Get ready for an exciting episode of The Ride Along with host Brad Lowery and special guest host Matt Brading as they’re joined by industry pros Mark and James Watson of Double Scope Inspections and Joe Matson of JBR Inspections to tackle the tough world of home inspections in sunny Florida. The episode was recorded at the InterNACHI Pro Inspectors Conference in Orlando, FL. in mid-February.
Mark, James, and Joe reveal how they handle Florida’s extreme weather with top-notch wind mitigation techniques that keep safety up and costs down. They also get serious about the power of staying connected and educated through industry events like InterNACHI, sharing why it’s crucial for staying on top of your game.
If you’re serious about ramping up your skills in tricky climates, this episode is your go-to resource. Get top-notch advice for keeping your inspections thorough and effective, even when the heat is on.
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Transcript
Brad Lowery
Alright, so we’re sitting here with a bunch of awesome dudes here from Double Scope inspections and you guys are located where again?
Mark Watson
Brevard County.
Brad Lowery
Alright, yeah, so more Florida guys. We love Florida inspectors here. And first of all, how’s InterNACHI treating y’all so far?
Mark Watson
InterNACHI is great, amazing. Great, amazing. InterNACHI is great and amazing.
Brad Lowery
Just say it again so that Nick knows we love him. That’s it. Now it’s been awesome. So we got to hang out last night and you guys were telling us a little bit about how you got started with home inspections and the area that you guys cover. But I’m excited to talk to y’all because Florida has been an interesting place to be a home inspector in the last four months. So how did the storms affect you guys where y’all are?
Mark Watson
So the storms, what’s cool is for some reason we believe in Space Coast, they built the Space Center there for a reason. So I feel like the storms doesn’t affect us as much. Things shut down during the season, the storm itself, but you know, it really hasn’t affected the housing market. Would you say the same?
Joe Matson
Yeah, I’d agree.
But as far as, as far as being busy wise, yeah, I mean, if storms do come in through the town, you know, people want to get the roof checked out and make sure there’s no structural damage. So work does pick up a little bit more in that stance. So but that’s a good thing all the way around. People are making sure their houses are safe. New buyers want to make sure their house is good for when they move in.
Matt Brading
So, like, I’m from Texas, and so much different construction because you guys build a lot of things more with concrete here, right?
Mark Watson
Yes.
Matt Brading
Just, you know, for those storm reasons and everything. But you guys do something a little bit different that we don’t do in Texas, which I kind of think that maybe we should, but like four-point inspections and wind mitigation, do you guys do that stuff.
Mark Watson
Yes. Yes.
Matt Brading
So how is that, like, in terms of your business, how much of it is coming from that kind of stuff versus full-on home inspections, like for a buyer?
Mark Watson
So any homeowner needs a wind mitigation just to get credit, and that kind of talks about how is the roof attached to the building? Are the windows covered? So that kind of tells the insurance company what kind of credits they get. And then the four point, anything 15 and older usually, is the four main parts of the house, roof, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. So it tells the insurance company what are the conditions of those four items.
Matt Brading
So is there anything else that’s kind of specific to Florida? Because I mean, like I say, we don’t do those in Texas. And definitely, I think we probably should at least in the coastal areas for.
Mark Watson
So I know the homeowners hate us when we go in there because we’re the eyes that the insurance companies need. And we’re the bad guys. So we say, this is bad. This is kind of outdated. So they don’t like it, but it kind of keeps their house maintained. Not by choice.
Matt Brading
Understood.
James Watson
I was just going to say that the way we price a wind mitigation, it’s free with a home inspection. We include that with a regular home inspection.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, so let’s talk a little bit about that because every home inspector is a little bit different. Like right now, I was talking with some friends of mine up in Tampa and he was just asking me, he’s like, what are you charging right now for your win mit? And I told him, but he was like, dude, we just raised our rates. So like, are you guys raising your rates on the West Coast or the East Coast too or?
Mark Watson
We did, but now it seems, it goes like this. And now right now it seems like the clients are now starting to complain about the rates. And we’re not high and we’re not low. We try to stay at the middle side, but I’m like, you can’t complain about it. So $5 is good, but then eventually we might have to go back $5 depending on the market.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, I mean you want to keep the work coming in, but you don’t want to be short selling yourself at the same time, obviously. Yeah, no, that totally makes sense. And honestly, guys, this is one of the reasons why I feel like InterNACHI is pretty awesome, simply because you can come to a place like this. And it’s more of like a mastermind thing. It’s not just to come out here. It’s not just to get your CE courses done. It’s not just to hear about the latest and greatest tools and tech. But I mean, we get to talk shop a little bit too.
Mark Watson
The camaraderie between people- here’s people here from our county Honors and Fogerty – they’re great too and it’s good to still we don’t always get to talk to them because we’re so busy with life so it’s kind of good to get ideas we heard some of your stuff yesterday.
Matt Brading
Yeah, I mean, I’ve got, you my friend, Chris Murphy, I see him running around in here. I don’t even see you inspects in my area. I only see him at conferences. That’s when we see each other. Yes. You know, but the other networking, think is huge, right? To build that network of people that you can rely on to ask questions or to refer and to learn from, because I think like the learning, we have the courses and we can take those, we can learn from them, we can learn from all the vendors in here. But the networking and the continued education – mind you, we don’t get credit for it, but that you get by continuing that networking after the conference, know, with people that you meet and you get to learn from them online or anything like that. I really enjoy myself learning about what people are doing in different areas of the country because it’s very different. The types of construction are very different. I would be terribly nervous to take on like if I moved to Florida.
You did that. You moved to Florida. How was that for you? Whenever you started a business after inspecting somewhere else and then you started in the home inspection business in Florida. That had to have been very strange.
Brad Lowery
So are you guys all local down here like you’ve been here the whole time or?
James Watson
We came from Ohio originally, so that is a huge difference from up north.
Brad Lowery
Just a little bit.
Now, you’re not the only Ohioans to move down to Florida, obviously, you know, but yeah, it’s, it’s definitely different when you’re like coming from one market to the other. And I say that simply because everybody from Ohio and Michigan and they all come to Florida. is what you do. Yeah, seriously, everybody’s here. It’s if you’re from up north and you speak, you have that, what do they call it? Midwest nice way to you. Yeah, yeah. That’s yeah, you end up here. So.
Mark Watson
It’s paradise it is here.
Brad Lowery
But no, moving down here, it was a little bit different. I don’t know if you guys had to deal with this as well, but there were courses that didn’t transfer. Even though I have done hours and hours and hours, over eight years of CEs, I still had to do the full required 120 course load that Florida requires.
Mark Watson
Yeah, so at the time Ohio didn’t require they do now but they didn’t require that and so we didn’t have that issue. So then we come here, which I think they I’m glad they did because people were inspecting and not doing nobody as expected.
Brad Lowery
They had no business inspecting.
Matt Brading
I honestly think it’s good thing.
Mark Watson
And you’re from Florida. Yeah.
Joe Matson
Yeah, I’m from Florida, born and raised. Me and my dad started this profession, it was I was a 10-year prior, and then my dad was a 30, 30-year contractor. And so he was getting ready to retire, I wanted to change my game. So looked up how to be a home inspector and came across InterNACHI and went through the website. mean, everything right from the beginning was just, you can’t beat that. I mean, it was a nice setup and jumped on it. First course was the roofing course. I’m like, I know this stuff. This is easy. So. How did it? It’s just like that. I I’m like, man, I got through the terminology. I’m like, I know that, I know that, I know that. I got to the first quiz, know that. I’m going to keep going. But like I said, it was all a good setup. My dad got on board and then we were actually going to do our own thing. We actually started our own business, JBR, Home Inspectors. But later on, before we could officially get started, we ran into these guys and we just saw great opportunities and with these guys, we’re like, no, these guys are good and everything.
Brad Lowery
Yeah, he actually works with us too. So yeah, we just saw a great- Just seeing that. Yeah. Just saw great chances with these guys and they’ve been good to us ever since.
Mark Watson
And so what’s cool is we had their skill set which will definitely help Double Scope it yeah sure it’s all about a growth so they are the JBR team for sure.
Matt Brading
So let’s talk about Double Scope for a second. What’s the name? Where does that come from?
Mark Watson
So Double Scope has dual meaning. It was founded by my twin brother and I and our cousin and from Cleveland. And then we also show up with two inspectors.
Matt Brading
Get in and out within an hour and a half.
Mark Watson
Correct. Sometimes the bigger houses we have six inspectors if needed. Every inspection is two inspectors.
Brad Lowery
I mean, sometimes it’s too with me with my multiple personalities, but you know, it’s, it all depends on, no, I’m kidding, kidding. Sorry, mom. But no, let’s definitely talk about last fall. Actually last fall and winter. October, September and October were just nuts. On my side of the state, I mean, cause it was a direct hit on Bradenton and which is, which is what I’m based out of. But the wind damage there, the flood damage was absurd. And with the first hurricane that came through, I think it was Helene, we had massive storm surging that caused excessive flood damage. With Milton, it stayed south of us. So then we were on the north side of the storm, and we got all the high wind that came off of that. So we missed the surge the second time, but then we got the wind. And so then we had major wind damage with roofing, siding, eaves and fascia, all of that. What did you guys have happen on your side of the coast was there any major damage?
Mark Watson
Honestly, both one went north and one went south and we didn’t some heavy rains. I mean, we got lucky that none of it really affected our market. Yeah. So.
Brad Lowery
It was a disaster area on our side, but how did it look for you all?
Mark Watson
It was – it was nothing. The sun was shining. We’re like, is that the same? It’s right there and it did not affect. mean, like I said, sometimes you did have some heavy rains, some hail, but nothing like your spot.
Matt Brading
Not total destruction.
James Watson
In Florida we have weird weather so you could walk out your front door and have rain and walk out the back door and it’ll be sunshiny.
Matt Brading
Yeah, I’ve noticed that I’ve been here for a few days and it definitely is definitely. And we’re here now because of what all what you’re talking about like this was supposed to take place in October, I think, right? Yes. And we’re actually here in February.
Mark Watson
And that’s why we were like, are they having it or are they not? They having it or are not? And Orlando’s only an hour from us, so we thought for sure Orlando got hit. We’re going to get hit.
Matt Brading
It’s crazy how that happens though. Because I mean, like I say, coming from the Houston area, know, we’re relatively close to the coast as well. And we definitely have not nearly the extent of Florida, but we definitely deal with our fair share of storms, hurricanes, things of that nature. And we’ve had some really bad ones, but it is crazy how like it’ll skate around certain areas. We got a pretty barrel came through a few months back and a lot of wind damage.
Mark Watson
Houston, you guys just got…
Matt Brading
It didn’t bring with it as ton of flooding like it’s already happened sometimes, but a ton of wind damage trees down everywhere. Roof just destroyed. I mean, it was devastation. Yeah. From the wind damage. So.
James Watson
I have a question for you guys. So in Texas, how long does a roof last? Because I know the heat tears up the shingles here in Florida. So I know it’s hotter over there.
Matt Brading
That’s a great question. I think it’s probably very similar. You know, we’re talking about composition asphalt shingles, I take it right. You know, we still some new construction, you’ll still see some three tabs shingles out there, which is just insane. And then of course, we have the architectural stuff. They’re rated for 20 years for the three tabs stuff and the rated for 30 years for the architectural stuff. We do not get that out them for sure.
I would say the storms play a big factor there, but the sun is just brutal, right? And people really don’t account for the amount of damage that is caused by this big ball of fire in the sky. It really does some damage to roofs. And so I think if you get some proper maintenance, know, periodical maintenance on an architectural single roof, you’re looking at probably a maximum of 18 to 20 years. That’s with maintenance.
But if you don’t get it maintained or if you show up like you know on a 12 year old roof that’s never had any maintenance on it mean it looks bad
Mark Watson
So we noticed there was somebody paid extra for the presidential shingle that’s supposed to be a hundred or fifty year shingle same thing fifteen years
Brad Lowery
Yeah, it doesn’t matter what they say the rating is down here. I mean, the sun just cooks it. So I inspected up in DC and Northern Virginia for eight years and up there a 25 to 30 year roof is a 25 to 30 year roof. You have shade from trees, know, fluctuations in the seasons. Really the hottest time of year is only going to be maybe two to three months tops. But down here where it’s hot from June to December, you know, it’s I tell people all the time, they’re like, well, that’s a 30 year roof, right? I’m like, anywhere else but here. It’s going to cook through it in about 10 to 15.
Mark Watson
So insurance companies used to just drop people when the roof was 15 years old. But DeSantis passed that law in 22 that says if a home inspector says you got five more years, they have to honor it. They don’t. They of give it 20 now. You have to have SWR and certain other things, which isn’t even in the law. Is that the same in Texas?
James Watson
They’re also still putting new roofs on new builds without SWR as well.
Matt Brading
What is that?
James Watson
It’s a secondary water and it goes between the sheet, it’s to cover the cracks of the sheeting. So if the shingles blow off, it’ll still be protected.
Matt Brading
Okay, okay.
Brad Lowery
It’s like roofing fill, but better.
Matt Brading
I understand what you’re talking about now. Yeah. I just don’t think I’ve ever heard it called that.
Mark Watson
So does the insurance companies give Houston area a hard time with that?
Matt Brading
No, not really, not that I know of or at least it doesn’t really come into effect. guys. Yeah, we don’t do that. You guys do fortified roofs at all. Are you familiar with like fortified roofs? You ever inspect fortified roofs, or I guess I think you have to have some type of special certification to do. It’s like there is a fortified roof system. It’s a different way of installing a roof. And it’s a certain rating based on how it was installed, how it was fastened, and what fasteners that were used. You ever heard of that?
Mark Watson
We might be ignorant to that yeah.
Matt Brading
It’s a pretty interesting thing. I think you have to go through some training and like you have to be, it’s veterans had to be present while the roof is being put on to be able to approve it to be a fortified roof.
Mark Watson
Not a building inspector, actual home inspector?
Matt Brading
I mean, anybody with experience
James Watson
During the whole process and make sure it’s done correctly.
Matt Brading
And then I think I don’t know what the benefit I think there’s some insurance benefits to having a fortified roof. But just durability and especially in areas like Florida and in Texas. The durability of a fortified roof is supposed to be significantly better. I was thinking about looking into this recently I don’t know a whole lot. That’s what I was asking
Mark Watson
So that’s proof that home inspectors don’t always have the answers. We’re still learning as well.
Matt Brading
No, that’s actually, mean, I don’t know if we’re, was talking about this with somebody else today. That’s a huge thing about home inspection. Like, the earlier you can learn it, the better. If you don’t know everything. If you can learn that you don’t know everything and no one really expects you to know everything, but you just have the diligence to be able to find the answers.
Mark Watson
The jack of all trades, master of none. So, with the JBR team, what makes them a great asset is Joey Joe has great roofing experience, and his dad has great GC experience. So now we got a GC and a roofer. We got another guy who’s an AC guy.
Brad Lowery
Well, honestly, this is a good example of not knowing everything. I had to, there was more than I learned about roofing since I moved down here than I did in Virginia. Just because when you have to go further in depth on a wind mitigation inspection, some of the construction standards that we have down here are far more robust than what you have up north. It just simply is. Just from hurricane tie downs, different straps, different brackets that we use down here.
Mark Watson
Did you know that they no longer are, they’re doing away with the clips? They’re using screws.
Matt Brading
I actually really like that.
James Watson
And you can’t even see it.
Brad Lowery
Yeah. So how are we supposed to inspect for that?
Matt Brading
Yeah, that’s the only time that you can do it. But actually, I think they’re really cool and they’re a lot less expensive and you can use them on every single one of them.
Mark Watson
Me personally, I don’t know how one screw going up can hold it all down like a cliff, but…
Brad Lowery
I mean, what’s the length of the screw? yeah, they’re massive. yeah. Gotcha. Yeah.
Mark Watson
I’ll show you a photo later, but yeah.
James Watson
You would think it could snap.
Brad Lowery
And the only way that you can inspect for that is if you do pre-drywall. Now, is this what they were meeting on about the windmits today, the new windmits? Because they’re coming out with a new windmit form or something.
Mark Watson
I heard that too, but I don’t know.
Brad Lowery
Okay, so if you’re a Florida inspector, I would love to know more about what’s going on with the new windmill thing. I’m going to find out here, chime off, in, sound off in the comments. We haven’t even had a full beer, time out, let’s try that again. Sound off in the comments if you know what’s going on with the new Florida windmill form. Seriously, that’d be cool.
Joe Matson
To follow up with that that structural bowl thing if you know unless you do the pre drywall there have been there was a couple rare instances where I was crawling through the attic space to look for the straps or clips I came across one that was misaligned with the truss so there is at least some way to see it but now that truss is no longer structurally sound because
Brad Lowery
That is a serious shiner, right? problem. That’s a huge problem. So, okay, go ahead.
Mark Watson
I think insurance companies, once the house is built certain years, they automatically get the credit anyways, that first credit. That’s why it doesn’t matter if we see it or not.
Brad Lowery
Okay, that’s why it makes sense. It makes it little more difficult, I guess, filling out the form, but at the same time. Sure. Now, okay, so how many years in business one more time for you guys? Six years. Six years total. That’s great. Now, what are you guys looking to do in 2025 to really take your business to the next level?
Mark Watson
No or undetermined.
Brad Lowery
Ok, so how many years in business?
Mark Watson
Six years, six years total.
Brad Lowery
That’s great. Now, what are you guys looking to do in 2025 to really take your business to the next level?
Mark Watson
We don’t want to share that with our competitors, but this last year we started doing mold. We do lead, water testing, sewer scopes. What we really want to try to do is up our social media game and we’re really kind of dipping into septic inspections. Now, but we can’t in Florida do septic inspections as a home inspector so we’re trying to find that right person to help us open up that avenue as well.
Matt Brading
I never had much interest in doing septic inspections.
Brad Lowery
It’s a shitty job.
Mark Watson
But somebody got to do it
Matt Brading
Yeah, I don’t know. think I was talking to somebody about ancillary services. You guys seem to offer a lot of different services. I don’t. I do home inspections, wood destroying, insect inspections and pool inspections. That’s about it. I don’t do sewer scope. I don’t do well in septic. I would just. I would rather just do another job, another inspection. You know what mean? If I pile all that on, seems, I fear, I fear it will take me too long and I won’t be able to get to another job. And that, and so, and like they require someone in Florida, like to do septic, you have to what?
Mark Watson
We’re going have to open a septic company.
Matt Brading
So you’re going to have to open a septic company.
Mark Watson
We got to jump to do that hoop. I don’t know what we’re going to do yet, but we’re hiring somebody to help.
Matt Brading
It’s not like that in Texas, you just go. I don’t think you have to have the training. I don’t think you have to but you should, right? It’s like anything else when it comes to home inspection and things that are outside of your standard of practice. You just need to know it.
Mark Watson
But the services like the mold test, you’re already on the property? Yeah. the mold samples, you set it and go.
Matt Brading
Now that you do need a license for, but I 100 % agree with you. And I mean, you guys are probably in the same boat as we are over in Houston. Bold’s big deal. Yeah.
Mark Watson
And then sewer scope, you can add that, drop it down and
Brad Lowery
Sewer scope I feel like would just be easier like when it comes to actually digging up septic and again if this is what you guys choose to do because the other competitors won’t do it I love it because that means that I could be the competitor that doesn’t do it you know yeah yeah I’ll refer to you.
Mark Watson
So our goal is to be the one stop shop. We also do termite and so when they have to call the home inspector and call the termite guy, call the mold guy, call the septic guy and call the plumber, they’re tired. But when you Double Scope got it, let’s sweep.
Brad Lowery
But to what Matt was saying, I mean, you don’t feel like there’s an opportunity cost loss when it takes. Because I’ve done septic back at Virginia, which is very different soil. So it’s hard clay up there. So I would have to probe for the box first. Generally, you know whereabouts it’s going to be, but then actually locating it. And then when you’ve taken 30 minutes to dig down and you’ve missed the cover by that much, and then you have to take another 30 minutes to dig further out, this exploratory septic. It took so long that I could have done another inspection in that time and made $200 more than what I did on the septic.
Mark Watson
So with a team, it wouldn’t be the one inspector doing that. That makes sense. someone else to do the septic, someone else to do the auxiliary stuff. Auxiliary. Yeah, auxiliary.
Matt Brading
So, as a team, how does that affect your pricing and like what you’re able to do? I mean, if you’re bringing out multiple people on inspections, mean, your prices have got to be such that I guess, well, I guess, hold on, with more inspectors, you can probably do more inspections in a day. Is that how it makes up?
Mark Watson
Yes, we could. So a team could do three full a day. Okay. Where if I was by myself, two I’m dying. Yeah.
Matt Brading
Yeah. Right. God, that seems, I mean, you guys obviously have it down. That seems like chaotic to schedule to me.
Mark Watson
Definitely got an office manager and a secretary, client care coordinator. They’re great. Without them, we would have lost our hair.
Matt Brading
I got to tell you guys that, you know, hearing your story and how you operate your business is different than any other home inspection company that I know of. And it’s very interesting to me.
Mark Watson
Well, I appreciate that. Thank you.
Brad Lowery
But okay, so while we’re wrapping up InterNACHI here and so we can wrap up the interview, what are you guys really looking forward to taking away from your time here in Orlando? Yes, right here.
James Watson
Meeting new people and getting new connections. That’s what it’s all about here for me here. I love you InterNACHI.
Mark Watson
Well, Porch, mean once you already have your mindset on different things I was turned off of Porch just because I heard things but after discussing and actually getting some answers I’m like, okay, so meeting new people and new programs, I think that it that helps further our business as well.
James Matson
Sorry I got distracted by a phone call. What was the question again?
Brad Lowery
The question was how’s your beer? No, oh, well, there you go. Yeah. All right, so we’ll have to get a refill What are you looking forward to taking away from the rest of your time here at a intern at you in Orlando?
Joe Matson
I gotta say, with my colleagues, gotta say the same thing, just meeting new people, learning kind of what we’re doing now, learning other people’s tactics, stuff like that. Just how can I better myself in sense?
Brad Lowery
How about you, Matt?
Matt Brading
It’s always the networking for me. Like I say, it’s not just about the sitting in the CE classes or anything. It’s really the continued education from the networking that all starts when you’re meeting new people and visiting with them and then that continues as you connect with them after the conference. That’s what I love.
Mark Watson
Relationship. It’s all about relationship.
James Watson
I also like that every time they have these, they have the newest gadgets that we get to look at to make our jobs easier.
Brad Lowery
You don’t think that I am going to be going and expensive a $200, $10,000 lumen flashlight because we’re here? Yes. This is it. I want to look if you don’t have to put your sunglasses on in the attic because your flashlight is just not bright enough in my bar. But to your point, meeting some of the vendors, this is one of the things that I’ve absolutely loved about it. This is actually why I work for Porch now. I’m still in the field and yet it was at a different a different convention that InterNACHI would get mad if we mentioned back in 2019. I think you all know which one we mean. But it was there that I kind of hung out with some of the folks from Porch. And a couple of years later, I reached out to them about a job for a friend of mine. And Stacy Rose goes, you know, we’ve we don’t really have anything for your friend, but we’ve definitely got something for you. And here we are now doing a podcast together. So, I mean, it’s yeah, I’ve always found that it’s like once you put a face to the name. You get to make that connection. That kind of just takes it beyond just the brand, you know?
Mark Watson
Good looking face, I see it.
Brad Lowery
I can’t blame you, you know? I can’t blame you at all. That’s why they pay me the big bucks or should give me a raise, one of the two. But anyway, no, dude, guys, thanks so much for being here, truly. It’s been awesome hanging out. Cheers to all of you. Cheers to InterNACHI 2025. All right. And thank you guys so much for watching. And we will see you guys right here next time on –
Matt Brading
The Ride Along
