Hi, everybody, Ted Moss here with Genevieve Lyle Media Group, and this is another NCBIA Member Spotlight. Today we’re here with Aaron May from Pillar to Post Home Inspectors and Safe Home Environmental. Aaron, how are you doing?
I’m phenomenal, sir. How about yourself?
I’m doing great. Good to see you again. I met you at the Christmas party.
That is correct.
That is the virtual Christmas party, which you guys missed. There was tons of people there.
It was it was a blast.
Actually, it was a lot of fun, we joked, and it was a lot of inappropriate humor. But we’ll go into that later.
We joked. We drank. We had a good time.
A very good time. And I was commenting, you’re tall fella here. You play basketball?
I did, but not well. Got to admit that.
High school? College?
I did not play either. I played in middle school. I actually scored on my own team once.
Ok, well, there you go. See, and that’s kind of how I would play. So, we have that in common. So, you’re a new member of the NCBIA.
Yes, sir.
Welcome. We’re glad to have you.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
We like to do these videos so that you can kind of highlight to our other members and any consumers out there that might need your services, what you guys do. Let’s start with Pillar to Post Home Inspectors. I’m familiar with a home inspector does, but tell us a little bit about what differentiates your company.
Yeah, so we are a full-service home inspection company. So, what that means is we basically can do everything from well and septic, sewer scoping, mold, radon, pest, you name it, we will do it as part of the general home inspection. We also are a company that has our own office staff to answer the calls. We’re not one that you call and leave a message and get a call back later on.
Yeah. So how many how many inspectors do you have?
Yes, we have eight full time inspectors. That is their job. They are not part timers. They are there to make a living doing home inspections.
And who’s the owner of the company? How long have they been in business?
Yeah. So, Paul Ferguson is the owner. Paul and Heidi, they’ve been in business for a little over twenty years now. They’ve owned the franchise.
So that’s awesome. Yeah. What’s your service area? Where do you guys kind of.
Yeah. You name it, we’ll go there, right? The reality is we go…
Just not Idaho. Nobody wants to go there.
Just not Idaho, right? We’d like to stay in Ohio if we can, you know? The truth is we’ll go down south north of Columbus, all the way up to the lake, over almost to Sandusky and then over east as far as somebody wants us to go.
So that’s a pretty, pretty broad service area.
Yes.
That’s awesome. So, what are some of the things that do you work with realtors, homeowners directly? And is it always involving, like a home sale or is it like I’ve got some concerns about insects or what are some of the things that you would?
So, the majority of the time we are working with the agent. We get the referral from the agent. We do a fair amount of refinance inspections, especially now with the markets being as great as they are. There’s a lot of people getting refinances. And so, with that comes a lot of ancillary inspections, whether they be mold inspections or pest inspections or sewer lateral line. And we’ll go in and do that. We do some for new builds, new buyers that want to make sure the house is safe. But for the most part, it is during a real estate transaction.
Ok, and are you able to turn those reports around pretty quick, give people everything they need, right?
Yep. So, the reality is our reports are done the same day. Our goal is to actually print on site at the home. So, when that client walks out of the house, they have the inspection and they’re done. We will still email it to them. And some of the things that we do differently for the client is we actually do what’s called a 360 tour. So, your client gets a full walk through of their entire house with the home inspection embedded into it so they can walk room by room and actually see what we were talking about and look at it and not have it just be a still photo.
Ok, so that’s really cool. So, and when you’re also then, you talked about you do some mold remediation through Safe Home.
Yep. Yeah. So, we have Safe Home Environment, which is a full-service mold and radon mitigation and remediation company. So, we do everything from small attic cleanups to vent corrections to full commercial and residential tear outs where we’ll go in and tear out an entire home, treat the entire property, including the air, and return it to a safe place.
Ok, that’s really important these days. And it just so happens, this is Radon Awareness Month.
It is. It is Radon Awareness Month.
So, tell me, what’s radon? Like I hear about this. Why do I got to worry about it?
Yeah, so radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the world. And it is the breakdown of radioactive materials. So, uranium breaks down into radium and then breaks down into radon. And that actually comes from the ground. That is the number one source where radon comes from. And so, it is everywhere in the air, but it’s when it’s concentrated that it becomes a serious issue. Radon comes from the soil and it turns into a gas and leaks through small cracks in the foundation, through windows, through sump cracks, things like that, and enters into the home. So, the idea is with a radon system, you pull the gas from underneath the foundation of the home before it ever enters the house.
And how common is that? Like, seriously, like, how would you even know? Is that something you can… I guess you don’t. You just…
Right. So, let’s put it into perspective. The average home in the United States averages at 1.2 picocuries per liter. We won’t get into that. But in Ohio, the average is between 2.0 and 4.0 and sometimes even higher, depending on the area that you live. So it is fairly common that radon is going to be prevalent in someone’s home in Ohio.
So then you folks can go in and whether it’s mold remediation or radon and then detect it, address it, and then take care of it.
Yep, both companies that we have can test for it and figure out what your level is at. And then we can install a system that can eliminate it or at least bring it down to a safe level.
Ok, well, that’s cool. This is so you guys do a lot of great things. One of the things I tell you about the NCBIA, normally we ask you what you like best about it. I guess, you know, you joined because you knew somebody in the organization. And that’s one of the things I think you had.
For me, it was the Christmas party. For me, it was it was ugly sweater contest. That’s what makes me love NCBIA.
Didn’t he win?
I did win. I did win, yeah.
This is the guy right here that that stole my thunder. I had the ugly unicorn. I don’t want to talk about it. Anyway…
You should have been there, guys!
You should have been there! So next one, you guys are going to be there. Hopefully next time will be in person. I’m sure we will.
I hope so.
Yeah.
But it’s been a pleasure speaking to you.
Yeah, you as well.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And you guys, if you want to know more, how can people get a hold of you?
Yes. So, they can call our office number. They can look us up online at pferguson.pillartopost.com and you can go to SafeHomePromise.com And we’d love to talk to you.
Ok, great. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you.
Thanks.