January 19th, 2007 → 11:25 pm @ terry
We have to keep moving during every minute of daylight probably every day from now to the first. I was out at first light and finished the thirty-two I did not finish yesterday.(32•6.50) I came back in, dropped Pakak off, and set out again with a second route of forty-two locations in the south end of the county. Working forty-two inspections down there is a long day and that’s what it was for me. I got in about 6:15pm and got started on the pictures – twenty-eight pictures. The inspection code for this route is (42•7.50)
The girls put me to work in the office, saying I had to help because they are swamped again. Two-hundred-forty-five new inspections from one company. I didn’t even bother to ask about the amount of work from the other companies. Business is really picking up for everyone around the country.
If you do not know about www.clearcapital.com, you should mosey on over to their site and sign up. They sent me an email earlier with six inspection requests at $25 each. They always pay good and their checks are good. I call this company’s method – and others like them – “The Pork Chop in the Dog Pen” system. They send an e-mail to every rep in the zip code where the job is and whichever rep replies to it first gets the job. Just like the quickest dog in the dog pen always gets the pork chop! I’ve got a sneaky, shamefully productive advantage I will share with you if you ask.
I had a long talk today with the owner of an insurance loss control company and we discussed a few things including working together on some training material for all of you as well as the possibility that he write a few articles for TheRepReport™. I was encouraged by the conversation and I will try my best to bring all of you good news later. The money involved in insurance loss control inspections is much higher than anything in the mortgage arena. You have to study up on it or find a mentor to coach you along and it is well worth it. If you would like to know a little more about insurance loss control opportunities, here is one you can look at.
A long day with long rides between stops gave me the opportunity to chat without driving aimlessly around town. I talked with seven people around the country today – some just starting their field services business and others that have been the business for a while. I have some new information for the manual and will publish the page(s) here when I am finished.
It’s 10:42 pm here. We are just finishing for the night. Vickie said another 116 just came in on the fax. Then she said that’s a total of a little over 700 total in two days. Gotta go. It’s going to be another long day tomorrow.
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Few people do business well who do nothing else.
Earl of Chesterfield, in a letter to his son, Aug. 7, 1749
January 19th, 2007 → 12:50 am @ terry
Been runnin’ thru my head all day:  ”dang me, dang me. They oughta take a rope and hang me”. Maybe it will come to me why this has been in my head all day. Strange though, another thought from my past: “All Units, 10-19, 10-18″ is bouncing around in there too. I may share that one with you one day.
Do you think I may spend too much time alone with my thoughts? Let Me Know!
OK. On with my day’s events. Out the door before 7am with sixty-eight addresses on my list and an insurance loss appointment for 3pm. Let’s see, that would give me eight hours to do all sixty-eight which is roughly eight per hour. Seven and 1/2 minutes per inspection. What does that tell you? It should tell you when I left this morning, I knew there was no way I would finish them all. It’s my fault. I should never make an appointment for myself without knowing what else the girls in the office have already scheduled.
It was simple enough.  Yesterday I called a homeowner to make an appointment for the insurance loss inspection and the guy said he would have to take off work to meet me. How about 3pm? I agreed to that so today I had to quit my route early to be at his place by 3pm. Should have set it for 5pm or so!
Maybe there is a reason for the song in my head. Seems to be something like this:
Dang me, dang me
They oughta take a rope and hang me
High from the highest tree
Woman would you weep for me.
I did finish thirty-six so we wind up with (36•6.50)+(1•25) for the day. Not what it should have been.
Wonderful conversations today. I spent quite a bit of time talking with the developer of some software I am going to try out for the business. I will give you the low down on that later when I have had a chance to look at it.
Also talked with reps in Indiana, Tennessee and Illinois. Some exciting things are going on and sounds like all of these are trying to position themselves to be ready. I even picked up some good information to research and add to the business manual. Speaking of the manual, thanks to all that have downloaded it this week.
Some of the things I have mentioned in the past are indeed working into place. We were in the home office around 6am and found sixty-six inspection requests came in during the night from one company, ten from another and to my surprise, thirteen from a company we have done no work for in over a year. They lost their biggest account back some time ago and it looks like they are regaining some clients. Good for them and good for us!
When work comes in during the night, it is a very good sign. Some companies use computerized fax systems with digital forms but in most instances in this business, there is a real person on the other end sending inspection requests out – a sure sign that there is plenty to follow, this is only the night shift!
May I suggest that you do a little Internet snooping around. Look for articles on “bankruptcy”, “foreclosure”, “default”, “vacant properties”, etc. I’m not reluctant to say that bankruptcy and foreclosure are rampant! If you’re setting on the fence about this business, it doesn’t get much clearer than it is right now.
When I finished the insurance loss inspection I realized that there was a bit of daylight left – maybe enough to record a bit more for a training video I am working on. I called a friend to come over and handle the camera and yours truly went into training mode. We filmed almost forty minutes so we’ll probably wind up with ten minutes or so of good footage.
I have been talked into putting the finishing touches on my stand-alone company list and I promised to have it ready this Monday. If any are you interested in that list, I will let you know when it is ready.
January 17th, 2007 → 10:34 pm @ terry
I was being pushed out the door at 8am this morning! Normally that would not be too bad but it’s cold down here. Thirty-two degrees is cold for me. Well, I had work to do. Just like the norm, work is coming in again and should peak around the 21st. I really needed to get going early today since I have a tendency to linger on occasion and I have been known to stop at used book stores or thrift stores.
My route today was a piece of cake – everything close together! Sixty-four occupancy inspections – 16 of them rush status – and one commercial inspection to end the day. (16•10)+(48•6.50)+(1•65)
A while back I mentioned that I would let you know how we arrange to have very reliable and experienced additional inspectors available. You could have figured this one out by yourselves but I will pass it along anyway. Over the years, a number of friends have rode along with us while we are out working a route and we realized that after months or years of this, they knew how to do the job. When there is more work than we can handle, we simply ask for help and most of them are happy “to help”. Most want to help and don’t want pay, but we explain that if they cannot accept payment, we can’t ask them to help. Gas you know! We usually pay them more per inspection than we receive from the companies, but there is a reason.
We handle extreme work loads with the extra pay to the extra help because turnaround time is critical. Our extra workers get paid well and they do superb work. They are aware of deadlines and know about turnaround time. In the past, some of them have even  stayed late to help upload results.
I have heard that some companies do not pay for inspections that arrive after the due date but the results are expected anyway. I don’t bother to see if our companies pay or not since we keep our “on-time results” at 97% or better. If the companies are not paying for late results, we are loosing at most 3%. If we did not have the extra help during the busy times, we would surely fall down below that 97%. You should know that a reps turnaround time has a large influence on the amount of assignments received. When a rep returns work early, or on time, it prompts the company to send more.
I will be back tomorrow.
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