Celebrating 15 Years With HomeTeam, This Franchise Has Become One of the Most Successful in the System

Through his 6 years with the brand, Brad Lawler, the owner of several HomeTeam franchises in Kentucky and Southern Indiana, has become a pillar of his community and trusted leader for home inspections in the markets he covers. At the 2024 HomeTeam Franchisee Summit, Lawler and his team at HomeTeam Inspection Service of Kentuckiana, a multi-territory business that serves southern Indiana and central Kentucky, won the Franchise of the Year award. This award is based on inspections completed and revenue generated, and the 2024 award is the ninth consecutive win for the team. As his business has grown, Lawler has continually recognized the value that his team members bring to the organization, often noting their great work and dedication as a key driver for the business’s success.

“We have several team members celebrating major anniversaries, including Jason O’Leary, who will be celebrating his 10th year with us this April, and Bethany Myers, who will be celebrating her ninth anniversary with us this April,” said Lawler. “Basically, we started winning the National Team of the Year awards once Jason and Bethany came on board! We’re going to continue to grow, and I think the key driver is the reputation we’ve built and the strength of the team.”

Since taking over the Louisville-based franchise in 2018 that originally launched in 2009, Lawler has focused on expanding into new territories by investing in his team, promoting from within and even leveraging an apprenticeship program to support new inspectors in learning through experience. This approach lends itself to a high level of expertise within the team, encourages employee loyalty and even boosts the team’s credibility among local real estate agents and homeowners.

Currently, Lawler and his team have completed over 22,500 inspections, and they have become the go-to resource for transactions involving large homes.

“Because we can put so many team members on an inspection, we do a huge percentage of the luxury market and the larger homes,” explained Lawler. “The average square footage of the homes that we inspected last year went up year-over-year, so we continue to pick up a lot of the larger existing homes and new construction homes as well as the vast majority of the luxury properties.”

He attributes this to the fact that he can send as many as 11 inspectors to a single site, meaning that a sizable inspection can be completed much more quickly. For example, last summer, Lawler’s team inspected a historic mansion that clocks in at over 10,000 square feet, and he was able to send nine people to the inspection.

“I think that the luxury agents in town know that we’re one of the few, or maybe the only ones, that can handle something over 10,000 square feet,” said Lawler. “Other inspectors, that would take more than a day for them to complete an inspection like that. With our team, we can be in and out in about two hours.”

While larger and luxury homes continue to drive Lawler’s growth in his market, the team does not shy away from smaller inspections either. “We’re still going to inspect the 800-square-foot house or the 700-square-foot condo,” he added.

This approach all comes back to Lawler’s focus on his clients and real estate partners.

“Our goal is to get agents and their clients to the closing table. We accomplish that by having a non-alarmist, solution-oriented approach,” he said. “We will continue to listen to our clients and buyers to learn what it is that they need to make smooth transitions and get peace of mind. We’re all about peace of mind. We just don’t want people having to worry about these properties that they’re investing their life savings in.”

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