Fresher than Fresh salsa, sounds great doesn't it? It's the name of my salsa that just has a nice ring to it. Well, I wish I could take credit for the recipe, but I can't. Back in old days before cell phones and online recipes, there was these things called magazines. I sold lumber and building materials for 32 years. I would often go the local library in the town near the lumber yard where I worked so I could do blueprint takeoffs for the house lumber package I was selling. It was quiet, no interruptions from the lumber yard guys, had a bathroom and pay phone, (remember, there were no cell phones yet), and a big giant table I could spread out my blueprints. It was perfect. One day as I was wrapping up the takeoff, I saw a Consumer's Union magazine on the table next to mine. One of the ... 06/27/2024

You made the right decision Mr. Buyer.      One of the things we do when we finish an inspection is give the buyer a simple survey questionnaire to fill out at that moment. It has questions like was the inspector on time or was the inspector clean and courteous or would you hire this inspector again? Buyers would never think these things are important to them, but the simple fact of asking these questions, builds a level of trust inside them going forward. They don't know what they don't know. When someone asks them how was the inspection, they just might remember a few things from the survey, along with any significant issues the home may have had.      Before all of this happens at the inspection, there's the initial phone call, where we really have to do our sales job and explain wha... 05/31/2024

You Don't Know What You Don't Know.     Boy is that ever true, especially when it comes to tech stuff on the computer. Over the years I have spent literally dozens of hours trying to search for documents, create a postcard or flyer or prepare presentations only to have them blow up in my face when I finally get finished. They may have things like bad fon't sizing, wrong font, off center, weird script that just disappears when I think it's ready to go, or just plain look ugly and unprofessional. Don't even get me started with Excel or Powerpoint. The true test to getting proficient and becoming an expert with something is to do it for 10,000 hours. That's not my rule, I'm sure I read it in one of the many books I have. I just don't have time to search for it at this moment. My challenge ... 10/30/2023

Flower season is way too short.     Every April and May in Bourbonnais, Illinois we get an amazing blast of color thanks to the wide and assorted collection of flowers that bloom seemingly all at once. These flowers make real-life paintings in everyone's gardens and flower beds. Having a job where I get to visit homes and enjoy these beautiful gardens all over our area is a bonus that I don't take for granted.     Finding such beauty in what otherwise may be a very dull and drama free inspection and turns it into a perfect opportunity to snap a few pictures that will ultimately end up in a folder on my computer that is titled "Beauty Shots."  The picture above shows a really cool view of my inspection vehicle as seen through a pink crab apple tree from on top of the roof I was inspectin... 05/30/2023

  Nope, I Didn't Always Know Everything     Someone recently asked me what it takes to start a home inspection business. How did you get started? You seem to know everything. Really?          When I started my business, I had the good fortune to already have a full-time job. Good thing too, because it was right before the mortgage crisis in 2008. That took some of the pressure off to make the leap to full time. I was able to ease into the inspection business and build my network and relationships with many local agents. I completed 4 free inspections in my first year for 4 willing friends that let me practice on their home. Yes, you read that right. 4, as in four.     I was told many things over the years by many different people in and out of the inspection business about how to grow y... 05/01/2023

     My top blog post ever ever ever. Several years ago the monthly challenge contest was called the AR Pay it Forward Challenge. This was my entry. PROJECT RE:CYCLE BLOG POST      I like to enter the challenges every month if I can, and when I saw this one, I knew exactly what I would write about. I've been in Activerain for maybe 10 years now, and really try and read as many blogs as possible. I don't always comment on each and every one that I end up reading, and I'm sure I miss a whole bunch of them every week. But I do learn a lot about what makes agents tick, tech tips, motivational posts and real feel good stories.      My blog post story is one of the feel good story types. Since the 1970's the founders of the Project Re:Cycle program were totally fine with a small and simple 25... 10/23/2022

OOh OOh that smell.      In my 15 years inspecting homes, I've seen so may weird and wacky and just plain stupid things, I really should just write a book. I can tell you it would be a best seller.     For instance, tell me these aren't crazy things to find on an inspection.Cut off mannequin head just inside the attic hatch. Oh, it also has fake blood on it's face. Real funny Mr Seller.     How about finding an oil painting of a nude woman in the attic of a nearly empty house, who just happens to be packing up her last few things downstairs. I'm sure she forgot it was in the attic and I was not going to be the one to remind her to pack it. Picture available upon request. :-)     But the craziest thing ever was the day I pulled up to an old home by the Kankakee River. Seller comes walkin... 09/23/2022

Questions        1.  We all go on vacation to get away from it all and have a great time, but I want to know, what vacation day was your worst? My wife Mary and I got married in October 1981. Went to Mexico with plans to stop in Dallas for a few days to visit her Aunt Erika and Uncle Imants. 2 days after arriving in Dallas my wife got really sick. I was fine until.... I was with Imants at the Kennedy Memorial and that's when it hit me. We spent the next 5 days in bed violently ill and had to delay our return home an extra week.     2.  What would be your bucket list vacation or, if you have already taken it, tell us about it?  Pictures encouraged. Already did it. Twice. Boundary Waters in Canada. Canoe only, no powered boats. Crazy good fishing and the starriest sky you could ever see. ... 08/28/2022

Listen to your body talk.      If you don't know my story, I had a heart attack in December of 2012. Pretty serious and was actually shocked twice in the ER before getting a single stent put in my heart. Everything has been good since then.     When your body is trying to tell you something and you just ignore it, bad things usually happen. Last Monday 4/14/22 I woke up in the middle of the night with a soaking wet t-shirt. Too many blankets? My wife was sleeping too close? Not sure. Tuesday I went to an inspection and had a fevery face. At this point I think I have Covid. Took a Covid test and it was negative. Went to southern Illinois for the weekend to attend a funeral for my wife's brother in Missouri. Spent the night at our son's house. Had sweats again on Friday night. Then on Sat... 03/25/2022

Happy and safe Thanksgiving to all. Click above for our special message.Scott Seaton-The Home Inspector With A Heart  SLS Home Inspections @815-644-6271 Inspecting homes like yours in the Kankakee, Will, Iroquois counties Illinois area since 2007. Real Estate inspections with same day report delivery.  Mold and air quality testing.  FREE 90 day Homeowners Warranty. Included with every inspection. FREE Sewergard protection for the first 90 days. covers up to $4000 of sewer or water main repairs. FREE Recallchek appliance recall service. Included with every inspection. FREE Moldsafe coverage on every inspection. FREE Platinum Roof Protection Plan with 5 year leak repair coverage. FREE $100,000 One Year NXT Structural warranty 18 month warranty available with every inspection Visit my webs... 11/25/2021

     The annual Bourbonnais Township Scarecrow festival is always a huge success.      Starting the first week of October, local businesses, charities or individuals can enter the contest for a chance to win prizes and promote their businesses or group.      The contest winners are determined by the appointed judges and also by the coveted peoples choice voters. The transformation from a simple plastic fence on Kennedy Drive into a 2 block display of Halloween fall displays and scarecrows is almost overnight. Lots of hard work and creative designs are displayed that must have taken weeks to work on just to be ready for the big set up. Take a nice walk with your family past all the entries and cast your votes for your favorite. You can even pose in some of the displays for pictures. It's... 10/28/2021

Things I wish I knew- As I have gotten older, I realize there are so many things I just don't know anything about. I wish I did, but either I never took the time or didn't realize I really wanted to know about that skill or idea or information to learn about it. For instance, I have always wanted to play guitar, I even own an acoustic giutar, but have never picked it up to play one note. I would like to know how to play golf, but learning to play is just a reason to be able to hang out with my kids or brothers more often. I am a decent athlete, so I'm sure if I played enough, I would be pretty good. Some players are just so serious and I just want to learn to be able to relax and enjoy a good day outside. No pressure.     So when the pandemic became a real crisis and Zoom calls became t... 09/26/2021

Fresher than Fresh, sounds great doesn't it? It's the name of my salsa that just has a nice ring to it. Well, I wish I could take credit for the recipe, but I can't. Back in old days before cell phones and online recipes, there was these things called magazines. I sold lumber and building materials for 32 years. I would often go the local library in the town near the lumber yard where I worked so I could do blueprint takeoffs for the house lumber package I was selling. It was quiet, no interruptions from the lumber yard guys, had a bathroom and pay phone, (remember, there were no cell phones yet), and a big giant table I could spread out my blueprints. It was perfect. One day as I was wrapping up the takeoff, I saw a Consumer's Union magazine on the table next to mine. One of the storie... 07/16/2021

Perry Farm is a winning visit for the family.Bourbonnais Illinois is the home of the Perry Farm. Today it is listed by the National Park Service of the Dept of the Interior in the National Register of Historic Places. But it wasn't always like that.      In 1835, Thomas Durham moved his wife and family of five daughters and four sons to Bourbonnais Grove,IL, about 60 miles south of Chicago on property on the banks of the Kankakee River. He built a farmhouse and a three bay English barn and a horse barn. Legend is the farmhouse cellar was part of the Underground Railroad. Thomas died in 1854 and left the farm to his sons. He generously left his daughters $5 each. The sons were not successful farmers and by 1866 had fallen on hard times financially and were looking to sell the farm. One s... 04/09/2021

It's not Hard to Like Agents Like This. I am a home inspector, with two inspectors on our team. While not the largest inspection company in Illinois, we are pretty big in our small part of the world. We complete approximately 600 inspections each year, and have been steadily growing for every one of the 13 years in business. In this time, I have been able to work with literally hundreds of real estate agents. I have seen first hand the various ways of selling methods employed by these agents. Again, I'm not an agent, but I have been in sales for all my adult life, having sold lumber and building materials for over 30 years. I know what excellent and also what poor customer service looks like. Excellent service agents have always made it a point to attend the inspection. They always are ... 02/07/2021

Odd, It was easy to be thankful this year.       I know it sounds crazy but there are so many things to be thankful for as this trying, agonizing, maddening, frustrating, sad, painful, distressing year comes to close.  But as for business and the steady background of the corona virus, the business success far outpaced the virus. We are thankful for so many things, but our list would not be complete without these handful of events. 1. The PPP loan. Somehow we were able to take advantage of the PPP loan and get a much needed assist when the virus stay at home/lockdowns happened. Illinois deemed real estate essential and we kept working through the lockdown but there were some really slow weeks when I was seriously worried we were in trouble if it stayed slow. We kept marketing to our age... 11/26/2020

I think I'm the same person.   When the news of this pandemic started getting serious, I was already thinking about how my business and personal life may change. There has to be a silver lining in the madness that may happen, I was sure of it. Not to get political, but I was pretty sure if the millions of people that subscribe to conspiracy theories, I knew the country was in deep doo doo. That has proven to be happening all across the country. I told my family that we were going to be taking this very seriously. I told my employees we were going to be taking it very seriously. I feel there will be a point in time when we will not have to wear a mask in public, but it will be a long time coming.  My feeling on the issue of wearing a mask is how I have come to realize that many people t... 06/30/2020

We Just Might be Telling You Something Important.  Really, if there was no benefit to the inspection agreement that the State of Illinois requires us to have signed before we start the inspection, then I would gladly toss it out right now. But it does have lots of valuable information that protects the buyer as well as the inspector. We always make sure and go over the agreement with the buyers at the end of the inspection so they have a clear understanding of what they signed, even though this is not required by our SOP. We just feel it's makes them more comfortable, but the real reason is that it manages expectations about the inspection.  At a recent inspection, the buyer came at the end, due to the corona virus and as we requested. He walking in angry, would not wait for the second... 05/24/2020

What are we doing to stay safe? Our priority at this time is the safety of our inspection team, their families, their relatives, their neighbors, their friends, our clients, our realtor partners, and all of their families, friends, neighbors, relatives.  Basically, everyone that could possible be infected with the COVID-19 virus. With that in mind, we have instituted these rules for all inspections until we pass through this crisis.We are requesting that only one person attend for the buyers, and best case is no one attends the inspection. We will call them in the evening after the report is sent to go over any questions they may have. If the house is occupied, we request no sellers be present. No hand shakes upon greeting, we will be wearing gloves throughout the inspection as well as ... 03/20/2020

Time can be your best friend, or NOT.      Several years ago I wrote this blog post (https://activerain.com/blogsview/4620028/think-of-all-the-things-i-can-get-done-now-) about time being spent on things that weren't helping my business move forward. There were numerous time wasters that I would catch myself doing from time to time, and even sometimes knowing I had other things to do, would still waste a few minutes here and there going back to the time wasters. I suppose just knowing there is an issue with wasting time is the first step. "Hello, my name is Scott and I'm a time waster." I should have added, part-time time waster, because it's not all the time, just once in a while, but it still bugs me that I catch myself doing it at all.      I chose this post because I am a firm belie... 02/24/2020