, because it’s valuable to them, versus a business card. So that’s my biggest one that I give out to people. And again, it’s just word of mouth, all those other things.

[21:02] Rob Claus: Excellent, excellent. Does anybody else have something they like to… a piece of collateral, or just a tech stack they give out to… to people they just meet? Please, for the love of Mike, don’t say it’s a jar opener. Or, or a chip clip. I carried one-pagers. I had a small one-pager, and if you’ve listened to me ever, I had that one-pager, and I used to put Coffee gift card. in it, and I’d stick it in the weatherstrip window of their front… of their car on my way out. Little hand note, I had a little spot on my one-pager that I could write with a Sharpie about 20 words, and, you know, hello, hello, Dave, it was a pleasure to meet you today. I hope I can help you on further resource… on further… on further, projects. Please enjoy a cup of coffee on me. Rob. And, you know, that little handwritten note, and it cost me a $5 cup of coffee, as I’d give them a little, a little… Coffee club, coffee card, what it was, 16-digit number or whatever they can put right in their app, or they can go right to the store and cash it in. Then, boy, I’m a…

[22:23] David Van Vurst: These are my.

[22:24] Rob Claus: $2,500 job. Yep, there it is.

[22:26] David Van Vurst: These are my books. I’ve got to change my logo on there, because I just had a commercial to it. But yeah, it’s got everything, and it’s… it’s a giveaway. Cost me 30 cents for these things.

[22:35] Rob Claus: Yep. Yep. Yep, it’s important. It’s, you know, and if you wanted to get even fancier, you could have on the inside cover, or the back cover, which is usually blank, you could put key things. Maybe you put your list of services. You know, so that way they can instantly see you’re a one-call, does it all. You know, so you get that foot in the door. Almost instantly. You know, and break down that… and break down that magic barrier that’s keeping you From being… from getting all their business. I know since the last time we talked, besides the tornado we dodged, I went to an outing, and it was the Association of Industrial Real Estate Agents in the Chicago area, and it was amazing how many people I ran into that I knew 5, 6 years ago, when I was doing inspections. They’re all asking, you know, why, you know, where are you at? Can you do inspections? I’m not doing inspections anymore. And what was interesting is, is I’ve talked about this association. to every class I’ve taught since I joined it. And we’ve written about it, and no other inspectors in 7.4 million people Have joined that association. Since I… I retired from it. And it’s amazing to me on how easy it is to leave that on the table. So, I implore you, if you’re looking to build your business, and looking to build your referral sources, look at those partnerships that you can join. Whether it’s your board of realtors, with… and the commercial. divisions, whether it’s, is it SIO? Society of Industrial Real Estate Operations. You know, look at all of these things as your opportunities. To do those. If you’re going to do maintenance inspections, and if you’re going to do fact-finding, joining BOMA in those industries. Can only help spread your name, spread your word. Anybody have any successes other than Dave’s huge job that he just did? Anybody have any monster successes this month? But he’s… I know I’ve heard, I’ve heard some, fairly large projects. I do know that, we’ve got a member in the Southwest that has… Is about to… Top a million dollars this year? in commercial, Property inspections, I mean, that’s… That’s pretty awesome, and I don’t… and he can’t be the only one. There’s a, there’s a lot, there’s a lot of focus going on on it, and it’s a, it’s a, it’s a great, great opportunity. Anybody creating any special niches for themselves?

[26:17] David Van Vurst: Everybody’s too quiet, how am I gonna learn if you guys are all quiet?

[26:21] Rob Claus: Yeah, I think we’ve… I think we’ve got a lot of, sulkers, you know, which is great, you know.

[26:33] David Van Vurst: Yeah, I’m just tackling a lot of smaller stuff. warehouses, storage facilities… I’m getting a lot of small retail space, office retail space. Which, you know, doesn’t take you that long to do.

[26:47] Rob Claus: Nope. You can’t predict what comes in the door. All you can manifest… Yeah. …is your wins.

[26:56] David Van Vurst: Yeah.

[26:57] Rob Claus: and have that, and that’s where I… that’s where I wanted to focus today so much on the barriers, is… is look at your number, look at your stuff, and… and… and remove that vague language. Between, well, sort of, you know, be very proactive in your… in thinking how you’re going to look at each of these jobs. And stop using terms like, you know, like, when we look at this, we might say this, or… you know, you know the properties. And you know what you’re looking at, at least you should, and be very confident and clear in all of your messages, because that can only Be it, increase and decrease your obstacles.

[27:47] Travis Crickenberger: Rob, I seem to be.

[27:49] Rob Claus: Hey, Travis.

[27:51] Travis Crickenberger: Seemed to be picking up vacation rentals and glamping sites. Had a, vacation rentals, a 9,000 square foot, 9 bedroom, 9… or 10 bath. Home on… on several acres.

[28:04] Vernon Wilkins: turn right onto Samantha Lane.

[28:07] Travis Crickenberger: And then about a week later, got another call for a vacation rental that also had glamping sites, which means teepees and.

[28:14] Rob Claus: Yeah, yeah.

[28:15] Travis Crickenberger: And, some other thing. Unfortunately, that second one, I got blocked by a realtor. who, I’ve had some hostile interactions with, but,

[28:26] Rob Claus: How can you have a… how could anybody be hostile against you?

[28:30] Travis Crickenberger: Oh, nope. 30 years of law enforcement maybe gives me an attitude, I don’t know.

[28:37] Rob Claus: No, no, so I love, I like that. So, so if, if you’re in a… In, in, in a true… rental capacity. We all know that a commercial building is any building being used for profit.

[28:53] Travis Crickenberger: Right.

[28:53] Rob Claus: It’s a business endeavor, Let me ask you a question, Travis. What do you think is, like, one of the top 5 reasons why somebody in that rental is going to have a bad rental experience?

[29:11] Travis Crickenberger: Things that do not work.

[29:13] Rob Claus: Right. What do you think the most common do-not-work issue is?

[29:17] Travis Crickenberger: HVAC…

[29:18] Rob Claus: Okay, what’s another one? What’s one that’s so inconvenient that you’re gonna go, I hate this place? The toilet.

[29:29] Travis Crickenberger: Yep.

[29:30] Rob Claus: You know, when you think of all these pe… right? David’s laughing.

[29:34] Travis Crickenberger: Almost every toilet in this house was loose at the floor.

[29:37] Rob Claus: Me too, so you got the loose toilet. I mean, this would have been the perfect opportunity, and I’m sure you did, to go, and boy, if you’ve got a rental like this, you know, really being proactive in your sewer, you do not want to, A, inherit somebody else’s sewer problems. I know it’s probably on a septic, but you can certainly look at the pipes in the house, because if, you know, if they’ve been flushing ba… or, you know, putting baking grease down the sinks, and flushing hand wipes down the toilets, that’s certainly, you know, if the toilet backs up in the middle of a rental. Not a… not a great day. And so, that would have been an awesome opportunity, and I’m sure you did it, to help build, A, a really good client experience, but B, another revenue stream.

[30:32] Travis Crickenberger: Yeah.

[30:34] Rob Claus: I love that. Back, you know, I think of years ago, when I do a lot of multifamily, it was always the… and did you know you gotta check these GFCIs? once a month. And nobody ever checks them once a year. But boy, if you got somebody to get shocked because the hair dryer fell in the sink because the GSCI didn’t work, you know, that’s a nice, significant liability issue. And so this is… this is where… do they own… did they… Travis, did they own a lot of… These rental properties, or is this their first one?

[31:08] Travis Crickenberger: The first one, it was actually a family home, and the father passed away and left it to the kids, and kids are managing it as a vacation rental. They show up once every… Every year or two as a reunion, and otherwise it’s just renting it out to corporations and large families.

[31:28] Rob Claus: Excellent. Well, this might transition into a… into another opportunity, is… is you could, you know, you could say things like, I would be happy to be part of your maintenance team.

[31:39] Travis Crickenberger: with the time.

[31:39] Rob Claus: No, not… Not that you’re going to do the maintenance, but you could help them create either a maintenance log as a consultative event, you know, like changing filters, doing those things, or checking smoke detectors, and checking fire extinguishers, and making sure haylings are tight. That could be a nice annual inspection for you.

[31:59] Travis Crickenberger: Yep, it’s on my list of to-dos.

[32:02] Rob Claus: We have a lot of those, and that doesn’t involve that fancy dress that your daughter wears to dance in.

[32:12] David Van Vurst: It’s funny, Rob, you talk about Taylor and emails or tailoring conversations. I actually have a short-term rental in Florida, and I’ve used that more times than not when talking about, fire escapes, smoke detectors, the fire marshal coming into the building, and what I have to look for. And just tailoring it, so now we have a common bond between this person at this unit. Oh, they’re gonna use you? Oh, you already deal with this kind of stuff. Yeah, I’ve got one myself. I know toilets. I know HVAC. I know when the batteries go out in the front door, and they can’t get in. That’s a problem.

[32:47] Rob Claus: Probably your easiest barrier to overcome. is acting familiar. to the property. Yep. You’ve never done a… and I’ll use you, David, because you’re the most, boisterous today. You’ve never done a, a storage facility. You called me, I gave you 4 or 5 things to look for, told you about a couple other experiences, and now, all of a sudden, when you talk to them. They’re like, yeah, okay, I know that I’m gonna get that service done because this person knows this. Whether it’s a warehouse, or an office, or, you know, you could say things in an office to make them… to break down the barrier. It’s a sales technique of, and I’ll go, and I’ll look up in the suspended ceiling to make sure there’s firewalls between you and the neighbors. Just one sentence like that. Yep. Adds a new credibility between you and your potential client, because they called you. You’re not going through the search engines of the world going, I see, I want to call all the business owners today that own dental offices and see if they need me. No, they called you and said, hey. Can you do this inspection for me? Now, all I gotta do is figure out how to do it, what price they’ll pay, and what day I’m gonna do it. Not, do they like me? And so, that’s really the, you know, the best barrier, I guess, collapsing I could ever impart to anybody, is… is that level of confidence in the property.

[34:32] David Van Vurst: Yeah, and ironically, the one I did this morning was a residential house that they turned into a 4-unit apartment, little apartments. And now I’m mirroring commercial and residential together, telling them, you don’t have firewalls between the units. You’ve got one shared water heater between the four units. All these variables that go with it bring value, and the agent that is using me is one of the largest agents in Atlanta. And I actually just did a commercial building for him, so he’s like, this is perfect. I got the best of both worlds with one guy.

[35:02] Rob Claus: And when you write that report, you can tell them that they don’t need to re-plumb the building. You know, and put 4 water heaters in, they could just put a high-recovery water heater. Yeah. In place of the normal, everyday water heater, and be just fine.

[35:18] David Van Vurst: Yeah. Well, they also have one electrical panel in one unit for the entire place. I’m like, well, you gotta… you gotta do something there. You gotta have access to it.

[35:26] Rob Claus: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[35:29] David Van Vurst: Yeah.

[35:29] Rob Claus: Yeah, maybe one thermostat, or if there’s even heat.

[35:33] David Van Vurst: They got mini-splits in all four units. I’m like, oh, for the love of God.

[35:38] Rob Claus: I imagine…

[35:39] David Van Vurst: He hasn’t did a horrible job.

[35:40] Rob Claus: I imagine you could cut meat on that electric meter.

[35:46] David Van Vurst: Ugh.

[35:50] Rob Claus: Well, if nobody else has anything they want to share, I just want to say, you know, we’ve got a lot of things going here, for you. We’re in the process of redesigning, our introduction class. We’re in the process of designing a couple other really exciting live classes that we’re going to do next year, as well as closing out this year. We do have one more Cross to Remedy online, you know, live webinar we’re going to do. We have our Pathways class coming up. We are going to be in Milwaukee in 2 weeks, doing our live field training, and then our last 3-day introduction to Commercial Property Inspections is going to be in our flagship location in Boulder. In October on the 7th, 8th, and 9th. So there’s a lot of stuff we’re doing, and we hope to have another holiday party, virtual. Like we did last year, you know, sometime around the Thanksgiving holidays. So, look for a lot of that. Next month, our… our conversations going to be focusing on Changing the mindset And I got this from a podcast I recently did for the Building Your Business Sequence. helping become the expert. Now, don’t take that out of context. So think about this between the next… between now and the time we talk. When somebody’s calling you, this dovetails on breaking down the barriers. They want you because they’re… you’re going to be their expert. So, what tips and what tricks can you deploy To prove that you are. They’re expert. So that’ll be our next conversation. Until the next time we talk, remember we got coaching calls, we’ve got anytime you need something, you’ll reach out, I’ll do my best to talk. I need everybody to make sure you guys stay safe, follow the comps up. We’ll see some of you in Milwaukee, we’ll see some of you in another class. Otherwise, till the next time we have a Roundtable, we’ll see everybody next month. Bye, everybody!

[38:20] Nick McNamara: Hey, Rob, I have a question for you.

[38:21] Rob Claus: Yeah, please.

[38:22] Nick McNamara: So I’m, just a residential inspector, haven’t gotten.

[38:27] Rob Claus: Excellent!

[38:27] Nick McNamara: Commercial. I’m on the East Coast in Massachusetts, just been trying to find any way I can just to listen to people talk, but, you know, curious about getting into commercial. Can you direct me or point me in a direction of where I can start to… do some more research, and then get into how to train for it. And, you know, I don’t have a lot of… I have a lot of residential background, but I don’t have the commercial background. I’m just trying to explore and see if it’s something that I could enter it someday.

[38:51] Rob Claus: For some day, there’s some days today. You know, it’s… every day you’re not doing this is another day you’re not doing it. So, so I will say that on our website, ccpa.org, same place you registered for this, that is the single best place to go. We have, we have our, we have our online comps up. Of course, we have the ComSOP available for your listening as an audiobook on both YouTube and the major audiobook series portals. We have online training, which is… which is great for, you know, because it’s… it’s free for members, sitting in your pajamas, right in your office. Our online training is extensive. In the ComSOP section, 6.5, Point 1 through 13. Are all of the subsections Of a building. What Inspectors look at, and what you’re not required to look at. And we have an online course For all 13, Or, we have videos created to infill the knowledge gaps that you might have. On our website, if you hit videos, we have a few hundred videos up there, and it’s all searchable. You want to know about TPL roofing? There it is. You want to know about masonry? There it is. So that is a great leg up. I encourage everybody That in the beginning of your journey, just go get your certification. Get it first. Don’t worry about… the do, and don’t worry about, do I know? And in part of the journey to be certified, there’s a 125-question test, Nick. Take the exam. You can take it as many times as you want. Take the exam. And when you take the exam, have a pad of paper next to you. And if there’s a stumper, Whoa, what was this? It’s a question about hard-code stucco. I’m gonna write hard-coat stucco on a piece of paper. And then, I’m going to take all my notes I took, and I’ll go back and take that course. And infill that knowledge. Then, I’m biased. completely biased. I think at some point early in your career, you should take the 3-day Introduction to Commercial Property Inspections course. Class. It’s a live class. You don’t have to in your journey. But if you have the means and the opportunity, go take the class. It’s 3 days, we talk about business, we talk about technical, we go have some fun. And in doing that, you’ve got your, your, your… Your visual knowledge and the knowledge you took online, and then you add the verbal and the kinesthetic of playing, and the next thing you know, your confidence levels exploded. But one of the toughest things that you’re going to have, as you said, I’ve done… I’ve been doing residential for a bit. It is transitioning and segmenting your brain. Just like David said, you know, he’s been spending most of his career doing residential, and it was only in the last 18, you know, or so weeks that he’s engaged his cookies. He did a residential this morning that’s commercial-centric. At 4 units, it’s not a legal commercial building. Interestingly enough. But in Georgia, there’s no licensure. But where you’re at, in Massachusetts, with the licensure for residential. That’s 5 units or below. A 6-unit building is commercial. You don’t need a license for that.

[42:58] Nick McNamara: Yeah, I mean, we still… we’ll do multi-units all the time.

[43:01] Rob Claus: Yeah!

[43:02] Nick McNamara: Commercial. I’m thinking more of, office space.

[43:05] Rob Claus: You bet!

[43:05] Nick McNamara: You know, warehouse-type stuff.

[43:08] Rob Claus: You bet, and you report differently, you speak differently, and you engage clients differently.

[43:14] Nick McNamara: Yeah.

[43:15] Rob Claus: And learning those secrets, and learning how to do that, one of the toughest things you do is… that you’ll ever do, is having to talk to two different clients in the same day. One’s residential, and one’s commercial. Because you’ve gotta, you know, you lean into this one, you lean back for this one, you know, it’s like being… it’s like being in a rocking chair. And it’s not the… for some it’s natural, for others, it’s a little bit more of a challenge. But, you know, you have to have different websites. parameters and different… different thought processes, but I will tell you, Nick. If you… if you deep dive the CCPIA.org website. We have a lot of that lifting already done for you, and already available for you, to start looking at that, including A course you could take this weekend. Transitioning between residential and commercial. And it will kind of spell out those differences in a couple hours.

[44:24] Nick McNamara: Perfect.

[44:26] Rob Claus: But you were… if you were… if you were on the call earlier, you know, or at the very, very beginning, I’ve been working with Vernon. We’re… we’re… We have not made our 2027 calendar yet of all of our training events. But my, my goal, and you, you know, hear me talk about, BHAGs, Big Hairy Audacious Goals, my, my goal for, for, for this year is to have a, a course in the East Coast. whether it’s… it’s in Virginia, DC, Maryland, somewhere in there, so we will be, coming… we will be trying to, you know, come up there. I want to do… I want to do East Coast, I want to do Pacific Northwest. I’d like, you know, I want to do another Florida, you know, all of these things, you know, Jill Schaefer’s, you know, maybe Connecticut. We’re working very hard to, to, to make sure that we’re just not in Chicago and Boulder. In Miami, every year.

[45:31] Nick McNamara: Awesome. Good stuff. Give me a place to… you know, I try to jump on any calls that I can that I find through InterNACHI and through Ashi, and try to just listen to what people have to say, but this was… this piqued my interest about commercial, because I get that sometimes. Oh, do you guys do commercial? Do you… and I, you know, usually say no, but I’m curious to expand more, you know?

[45:51] Rob Claus: Yep, yep, well, you know, the key is, is… And I say this with all tongue-in-cheek, if somebody took the time to call me and give me money, I need to figure out a way to take it.

[46:04] Nick McNamara: Yeah, exactly.

[46:06] Rob Claus: And saying no is a tough thing in my life.

[46:11] Nick McNamara: Definitely.

[46:12] Rob Claus: And so that’s where I’m always trying to strive, Nick. And so, so putting yourself in… and there’s a lot of different ways to enter commercial. you know, one-legged, two-legged, you know, all kinds of… you know, you can be the very best and do three a year, or you can be the very best and do 300 a year. And that’s a life choice that you’ll have In how you want to run your business.

[46:39] Nick McNamara: I appreciate your time.

[46:41] Rob Claus: My… my absolute pleasure. Again, anybody else have anything? I mean, I’m trying to cut everybody off. It just… the conversation got quiet.

[46:49] David Van Vurst: I would… I would just add, Nick, don’t be scared. Everything’s open book nowadays. everybody uses their phone or something. I don’t remember every commercial code there is, but I can look it up, or I can call Rob. There’s other things that I can do. I told Rob this a couple years ago, every year I go to one of his classes, we did Phoenix last year, I’m doing Milwaukee in two weeks, and if you guys do one in Connecticut, or Maryland, or out by you guys, I’ll probably go to that one, because I do one a year, and it’s not so much I learn a lot from the class itself, but it’s networking with all you guys that I learn so much as well.

[47:28] Rob Claus: Yeah.

[47:29] David Van Vurst: because of that. I’m going to the IEB thing in Destin, Florida in February, because Brad Bojia from Twin Peak Inspections does commercial stuff that I met at our class. So, we meet people every time that are wonderful, that you can always steal their knowledge. So, dive in.

[47:46] Nick McNamara: Love it.

[47:46] David Van Vurst: Yeah.

[47:47] Nick McNamara: Appreciate it, man. Yep.

[47:54] Rob Claus: Well, thanks again, everybody, for your time, and keep chugging along, and boy, don’t be afraid to send me a note if you’ve got a success, because I… I live vicariously through each one of your successes. Everybody stay safe out there, and remember the ComSOP is there to be followed and protects you every day of the week. Bye-bye!

[48:17] David Van Vurst: See you, bud. See you in two weeks.

[48:19] Rob Claus: Yep.