Inspections Provide Opportunity for Contractors and Value for Clients

RCS Influencer Charles Antis says that regular maintenance helps owners get the maximum value out of their roof. 

Editor’s note: Watch the video to see and hear what Charles Antis has to say about how he built his business on maintenance. You can read the transcript below the video, but we recommend seeing it for yourself.    

Hi, I'm Charles Antis, founder and CEO here at Antis Roofing in Irvine, California. This month's question on RoofersCoffeeShop® is all about fall inspections. Do you do them? Tell us about it. That excites me. Fall inspections excite me because in my past how I began, that was where the opportunity was for me to exercise my skills, but also to provide value to my client. 

I'll explain. I started my business 31 years ago and it was just me, but I was selling to HOAs. My work was so valuable that I put weatherstripping on the door of my home office so if somebody called, an HOA managed revenue called, business to business, they would feel like it was business to business. That was the condition. And I would get calls and I would go out and I had to convert these. I'm competing against people who wanted to spend sometimes a million dollars on a reroof, and I didn't have a kettle or a crew. 

So, I went in and was excited. I got to get great at repairing leaks. When I started repairing leaks, I discovered that leaks, they don't originate from the field area, unless there is trauma. They originate from the penetrations, from the transitions, from the termination, and that's where we focused our maintenance. As I did repairs, I learned if somebody was planning a million dollar reroof to get them 30 more years, that I could go in there and I could sell them a hundred thousand dollar maintenance to get them eight more years. And I would show them how they doubled their investment because they paid way less per annum. That became an angle for me to make money. And that's what I want roofers to hear. 

But I also want you to hear the other side. It all became an angle for me to provide value to my client because by doing that fall inspection and going out there and inspecting the penetrations, the transitions and the termination points, you can make the determination and give them what they need to get maximum value out of their roof. You get to make a higher margin on the smaller spend. I've learned I would rather do a hundred-thousand-dollar job with a higher margin where my client saves money than a million dollar job with a razor thin margin. When you do this, and when you provide this service for your client, the client's happy and they start talking about you and your people are happy because you're providing a service with less risks involved. 

This is what we've done. And if we built a thriving business, of course, we do a lot of reroofing, but right now in the super adaptive world we're all moving into. And that's one thing you'll hear me say every month, we're moving into a super adaptive world where the new normal of three months from now likely won't be the new normal of six months or nine months from now. In that environment, you must maximize your opportunities. If you have clients that love you, then give them the service, go out and inspect their properties. If they have a lot of leaves that could damage or cause problems with drainage, then go out there two, three, four times a year. Provide them the service for free and out of it, they will sleep better at night and so your employees because you will provide more services at better value with less liabilities. Thank you. 

Charles Antis is the founder and CEO of Antis Roofing & Waterproofing. See his full bio here.