by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Wally Conway has taken his home inspection expertise to the airwaves.
His new show, “The Happy Home Inspector Show,” airs every Saturday evening at 5 p.m. on AM-690 and focuses on informing the Realtor community and homeowners of all things in, on, under, around and about the house.
“I’m trying to reach two groups of people at the same time,” said Conway, an American Society of Home Inspectors certified home inspector and president of Florida HomePro Inc. “One is home buyers to arm them with the things they need to make good decisions and the precursor to that is asking good questions. I am also speaking to Realtors at the same time to try and get them aware of how to make that transaction smooth while still doing all the right things they should do buyerwise. My fantasy listener is a Realtor driving around with a home buyer.”
Just before Christmas last year, he was approached by Glenn Boyles of the “Glenn Boyles’ Home Improvement Show” on AM-690, who was looking for guests on his show.
“I started being a guest speaker on his show and that led to me being approached to host my own show,” said Conway. “The core of it is home inspecting which includes things we’ve discovered, how homeowners can troubleshoot things in their own home and how to find a licensed home inspectors. It’s an educational call-in show. I also have guests some weeks.”
Some of the guests Conway has had on his show include Michelle Parham of Showhomes of America, who discussed things people can do to prepare their homes for sale, and Sally Suslack from Atkinson and Knight Real Estate, who discussed buyer issues in older homes.
Conway said it is important for Realtors to listen to his show because his inspectors are out there all day, everyday listening to buyers.
“When Realtors are listening to my show, they are hearing what was most important to their customers that week,” he said. “The things that we hear them say, issues they have called in about or e-mails I have received asking me to discuss this or that. We are actually a conduit from the customer to the Realtor.”
Preparation for the show has evolved from writing a script to basically doing the show off the cuff.
“I’m a real spontaneous character. So, my original thought was I won’t prepare, I’ll just communicate,” said Conway. “I’ll share my thoughts and ideas and I’ll respond to the callers to the guests. I’ll not prepare other than bringing a person in. I got talked into scripting the openings and that was deplorable because it is so contrary to how I deal with other people.”
Now, whenever he gets an idea, he writes it down.
“I go to the station and I just start talking.”
His show is called the “Happy Home Inspector Show” and he explained how the name came about.
“I’m happy to be a home inspector and it was funny how the name came up,” said Conway. “We were trying to figure out what the name should be and the ‘Wally Conway Show’ was not real descriptive, the ‘Florida HomePro Show’ was not real descriptive. I was talking to the program manager and said ‘Well, I’m just happy to be doing it and so it became ‘The Happy Home Inspector Show.’ It has really caught on. It’s goofy.”
He has now also embarked on a television show, Home and Garden’s “House Detective.”
About a year and a half ago, Conway was screentested to host the television show, but it didn’t work out.
“I thought I did reasonably well, but I think they rejected me because I was a bald guy,” said Conway. “So, they ended up hiring an actor to be the host. They have a core of 10 or 12 home inspectors from around the country that do the on-camera home inspection work and I’m one of those.”
With his busy schedule, does he still have time to do home inspections?
“Oh, yeah, I still do a couple every week,” he said. “I’ve got to continue to do that because what happens is once you come in the office and stay here you become isolated. You become isolated from what is happening in houses and with Realtors. So, I’m out there one or twice a week.
“I also have a saying ‘You have to dance with who brung you.’ So, the bulk of what I still do is with customers and Realtors who have been with me from the beginning.”
In addition to his home inspection company, radio show and television show, Conway has found ways to do even more to inform the real estate community about home inspection issues — he has a seminar company and has also written five different continuing education courses for the Florida Real Estate Commission.
“I travel all over the state doing continuing education for Realtors,” he said. “We have one on mold called ‘Is There a Fungus Among Us?’, one called ‘Home Inspections - Deal Killers or Suicide Saviors?’, one on the basics of home inspection and how it integrates into the transaction, another on ‘Risk Free Realtor Repair’ and how to integrate repairs into the transaction and another on renovation consulting.”
With all of these ventures, Conway works a lot of hours and said he likes it that way.
“I would go nutty if there was one thing that I do that I had to do all the time,” he said. “I love going out inspecting houses, but I don’t do it all the time. Now, I still get to do home inspections and they are a big break from everything else. I like to go teach Realtors — that’s a lot of fun — but I wouldn’t want to be a classroom teacher all day everyday. I like doing buyers seminars. That’s a whole different level of thrill or fun, but I wouldn’t want to do that everyday.”
Even though it seems he is all over the place, Conway said everything he does feeds off of each other.
“Even though it looks like I am scattered doing six different things, but I’m doing the same fundamental things six different ways,” said Conway. “Everything I do is supported by the core hub of the home inspection company.”
Conway has owned Florida HomePro, Inc. since 1994.
“My major role is inspector training and business development,” said Conway. “The bulk of business development has been in Realtor training and community outreach.”
He has been married to Dean for over 20 years. They have four children, Justin, 25; Jennifer, 17; Joyce, 16 and Jordan, 13. He retired as a Navy pilot after 20 years and lives in Orangedale.