Sept. 1, 2026

What home inspectors should know about solar - featuring Cory Vanderpool of Sprk Home

What home inspectors should know about solar - featuring Cory Vanderpool of Sprk Home

Solar is showing up in more home sales, more inspections, and more liability than most people realize. Cory Vanderpool breaks down why solar has become such a transaction headache, how pushy sales tactics create expensive problems, and what inspectors can do to protect buyers before a bad decision gets signed.

If you work in real estate or home inspections, this conversation is a wake-up call. Cory explains why solar keeps spreading in states like Texas, why the first 90 days after a home purchase are prime time for sales pressure, and how Sprk helps turn a confusing, high-stakes topic into something buyers can actually understand.

You’ll discover:

- Why solar adoption is driven more by utility costs and grid reliability than by environmental hype

- The difference between a basic visual inspection and Spark’s solar condition reporting

- Why 41% of the systems inspectors help evaluate have issues that need attention at the point of transaction

- How inspectors can add an upsell service, generate energy reports, and position themselves as the local expert

Cory also explains Spark’s education and software platform, which gives inspectors tools to inspect solar, generate reports, and even create energy efficiency reports from existing inspection data. That means more clarity for buyers, more value for agents, and a better way to spot problems before a solar lease, loan, or underperforming system becomes someone else’s costly surprise.

This episode also gets a bit into net metering, batteries, grid shutdowns, a lil bit of Texas energy policy, and why solar only makes sense when the numbers actually support it. If you’ve ever had a client ask, “Should I get solar?” and wished you had a better answer, this one gives you the language, the framework, and the confidence to respond.

Essential listening for home inspectors, real estate agents, and anyone who wants to understand solar without getting sold a fantasy.

Chapters:

00:00 - Opening banter and the show’s solar theme

00:51 - Corey Vanderpool joins and explains his solar background

02:30 - Why door-to-door solar sales are so persistent

04:14 - Why Sprk exists in the real estate and inspection ecosystem

05:23 - What Cory is bringing to Inspection Fuel

07:03 - What Spark does for solar homeowners and inspectors

08:18 - Why “solar system” keeps triggering planet jokes

09:10 - Can inspectors charge for solar as an ancillary service?

10:08 - A leased system that was not actually working

12:39 - Why Texas solar adoption is rising

14:54 - How Texas shifted from affordability to reliability

16:18 - Why electricity prices drive solar adoption

17:36 - The problem of unknowns in solar transactions

18:55 - Why energy efficiency should come before solar

19:54 - How Sprk generates energy reports from inspection data

21:36 - What factors go into the home energy analysis

23:11 - How Spark estimates air tightness and utility costs

24:14 - Why this is not an energy audit

25:36 - Spark pricing for inspection companies and reports

27:02 - Marketing tools, CE classes, and broker education

29:26 - The real cost range of solar systems

30:37 - How solar systems are sized and how net metering works

32:01 - Why grid outages shut solar down without batteries or transfer equipment

33:20 - Misleading sales promises and the need for local accountability

35:53 - How inspectors help bridge the knowledge gap

37:15 - Why Sprk focuses on supporting existing solar homeowners

38:41 - Pre-listing reports and disclosure issues

39:44 - Cory’s Fuel session and what attendees will learn

41:30 - Fuel registration reminder and final event details

42:14 - Where to find Cory online

42:48 - Matt’s closing and upcoming conference schedule

The links:

The Travis Jones solar episode: https://youtu.be/9xmLuGpVmHw?si=sd8FP-Ls3UAvdwe0

Register for Inspection Fuel (Sept 28-30 in Lousiville, KY) at https://inspectionfuel.com/register

Sign up for the TRA Newsletter: https://pages.theridealong.show/newsletter

Leave us a voicemail here: https://www.theridealong.show/

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Matt, I got a bright idea, dude.

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I think it is. Is mine on?

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Is this thing on? Hello. Hello hello.

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Hey I

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Hello.

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y you wanna you wanna talk about the sun?

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Sure. Is this like that Beatle song Here
Comes the Sun or something?

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All right, cue the intro and let's talk
about that.

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Here comes the sun, but with the intro.

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Doo dude.

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All

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right, guys, welcome back in. This episode
of The Ride Along,

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we're talking about a hot topic,

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quite literally, because it's about the
sun.

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I got so many dad jokes on this,

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man. And

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man.

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~ you know, we've got a full panel of
people to talk about the sun.

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solar panels. This is this is a this

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Yeah, I g I get it. The panel thing.

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Yeah, I got

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is going this is going downhill so fast.

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Ha ha

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Welcome

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to the show, Corey Vanderpool.

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How are you, man?

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Good. Thanks for having on. It's great to
be here and get to chat

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and love love talking about solar.

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It's one of my favorite things.

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This

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this episode has started

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Why is it?

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out as a bad rendition of Jungle Cruise.

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That's exactly it. Dude,

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why is solar so popular? How'd you get
into it?

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What do you do? Tell them about Spark.

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Everything, man.

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Yeah.

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So I've been doing this for a while.

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I mean, just like I mean, probably a lot
of things.

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I got into it for the money, you know.

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I was one of those guys out knocking doors
door to door.

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I started off years ago knocking doors
selling alarms.

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And all the guys that were selling alarms
learned about solar and moved over from

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alarms into solar. And so there was a big
move that way.

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God, dude, that is brutal. Where were you
doing that at?

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I mean

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Where where were we doing that?

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~ in Beaumont.

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So, you know, you know, I was that's

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That was

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why I lived in Beaumont is I was knocking
doors in Beaumont,

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Dude. Man,

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Texas.

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I can't even imagine what it's like to
knock on doors in Beaumont,

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Texas. Like I at least Well,

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You sweat, man for a living.

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Well try Port Arthur Texas now now that's
fun.

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I mean, like, forget it. Like,

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I mean, like

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nobody wants you knocking on their door.

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So I mean, like, I okay, this is
completely off topic,

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but I gotta I gotta know. 'Cause I wonder
all the time,

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'cause people knock knock on my door and
like all of my neighbors text each other

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and they're like, Hey, sales guy coming
around,

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you know, just so that we can either like
ignore them or like

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you know, do whatever we do or slam the
door in their face,

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whatever. Anyway,

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Right.

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I try to be cool, but then they're pushy
and then I'm not cool.

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Anyway, ~ like what what do you how what
is the the turnover?

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Like how many how many out of twenty
houses that you knock on the door,

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like how many of them actually end up in
some type of transaction out of twenty?

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you know, the numbers are different now
than they used to be for sure.

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When I was knocking doors, it's been
years,

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like decades, since I actually knocked a
door.

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Four or five years ago.

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Yeah,

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yeah, yeah. I'm just doing it.

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No. luckily the that ship has sailed in my
life.

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And actually, I'm actually pretty busy.

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I I hit against not door knocking.

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And and

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Yeah.

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you know, you start to see the light a
little bit and realize the probably harm

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~ that we've done. And there's some
there's some real challenges there.

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But

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door knocking is extremely effective.

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That's a reason why they go do it.

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It's like there's no better way to find
someone than go like stock them

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at their house, you know? And so

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Man

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if you own a house and you have money and
you know,

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and you're ~ able to borrow money,

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you're now a potential customer.

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I was about to say if you own a house,

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you don't have money.

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If you

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have the potential to borrow money,

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right? That then that's what the mentality
is.

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Like as a new homeowner.

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Like which obviously home inspection
customers are,

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you know, they go from being buyers to new
homeowners.

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You know, at least for in the solar world,

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they're gonna get hit in the first 90
days,

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especially in these these solar states
like Texas is,

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you know, it's one of the we were just
talking about before,

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but it's a big growing state for solar.

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90 days, the first 90 days, like first
three months are there,

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a hundred people will stop by to tell you
about how great solar is and

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how you need to get it. So there's just
they're coming around still because.

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At the end of the day, you know,

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the highest paid salesperson in the
country right now and for the last 10
years,

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solar. Solar sales pays really well.

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Yeah. And so it's there,

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I mean, there's motivation to get out
there and knock on those doors.

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Now.

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~

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So it's let's clarify that's not what this
show's about today.

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No, it's not.

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Yeah,

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But I'm just saying,

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that's

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but that but but then it's why there's so
many of them out there bugging people.

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And I think it's important why,

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you know, there's some awareness made for
that around it.

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So it's like one of things that we do at
Spark is create awareness around that

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because the last thing we want people to
do is to go solar in the wrong scenario

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or someone who's trying to push them into
it because we're trying

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to align with agents. And one thing that
agents really don't like

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is when their clients get pushed into
something that's gonna be bad for them
later.

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So

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We, you know, that is an important
awareness thing is like help make sure
your

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buyers watch out for those pushy guys
coming around because they are very pushy

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and don't always do what's best for the
customer.

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Yeah, Corey, so I think

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Dude, I do wanna

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I think ~ go ahead, Brad.

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Now I was gonna say I do want to make a
connection for the home inspectors here

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so that they know exactly what this is
about and why we want to talk with you
today.

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Yeah. Why are we taking door to door
sales?

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~

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I think I think Brad's doing the same
thing I was about to do.

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yeah, yeah. So so Spark is one of the
primary sponsors,

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one of the bigger sponsors for Inspection
Fuel twenty twenty six,

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happening September twenty eighth through
the thirtieth in Louisville,

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Kentucky. Guys, go sign up for it.

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But ~ Corey, you're gonna be speaking at
Fuel as well,

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man.

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Yeah, I'm really glad about that.

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I'm honored to be on the lineup and be
able to share some knowledge.

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There's just a lot of ~ solar systems out
there now.

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There's a ~ a a lot of unknown around it.

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And so one of my missions right now and
and Spark is to create awareness

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in the entire real estate community,

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not just for home inspection, but for the
whole,

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you know.

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~

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ecosystem of real estate transaction,

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but especially obviously in inspections,

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right? We want to make sure that
inspectors know what solar is,

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how to inspect it, and like how do we ~
actually come away from

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an inspection positively impacting the
buyer,

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right? It could be as at the end of the
day,

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like we want that buyer to make sure that
they're getting good information,

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but as an inspector, not overstepping our
bounds and and speaking about stuff that

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we don't know, because most have always
just traditionally disclaimed it.

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Like if you've got a solar on property,

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you're just like, we're not touching it.

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Because it becomes a liability.

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So that's where Spark for us, that's why
we're speaking.

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We're excited to connect with the
inspectors at Fuel.

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~ I'm doing a class, there'll be ~ CE
credits depend for different states.

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And also if you're, you know, you know,

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looking for credits for your Internauchi ~
or your Ashy,

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counts toward those as well. It's great.

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So so Corey, now we we met back last year
at Fuel in New Orleans.

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~ and and I know about you and and we we
even talked about being on

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the show back then. So we've been you know
looking forward to having

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you on ever since then. And and and now
that you're finally here,

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I don't know, I keep calling, no one
answers.

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nobody answers the phone because

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It's weird. I don't know, man.

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we don't have a phone. ~ so hey,

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I but I really want to ~ I want you to
address the audience and

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let let the listeners know exactly what
Spark is.

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Yeah, so what we do is we're a trading
platform,

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we're an education platform for solar.

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So what basically the objective of Spark
is to provide post-installation support

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for the solar homeowners out there.

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And the best way we found to do that is
give the pros,

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you know, real estate agents, inspectors,

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appraisers, everybody involved,

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the resources that they need. Now,

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our business model is we partner with
inspection companies.

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We give them the ability to inspect solar
both in the pre-listing environment

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and during as part of the home inspection
to be able to inspect it,

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generate a report that can be utilized in
either showcasing solar,

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right, on the pre-listing side,

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or obviously evaluating what is happening
with the health and condition

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of this solar system. How healthy is it?

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How well does it prove power? And so we
educate them.

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So we have education, we have a whole
platform for that.

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We have a software platform and an app to
be able to take those classes.

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But then also while they're on site,

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inspect the solar.

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And then we generate the reports.

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With Spark, it takes about ~ 15 minutes or
so to j inspect a solar system.

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We get the data back, we generate the
report,

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send it back to you. Most inspectors are
then able to,

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you know, pass that on as a great
ancillary,

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really ~ profitable add-on service ~ while
they're there inspecting

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00:08:16,377 --> 00:08:17,377
the house anyways.

214
00:08:17,350 --> 00:08:22,664
So so you're s training and software to
produce a report about the condition

215
00:08:22,664 --> 00:08:26,126
of of it's funny because you keep saying
solar system and my mind goes somewhere

216
00:08:26,126 --> 00:08:30,049
completely different. Are you having
anybody else have But I

217
00:08:27,414 --> 00:08:29,858
Universal even, galactic. Yeah.

218
00:08:30,289 --> 00:08:31,600
don't know what I mean it's I

219
00:08:30,851 --> 00:08:31,851
Neptune.

220
00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,072
it's right. I don't know what else you'd
call solar power system?

221
00:08:34,072 --> 00:08:37,595
I don't know, ~ but you say solar system
and I'm man I'm

222
00:08:36,435 --> 00:08:37,435
that's the right name.

223
00:08:37,595 --> 00:08:40,036
all of a sudden in like planets and stuff
in the galaxy.

224
00:08:39,344 --> 00:08:41,125
There's a Uranus joke in there somewhere,

225
00:08:40,036 --> 00:08:45,020
Any anywho

226
00:08:41,125 --> 00:08:44,947
but we're not gonna make it. So dude.

227
00:08:45,688 --> 00:08:48,319
Anywho, so now I've got a question on
this.

228
00:08:48,319 --> 00:08:50,370
So is this like an ancillary service?

229
00:08:50,370 --> 00:08:52,171
Because this is why I home inspectors
should care this.

230
00:08:52,171 --> 00:08:53,962
Number one, you know, as you've said,

231
00:08:53,962 --> 00:08:55,403
as we talked about a little bit before the
show,

232
00:08:55,403 --> 00:08:56,693
and I want to get into this later,

233
00:08:56,693 --> 00:09:01,816
~ solar is becoming more popular in states
where it hasn't been previously,

234
00:09:01,816 --> 00:09:03,957
especially as energy gets more expensive,

235
00:09:03,957 --> 00:09:05,899
people are trying to find ways to save.

236
00:09:05,899 --> 00:09:08,430
~ so we can talk about that in a bit.

237
00:09:08,816 --> 00:09:09,816
But

238
00:09:09,216 --> 00:09:13,419
~ for home inspectors, is this an
ancillary service that they could be
charging for?

239
00:09:13,419 --> 00:09:16,130
Because, you know, for for the inspectors
in the field here,

240
00:09:16,130 --> 00:09:17,441
we're we're looking to make some money.

241
00:09:17,441 --> 00:09:21,363
And we're looking to also be helpful to
buyers in the way that we

242
00:09:21,363 --> 00:09:22,524
in the services that we offer,

243
00:09:22,524 --> 00:09:24,105
you know, it's not just for the money.

244
00:09:24,105 --> 00:09:30,488
So ~ educationally, are you providing like
a certification or of some sort where,

245
00:09:30,488 --> 00:09:32,149
you know, they can be like, hey,

246
00:09:32,149 --> 00:09:36,712
I'm trained to inspect this system and
provide you a report on it for such

247
00:09:36,712 --> 00:09:37,712
and such an amount?

248
00:09:38,298 --> 00:09:39,629
Right. Yeah, that's a good question.

249
00:09:39,629 --> 00:09:41,811
And at the end of the day, you know,

250
00:09:41,811 --> 00:09:45,164
you get the value right that you're you're
putting in.

251
00:09:45,164 --> 00:09:47,295
And so everybody tries to, I think,

252
00:09:47,295 --> 00:09:48,957
do the best inspections possible.

253
00:09:48,957 --> 00:09:52,590
And I'll tell you, you know, an
interesting statistic for you is that

254
00:09:52,590 --> 00:09:55,522
41% of the inspections that we help
inspectors do,

255
00:09:55,522 --> 00:09:59,505
they have a problem that needs to be
addressed at the point of transaction.

256
00:09:59,505 --> 00:10:05,740
So there's issues that come up that if you
know inspectors are just looking past

257
00:10:05,740 --> 00:10:06,740
it now.

258
00:10:06,959 --> 00:10:10,132
The buyers are inheriting some expensive
problems that they shouldn't,

259
00:10:10,132 --> 00:10:12,124
you know, or they they should at least be
aware of.

260
00:10:12,124 --> 00:10:15,817
~ and what's cool is like as a third
party,

261
00:10:15,817 --> 00:10:18,650
we help provide inexpensive solutions
there.

262
00:10:18,650 --> 00:10:20,342
But if it's just like a solar company
coming,

263
00:10:20,342 --> 00:10:23,274
just like a contractor to come somebody
comes in and inspect the deck,

264
00:10:23,274 --> 00:10:25,466
you know, you got to tear the whole thing
out and rebuild it,

265
00:10:25,466 --> 00:10:27,678
you know, rather than fix the issue,

266
00:10:27,678 --> 00:10:30,501
you know, at a minimal cost. And so with
us,

267
00:10:30,501 --> 00:10:32,453
we find that these systems.

268
00:10:32,899 --> 00:10:35,030
You know, definitely can be a profitable
add-in,

269
00:10:35,030 --> 00:10:39,273
or should say these inspections could be a
really profitable add-on service because

270
00:10:39,273 --> 00:10:40,823
they're delivering so much value,

271
00:10:40,823 --> 00:10:45,546
because it is so much cheaper for a buyer
or even a seller who's selling

272
00:10:45,846 --> 00:10:48,268
to get that inspection, find out what's
going on.

273
00:10:48,268 --> 00:10:50,649
You know, because like if you got a lease
company,

274
00:10:50,649 --> 00:10:54,171
this is a good example. We actually just
this literally had this issue today.

275
00:10:54,171 --> 00:10:56,643
Someone called in because they got an
inspection done,

276
00:10:56,643 --> 00:10:57,853
their solar system, they're like,

277
00:10:57,853 --> 00:10:59,764
the sellers like, it's leased,

278
00:10:59,764 --> 00:11:00,845
it's fine, don't worry about it.

279
00:11:01,391 --> 00:11:03,312
Turns out the system wasn't w working at
all.

280
00:11:03,312 --> 00:11:05,714
But the buyer would have taken that over,

281
00:11:05,714 --> 00:11:08,216
had no idea had they not got the
inspection done.

282
00:11:08,216 --> 00:11:10,088
And they called to ask us. They're like,

283
00:11:10,088 --> 00:11:11,519
what do we do with this? And so we just
said,

284
00:11:11,519 --> 00:11:14,001
listen, it's owned by the lease company.

285
00:11:14,001 --> 00:11:15,362
They will come out and repair that,

286
00:11:15,362 --> 00:11:17,884
but oftentimes they don't, unless somebody
says,

287
00:11:17,884 --> 00:11:19,705
Hey, there's a problem. I need help.

288
00:11:19,705 --> 00:11:25,970
And so free solution, but they would have
gone months probably without,

289
00:11:25,970 --> 00:11:26,970
you know.

290
00:11:27,001 --> 00:11:28,232
Getting any benefit from that.

291
00:11:28,232 --> 00:11:29,762
So the all the electricity savings,

292
00:11:29,762 --> 00:11:32,164
two, three hundred dollars a month that
they would have been enjoying,

293
00:11:32,164 --> 00:11:35,656
you know, there's the $1,000 down the tube
that they would have lost.

294
00:11:35,656 --> 00:11:39,088
And for the $300 that this inspector
charged them,

295
00:11:39,088 --> 00:11:42,619
right? They were able to get a solution
and then have it ~ you know,

296
00:11:42,619 --> 00:11:45,591
taken care of for free because the lease
company was on the line for it.

297
00:11:45,591 --> 00:11:48,673
So it's just again, practically looking at
this,

298
00:11:48,673 --> 00:11:50,364
it's really beneficial for buyers,

299
00:11:50,364 --> 00:11:52,608
but it also is awesome for inspection
companies.

300
00:11:52,608 --> 00:11:55,106
I mean, we've seen tremendous growth
because of this.

301
00:11:55,106 --> 00:11:56,527
It was like uncovered this.

302
00:11:56,823 --> 00:11:57,823
unique,

303
00:11:57,324 --> 00:12:01,393
really cool way to add value, but really ~
you know,

304
00:12:01,393 --> 00:12:03,097
and and obviously be profitable as a
specter,

305
00:12:03,097 --> 00:12:06,524
but really help buyers with something that
they need and they're oblivious to.

306
00:12:06,524 --> 00:12:07,524
They have no idea.

307
00:12:08,602 --> 00:12:10,412
I mean, I definitely see value in it.

308
00:12:10,412 --> 00:12:14,033
I mean, like we were talking a little bit
this for those listening,

309
00:12:14,033 --> 00:12:17,214
this happens like pretty much every time
we have one of these shows.

310
00:12:17,214 --> 00:12:19,125
We end up having a 10

311
00:12:17,818 --> 00:12:18,979
It's a pre show, yeah.

312
00:12:19,125 --> 00:12:22,356
or 15 minute conversation that should have
been recorded before we even hit record.

313
00:12:22,356 --> 00:12:24,076
And we were talking about that.

314
00:12:24,076 --> 00:12:27,737
~ we were we were we were on that topic
before and we're talking about

315
00:12:27,737 --> 00:12:31,508
how popular or not so popular solar is in
Texas.

316
00:12:31,508 --> 00:12:33,459
You were saying it's on the climb and it
might be.

317
00:12:33,459 --> 00:12:35,830
~ but I mean like for the most part,

318
00:12:35,830 --> 00:12:37,520
like energy's relatively cheap here.

319
00:12:37,798 --> 00:12:39,189
We got a lot of gas equipment.

320
00:12:39,189 --> 00:12:43,893
~ and ~ I I mean I know that there's more
times than not that I see

321
00:12:44,328 --> 00:12:50,669
~ s solar systems ~ feels funny saying
that solar systems like kind

322
00:12:50,669 --> 00:12:52,821
of messing with a transaction,

323
00:12:52,821 --> 00:12:55,063
like the buyers aren't really interested
in solar.

324
00:12:54,737 --> 00:12:55,737
yeah.

325
00:12:55,143 --> 00:12:58,385
But yeah, they gotta assume this and maybe
even a contract or something like that.

326
00:12:58,385 --> 00:13:00,037
And it takes a long time to see a return.

327
00:13:00,037 --> 00:13:03,009
There's not much of the incentives here as
in a lot of other places.

328
00:13:03,009 --> 00:13:04,491
So anyway, there's a lot of things there,

329
00:13:04,491 --> 00:13:05,882
but it might be on the rise and and

330
00:13:06,276 --> 00:13:08,437
I feel like I have to bring this up
because we didn't really finish that

331
00:13:08,437 --> 00:13:10,398
conversation. This is like related,

332
00:13:10,398 --> 00:13:14,178
unrelated. But I mean like you were saying
that it that,

333
00:13:14,178 --> 00:13:18,433
you know, ~ the reason why it's kind of on
the rise in Texas was because

334
00:13:18,433 --> 00:13:22,825
of a sad story about what happened in 2021
with the freeze situation.

335
00:13:22,825 --> 00:13:26,687
And you're not wrong, right? But ~ but
there's more to that.

336
00:13:26,687 --> 00:13:29,239
And it actually I feel like it goes a
little bit deeper than that.

337
00:13:29,239 --> 00:13:30,389
So I want to touch on it a little bit.

338
00:13:30,389 --> 00:13:35,032
Because I don't believe that like Texans
are getting solar.

339
00:13:35,355 --> 00:13:41,928
because we had an issue in 2021 with
freezing and basically we it ~ you know

340
00:13:41,928 --> 00:13:47,730
a lot a lot of us lost power and and so ~
we ended up freezing pipes which

341
00:13:47,730 --> 00:13:49,871
was just kind of unheard of for us in this
area.

342
00:13:49,871 --> 00:13:54,022
That was an issue with the grid and it had
a lot to do with people moving here

343
00:13:54,022 --> 00:14:00,105
~ from elsewhere. and and and you know the
influx of houses that have been

344
00:14:00,105 --> 00:14:03,116
~ has been happening since like 2020,

345
00:14:03,116 --> 00:14:04,116
right?

346
00:14:04,176 --> 00:14:06,758
and then so yeah, I mean it had something
to do with that.

347
00:14:06,758 --> 00:14:09,100
But it's like Texans get generators,

348
00:14:09,100 --> 00:14:12,409
you know, at least at least out here in in
in the Houston area where we're,

349
00:14:12,409 --> 00:14:14,495
you know, not coastal, but I mean like you
know,

350
00:14:14,495 --> 00:14:16,146
we definitely deal with a hurricane
situation.

351
00:14:16,146 --> 00:14:18,168
We have generators to deal with that type
of issue.

352
00:14:18,168 --> 00:14:20,099
Whereas ~ some people, you know,

353
00:14:20,099 --> 00:14:22,792
in in other areas maybe maybe it wouldn't
be the case,

354
00:14:22,792 --> 00:14:27,095
but but we most of us down here have
generators instead of a s a solar power
system,

355
00:14:27,095 --> 00:14:30,638
but people, so many people came from
elsewhere.

356
00:14:30,638 --> 00:14:32,870
~ and particularly

357
00:14:33,188 --> 00:14:38,151
you know, places out west and and they
brought their ways in with them.

358
00:14:38,151 --> 00:14:41,514
~ and and one of those is solar.

359
00:14:41,514 --> 00:14:45,897
~ and so you know you'll get a lot of
people that did move here from somewhere
else

360
00:14:45,897 --> 00:14:50,270
that ~ just get get solar on their house
because they feel like that's

361
00:14:50,270 --> 00:14:51,981
the way to go. But it does I don't know.

362
00:14:51,981 --> 00:14:52,981
I mean like don't get

363
00:14:52,826 --> 00:14:55,247
Well, yeah, let me let me let me just
speak to that for No,

364
00:14:52,895 --> 00:14:55,674
me wrong. I I'm not I'm not saying
anything but what's that?

365
00:14:55,247 --> 00:14:56,247
no, let me

366
00:14:55,757 --> 00:14:58,969
let me just expand a little bit because I
want to make sure that we're really clear

367
00:14:58,969 --> 00:15:00,279
because there's cause and effect,

368
00:15:00,279 --> 00:15:06,552
right? So what what ended up happening was
when you look at the policy of the state,

369
00:15:06,552 --> 00:15:10,174
it was affordability. The objective of the
state prior to that freeze

370
00:15:10,174 --> 00:15:12,395
was affordability. After that,

371
00:15:12,395 --> 00:15:14,876
it created a a safety environment issue,

372
00:15:14,876 --> 00:15:17,097
and the policy changed. They published
this and they said,

373
00:15:17,097 --> 00:15:19,328
our policy is now reliability.

374
00:15:19,768 --> 00:15:23,401
And so with that, that required a huge
infrastructure investment.

375
00:15:23,401 --> 00:15:25,953
And so Texas spent a lot of money on
infrastructure,

376
00:15:25,953 --> 00:15:28,325
and that then gets passed down to
consumers.

377
00:15:28,325 --> 00:15:30,697
And if you look at actually the most
expensive rates in

378
00:15:30,697 --> 00:15:35,331
the country where electricity is more
scarce,

379
00:15:35,331 --> 00:15:38,053
where anyways, where it's more difficult
to get,

380
00:15:38,053 --> 00:15:41,776
or where it's more limited and there's c a
constraint of electricity,

381
00:15:41,776 --> 00:15:43,468
that's where we see higher prices.

382
00:15:43,468 --> 00:15:45,059
And so Hawaii being the highest,

383
00:15:44,764 --> 00:15:45,764
Hawaii, yeah.

384
00:15:45,059 --> 00:15:46,059
you

385
00:15:45,510 --> 00:15:47,641
know, that's yeah, right. So Hawaii is it,

386
00:15:47,641 --> 00:15:48,641
it's but.

387
00:15:48,505 --> 00:15:50,857
California also, like if you remember in
the 90s,

388
00:15:50,857 --> 00:15:55,721
~ early 2000s, they had these rolling
brownouts because there was not enough
power.

389
00:15:55,721 --> 00:16:00,905
And so what we see is that when there is
less power than what we need,

390
00:16:00,905 --> 00:16:03,447
~ then you know, as demand goes up,

391
00:16:03,447 --> 00:16:05,809
it's not like Costco where you get a
discount.

392
00:16:05,809 --> 00:16:09,532
You actually see a spike in electricity
costs because the grid can only make

393
00:16:09,532 --> 00:16:14,536
so much. And so they will raise prices to
disincentivize use so that

394
00:16:14,536 --> 00:16:16,418
way they keep the the grid balanced.

395
00:16:17,038 --> 00:16:18,619
Because if the grid ever really does shut
down,

396
00:16:18,619 --> 00:16:20,300
that's why they do those rolling
brownouts.

397
00:16:20,300 --> 00:16:23,882
It doesn't turn back on. It's not like
it's generating just turn it back on.

398
00:16:23,882 --> 00:16:26,213
It's really bad if it really shuts down.

399
00:16:26,213 --> 00:16:28,964
So they'll they will strategically shut
parts of it off.

400
00:16:28,964 --> 00:16:32,506
And that's why they had a two-week rolling
blackout in Texas,

401
00:16:32,506 --> 00:16:34,627
because Texas isn't connected to the rest
of the grid.

402
00:16:34,627 --> 00:16:36,959
But basically the cost went up.

403
00:16:36,959 --> 00:16:39,290
And so the reason people go solar.

404
00:16:39,928 --> 00:16:44,041
Sometimes people think it has to do with
the sun or the environmental orientation

405
00:16:44,041 --> 00:16:46,330
of someone. You know, you talked about oil
and gas and stuff.

406
00:16:46,330 --> 00:16:50,165
It has nothing to do with it. The cost of
electricity is what drives adoption

407
00:16:50,165 --> 00:16:53,958
of solar and salespeople. So the sales,

408
00:16:53,958 --> 00:16:56,209
when the price goes up, the salespeople
come in.

409
00:16:56,209 --> 00:16:58,050
And that's what we were talking about in
the beginning of the show,

410
00:16:58,050 --> 00:17:01,973
door to door, is because the door-to-door
people just come in and

411
00:17:02,013 --> 00:17:04,765
and they just bombard people. And then
when they sign up,

412
00:17:04,765 --> 00:17:07,247
and anyways, and that's when we see a lot
more adoption.

413
00:17:07,247 --> 00:17:09,228
And so there's something that's called
grid parity when

414
00:17:09,678 --> 00:17:13,979
The monthly cost of solar is equal to or
less than what they would be paying

415
00:17:13,979 --> 00:17:17,170
to the grid. When you achieve that number
lower,

416
00:17:17,170 --> 00:17:19,929
that's when they come in. And it's not
like people are like,

417
00:17:19,929 --> 00:17:21,962
yeah, sign me up for solar. It's that,

418
00:17:21,962 --> 00:17:25,713
you know, you got those guys banging down
the door and pushing people into these

419
00:17:25,713 --> 00:17:30,435
contracts. And that's why I started Spark
is because I realized that as a solar guy,

420
00:17:30,435 --> 00:17:34,726
maybe we didn't do so many favors by not
being able to actually deliver.

421
00:17:35,222 --> 00:17:38,014
On the promises, why we said that's why I
say we keep saying we work with agents

422
00:17:38,014 --> 00:17:39,826
because they need a lot of help.

423
00:17:39,826 --> 00:17:44,289
Because the problem, the big issue with so
much of these solar systems

424
00:17:44,289 --> 00:17:47,512
is it's not anything other than it's a
complete unknown.

425
00:17:47,512 --> 00:17:50,334
If you do not know what you're getting
into,

426
00:17:50,334 --> 00:17:53,287
that's way worse than like getting into
something that might

427
00:17:53,287 --> 00:17:56,169
be perceived as negative. The fear of the
unknown is way worse.

428
00:17:56,169 --> 00:17:59,221
And so if we can create clarity and
visibility,

429
00:17:59,221 --> 00:18:02,414
right? Now you can create more confidence
there.

430
00:18:02,414 --> 00:18:04,676
And that's one of the very objectives
we've tried to do is like.

431
00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:05,920
Our

432
00:18:05,020 --> 00:18:06,814
goal isn't really to get more solar on out
there,

433
00:18:06,814 --> 00:18:08,210
which if people go solar, awesome.

434
00:18:08,210 --> 00:18:11,814
I love that. But our objective is to make
sure that we can support everybody who's

435
00:18:11,814 --> 00:18:13,146
already gone solar because again,

436
00:18:12,890 --> 00:18:14,740
Yeah. Yeah,

437
00:18:13,146 --> 00:18:14,419
there's already, there's a lot of it out
there.

438
00:18:14,740 --> 00:18:16,763
it's alright there's already a lot of it
out there.

439
00:18:16,763 --> 00:18:20,165
So I don't think, you know, y you're not
pushing for for it to be there

440
00:18:20,165 --> 00:18:22,153
or or whatever. ~ I mean yeah,

441
00:18:21,347 --> 00:18:23,091
Yeah, I I would like you said it's great
to see it but

442
00:18:22,153 --> 00:18:23,307
I think you'd find it interesting.

443
00:18:23,307 --> 00:18:25,899
My friend Travis Jones, who's been on the
show before,

444
00:18:25,899 --> 00:18:31,183
kind of came from selling solar as well
and then found himself ~

445
00:18:31,183 --> 00:18:35,786
in ~ energy efficiency. Ma basically he
mostly he's a roofer by trade,

446
00:18:35,786 --> 00:18:41,030
but he also takes ~ older homes that are
less efficient and from the attic down

447
00:18:41,350 --> 00:18:44,921
tries to make them more ~ efficient
because he found that you know a

448
00:18:44,921 --> 00:18:47,153
lot of these houses didn't necessarily
need solar equipment.

449
00:18:47,153 --> 00:18:50,512
They just needed to ~ fix their energy
consumption issues.

450
00:18:50,512 --> 00:18:51,725
And so that's pretty interesting,

451
00:18:51,725 --> 00:18:54,586
kind of off topic. But but I mean like I'm
looking at a house right

452
00:18:53,601 --> 00:18:57,423
No, well that's that that's actually no so
yeah.

453
00:18:54,586 --> 00:18:56,757
now out this window that has solar on it.

454
00:18:56,757 --> 00:18:59,168
So we have it here. The point is

455
00:18:57,423 --> 00:18:59,184
No, no, well, so that

456
00:18:59,184 --> 00:19:01,515
actually it presents a really good point
because that's one of

457
00:19:01,515 --> 00:19:04,137
the reasons other things that we do is we
help inspectors not only inspect

458
00:19:04,137 --> 00:19:07,969
the solar, but generate an energy report
for every single inspection.

459
00:19:07,969 --> 00:19:10,350
So what it can do is then tell a buyer

460
00:19:08,379 --> 00:19:09,379
Yeah.

461
00:19:08,497 --> 00:19:09,906
That's good. Okay.

462
00:19:10,770 --> 00:19:14,352
like what are the ways to make what is how
is this home efficient and then

463
00:19:14,352 --> 00:19:15,833
how else can they make it efficient?

464
00:19:15,833 --> 00:19:16,833
Because I

465
00:19:16,134 --> 00:19:17,134
That's interesting.

466
00:19:16,874 --> 00:19:20,986
firmly believe is like remote like fix the
holes in the tire before

467
00:19:20,986 --> 00:19:22,357
you start dumping air into it,

468
00:19:22,357 --> 00:19:23,357
right?

469
00:19:22,893 --> 00:19:25,874
Like get the house so it you're not
wasting power.

470
00:19:25,874 --> 00:19:29,655
And because there's way more cost
effective ways to do that than solar,

471
00:19:29,655 --> 00:19:32,686
right? You can do, you know, several
things first.

472
00:19:32,686 --> 00:19:36,457
And and you know, that's that's a key part
of what that energy report tells them

473
00:19:36,457 --> 00:19:38,057
is how do I reduce this?

474
00:19:36,804 --> 00:19:38,011
That's interesting. I had no idea.

475
00:19:38,677 --> 00:19:40,278
Yeah, so that's a key part of what we do.

476
00:19:40,278 --> 00:19:44,019
And that's something that generates
actually automatically through ~ like

477
00:19:44,019 --> 00:19:47,490
we have an integration with ISN and and
other ~ platforms that

478
00:19:47,490 --> 00:19:51,241
it actually auto-generates those energy
reports with every single inspection

479
00:19:51,241 --> 00:19:52,241
an inspector does.

480
00:19:52,550 --> 00:19:53,734
What is it using to to

481
00:19:52,753 --> 00:19:53,753
Dude, that's good to know.

482
00:19:53,734 --> 00:19:55,791
collect that data and and make that
report?

483
00:19:56,654 --> 00:20:00,026
You do a ~ home inspection. You probably
don't know about home inspection reports,

484
00:20:00,026 --> 00:20:02,785
but there's this report that inspector
does of the house.

485
00:20:02,785 --> 00:20:05,779
I'm just joking. ~ yeah, you basically off
their inspection.

486
00:20:04,220 --> 00:20:05,514
I was like, where is he going?

487
00:20:05,514 --> 00:20:06,514
This one.

488
00:20:07,039 --> 00:20:11,642
so outfit inspection report, we are we we
basically pull the data off of it,

489
00:20:11,642 --> 00:20:15,514
we generate an energy report that shows
basically like what's

490
00:20:15,514 --> 00:20:17,225
the envelope tightness of the house.

491
00:20:17,225 --> 00:20:20,066
So we do an analysis on the energy profile
of that home.

492
00:20:20,066 --> 00:20:22,578
We look at the utility costs, and then
we'll say,

493
00:20:22,578 --> 00:20:25,239
okay, we exp estimate the utility bills
will be this much.

494
00:20:25,601 --> 00:20:28,342
And then these are the ways to improve
that if you want.

495
00:20:28,342 --> 00:20:30,662
But and this is how much solar you would
need too.

496
00:20:30,662 --> 00:20:34,504
So that way, again, I told about those
guys coming around selling the solar,

497
00:20:34,504 --> 00:20:37,184
it helps then protect that consumer.

498
00:20:37,184 --> 00:20:42,696
Cause the only way to get good data is
this report that I'm aware of from like

499
00:20:42,696 --> 00:20:45,414
not a salesperson. Like we are not trying
to sell people solar on this.

500
00:20:44,804 --> 00:20:45,925
Yeah, no, yeah.

501
00:20:45,414 --> 00:20:46,414
We don't care. This

502
00:20:46,247 --> 00:20:47,907
is about protecting the buyer.

503
00:20:47,907 --> 00:20:50,588
So that way, if they do decide to get one
of these things,

504
00:20:50,588 --> 00:20:53,395
they can make an educated decision about
it.

505
00:20:53,985 --> 00:20:54,985
And

506
00:20:54,115 --> 00:20:56,486
like I said, what's nice is it just
happens automatic.

507
00:20:56,486 --> 00:20:58,647
So whenever you generate an inspection
report,

508
00:20:58,647 --> 00:21:00,948
it comes in your and you're part of Spark,

509
00:21:00,948 --> 00:21:05,970
it comes into our portal, we process it
and then re-tag it through the
integration.

510
00:21:05,970 --> 00:21:08,191
And so the inspector actually doesn't have
to do anything.

511
00:21:08,191 --> 00:21:12,333
and they just get it as an attachment on
their ~ report through our integrations.

512
00:21:12,997 --> 00:21:17,400
Now, are you guys looking at everything
from when you're considering efficiency

513
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:19,872
and and scoring the home ~ energy wise,

514
00:21:19,872 --> 00:21:23,030
are you looking at everything from ages of
appliances,

515
00:21:23,030 --> 00:21:25,446
you know, specifically heating and air
conditioning,

516
00:21:25,446 --> 00:21:27,467
type of duct work, insulation,

517
00:21:27,467 --> 00:21:30,009
things like that? Or you know,

518
00:21:30,009 --> 00:21:32,611
and and how do you go about rating and
scoring some of these things?

519
00:21:32,611 --> 00:21:35,193
Is it like a one to ten scale or how's
that working?

520
00:21:35,117 --> 00:21:36,117
Yeah,

521
00:21:35,437 --> 00:21:40,090
so we it's physics, honestly. ~ what it
comes down to is when you look

522
00:21:40,090 --> 00:21:41,420
at the envelope tightness of the home,

523
00:21:41,420 --> 00:21:44,432
when you look at the efficiency of the of
an air conditioner,

524
00:21:44,432 --> 00:21:47,284
of a heater, right? Is it what's the heat
source?

525
00:21:47,284 --> 00:21:49,335
We measure all of that as a part of it.

526
00:21:49,335 --> 00:21:52,897
So we can look at ~ for example an HVAC
label and know,

527
00:21:52,897 --> 00:21:54,868
okay, this is a gas ~ furnace.

528
00:21:54,868 --> 00:21:57,529
this is you know, five years old,

529
00:21:57,529 --> 00:21:59,971
this is a fourteen sear air conditioner,

530
00:21:59,971 --> 00:22:01,852
this is a twenty four inch square foot
house.

531
00:22:01,852 --> 00:22:03,863
And what's cool is in our energy reports,

532
00:22:03,863 --> 00:22:04,863
the

533
00:22:04,270 --> 00:22:05,650
Buyer actually can go in and say,

534
00:22:05,650 --> 00:22:11,272
well, we like to run our air at 72 for
four months and our heater at you know

535
00:22:11,272 --> 00:22:16,243
68 for four months. And then it will
adjust the numbers on that report based

536
00:22:16,243 --> 00:22:18,673
off of their input. If they drive an
electric vehicle,

537
00:22:18,673 --> 00:22:20,174
not everybody does, but if you do,

538
00:22:20,174 --> 00:22:22,014
right, that also changes your bill.

539
00:22:22,014 --> 00:22:26,365
So so all of those things go into then
calculating what is the consumption

540
00:22:26,365 --> 00:22:29,796
of the home, what is the benefit of the
items that it has already,

541
00:22:29,796 --> 00:22:33,537
and then ~ what's their what's their
electricity gonna be.

542
00:22:33,537 --> 00:22:34,537
And so

543
00:22:34,359 --> 00:22:35,359
We're

544
00:22:34,729 --> 00:22:38,421
analyzing not as much the gas aspect of it
because we're looking

545
00:22:38,421 --> 00:22:41,223
at the electricity side of this because
solar doesn't generate gas,

546
00:22:41,223 --> 00:22:44,114
it's just electricity. So we want to
analyze it for that.

547
00:22:44,114 --> 00:22:46,205
And its efficiency is about that.

548
00:22:46,205 --> 00:22:48,877
But like how much ~ insulation,

549
00:22:48,877 --> 00:22:53,859
like what's the difference between four ~
inches of cellulose versus spray foam?

550
00:22:53,859 --> 00:22:57,161
What is the impact on that? Like it does
the analysis on all of that.

551
00:22:57,958 --> 00:22:58,958
So I get

552
00:22:57,979 --> 00:22:59,072
Including windows

553
00:22:59,072 --> 00:23:02,042
and 'cause there's so many different
variations of windows over

554
00:23:01,700 --> 00:23:05,646
Yeah. But but I mean like a typical home
inspection isn't gonna

555
00:23:02,042 --> 00:23:05,613
the last twenty years in terms of
insulation and argon reading.

556
00:23:05,646 --> 00:23:08,471
give you that data, so how are you
calculating the air tightness of a

557
00:23:08,531 --> 00:23:09,531
of of the envelope?

558
00:23:10,147 --> 00:23:13,968
So we're able to get about 85% of it off
of most inspectors' reports.

559
00:23:13,968 --> 00:23:16,430
And then we'll run a report after they've
run a dozen of so,

560
00:23:16,430 --> 00:23:17,570
and then we can let them know like,

561
00:23:17,570 --> 00:23:21,162
hey, if you add in, like you don't have
window count on your

562
00:23:21,162 --> 00:23:24,023
on your inspection report. But then we'll
know like average home.

563
00:23:24,023 --> 00:23:26,904
So there's there's again, we've been doing
this for years now.

564
00:23:26,904 --> 00:23:31,206
And so we know, for example, for every
2100 square feet of of home,

565
00:23:31,206 --> 00:23:33,787
you've got an average of 12.5 windows.

566
00:23:33,787 --> 00:23:35,808
So there's certain things that we know,

567
00:23:35,808 --> 00:23:37,969
right? So that we can then put in there.

568
00:23:38,189 --> 00:23:42,840
And help augment the data. We also pull in
other data from public sources,

569
00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:47,084
~ permit records and ~ MLS records and
whatnot.

570
00:23:47,084 --> 00:23:48,765
So we'll we'll bring that data in.

571
00:23:48,765 --> 00:23:50,406
We look at your local utility costs.

572
00:23:50,406 --> 00:23:53,047
So ~ that way we can then we calculate,

573
00:23:53,047 --> 00:23:54,879
okay, this is what we estimate the bills
are gonna be.

574
00:23:54,879 --> 00:23:59,351
And so it's a way to be able to provide
information so that people can make

575
00:23:59,351 --> 00:24:01,032
~ you know, have some good

576
00:23:59,836 --> 00:24:00,995
So it's an educated guess.

577
00:24:01,032 --> 00:24:06,125
information. No, I mean we're using it's
it's calculate it's it is.

578
00:24:04,935 --> 00:24:06,207
Well I mean it's I mean i

579
00:24:06,707 --> 00:24:10,313
I just I mean like you don't know what you
don't measure and I mean like you're

580
00:24:10,313 --> 00:24:13,198
not getting an air tightness reading from
without using a blower door.

581
00:24:12,844 --> 00:24:13,844
That's right.

582
00:24:13,424 --> 00:24:16,216
It is not so it is not a can it is not an
energy audit.

583
00:24:16,216 --> 00:24:18,048
So we're not taking energy. That's right.

584
00:24:18,048 --> 00:24:21,510
So it's usually though within if we go it
do that and we can go

585
00:24:21,710 --> 00:24:24,072
~ after we've calibrated someone's
reports,

586
00:24:24,072 --> 00:24:28,565
~ you most markets, it's about five to ten
percent of what their electricity like

587
00:24:28,565 --> 00:24:32,147
kilowatt hours are, and what their bills
are.

588
00:24:32,147 --> 00:24:33,578
Like it's usually pretty accurate though.

589
00:24:33,578 --> 00:24:35,962
So it's ~ it cause it's it's not a

590
00:24:33,949 --> 00:24:36,082
So it's more qualitative analysis than

591
00:24:38,360 --> 00:24:40,267
Go ahead. It's yeah, it's more of a
quantitative that's right.

592
00:24:38,653 --> 00:24:40,435
Yeah, I was just I was just saying it's
more qualit

593
00:24:40,775 --> 00:24:43,038
yeah, qualitative, not necessarily
quantitative,

594
00:24:43,038 --> 00:24:46,121
but you know, you can get you can get
within spitting distance.

595
00:24:44,322 --> 00:24:46,143
Well, the other way. So it's not
qualitative.

596
00:24:46,143 --> 00:24:49,495
We're not looking at how how well the air
conditioner works.

597
00:24:49,495 --> 00:24:54,598
We're saying this air conditioner at this
efficiency rating will have this impact

598
00:24:54,598 --> 00:24:56,118
on this home's energy profile.

599
00:24:56,118 --> 00:24:58,160
And so that way we can provide

600
00:24:57,031 --> 00:24:58,031
Gotcha, okay.

601
00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:01,341
that analysis. And so we're just we're
providing data there so that

602
00:25:01,341 --> 00:25:06,034
way the buyer can understand again what is
the benefit of this home,

603
00:25:06,034 --> 00:25:07,845
where where can improvements be made?

604
00:25:07,845 --> 00:25:12,870
~ and then because if you've got 10 people
living in a house or five people living

605
00:25:12,870 --> 00:25:13,870
in a house or one.

606
00:25:14,048 --> 00:25:18,060
Right. Or you've got eight inches of the
attic insulation versus four.

607
00:25:18,060 --> 00:25:21,472
Like those are all things that you can
easily calculate back in.

608
00:25:21,472 --> 00:25:22,472
Well, not I shouldn't say easily,

609
00:25:22,393 --> 00:25:24,124
like it's taken a long time for us to
build that,

610
00:25:24,124 --> 00:25:30,858
but we ~ you know, calculate all of that ~
data back into

611
00:25:30,858 --> 00:25:34,390
then what is the impact on the electricity
of all these different factors.

612
00:25:34,971 --> 00:25:37,443
I gotcha. Now for for home inspectors,

613
00:25:37,443 --> 00:25:41,206
what's the cost in participating with
Spark?

614
00:25:41,206 --> 00:25:46,240
I mean, are they forwarding some of this
cost to the client ~ when they charge

615
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:50,754
for the report? ~ you know, for like
because you mentioned there's integration
with

616
00:25:50,754 --> 00:25:54,859
ISN and obviously there's there's a cost
to using ISN depending on

617
00:25:54,859 --> 00:25:56,659
you know their contract structure and
everything,

618
00:25:56,659 --> 00:25:58,160
how many inspections they're doing a year,

619
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,382
things like that. So, you know,

620
00:26:00,382 --> 00:26:02,003
what are you guys' rates like?

621
00:26:02,003 --> 00:26:04,205
What's what's the cost to inspector per
report?

622
00:26:05,101 --> 00:26:06,101
Yeah.

623
00:26:05,411 --> 00:26:07,932
So there's couple we have a couple of
different fee structures,

624
00:26:07,932 --> 00:26:10,763
but the primary one is when inspector
signs up,

625
00:26:10,763 --> 00:26:12,994
we'll charge an inspection company ten
bucks a month.

626
00:26:12,994 --> 00:26:16,886
So there's monthly fee. and then if they
add like two inspectors on,

627
00:26:16,886 --> 00:26:18,907
we would charge five bucks more per.

628
00:26:18,907 --> 00:26:21,618
So if it's a three man, three inspector ~
team,

629
00:26:21,618 --> 00:26:24,589
right? be ten bucks for the company and
then five bucks for

630
00:26:24,589 --> 00:26:26,890
the other two inspectors. So they're
twenty bucks a month on that.

631
00:26:26,890 --> 00:26:31,171
~ and then that includes ~ our whole
system and I'll tell you some

632
00:26:31,171 --> 00:26:32,212
of our other stuff that we do,

633
00:26:32,212 --> 00:26:33,212
but

634
00:26:33,028 --> 00:26:35,349
also ~ all the energy reports on all their
homes.

635
00:26:35,349 --> 00:26:39,011
So they can those are unlimited and they
generate on on all their reports.

636
00:26:39,011 --> 00:26:42,492
~ and then each time they want to get a
solar inspection report,

637
00:26:42,492 --> 00:26:46,714
we charge them 50. ~ and then they again
pass the the cost on.

638
00:26:46,714 --> 00:26:49,065
Most are charging somewhere between 250
and 300,

639
00:26:49,065 --> 00:26:50,896
depending on which market they're in for
those.

640
00:26:50,896 --> 00:26:56,298
and so that's that's just the way our ~
our program goes.

641
00:26:56,298 --> 00:26:59,920
but for with that, then there we have the
app that they download.

642
00:26:59,920 --> 00:27:00,920
We have

643
00:27:00,764 --> 00:27:05,186
~ a whole bunch of education though that
we've provide because they're like

644
00:27:05,186 --> 00:27:07,418
it like you know kind of what you
mentioned already Tennessee so you're

645
00:27:07,418 --> 00:27:09,449
in Tennessee right Brad there's not a ton

646
00:27:08,805 --> 00:27:09,805
Yeah, yeah.

647
00:27:09,449 --> 00:27:13,071
of solar in Tennessee but there still is
some and what we've have found

648
00:27:12,615 --> 00:27:13,615
There is.

649
00:27:13,071 --> 00:27:14,832
is there are real estate agents in
Tennessee.

650
00:27:14,832 --> 00:27:20,285
and so what's happening is agents are
taking our our information and

651
00:27:20,285 --> 00:27:26,028
we provide a whole marketing suite of
educational content where an inspector

652
00:27:26,028 --> 00:27:30,160
can go out and then get in front of a
brokerage and say listen you know when you

653
00:27:30,582 --> 00:27:31,892
You know, if you ever run into solar,

654
00:27:31,892 --> 00:27:33,283
this is what to watch out for.

655
00:27:33,283 --> 00:27:36,994
And it's not like, hey, these are the
problems that I find as inspectors.

656
00:27:36,994 --> 00:27:43,135
W I give you the content that I wrote to
help inspectors or to train agents.

657
00:27:43,135 --> 00:27:46,036
And I give it away as ebooks, as
checklists,

658
00:27:46,036 --> 00:27:48,997
as slideshows, as presentations.

659
00:27:48,997 --> 00:27:51,618
We even have CE classes that inspectors
can all teach.

660
00:27:51,618 --> 00:27:55,589
And that's just all included as part of
our that 10 bucks a month that they're

661
00:27:55,589 --> 00:27:59,840
paying. So we give them an entire
marketing system that helps to.

662
00:28:00,299 --> 00:28:04,122
Essentially position them as the go-to for
this because that education

663
00:28:04,122 --> 00:28:08,516
is something that agents really need
because agents are clueless when

664
00:28:08,516 --> 00:28:10,278
it comes to this. And I wouldn't say no,

665
00:28:10,278 --> 00:28:11,278
I shouldn't say that, not all,

666
00:28:11,219 --> 00:28:14,642
but like 98.9% of agents do not

667
00:28:13,852 --> 00:28:14,852
Yeah, most.

668
00:28:14,642 --> 00:28:16,093
know what to do with solar. Seriously,

669
00:28:16,093 --> 00:28:19,186
it's it's a real challenge for them in the
transfer.

670
00:28:19,186 --> 00:28:22,189
And so we give that to you as a way to
say,

671
00:28:22,189 --> 00:28:25,492
hey, agent, this is a new unique thing for
me to get in front of you.

672
00:28:25,802 --> 00:28:29,575
And share with you. And so agent education
becomes a really good resource.

673
00:28:29,575 --> 00:28:33,259
And we've had a lot of inspectors that are
not in heavy solar states grow their

674
00:28:33,259 --> 00:28:36,512
inspection business from you know day one
by getting in front

675
00:28:36,512 --> 00:28:38,003
of agents and providing that to them.

676
00:28:38,003 --> 00:28:41,296
So that again, we give a whole bunch of
information.

677
00:28:41,296 --> 00:28:44,989
My goal is just how do we make this as
easy and as simple for

678
00:28:44,989 --> 00:28:50,794
an inspector to utilize, but also to get
the word out about this because some

679
00:28:50,794 --> 00:28:52,546
there's a lot of need out there.

680
00:28:52,726 --> 00:28:55,552
in order to help people with solar because
of the the challenges that

681
00:28:55,552 --> 00:28:56,850
it does present in a transaction.

682
00:28:57,563 --> 00:28:59,384
Yeah, so this gives for home inspectors.

683
00:28:59,384 --> 00:29:03,037
I mean, if if they're looking for lunch
and learn material to be talking about

684
00:29:03,037 --> 00:29:06,770
at a brokerage, this is something that
that could kind of differentiate them from

685
00:29:06,770 --> 00:29:10,603
other competitors. one thing that I'm
curious to talk about,

686
00:29:10,603 --> 00:29:13,014
and we we have talked a little bit about
this in previous episodes.

687
00:29:13,014 --> 00:29:16,287
In fact, Matt, it's a great thing you
mentioned the Travis Jones episode.

688
00:29:16,287 --> 00:29:19,269
I'll link that down in the show notes if
you guys want to go back and watch it.

689
00:29:19,269 --> 00:29:22,011
It's a good ~ good sister episode to watch
to this one.

690
00:29:22,011 --> 00:29:23,472
~ but

691
00:29:25,159 --> 00:29:30,120
Cost wise, I think this is the biggest
thing is people ~ they there's such

692
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:32,731
a wide disparity between, you know,

693
00:29:32,731 --> 00:29:35,432
~ basic setups and you can get some
really,

694
00:29:35,432 --> 00:29:37,392
really freaking high-end solar setups.

695
00:29:37,392 --> 00:29:43,014
~ one of the ~ I I went to a BS and beer
group here

696
00:29:43,014 --> 00:29:46,115
in ~ in Nashville. I know Matt goes to one
in Houston,

697
00:29:46,115 --> 00:29:50,556
but ~ the one here we were talking with we
had a presentation done at it

698
00:29:50,556 --> 00:29:53,477
by ~ a solar installer here in Nashville.

699
00:29:54,057 --> 00:29:55,887
And I asked him, I'm like, cost wise,

700
00:29:55,887 --> 00:29:57,588
I'm like, this looks steep. And he goes,

701
00:29:57,588 --> 00:30:00,319
Yeah, we definitely go for the high-end
clientele.

702
00:30:00,319 --> 00:30:02,980
Like, okay, so you're from Brentwood down
to Franklin,

703
00:30:02,980 --> 00:30:04,850
where the the big players are,

704
00:30:04,850 --> 00:30:08,191
the big country stars and all of their
managers and all these people,

705
00:30:08,191 --> 00:30:14,163
big money. But you know, cross-reference
that with my my sister in Virginia,

706
00:30:14,163 --> 00:30:16,423
~ who's, you know, got a great job,

707
00:30:16,423 --> 00:30:18,614
but she's not a multimillionaire down in
Franklin,

708
00:30:18,614 --> 00:30:22,185
Tennessee. She ~ has a slightly more
affordable setup.

709
00:30:22,185 --> 00:30:23,185
So

710
00:30:23,067 --> 00:30:26,819
When it comes to, you know, people who
might be interested in solar,

711
00:30:26,819 --> 00:30:30,881
is there is there a misconception about
the initial cost versus

712
00:30:30,881 --> 00:30:34,543
the savings versus the time that it takes
to for it to break even,

713
00:30:34,543 --> 00:30:36,254
even? Like ~ you know,

714
00:30:36,011 --> 00:30:37,252
Yeah. I

715
00:30:36,254 --> 00:30:37,254
you fill me in on that.

716
00:30:37,252 --> 00:30:40,544
mean, yeah. So so just like anything else,

717
00:30:40,544 --> 00:30:43,455
any obviously a larger home is going to
consume more power.

718
00:30:43,455 --> 00:30:48,608
~ so the more power that a home requires
and and depending on what they want

719
00:30:48,608 --> 00:30:49,899
to accomplish with their solar,

720
00:30:49,899 --> 00:30:54,092
would need more solar. ~ but the amount of
kilowatt hours all comes down

721
00:30:54,092 --> 00:30:55,723
to their electricity consumption.

722
00:30:55,723 --> 00:31:00,665
And so we size a a a solar system based
off of how a home consumes and then what

723
00:31:00,665 --> 00:31:03,051
the customer wants to ~

724
00:31:03,317 --> 00:31:06,328
And again, putting kind of my solar
installer hat on for a second here,

725
00:31:06,328 --> 00:31:07,679
because that's not what Spark does.

726
00:31:07,679 --> 00:31:09,510
But I'm just saying if just someone's
wanting to go solar.

727
00:31:09,510 --> 00:31:12,281
~ but in sizing the solar system,

728
00:31:12,281 --> 00:31:14,842
it's based off of consumption and then
what they want to accomplish.

729
00:31:14,842 --> 00:31:17,103
So if there's something called net
metering,

730
00:31:17,103 --> 00:31:20,014
and net metering is the exchange of power
between the homeowner

731
00:31:20,014 --> 00:31:22,005
and the utility company, because when you
got solar,

732
00:31:22,005 --> 00:31:23,656
now you got your own generator,

733
00:31:23,656 --> 00:31:26,317
right? You get your own micro generation
station on your house.

734
00:31:26,317 --> 00:31:30,298
And so the ~ solar will generate like 24
hours worth of electricity in like

735
00:31:30,298 --> 00:31:31,529
an eight or 10 hour window, right?

736
00:31:31,927 --> 00:31:35,109
So you have all this excess. So you get
you have two options.

737
00:31:35,109 --> 00:31:38,372
You can either put it into a battery or
you can send it back to the grid.

738
00:31:38,372 --> 00:31:41,624
And by default, pretty much everybody just
puts it back to the grid

739
00:31:41,624 --> 00:31:43,315
and then they will credit them.

740
00:31:43,315 --> 00:31:45,922
So their meter spins backward during the
day when you got all that excess

741
00:31:45,922 --> 00:31:47,758
and then forward at night, right?

742
00:31:47,758 --> 00:31:51,331
and then they will use an exchange of
credit in a lot of situations.

743
00:31:51,331 --> 00:31:53,082
That's called net metering or net billing,

744
00:31:53,082 --> 00:31:54,603
basically that exchange of power.

745
00:31:54,603 --> 00:31:59,187
And that's where ~ solar can be good if
they have good net metering.

746
00:31:59,187 --> 00:32:00,187
Now,

747
00:31:59,958 --> 00:32:02,960
Solar is not great in certain areas
because of that.

748
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:06,293
And so it wouldn't make sense to like have
enough to power the whole house.

749
00:32:06,293 --> 00:32:08,034
And that's where then the batteries come
in,

750
00:32:08,034 --> 00:32:11,616
you know, and you've got the and that's
where like solar doesn't work though.

751
00:32:11,616 --> 00:32:13,378
This is a you guys will love this.

752
00:32:13,378 --> 00:32:15,699
Solar does not work if the grid is not on.

753
00:32:15,699 --> 00:32:18,391
So if you have solar on, right,

754
00:32:18,391 --> 00:32:19,832
your house and the grid goes down,

755
00:32:19,832 --> 00:32:23,345
it'll shut down because you don't want to
be backfeeding in the grid,

756
00:32:23,345 --> 00:32:26,517
or else you create a safety situation when
the grid is supposed to be down.

757
00:32:27,039 --> 00:32:30,781
So those inverters automatically shut off
unless you got a wall between

758
00:32:30,781 --> 00:32:32,402
you and the utility, right? A transfer
switch.

759
00:32:32,402 --> 00:32:33,563
You mentioned generators, right?

760
00:32:33,563 --> 00:32:35,754
So with a generator, you got to have a
transfer switch so that

761
00:32:35,754 --> 00:32:37,685
way you're not re-energizing the grid.

762
00:32:37,685 --> 00:32:40,517
~ so as long as you can island the home,

763
00:32:40,517 --> 00:32:44,369
right? Then you can have a generator or or
I mean a solar system with batteries.

764
00:32:44,369 --> 00:32:47,771
And batteries are always going to drive
the cost of adoption up.

765
00:32:47,771 --> 00:32:49,141
And whether it's worth

766
00:32:48,658 --> 00:32:49,658
So

767
00:32:49,141 --> 00:32:52,416
it or not usually comes back to how
expensive is the electricity.

768
00:32:52,416 --> 00:32:55,465
It goes back to that like thing that we
talked about earlier.

769
00:32:55,965 --> 00:32:57,576
In places where electricity is cheap,

770
00:32:57,576 --> 00:33:01,469
that's solar and battery. Battery usually
they're not getting worth it,

771
00:33:01,469 --> 00:33:04,581
but solar might be, right? But it depends
on what the cost is.

772
00:33:04,581 --> 00:33:06,522
And so that's kind of where people gauge.

773
00:33:06,522 --> 00:33:11,005
And then you have these areas where you've
got crazy expensive homes where money

774
00:33:11,005 --> 00:33:12,426
doesn't really matter. So people don't
care.

775
00:33:12,249 --> 00:33:13,762
Right, it's a drop in the bucket.

776
00:33:12,426 --> 00:33:13,957
But if people save five bucks

777
00:33:13,957 --> 00:33:15,588
a month, a lot of times they will go
solar.

778
00:33:15,588 --> 00:33:18,770
That's just like what sales guys convince
them to do.

779
00:33:18,770 --> 00:33:20,541
So it's it's really interesting.

780
00:33:19,133 --> 00:33:20,673
Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, that

781
00:33:20,974 --> 00:33:24,286
with the sales guys, is this a little and
this isn't a gotcha question for you?

782
00:33:24,286 --> 00:33:26,578
Okay. This isn't a reflection on you or
Spark.

783
00:33:25,079 --> 00:33:27,899
No, I don't I don't mind. I've I'll have
to tell you whatever you want to know.

784
00:33:26,578 --> 00:33:28,699
Yeah, no, this is

785
00:33:28,699 --> 00:33:31,101
just going to kind of shady salesman
stuff.

786
00:33:31,101 --> 00:33:36,185
~ is there is this an instance that cause
you were talking about how in in Texas,

787
00:33:36,185 --> 00:33:40,738
because of the rolling brownouts and the
ice storms and stuff,

788
00:33:40,738 --> 00:33:42,619
a lot of people started adopting

789
00:33:42,959 --> 00:33:44,501
solar down there as a solution.

790
00:33:44,501 --> 00:33:48,396
Is there a misconception sold by the the
salesman where they're like,

791
00:33:48,396 --> 00:33:51,610
hey, you can avoid remember how cold you
were,

792
00:33:51,610 --> 00:33:53,462
froze your butt off for a few days?

793
00:33:53,462 --> 00:33:55,464
You could avoid that if you get solar,

794
00:33:55,464 --> 00:33:58,438
but they don't understand. They never
communicate that you can't even use

795
00:33:58,438 --> 00:33:59,438
it if the grid is off.

796
00:34:00,140 --> 00:34:02,782
Yeah, undoubtedly, I'm sure there is some
of that happening.

797
00:34:02,782 --> 00:34:06,065
I think that if a solar salesperson is
worth their salt,

798
00:34:06,065 --> 00:34:07,987
if they're doing that, they should be put
in jail.

799
00:34:07,987 --> 00:34:12,871
~ honestly, like there's definitely like
any industry that could be very

800
00:34:11,108 --> 00:34:13,474
I think a lot of them came straight from
there actually.

801
00:34:14,213 --> 00:34:16,875
right, they should get this guy back in
jail.

802
00:34:15,333 --> 00:34:16,333
It's from jail.

803
00:34:16,875 --> 00:34:21,259
~ no, but I mean, there's just there's
it's not solar sales are not regulated

804
00:34:21,259 --> 00:34:23,310
in a lot of states. Now, Nevada does have
some regulation.

805
00:34:23,310 --> 00:34:26,173
There's some states that do, but there's
not a lot of regulation there.

806
00:34:26,699 --> 00:34:27,699
And

807
00:34:26,819 --> 00:34:29,230
that's actually what the solar sales
people are out knocking the doors.

808
00:34:29,230 --> 00:34:30,541
That's kind of why I harp on them,

809
00:34:30,541 --> 00:34:33,533
is because honestly, while they're doing
like,

810
00:34:33,533 --> 00:34:34,533
you know, they're working hard,

811
00:34:34,474 --> 00:34:36,165
like I'm you know, they should get paid.

812
00:34:36,165 --> 00:34:40,967
That's great. But the the flightiness of
that industry actually has created

813
00:34:40,967 --> 00:34:43,989
a lot of instability in the solar industry
and created problems.

814
00:34:43,989 --> 00:34:46,851
Like installers are going out of business
like crazy.

815
00:34:46,851 --> 00:34:52,204
And it's ~ largely, honestly, a a lot of
it comes down to the sales tactics

816
00:34:52,204 --> 00:34:53,995
and what what overselling.

817
00:34:54,515 --> 00:34:56,616
overpromising, right? It's kind what you
mentioned.

818
00:34:56,616 --> 00:34:59,836
Or, like, that's one of the reasons why
the energy report matters

819
00:34:59,836 --> 00:35:01,747
is because sometimes people be like,

820
00:35:01,747 --> 00:35:05,188
yeah, hey, all you need is this these 10
panels and your house is going

821
00:35:05,188 --> 00:35:06,478
to be good till the apocalypse.

822
00:35:06,478 --> 00:35:08,099
And it's like, no, that's a lie.

823
00:35:08,099 --> 00:35:12,670
Or, hey, you need a hundred thousand
dollars of solar to in order to do this.

824
00:35:12,670 --> 00:35:16,411
And it's like, no, and we're gonna give
you five thousand dollars cash back,

825
00:35:16,411 --> 00:35:19,218
and then they keep the thirty grand
instead of the 10 or something,

826
00:35:19,218 --> 00:35:20,662
right? So it's like, whatever.

827
00:35:20,662 --> 00:35:23,843
I'm just like, there are some really shady
things that happen out there.

828
00:35:24,351 --> 00:35:26,942
And that's where I don't really love the
sales side of it.

829
00:35:26,942 --> 00:35:28,573
And I and I openly talk about that,

830
00:35:28,573 --> 00:35:30,554
that it's like at the end of the day,

831
00:35:30,554 --> 00:35:33,586
I think it's far better if you can deal
with someone who's local,

832
00:35:33,586 --> 00:35:34,586
if you're dealing with, you know,

833
00:35:34,504 --> 00:35:37,338
smaller businesses, because you're if
you're dealing with the

834
00:35:37,338 --> 00:35:39,910
guy who's gonna install it and who lives
down the street,

835
00:35:39,910 --> 00:35:44,382
like, man, that's a way better
relationship long term because these
things last like

836
00:35:44,682 --> 00:35:45,973
way longer than anybody anticipates.

837
00:35:45,973 --> 00:35:47,724
The solar panel will last for 50 years.

838
00:35:47,724 --> 00:35:49,725
It's crazy. So you want

839
00:35:48,477 --> 00:35:49,927
But this is this is

840
00:35:49,965 --> 00:35:51,606
you wanna have something that's gonna be
reliable,

841
00:35:51,606 --> 00:35:53,237
or somebody, I should say.

842
00:35:52,421 --> 00:35:53,421
Yeah, no,

843
00:35:53,801 --> 00:35:56,772
and this is where home inspectors can help
kind of bridge this gap,

844
00:35:56,772 --> 00:35:58,033
right? And this is another good area.

845
00:35:58,033 --> 00:36:00,664
Because there's so much about ~ you know,

846
00:36:00,664 --> 00:36:02,314
being a home inspector, Matt, where you
know,

847
00:36:02,314 --> 00:36:07,065
~ we'll be we'll be asked a question or
posed a a a theory or an assumption

848
00:36:07,065 --> 00:36:10,497
by a homeowner. And you know, should I get
this?

849
00:36:10,497 --> 00:36:13,327
Should I do this? And the answer ends up
being yes,

850
00:36:13,327 --> 00:36:17,439
but or, you know, maybe, or it depends.

851
00:36:15,019 --> 00:36:18,442
Right. Maybe. Yeah. Yes.

852
00:36:15,407 --> 00:36:16,407
It depends.

853
00:36:17,439 --> 00:36:18,479
That's your favorite. Yeah.

854
00:36:19,085 --> 00:36:21,157
And so you get to kind of explain then,

855
00:36:21,157 --> 00:36:24,740
you know, yeah, no, there's some advantage
here if you understand how it works,

856
00:36:24,740 --> 00:36:26,472
and a lot of people won't tell you
correctly.

857
00:36:26,472 --> 00:36:31,176
You know, so you know, that's that that's
good that you guys are then providing some

858
00:36:31,176 --> 00:36:33,599
semblance of education that home
inspectors can,

859
00:36:33,599 --> 00:36:35,991
you know, it's just added value that
they're bringing,

860
00:36:35,991 --> 00:36:39,044
you know, if they can if they can really
speak truth to an industry that

861
00:36:39,044 --> 00:36:40,335
is a little poorly understood.

862
00:36:41,158 --> 00:36:42,158
I mean and that's

863
00:36:41,239 --> 00:36:42,239
Yeah, that's what we want is

864
00:36:42,060 --> 00:36:44,841
we want to give everybody just good
information because at the end of the day,

865
00:36:44,841 --> 00:36:46,877
people can make good decisions with good
information.

866
00:36:47,416 --> 00:36:48,747
That's what these shows are about,

867
00:36:48,747 --> 00:36:50,858
you know, and it we have these
discussions,

868
00:36:50,858 --> 00:36:54,581
whether it's about solar, whether it's
about spray foam insulation

869
00:36:54,901 --> 00:36:57,253
or venting an attic or whatever,

870
00:36:57,253 --> 00:36:59,304
you know, there's a lot of topics out
there,

871
00:36:59,304 --> 00:37:01,566
or whether it's re-inspections.

872
00:37:01,566 --> 00:37:03,431
We had a good one last month on
reinspections.

873
00:37:03,431 --> 00:37:07,070
There's a lot of topics out there that
just don't really get talked about enough.

874
00:37:07,070 --> 00:37:10,282
And there's not maybe people don't even
there's a whole lot of people that don't

875
00:37:10,282 --> 00:37:12,774
know the resource that you're providing.

876
00:37:12,774 --> 00:37:15,546
They don't have any idea that it exists.

877
00:37:13,820 --> 00:37:14,820
Yeah.

878
00:37:13,953 --> 00:37:15,674
Yeah. And I we're not

879
00:37:15,674 --> 00:37:17,686
we're not out banging the drum on social
media.

880
00:37:17,686 --> 00:37:21,729
We probably should be. We just have had
like so many referral like people just
have

881
00:37:21,729 --> 00:37:25,513
come in and flooded, like we've signed up
so many inspectors and we've we're really

882
00:37:25,513 --> 00:37:29,946
happy about that. we just I think we've
we've like cracked the code

883
00:37:29,946 --> 00:37:31,568
on something that the industry really
needed.

884
00:37:31,568 --> 00:37:35,111
And so we've just had a huge organic like
~ outreach.

885
00:37:35,111 --> 00:37:36,742
And I probably should do more marketing
than we do,

886
00:37:36,742 --> 00:37:38,784
but we tried to go to some of the shows
and stuff,

887
00:37:38,784 --> 00:37:42,847
but we're just grateful for those have
like caught that vision and run with it.

888
00:37:43,427 --> 00:37:46,587
~ but I would definitely encourage anybody
who's ~ you know,

889
00:37:46,587 --> 00:37:49,330
wanting to provide a higher level of
service to their clients.

890
00:37:49,330 --> 00:37:53,590
I mean, there is a great opportunity
because that so you want let

891
00:37:53,590 --> 00:37:56,454
me answer the question earlier because
this kind of segues into that.

892
00:37:56,454 --> 00:37:58,465
These systems are not cheap. I mean,

893
00:37:58,465 --> 00:38:00,476
low-cost solar system is 20 grand,

894
00:38:00,476 --> 00:38:03,768
low cost. average from most states,

895
00:38:03,768 --> 00:38:06,059
it's about $30,000 to $40,000 to put one
on.

896
00:38:06,059 --> 00:38:09,301
And you look at any other part of the home
like that,

897
00:38:09,301 --> 00:38:12,573
like that's something that should be
looked at in the transaction.

898
00:38:13,311 --> 00:38:14,311
And

899
00:38:13,791 --> 00:38:17,522
oftentimes, you know, systems are $80 to
$100,000 legitimately,

900
00:38:17,522 --> 00:38:18,883
not just the scammers out there,

901
00:38:18,883 --> 00:38:20,953
but there are some big expensive systems
out there.

902
00:38:20,953 --> 00:38:24,694
And ~ it's it is an opportunity to
provide,

903
00:38:24,694 --> 00:38:29,675
you know, insights into this thing that's
like it's like buying a

904
00:38:29,675 --> 00:38:31,866
car without Kelly Blue Book or or Carfax.

905
00:38:31,866 --> 00:38:34,727
It's like that kind of that you wouldn't
buy a car.

906
00:38:34,727 --> 00:38:36,017
You would, it would be terrifying.

907
00:38:36,017 --> 00:38:38,098
It's like, I don't know. I'm I'm I don't
want to get taken,

908
00:38:38,098 --> 00:38:39,678
right? I don't want to be taken advantage
of.

909
00:38:40,074 --> 00:38:43,276
And the goal here is to make sure that
we're just creating visibility

910
00:38:43,516 --> 00:38:45,337
so people can make good decisions.

911
00:38:45,337 --> 00:38:47,689
Again, whether that's on the listing or
the buy side.

912
00:38:47,689 --> 00:38:52,288
But we we have you know a lot of ~
adoption on both sides of the transaction.

913
00:38:52,288 --> 00:38:56,695
It's a unique pre-listing because it's
about our pre-listing reports actually

914
00:38:56,695 --> 00:38:59,357
showcase ~ so there's the inspection
report,

915
00:38:59,357 --> 00:39:02,609
which is a condition, but the pre-listing
reports that we help inspectors generate

916
00:39:02,909 --> 00:39:06,902
are for showcasing the home and helping
that listing agent market it.

917
00:39:06,902 --> 00:39:09,674
So it's it's all about what's the
financial benefit.

918
00:39:10,203 --> 00:39:12,496
And and really what needs to be disclosed,

919
00:39:12,496 --> 00:39:14,388
is that installer still in business or
not?

920
00:39:14,388 --> 00:39:16,497
You know, is there a loan on it or not?

921
00:39:16,497 --> 00:39:18,715
What are the transfer instructions for a
lease?

922
00:39:18,715 --> 00:39:19,857
You know, all of those kind of things,

923
00:39:19,857 --> 00:39:23,292
those go into that pre-listing to help
them through that transaction.

924
00:39:24,743 --> 00:39:26,926
No, that's good to know, man. And you
know,

925
00:39:26,926 --> 00:39:28,397
guys, if this sounds like a lot,

926
00:39:28,397 --> 00:39:32,732
you know, you get to learn even this and
and so much more at inspection fuel.

927
00:39:32,732 --> 00:39:35,866
I mean, so Corey, I mean, if you want to
plug your topic real quick,

928
00:39:35,866 --> 00:39:39,190
man, ~ and then we'll we'll let people
know how to go register.

929
00:39:39,190 --> 00:39:41,753
~ but yeah, what are what are you talking
about at fuel?

930
00:39:42,528 --> 00:39:43,528
Yeah,

931
00:39:42,808 --> 00:39:45,320
so at fuel, there's a couple different
levels of inspection.

932
00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:48,181
So level one inspection is like basically
like visual,

933
00:39:48,181 --> 00:39:49,442
like looking at the equipment,

934
00:39:49,442 --> 00:39:50,863
understanding them. That's what we're
gonna cover.

935
00:39:50,863 --> 00:39:53,464
So if you come and join or come just check
it out,

936
00:39:53,464 --> 00:39:55,455
like if you're not interested in joining
Spark,

937
00:39:55,455 --> 00:39:58,988
that's cool. Like if you just want to see
what it's all about inspecting solar,

938
00:39:58,988 --> 00:40:01,629
you like we will give you the recipe,

939
00:40:01,629 --> 00:40:04,461
how to do that at fuel. So I'm gonna be
going over that.

940
00:40:04,461 --> 00:40:06,172
Level two is what has Spark helps you do.

941
00:40:06,172 --> 00:40:10,024
We're that we're doing an analysis on the
~ system and whatnot.

942
00:40:10,315 --> 00:40:12,216
That's obviously after spark, you know,

943
00:40:12,216 --> 00:40:15,877
whatever, fuel. You can obviously always
go join up on our our website.

944
00:40:15,877 --> 00:40:19,499
But ~ at fuel, we're gonna be going over
how solar works,

945
00:40:19,499 --> 00:40:23,300
what are the problems, how do you ~ write
comments about those,

946
00:40:23,300 --> 00:40:25,291
how do you incorporate that into your
report.

947
00:40:25,291 --> 00:40:26,752
So even if you're not, you're just like,

948
00:40:26,752 --> 00:40:29,103
dude, I just want to learn about solar,

949
00:40:29,103 --> 00:40:30,943
come check it out, and we be well,

950
00:40:30,943 --> 00:40:33,514
we're gonna be covering that. It's an
awesome class.

951
00:40:33,514 --> 00:40:34,695
Again, you get the CE and stuff,

952
00:40:34,695 --> 00:40:37,266
but I think that it can be a great way.

953
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:41,052
To get introduced to this topic that is so
foreign to so many.

954
00:40:42,033 --> 00:40:45,074
Man, I'm looking forward to that because
especially when we were planning

955
00:40:45,074 --> 00:40:46,364
out the courses for this year,

956
00:40:46,364 --> 00:40:51,557
~ Matt and I kind of put our heads
together with ~ with the the course
structure

957
00:40:51,557 --> 00:40:53,048
and topics we wanted to cover.

958
00:40:53,048 --> 00:40:55,749
And, you know, it's not only us that was
planning this whole thing.

959
00:40:55,749 --> 00:40:57,290
There's a whole team of people doing it.

960
00:40:57,290 --> 00:41:02,102
But one of the things that we really
wanted to emphasize was building science

961
00:41:02,383 --> 00:41:06,875
and modern advancements for energy
efficiency and all kinds of stuff.

962
00:41:06,875 --> 00:41:10,986
Just new new tools, new tech, new science
that's going into making homes better

963
00:41:11,187 --> 00:41:12,187
in 2020.

964
00:41:11,987 --> 00:41:15,040
six and giving home inspectors a a taste
of something that they're not going

965
00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:17,643
to get at other conferences, education and
information that they won't

966
00:41:17,643 --> 00:41:19,655
be hearing elsewhere. So I'm

967
00:41:19,259 --> 00:41:20,259
Yeah.

968
00:41:19,655 --> 00:41:20,997
excited, man. Excited to have you there.

969
00:41:21,846 --> 00:41:23,097
Yeah, I'm real I'm glad to be there.

970
00:41:23,097 --> 00:41:25,500
Grateful for the invitation and get to
talk about it too.

971
00:41:25,500 --> 00:41:26,592
Like I said, I'll

972
00:41:26,322 --> 00:41:27,322
Yep.

973
00:41:26,592 --> 00:41:27,603
I'll go on and on about solar.

974
00:41:27,603 --> 00:41:28,603
It's hard to shut me up, man.

975
00:41:29,201 --> 00:41:31,353
Well, I I want to save some of it for the
conference,

976
00:41:31,353 --> 00:41:32,353
dude. It's gonna

977
00:41:32,023 --> 00:41:34,425
be a good good sit-in. I'm I'm looking
forward to joining.

978
00:41:34,425 --> 00:41:36,566
~ guys, so go register. Remember,

979
00:41:36,566 --> 00:41:38,328
it's coming up. It's it's this is October.

980
00:41:38,328 --> 00:41:40,079
This is August 31st. I already said
October.

981
00:41:40,079 --> 00:41:42,531
This is August 31st today. The episode's
dropping.

982
00:41:42,531 --> 00:41:45,473
And ~ fuel is coming up in less than a
month now.

983
00:41:45,473 --> 00:41:46,473
So

984
00:41:45,724 --> 00:41:46,724
That's right.

985
00:41:46,634 --> 00:41:49,596
yeah, it go to inspectionfuel.com slash
register,

986
00:41:49,596 --> 00:41:50,747
28 days.

987
00:41:50,414 --> 00:41:51,414
I was gonna

988
00:41:50,507 --> 00:41:51,507
Yeah.

989
00:41:50,835 --> 00:41:53,835
say it's almost exactly, but I forgot
today's the thirty first.

990
00:41:53,835 --> 00:41:55,330
It's closer than I thought.

991
00:41:54,405 --> 00:41:55,573
Yeah, tomorrow's the first.

992
00:41:55,998 --> 00:41:57,326
Yeah. I mean

993
00:41:56,736 --> 00:41:57,736
Hey, if you're at fuel,

994
00:41:57,567 --> 00:41:59,409
come see me too. Well I'll we'll come by.

995
00:41:59,409 --> 00:42:00,570
I will we'll get something for you.

996
00:42:00,570 --> 00:42:03,759
So anyways, we we appreciate everybody
being coming in and checking it out.

997
00:42:03,344 --> 00:42:04,350
Drinks are on Corey.

998
00:42:03,759 --> 00:42:04,759
But we're excited to see

999
00:42:04,429 --> 00:42:06,175
everybody down there. That's right.

1000
00:42:06,175 --> 00:42:07,676
Wait a minute. Who wait, who said that?

1001
00:42:09,698 --> 00:42:10,930
What are your social media handles,

1002
00:42:09,953 --> 00:42:11,261
You heard it you heard it here

1003
00:42:10,930 --> 00:42:11,930
man?

1004
00:42:11,261 --> 00:42:12,261
folks.

1005
00:42:13,371 --> 00:42:14,598
What what are your social media handles,

1006
00:42:14,598 --> 00:42:15,598
man? Where can people follow you?

1007
00:42:16,726 --> 00:42:21,933
yeah, so just SPRK Home. ~ either ~ you we
you know we have our website,

1008
00:42:21,933 --> 00:42:25,878
you know, SPRK Home.com, but also on
Instagram and Facebook.

1009
00:42:25,878 --> 00:42:29,802
~ those are our main places we we have
stuff on there.

1010
00:42:29,802 --> 00:42:34,789
but yeah, we're we're we're also on
LinkedIn and whatnot.

1011
00:42:34,789 --> 00:42:35,910
But yeah, come check us out.

1012
00:42:36,623 --> 00:42:38,085
I love it, man. Well, dude, Corey,

1013
00:42:38,085 --> 00:42:39,196
thanks so much for being here.

1014
00:42:39,196 --> 00:42:41,358
Looking forward to seeing you in just 28
days,

1015
00:42:41,358 --> 00:42:43,460
dude. We're gonna be down in ~ in
Louisville.

1016
00:42:42,336 --> 00:42:44,767
Yeah. Thanks, guys.

1017
00:42:43,460 --> 00:42:44,460
So

1018
00:42:45,523 --> 00:42:47,725
good stuff. All right, Matt.

1019
00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:47,960
My name's Matt, and

1020
00:42:47,792 --> 00:42:53,799
you can find me at Texas.edge.inspect ~ on
YouTube and Instagram,

1021
00:42:53,799 --> 00:42:55,234
TikTok.

1022
00:42:54,575 --> 00:42:55,575
And where else can

1023
00:42:55,279 --> 00:42:57,019
they find you here in just a couple of
weeks,

1024
00:42:57,019 --> 00:42:58,019
man?

1025
00:42:59,130 --> 00:43:01,181
well in a couple of weeks I'll be a build
show live.

1026
00:43:01,181 --> 00:43:03,383
~

1027
00:43:01,689 --> 00:43:02,689
Yes ~

1028
00:43:03,383 --> 00:43:07,305
that is ~ September tenth ~ tenth,

1029
00:43:07,305 --> 00:43:11,578
eleventh and twelfth. And and then a few
weeks from there it'll be fuel.

1030
00:43:12,347 --> 00:43:15,034
Yeah. Keynote speaker's actually gonna be
~ Mr.

1031
00:43:15,034 --> 00:43:16,367
Matt Reisinger from Builds.

1032
00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:16,942
Mr. Matt Reisinger.

1033
00:43:16,942 --> 00:43:19,427
And then and you know who the keynote
speaker is at Bill?

1034
00:43:19,427 --> 00:43:22,915
Steve Bazett. I got two killer

1035
00:43:21,795 --> 00:43:22,911
Ooh, even better, man.

1036
00:43:22,915 --> 00:43:24,989
keynote speeches ahead of me in the next
thirty days,

1037
00:43:24,989 --> 00:43:25,989
man.

1038
00:43:26,021 --> 00:43:27,724
It's gonna be a good month. It's gonna be
a good

1039
00:43:27,452 --> 00:43:28,452
Yeah.

1040
00:43:27,724 --> 00:43:29,358
month. Guys, make sure you go register.

1041
00:43:28,726 --> 00:43:29,726
It's awesome.

1042
00:43:29,358 --> 00:43:32,925
~ come see Corey at ~ at Inspection Fuel.

1043
00:43:32,925 --> 00:43:34,056
Come see us too, and

1044
00:43:34,057 --> 00:43:35,199
you know that we'll see you there.

1045
00:43:35,199 --> 00:43:37,463
And ~ right here next time, better than
ever,

1046
00:43:37,463 --> 00:43:38,463
on

1047
00:43:38,779 --> 00:43:39,779
The ride along.