Steve Gladstone
Title: President and Owner, Stonehollow Home Inspections
Age: 66
Experience: 33 years
Steve Gladstone wears many hats. A past president American Society of Home Inspectors (2004), he is also an author – of the “Field Guide to Home Inspections” – and hosts a radio show on 1490 WGCH. An English major who found he couldn’t make a living, he slid into remodeling and then home inspecting. He’s a teacher, a volunteer firefighter and a grandfather. The owner of his own inspection company, he looks back at how the industry has changed in his three decades of experience.
Q: How did you get into the home inspection business?
A: I went to school and got a degree in English. Then I got a master’s degree in special education and counseling, and I found I couldn’t make a living, so I started doing remodeling as a side job. Someone told me I should get into home inspections part-time. It looked like it would be fun to turn that into a business. On some inspections, I use my counseling degrees as much as my construction knowledge.
I’m very curious and always interested in new technology. When a new product comes out, I’m the first one to go out and say, “How does that work?”
If I could do my first 50 inspections over again, I would. The biggest help for me was joining the Southern New England chapter of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI). Rubbing elbows with the guys who created the concept of ASHI which developed minimum standards and code of ethics for the profession influenced me a lot.
Q: When did you join ASHI?
A: I officially joined in 1983 while doing inspections part-time. I realized early on that ASHI was a path to education. When I started getting involved with the chapter, I began to understand there were more important national committees. ASHI was incredibly instrumental in training leaders.
I worked my way up through the ranks of the national organization and in 2004 I was elected president. Last year they gave me the Phillip C. Monahon Award, ASHI’s highest award and given to members who have made significant contributions to the organization and its members.
This year is ASHI’s 40th anniversary and that in itself is astonishing. An organization that came out of a bunch of guys meeting in New Jersey and talking about ethics and developing a standard of practice to having approximately 5,000 members that have promised to follow those standards and provide the consumer with an excellent standard of care. If you look at all ASHI achieved, it’s amazing. I’ve never heard anything negative in regard to ASHI from a consumer. As a past president, I’m proud of that. Winning the award is nice but being part of something that has changed the industry, I’m proud of that.
I run a school for inspectors. Included in the tuition is the student’s first year of membership in ASHI, because I really believe it. On day one, I say, “If you’re not going to be a good inspector, don’t come back for the second day.” We have too much responsibility to the consumer.
Q: You’re a volunteer firefighter as well. Tell me about that.
A: I’ve been a volunteer firefighter for almost 40 years. I grew up in a house where my father was a volunteer firefighter. In the middle of the night he’d go thundering down the stairs to fight a fire in Long Island, where I grew up. He was also a high school teacher. When I moved to Stamford, I decided to join the Belltown Fire Department.
In a lot of the presentations I make to various groups, I talk about safety in the home and fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide and smoke alarm and loose handrails. How to keep your house in good shape.
Lately, more and more we’re focused on hoarding. People don’t realize they’re hoarders, even when they got so much stuff stored in their house that they can’t get to a window to open it. I do find that there are lots of loose staircases, decks that aren’t attached. Dirty flues. A home inspection is very safety-oriented.
Q: How did you become a radio show host?
A: Two guys from a local station came to my house one day and asked me to advertise my inspection business on a real estate show. I said, “I could do that show, why would I want to advertise on it?” They said, “Can you start in two weeks?” I’d practice doing commercials on my way to inspections. I flew by the seat of my pants the first bunch of times. From the beginning, I decided it was going to be entertaining, not a commercial for Stonehollow. Fifteen years later, we’re still popular. We kid around and have fun. I’m always dazzled when people call and tell me how much they’ve learned on the show. I feel like we’re just having a fun time talking about houses.
Q: What is a typical home inspection like?
A: We have subcontractors and my two sons (ages 40 and 21) work with me as well. Four inspectors. It’s more fun to do a team inspection. We typically show up with one or two inspectors and a student or two. We bring in a heating tech for the heating system. Clients are blown away by getting so much attention. The tech goes more in depth than we can and they get a separate report from them.
The fun part of it is teaching clients about their house. I get to spend three, three and a half hours with a young couple and I teach them about the house. I give them resources they can call upon while they live there.
Q: How has the field changed over the last 33 years?
A: People’s expectations were different when I started. A lot of inspectors at that point were coming out of the trades and knew some of the business, but not a lot. You’d have to question the body of knowledge behind some of those early inspections. Very few inspectors had contracts or the quality of report that comes out now. Today, it’s rare for us to give out a report that’s less than 50 pages long. We include pictures with captions and arrows pointing. It’s much easier to understand.
The standard of care has changed radically since 1980. Some of that is because of ASHI, some of it is lawsuits against inspectors and contracts. I’ve always felt it is a good business practice to have E&O, general liability and workman’s compensation insurance.
The bottom line is there are a lot of toys and tools now that weren’t available then. Several years ago I bought an $11,000 infrared camera that I could get for $1,000 today. Non-intrusive moisture meter. A good termite probe – we ended up making one. It has good balance and it’s long. It’s all steel with a good grip and a pointy end like a large screwdriver piece. It’s a good tool.
The biggest change are people are buying drones and flying over roofs they can’t get up on. I have an eye stick. It’s not inexpensive. I’m also finding I’m one of a shrinking number of inspectors who has ladders on his trucks. We carry a 27-foot extension ladder, a telescoping 18-foot ladder and an adjustable stepladder.
The business has changed so much. I find that because people buying houses have so little education in regard to maintaining it, we’re experiencing generations that have never taken shop or home economics. They have no house knowledge. They have no knowledge of how to maintain or repair a house. And I get to teach them.
Gladstone’s Five Favorite Things In Life (His Grandchildren):
- Madison
- Jackson
- Bryce
- Joshua
- Eva
