Unique and Innovative Features in Home Inspection with Kenji Vendetta

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE:
Welcome back. And thanks for listening to the Team Lally real estate show home of the guaranteed sold program. We’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne. I’m Attilio. And if you have any questions, you can reach us at 7999596 or check us out online at Teamlally.com.

ATTILIO:
Hey, our guest today grew up in Waianae I went to Maili Bible Bible High School with He has a passion for self improvement and business acumen spends his free time indulging in podcasts particularly those focusing on financial advice and marketing strategy. He loves writing poetry long walks on this stand in the full moon. That’s not

ADRIENNE:
what that says. That last part. He started with Pillar to Post when the previous owner sought his expertise due to overwhelming demand. After the company changed hands in 2018, he was retained to spearhead daily operations. Please welcome today’s guest, Kenji Vendetta!

ATTILIO:
Awesome. Hey, do you have a poem to share with us today? I’m just kidding.

KENJI:
My wife would love that though.

ATTILIO:
Today’s the day to do that. And right one. All right, so let’s talk about home inspections. Well, you know, start off with the basics what, you know, a lot of people, we actually, you know, our

ADRIENNE:
this morning’s huddle.

ATTILIO:
Yeah, this morning is that j two of the Hawaii purchase contract that all US agents, you will day two talks about recommending a professional home inspector professional home inspector, you know, unless this what is I mean, describe to people what is a home inspection? What’s that look like?

KENJI:
The Home Inspection is a certified person that goes into a home and we test all the different systems of the house, such as electrical, plumbing, appliances, refrigerators, washer dryers, that sort of thing. Yeah. And we’re looking for any defects that may have in those structures or in those systems. We’ll put on a report and give it to the buyer. That way you guys can make decisions on what is best for them or not.

ADRIENNE:
So Kenji, you mentioned a certified person. What does that mean? Yeah.

KENJI:
It means that we should be home inspectors should be backed by some form or organization, whether it be NACHI or ASHI. Home Inspectors so that way, they go through some form of education prior to becoming a home inspector. So that way, you’re not having your cousin’s uncle come into the house and just says, this looks good and in the woods $50,000 in repairs later. So

ADRIENNE:
Kenji, when you say, like, certified with the Hawaii rules, is it like a licensing requirement? Like what do you need to do to just call yourself a home inspector? Here in Hawaii?

KENJI:
What you Hawaii doesn’t require a certificate. However, having a certificate makes you that much more of a candidate compared to the next person. So, and you’re able to show that, hey, I got these documents of proof that hey, I am I did take this testing, I do have the certificate to be home inspector.

ADRIENNE:
Yeah. So Kenji, is it true that really the only kind of license that you need for status in the state of Hawaii is the GE T license,

ATTILIO:
and maybe one driver’s license?

ADRIENNE:
Or two licenses you need? Yes. So and we know you have driver’s license for transportation. And we know that you have a lot more than that. Can you just kind of Yeah, talk about again, the ones that you’ve gone through this certification?

ATTILIO:
Yes. Say those organizations again. Yeah.

KENJI:
Ash, ASHI,

A SHI, and home inspection. The other one that’s up there comparable to ASHI is InterNACHI. That’s another good one. And then there’s a lot of small little like, certification as well. Yeah, I see a school. That’s another one, that’s well worth having as well. And fortunately, we don’t have any state stuff. So we, if we did have state like Washington or Texas, then we will be going through the state testing as well.

ADRIENNE:
Yeah. So you guys also with Pillar to Post, I know that they’re pretty extensive. And they have very high standards for anyone that is, you know, representing that franchise representing that brand. Yeah. So talk about some of the training, and then the continuing training that they offer with for their home inspectors.

KENJI:
So that training isn’t extensive two week course, education, education wise. That way, we get their tuition upfront, and then the training on the back end of it is in person, and that can take up to anywhere from three to six months. So um, we’re looking for skilled people that can communicate, they can identify issues inside of a home. So that we weren’t caught on our back end. And then the clients are know that, hey, we’re buying something well worth it. We’re not buying Mellon. Yeah.

ATTILIO:
And I think the communication part that you mentioned earlier, we’re going to talk about, you know, I would say it’s like that bedside manner, like you do the home inspection. And at the end, you go over with a report with a with a potential buyer. And you’re not like, Oh, my goodness, what the heck were you guys thinking by news? Oh, holy moly, take a look at this. No, you’re not doing it like that. You’re just saying, Hey, I’ve seen it because you go you go like major areas concerns and then couple and then some of the other things, and you got pictures and, and everything. So he’s very

ADRIENNE:
good with his communication, bring alarm. But, you know, also like, I mean, there’s areas of bringing attention to attention. Yeah. And the buyers can either, you know, ask to have it remedied, get a credit or just cancel. Maybe it’s like such a big issue that, you know, it’s just it’s not worth it. Then, Kenji,

ATTILIO:
I’ll tell you why is important for the seller that the buyer hire a home inspector. So they’re not looking over their shoulders and going, Ah, you know, what about this? What about that, and nope, got covered in the inspection. So the time to deal with that is while we’re in escrow, not after we close when it’s been fully disclosed to you, you know, what kind of things you need to be, I call that your report is like a home owner’s manual. Yes, for the house. get introduced to the home. But this is the one you want to look at guys. Not the one you got from the Ikea furniture, and then you wouldn’t throw them away. And then you put the thing together, and they’re like, oh, wow, a couple extra screws left over. That’s okay. Not

ADRIENNE:
like that. So, so Attilio what was this morning’s topic? The question that you had posed? Oh, yeah. So

ATTILIO:
here’s the, here’s a question and let’s get your Kenji to chime in on Kenji’s perspective on this. So we’ve had an owner or buyers come to us and they’re like, Ah, my uncle, one general contractor, he’d been a general contractor for 30 years. They even sound like exactly like that. I’ve been contracted for 30 years. No need home inspection. And by the way, when, when our clients are not making good decisions, they all sound like Frank Delima. And they’re making good decisions. Yeah. And so I like this go in my uncle. He built houses for last 30 years. Talk about here’s the thing that I said I said, You guys have different approach and skill set and the tools talk about some tools that a general contractor most likely he’s not going to have or or some party or inspection that a general contractor is most likely not going to do.

KENJI:
All right trash. A lot of the newer builds on the remodeled builds, there’s a lot of overlooking oversight in certain areas. Electric all is not working lights, which is not working, the cabinetry is off, the hardware is not connected. So there’s a lot of oversight when you have these general contractors come in to do the especially because they’re just going to come in to a whirlwind, they’re not going to touch every little thing. And they’re like, Hey, it works. Water turned on, you got water that warm, we’re good. But the tools that we do have is an antenna and a moisture. And they’ll tend to pick up things that cannot be seen behind the walls. Yeah. Generally in cold areas, or sorry, in wet areas, we’ll see if there’s a moisture, or if there’s a leak with a toilet, or if the panel is reading high temperature. And we’ll call that out as well. Because that can lead to an electrical fire. So yeah, those two general tools a moisture meter and an infrared camera will form a contract that will not have in their arsenal.

ATTILIO:
I think two or two is like what they’re going to have in the artisanal. This general general contract because it would generally look around the outside you guys gonna be surface level drop down and surface levels, drop that tailgate on the pickup truck. And then you guys Oh, green bottle. We’re done with the home inspection. It looks good. You should buy this home screen bottle. No, you don’t want to do that. Kenji is, you know, talk about? Do you have like some kind of like bonding or, or some kind of special insurance or anything like that?

KENJI:
Yes, we do have E&O insurance covers us. On the on that side, if there are any claim where to come up. Fortunately, I’ve been doing this for almost six years, and we have all claims come up.

ATTILIO:
Congratulations. You know, yeah, we’re talking hundreds of inspections. Not like fine, probably more than 100. Hundreds and hundreds.

ADRIENNE:
How many inspections can do you think you’ve done over the last six years?

ATTILIO:
Five years? Six years?

KENJI:
Anywhere? Probably from two. I want to say closer to 4000.

ATTILIO:
Oh, wow.

ADRIENNE:
That’s pretty in the 1000s? Not hundreds.

ATTILIO:
When you go Super Bowl party. Can you hold yourself back from looking at your friend’s house and like, hey, you know, this GFCI over here, the bathroom doesn’t work? Yes, Beth. Can you hold yourself back from doing home inspections at your friend’s house?

KENJI:
That is a habit that point everything out? Don’t worry about it. We got it.

ATTILIO:
Are you the same? Are you like the friend that’s a doctor they always coming to you free advice. Oh, candy, you know, this, this thing over here? Can you take a look at my circuit breaker box? I think I got some double taps. Hey, no, we gotta watch the game. We’re not here from look at your circuit breaker box. So but home inspections, very important. Let’s talk about some

ADRIENNE:
new services. Services Pillar to Post Connect, what is that? What is that?

KENJI:
Okay, Pillar to Post Connect state of Hawaii, we are a walkway anyways, we generally just have like electric vehicle for electric or to water supply for your water. Those are your main two that you kind of want to get connected with. Yeah, Pillar to Post Connect is of contact number that your clients will call and will will. Third party will kind of give them all the information that they need to make these phone calls. So that way you as an agent, you’re kind of sitting back and not worried about a this I need to get my contact, I need to get my clients signed up with HECO so they can transfer electric. Water. So can you transfer it over? Yeah, the hard one that Hawaii has is on gas off who has this gas? Yeah, because there’s different one primary gas company. But if you’re on a tank system, then you have multiple gas company to service you. Yes. So that politicals Connect will provide the contact information that is needed. We’ll send that all over to them. And we’ll get them out and get them signed up for it.

ATTILIO:
Awesome.

ADRIENNE:
So it’s like a little bit of a concierge

KENJI:
concierge program. Free on the client free

ADRIENNE:
is added value. Yeah, for you. Yeah.

KENJI:
Crazy of time. Because you can be spending there on weight HECO for like two hours. Yeah, we’re on

ATTILIO:
a we’re gonna we’re gonna close and we’ll be like, Thanks, Siri. You know, where are these turkeys stay in the oven for like two and a half days. It’s not cooking. Oh, your gas is not on.

ADRIENNE:
So, so Kenji, can we also talk about the services that are offered with the premium and the prestige packages? Yes.

KENJI:
Okay, first one we have is a Pillar to Post Home Manual. It’s a free app. that we give to the clients. And it will be preloaded with their appliances, the AC system, the water heater system. And if a user manual, yes, so it’s Reloaded, it has the user manual on there, it has some quick Do It Yourself tips. And it also tells you if your system has gone bad. Or if there’s a recall with it. Or if you hate your frigerator, you’re gonna change your filter, it’ll send you a notice

ATTILIO:
for those things. So this is a digital link,

ADRIENNE:
does it tell you where to order the new filter is there like a link that you can just click on? I think

KENJI:
it tells you not where to order it, but it tells you what filter you need for your refrigerator. So if you’re at Home Depot, and you’re like, oh, yeah, I gotta replace the filter, you can open up the app, it tells you right there in the ad, what filter you need, and take it off the shelf.

ATTILIO:
So convenient. People at Home Depot will be envious. They’re like, whoa, you have a digital home manual. I don’t have one of those. Well, you need to get your home inspected right Pillar to Post pillar posts, we can do screw that is super cool. Because door anytime you have that manual is new construction. It’s a three ring binder. And everybody knows where you put it. It’s in those tiny little cabinets above your refrigerator that nobody’s gonna look ever at again. And then you forget it’s up there. But then you replace appliances. And so then you have you up there and you got the manual from the original appliances, and you replace that one on 110 years ago. So the manual is all digital. Now it’s all digital is updated. Yeah. Plus, I like the recall thing. The recall thing?

ADRIENNE:
Yeah, super fun. You

KENJI:
also can if your client is replacing the unit, the dishwasher broke, they can put the new in it and they can scan the use the license plate. Yeah. and upload the new system upload the new appliance into the program. So it’s super easy, super quick to use. Yeah,

ADRIENNE:
no, we’re doing some screen sharing of this app. And I noticed she was scrolling through even have like the paint, like the, you know, the kind of paint. So I guess if you wanted to, like, do some touch ups or retail clients, or just on the house, different associations have different rules about you know, this kind of paint I know that we’re dealing working on water

ATTILIO:
like, oh, the association manager get the paint. Oh, no, the President has the paint. And we just like who’s on first? Who’s on? So

ADRIENNE:
we’ve been following up with this association for really almost a month just trying to find out like, what color paint? Do we need to paint the exterior of the home? No,

ATTILIO:
the owner is like, I’m just gonna paint the house already. And we’re like, no, no, no, no.

ADRIENNE:
You know, what if he had if he had had this Pillar to Post we wouldn’t own? Yeah. So this is a very useful tool for everyone. Yeah.

ATTILIO:
All right, and then Post Estimates and Post 360

KENJI:
Yes, so the Estimate is not a lot of home inspectors will do this unless they have a third party vendor for them. We do this for our clients will whatever is in our home inspection summary that will be generated on an estimate. And a client is able to go in there and see how much it would cost for these items to be repaired or replaced.

ATTILIO:
We saw them I saw that before. That’s really cool.

KENJI:
Cool. Yes, we are pricing is gonna be higher because we’re Hawaii. Our estimate is from East Coast to West Coast. very general number Yeah.

ADRIENNE:
So when do you when they see these numbers? What do you like suggest the day 20 or 30% to the plus

ATTILIO:
one six pack of Heineken

KENJI:
should knock it off to 10% right with the Heineken

ATTILIO:
Heineken discount green bottle discount. No. I just I used to work construction in my uncle. And that was everything at the end of the day was like, you would tell me, Hey, boy, you dropped that load of cement and that wheelbarrow you buy one case beer, I think only dropped one barrel of cement. Okay,

ADRIENNE:
so anyways, they give you the estimates, which is helpful, especially if you’re in a purchase, negotiating. Yeah, so like it’s right there. And you’re not going to be like guessing about oh, how much is this repair doubletap of the circuit breaker box. It’s just it’s right there. You can ask for a credit. And you build it. That’s gonna be enough money to have that done.

ATTILIO:
Last one. What’s the 360 is like a skateboard trick. What is that?

KENJI:
Interactive 360 virtual inspection tour of the property. And you’ll pop up into the living room. And let’s just say there is a news outlet. You’ll be able to identify the news outlet right away. Yeah, we do have a drop down tab in that virtual tour so you can see all the defects inside of that particular room. And it makes it easy to share, gives you the floor plan. So that way, you know families they can see what you’re purchasing They can have a input even though they’re not paying the bill but they have an input. They’re also able to with a full time and the 360 you’re able to be able to send it to a contractor to be like, hey, I want to redo my kitchen just either the kitchen and this is what it looks like nice. I want new cabinets new counters rearranged to place that waste, you know fun functional for us. Just gonna

ATTILIO:
say Fung Shui well that too

ADRIENNE:
so what you’re seeing is a time saver. Yeah, because a lot of times you know like the waiting for the appointment for them to come out and physically take a look. But instead you can email this out and yeah, right there from their phone.

ATTILIO:
I think this is a cool thing because the contractor especially they’re so busy and a lot of them don’t they’re so busy. They don’t want to come out unless they know they got the job but at least this will entice them to kind of want to give you an estimate or a quote because they don’t even need come to your come to your house. It’s all there. It’s all there. So good job pillars the post is wonderful. I love this all right, Kenji. By the way if your realtors out there, highly recommend that you make Kenji vendetta pillar posts one of your partners when he partners in your in your success as a realtor real estate team. Because we’ve been working with Kenji long time. Yes. We started when he was like elementary school and now he’s a grown man married we kids and our own house now.

ADRIENNE:
And I think it like goes back all the way I remember with to the previous year. So like we’ve known Kenji a long time. And our clients love him or our team loves them. Yeah, he does an excellent job. Yeah.

ATTILIO:
All right, Kenji, anything, any questions or anything that you want to want us to cover with you that we haven’t covered with?

KENJI:
No, the, we’ve pretty much covered at all I wanted to we just have a brand conference. So wanted to reiterate some of the things that we are currently doing and the new things that that Pillar to Post Connect that we’re implementing now. It just went live on Monday. Oh,

ATTILIO:
wow. So yes, that’s cool. Because because you’re not like a mom and pop, home inspector, nothing wrong with the mom and pops, but you’re plugged into a larger organization. There’s no way a mom and pop home inspector is going to have to count the money or resources to have this type of technology backing him up. No way. Would it make sense economically? Would you do because you guys are part of a larger organization nationwide. Probably all 50 states?

KENJI:
Yes, I believe so. Yeah.

ATTILIO:
Oh, Pillar to Post.

ADRIENNE:
Well, thank you, Kenji, for coming on, and sharing more about all the tools and resources that pillar to post has and these new tools and resources. It’s, it’s very exciting and innovative. And, you know, we’re excited to send you more home inspections throughout this year. So

ATTILIO:
realtors out there, homeowners, whatever buyers need to do your research. We’ve been working with Kenji for a long time. We did the research. We did the research. Trust us. We highly recommend him. He’s the only home inspector that we work with right now.

ADRIENNE:
Thank you, Kenji.

ATTILIO:
Thank you, Kenji. You’re welcome. Oh, wait, Kenji, one last thing. Yeah, yes. Maili Bible High School. Where is that? I mean, no, no, I’m saying it’s in Maili but Is it still around?

KENJI:
They are still around. That is synced on our St. John’s road is Yeah, two streets. Yeah. Heading to Makaha. Two streets over. Oh, wow. And yeah, we just had an alumni dinner the last month. Were you

ATTILIO:
guys like was your school like Little House on the Prairie auto grades was in one room.

KENJI:
The High School. The High School is in their auditorium.

ATTILIO:
Oh, wow. Oh, wow. That school is still going along. I never even heard of this school to you mentioned it so Alright, so if parents out there you want your kids to go Bible High School? In Maili. It’s still out there still in it’s still in going. All right. And we’ll have fun at your reunion. It already happened. Oh, it already happened. That wasn’t a good list. Thank you, Kenji. For that the next reunion. Okay.

ADRIENNE:
All right. So that was that Kenji Vendetta Pillar to Post you can find out all about him by going to our website. Yeah. On the Resource tab. And experts we trust.

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