John Dunnington, owner of HomeTeam Inspection Service of Prosser, Washington, opened his franchise just days before the COVID-19 pandemic caused large scale shutdowns nationwide. Despite the pandemic, Dunnington leveraged creative advancements and corporate advice paired with sheer commitment to overcome the hurdles of 2020, and has completed more than 400 inspections within the last 12 months, an impressive feat as a new HomeTeam owner.

“I’m kind of modest because I didn’t really know I was doing so well,” Dunnington said. “I was trying to stay as busy as I could. Because of COVID, I couldn’t go out and meet agents in person, so my strategy was to call them and to reach out to them on Facebook.” His creativity, paired with some personalized sincerity, helped push his business opportunities to new heights. “I started messaging potential clients, and it worked,” he said. “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Dunnington passed his state inspection exam after being trained by HomeTeam corporate staff, and his tenacity then led him through a 10-inspection training phase with a licensed HomeTeaminspector. Dunnington immediately versed himself in the rigors of going into home crawl spaces and scoping out various types of roofs, all while learning about the premium service that he would soon implement in his own franchise. “At the beginning it’s hard. It takes time to be able to gain experience, but now my eyes go straight to potential issues right away,” he said. “I know what to look for.”

Despite opening his franchise in a tough time, Dunnington’s hard work and intensive training have paid off and he says that his business has been doing very well. “I've never had a single worry about meeting my monthly goals.”

Now on a path charted for continued growth, Dunnington has added to his list of qualifications, he was recently certified as a commercial building inspector and a licensed pest inspector. “I'm now certified for in-ground pools and spas, water quality testing and radon testing. All these ancillary services make you instantly more valuable as an inspector. ‘One call does it all’ is the HomeTeamslogan.”

HomeTeam President Adam Long says he is thrilled to see franchisees that were able to navigate COVID-19 successfully. “We put the best support system we could in place on the corporate level, and it is great to see franchisees like John making the most of his opportunities,” he said. “The pandemic was certainly challenging but the measures we took to continue moving forward have set us up for further growth and expansion in the future. Now, we feel more equipped than ever to take on new challenges.” 

Dunnington praises the corporate help he received, saying that “with nearly 30 years in the business, they have a system that works well.” “Every Friday morning a group of HomeTeam owners would get on a coaching call, and that was endlessly helpful,” he said. “There’s no way I could have navigated this process without the corporate team; they saved me from making a lot of mistakes.”

For more information about HomeTeam Inspection Service, visit http://www.hometeam.com.