Over the past month or so, i've been working hard, and spending a lot of money to get a new business rolling out of our house. It's something that i've dreamed about doing for quite a while now and I finally pulled the trigger.
The business is called Hawkeye Residential Inspections, LLC and it's a home inspection business - the type of business people typically use when buying a new house although there are other times as well. Sometimes people have them done prior to selling to find out what is wrong with their house and what will need to be fixed prior to putting it on the market.
It's really nice because it allows me to use many of the skills i've gained through 14 years of construction inspection work but also adds in the element of my love of houses. For a long time i've had these pipe dreams of being a custom homebuilder and renovation specialist... a la Tom Silva (This Old House.) In Fact, I can sit and watch episodes of This Old House back to back to back.
Anyway, a number of friends and family have helped me quite a bit from getting contacts lined up, to free legal work, to tax advice... everyone has been there to help me out and I sincerely appreciate it.
My company is fully formed, official and insured. It has it's own bank account too, although it's pretty much empty at this point!
Anyway - there are some of you (Burlington relatives) who I will be sending information to - business cards and brochures. And any of you in Iowa, or who know people in Iowa who want to scare up business for me or tell people about me would be on my AWESOME list forever. I can do inspections anywhere in Iowa... the closer the better but I would certainly travel to DesMoines, the Quad Cities, Burlington, etc... for people if they needed me to... especially for friends and family.
I can also inspect in Minnesota as they have no additional requirements like Iowa. Illinois has a problematic Real Estate linked exam that they require which i'm not interested in getting. I have passed the National Home Inspector Exams and ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) Standards & Practices/Ethics exams which is the hard part... now I just need to do inspections.
I have started a website... it's not the prettiest or most professional but I think it gets the job done and it's a work in progress. I'm also doing a lot of networking via my business Facebook page which is surprisingly helpful. Hopefully you'll become a fan of the page and anyone who wants to write a testimonial and put your first name on it, would be a welcome addition to the site as well. I will begin a newsletter at some point.
Thanks for reading and I hope you'll consider me for an inspection should you need one.
Rob
LINK TO SITE
