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Building a Business, Not a Job: Interview with Mike Crow

by Isaac Peck, Publisher

Mike Crow has been a stalwart in the home inspection profession for 40 years, starting in 1985 with his dad—one of the first licensed home inspectors in Texas (License #28).

Over the years Crow has also become a trusted coach, mentoring home inspectors for over 20 years. He has helped more than 100 inspectors break the one-million-dollar revenue mark and has guided hundreds more to multi-six-figure success.

And he’s still going strong.

As he prepares for his Mission 25 conference next month (March 10-12, 2025) Working RE Home Inspector sat down with Crow to get his latest insights on marketing, processes, and (most importantly) how home inspectors can build a thriving business—not just working a job.

Here’s the latest from one of the most iconic home inspector coaches and marketing experts in our profession.

Working RE Home Inspector: Home inspectors have been experiencing a tough market period with historically low transaction volumes that hasn’t been seen in 20 years. How is your home inspection business doing?

Mike Crow: At TexInspec, we haven’t let higher interest rates and a slow market stop us. We’ve conducted over 100,000 inspections since we started 20 years ago—easily. We’ve built a strong foundation, and we understand the essentials that help a business grow. While many inspectors had their peak years during the pandemic, we used 2022 to recalibrate, which positioned us for growth in 2023 and beyond. In fact, 2023 was our best year ever. Then in 2024 we grew even more—having another record year. Now, 2025 is shaping up to be even better than 2024.

Today, my son Jonathan runs the show and handles most of the day-to-day on the home inspection side, and I’m blessed to be able to focus on helping home inspectors build their businesses and sharing the winning strategies we’ve used to succeed ourselves.

Working RE Home Inspector: Many people call you the “Father of Home Inspector Marketing.” How do you think you got that title, and what makes marketing so important to a home inspection business?

Mike Crow: The title “Father of Home Inspector Marketing” came about as a result of helping so many people succeed. When you help others grow, titles tend to follow. It’s amazing how success attracts labels, and I’ve earned a few over the years. While many in the industry, like Michael Casey, are exceptional at technical aspects, marketing has been my main focus because of how important it is to growing a home inspection business. But marketing isn’t all we focus on, we spend a lot of time on other aspects of the home inspection business, like process, and people, and much more.

Marketing is critical because even the best inspections won’t matter if no one knows about them. I embraced marketing wholeheartedly, and it’s been a game-changer for us. Take Rory Warren, for example: he ran a single-inspector operation for years but, after embracing multi-inspector strategies and focusing on marketing, he grew his business into a $1M operation. Marketing systems and processes, like having an online sales process that works when you’re sleeping, are vital.

To put it simply, having a great inspection is important, but it’s the systems and marketing that drive sales. McDonald’s serves more burgers than any of its competitors by far, but they do it not because the burgers they sell are the best, but because their customer experience is consistently positive, the product they serve is consistent—you can get the same burger in Dallas, Texas as you can get in San Diego, Calif., and their marketing and processes are unrivaled.

You want a good product, but you need to have marketing and processes in place that allow you to grow and scale. This is true even if you are a one-home inspector operation, or if you want to build a larger multi-inspector firm.

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Working RE Home Inspector: What’s changed for home inspectors in business in the last five years? What’s stayed the same?

Mike Crow: There’s been a lot of changes in the last five years, especially when it comes to technology and how marketing is executed. One major shift has been the growth of services like Foundation Elevation Surveys (FES) and Sewer Scopes. More and more inspectors are adopting these specialized services to provide added value to their clients. Inspectors are realizing that diversifying their service offerings helps set them apart.

Another significant shift has been in marketing. Before the pandemic, home inspectors were already beginning to explore online marketing, but the need to adapt quickly to a more digital world really kicked into high gear when COVID-19 hit. During that period home inspectors, like many business owners, had to pivot quickly and adjust their marketing strategies. We took advantage of this time to amplify our digital marketing efforts. It was like turning up the volume on a dial—we really kicked things into high gear with what I like to call “Big Bang Marketing,” and now, that marketing has transitioned to being “Online Big Bang Marketing”. This shift isn’t just about embracing new platforms, it’s about understanding how to harness the power of the internet to truly reach your audience at a large scale.

Plus, use the one thing that’s remained constant. That is the importance of relationships. In business, but especially in the real estate space, it’s all about building solid, lasting relationships. I’ve been in the business for over 40 years, and the relationships I’ve built with people in the industry have been key to our success. It’s no different now—relationships are at the core of everything we do.

Think about it: when you build relationships with real estate agents, attorneys, movers, title companies, and insurance providers, that trust leads to referrals. This is something that will never change, no matter how much technology evolves. The personal connection is still the foundation of business in our profession. We have relationships with brokerages that have lasted decades. In one case, we knew their family when they just had a single brokerage office, and now they have 20 offices throughout our marketing area.

These people refer us because they know they can count on us, and that’s the essence of the home inspection business. Some folks think they’re building relationships, but they’re doing it all wrong. They approach it like a one-sided transaction, like a bad marriage where one party is constantly giving and the other is constantly taking. In my experience, building relationships is about balance—both parties need to give and take, and it has to be a two-way street. That’s the kind of relationship we strive for with everyone we work with, and that’s how you truly succeed.

Another element that hasn’t changed is the focus on providing value. Over the years, our business has grown because we take care of our customers, but we also focus on taking care of the people who refer us. Past clients are often the easiest source of referrals, but we also nurture relationships with professionals in other fields—attorneys, movers, title companies, and others in the real estate world. Taking care of these referral sources is just as important as taking care of the clients we inspect for.

Looking ahead, I believe technology will continue to reshape the profession, especially with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI). In five years, the way we handle customer service will be completely transformed by AI. Right now, people still insist that personal interaction is a must, but AI is already playing a role in answering phones and handling basic inquiries. I don’t think we’re too far from a future where AI can provide seamless communication across a variety of mediums. When you call a business, an AI will answer. It’s already happening in places like American Airlines, where AI is used to walk you through a whole process. It’s not perfect yet, but in five years, AI will be much more refined and smooth.

For those who embrace these changes, they will be able to scale faster than those who resist. The key is to get the right systems in place, like a perfect script for answering calls that ensures clients get exactly what they need every time. Imagine AI helping you build reports too, speaking into the system and having it generate a report for you with accuracy. AI is already capable of recognizing key phrases and organizing them properly in reports. For example, if you say “ZPG,” the system can automatically place it in the right section of your report. This kind of automation will make reporting easier and more efficient for inspectors.

The bottom line is that while the tools and technology available to home inspectors have changed, the fundamentals of the business remain the same. Relationships, value, and providing exceptional service are the cornerstones that have always driven success in the home inspection profession—and that’s something that will never change. However, the way we build those relationships and deliver value is evolving, and it’s exciting to think about what’s to come.

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Working RE Home Inspector: What are some practical tips home inspectors can use to build their businesses?

Mike Crow: One of the key tips is to approach your marketing by the numbers—Key Performance Indicators. For instance, I do a “date night” every Tuesday with my wife to nurture our relationship, business is the same way. Business growth requires consistent, deliberate actions. Set specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your marketing efforts—things like how many offices you visit per week and how many presentations you make. We consistently target 10 offices each week per inspector and over time, that adds up.

Another important step is to delegate. Once you’re conducting around 200 inspections per year or about 20 per month, you should consider hiring a part-time marketing person. This allows you to keep growing without getting stuck in the cycle of boom and bust. I have talked to many home inspectors who do marketing, then when they get busy they stop marketing, and then they get slow, then they start marketing. They are caught up in a cycle of boom and bust because they don’t know how to hire and build a team. Even a solo home inspector can have a support staff—there are solo inspectors who manage $300,000 businesses without adding an additional home inspector—they’ve simply perfected their systems and built a team. For those looking to scale further, having the right team and processes in place is crucial.

Working RE Home Inspector: How do you see technology impacting the home inspection business in the next five years?

Mike Crow: Technology is rapidly advancing and we are already seeing AI tools that allow inspectors to perform tasks like generating reports simply by speaking. Imagine this: you’ll dictate a report and AI will generate it, complete with all the necessary details—saving time and improving accuracy. AI will also help with client communication, with systems that can answer calls, schedule appointments, and even respond to inquiries in a human-like manner.

The key to success will be adopting these technologies early. The companies that do will grow faster and be more efficient, reaping the benefits of smoother processes and better customer service. In five years, AI will be much more advanced, and it will feel natural to interact with these systems—making businesses even more competitive.

I never forget that adoption of technology is one of the main reasons for our growth. For instance, in 1988 we produced our first computerized report on-site and still do so today. Of course, now many inspectors do a computerized report, just not on-site. We use technology to create “Speed and Accuracy”.

Working RE Home Inspector: For home inspectors who want to learn more about how to grow their businesses or want to contact you, where should they go?

Mike Crow: We are putting on a conference next month called Mission 25 from March 10-12, 2025, so we’d love to invite home inspector business owners from across the country to the event. You can learn more by clicking here.

Also I have been doing a podcast for years called “Home Inspector Marketing Podcast” just ask “Alexa” to play it for you…or click here.

My motto is “Be successful, and be around those who are successful because the more money we make the more people we can help.” And it works. Being able to see thousands of home inspectors build successful businesses as a result of being part of a mastermind and sharing the practices and ideas that actually work, is so rewarding for me. It’s my life’s work. See you there!

About the Author
Isaac Peck is the Publisher of Working RE magazine and the Senior Broker and President of OREP.org, a leading provider of E&O insurance for savvy professionals in 49 states and DC. Over 14,000 professionals trust OREP for their E&O. Isaac received his master’s degree in accounting at San Diego State University. Reach Isaac at isaac@orep.org or (888) 347-5273. CA License #4116465.

OREP Insurance Services, LLC. Calif. License #0K99465