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? Well, it is great and here's the story. 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, (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 stories was about ranking store salsa in a jar. I loved salsa, as it was becoming a really great alternative to ketchup. I grabbed the magazine, read the story about the different salsas, and de... 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

I will watch the Super Bowl, because I'm an American citizen but I'm a Packers fan and that was brutally bad to watch the 49'ers game. However, I'll take a 14-4 season and getting the championship game every year. Better than being a bottom feeder. This is a super easy recipe and has actually won a dessert contest before. Here's my recipe. Apple turnovers.Heat oven to 3752 Granny smith apples, cut into 8 slices. 2 tubes crescent rolls.2 sticks of butter melted.1 1/2 cups of sugar mixed with melted butter. 1 TSP vanilla, mixed with butter and sugar.1 can Mountain dew. Cinnamon to tasteGrease a 9x13 pan. Roll the apples up in rolls. Place in pan.Pour butter sugar mix all over the top. Here's the secret. Pour Mountain dew all inside the pan, slowly. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 35-45 m... 01/29/2020

  Thanks to Barb Todaro's post today, I thought I would ask the AR group what your thoughts are on this comparison sheet between my company and my competition. This will be available for agents to hand to their clients when they start their search for an inspection company.      The typical practice is for the buyer agent (BA) to always give the client 3 names of inspectors to choose from. The logic is that if something goes wrong with the inspection, the BA liability will be reduced because the BA gave them 3 names, and it was the clients decision who they hired. In reality, using an inspection company that does not offer all the FREE warranties that we include, the client will be in a position of higher liability if  a qualified system breaks down after they close, and the first pers... 12/15/2019

 10 years and still growing. Hard to believe it's nearly ten years in business as a full time home inspector. But I've enjoyed every minute and can't wait for what's to come. 2009- At this time in 2009 I was working for another company in the building materials industry and had completed less than 20 inspections, total in 2 1/2 years. I was frustrated as a territory manage for that company and requested a demotion to prevent my brain from exploding from the ignorance of dealing with stupid sales and regional managers. The extra time I was going to have by not working long hours on redundant paperwork was going to allow me more time to build my inspection business. My oldest daughter was married that year and we had an amazing, fun party. The music was the best wedding music ever, I was ... 07/18/2019

Why is it my Fault? I ask myself this question every once in a while after a home inspection has "caused" the deal to go south. The story is similar in every case this has happened. Buyer calls and schedules their home inspection. Buyer says it's their first home. Buyer shows up at the home inspection. Buyer gets the report for the home inspection. Buyer agent that was NOT at the inspection, didn't see me explaining to the buyers that most of the items were small but easy to repair items is furious because I must have said something to the buyers to scare them out of the deal. The deals that I love are the ones where the buyer agent has taken the time to prepare their client for what happens at a home inspection. They tell them how long it usually takes. They explain that it would be b... 02/28/2019

When You Have to Shoot, Shoot. Don't Talk. This could also be titled... There's no time like the present.  It could also be titled Be Prepared. The best time to do something is now.     How many times in your life did you have an opportunity to do something, but maybe had reservations about how it would turn out? Were you thinking about what other people would think or would they criticize your plan or tell you why it won't work? Did you waste valuable time and effort trying to convince yourself and others why it was a good plan, instead of taking the steps to start working on the implementation? In other words, did you talk instead of shoot like Tuco in the video above?     The movie The Good, The Bad and The Ugly has so many great quotes, I could write a dozen blog posts, this one alw... 12/15/2018