Jon Roy made a career switch at the age of 53. He had worked for 30 years in the restaurant industry, most recently serving as general manager at Huey’s.
Roy is now a franchise of Pillar To Post Home Inspectors. He launched the business on No. 1. Covering Memphis and Tipton, Fayette, Hardeman, and McNairy counties.
“My anxiety levels have been through the roof,” Roy said of the life change. “At the same time, my knees weren’t going to keep going to let me [work at a restaurant] for another 12, 15 years. So I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to gamble on myself.”
After Roy decided to leave the restaurant business, he went to a career counselor who had a company that represented franchises. The counselor presented him with four franchises, three of which were in hospitality, the fourth was Pillar To Post.
Pillar To Post is a Florida-based home inspection business founded in 1994. There are 450-plus franchises across the United States and Canada.
Roy said the Pillar To Post model checked all his boxes. Still, he looked into the franchise. He contacted other owners - ones who were new; ones who’ve owned a franchise for decades.
Roy also noted that running Pillar To Post is not dissimilar to working at Huey’s.
“Huey’s was a high accountability, high level, service-driven environment. I haven’t left customer service,” he said. “It is that consistency, that communication.”
Being in the restaurant industry has also sharpened Roy’s people skills. This has come in handy when introducing himself to those who may hire him. He’s held Christmas parties and gone to plenty of open houses. He’ll bring open house survival kits with bottled water and snacks by way of introduction.
“I like to explore all the ways I can help them, all the opportunities that are there, the things I can do and educate them on different aspects of the house,” Roy said. “I can help agents close smoother, faster, and we have so many things for the home buyers to make their lives easier. So, I focus on all that.”
Pillar To Post offers three home inspection packages. The Plus package offers repair estimates, a concierge service that hooks up utilities, alarm, and cable services. The Premium package covers the whole house from appliance manuals to rodent inspection. The Prestige package includes extensive testing for air issues, such as mold.
Pillar To Post also offers pre-market inspections. These, Roy said, help the agent sell the house faster and offers the buyers assurance that there are no surprises awaiting them.
“No house is perfect,” Roy said. “Everybody has to know that no house is to code. Everything can be fixed. Let’s just prioritize those things that need to be addressed.”