The Eyes on Every Beam: How Randy Berry Is Raising the Bar in Johnston County

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast.

Our guest is Randy Berry of Advanced Quality Inspections, a home inspection company in Clayton, North Carolina. We talked to Randy about why he became a home inspector, the requirements that are needed to become a home inspector. What separates his home inspection company from the others? Namely, he does same day reports using a special software.

We talk about the different types of home inspections that they do and the use of drone technology, which is often better than actually sending a human being up onto roofs to look at stuff. So I think you’ll find this interesting. We also talk to Randy Berry about being the president of the Clayton Rotary Club, which he will be until the end of June, 2025.

So listen in. I think you’ll find it interesting and fascinating, and learn a little bit more about this small business that’s doing a lot right here in Johnston County.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, [00:01:00] Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today’s episode we have Randy Berry of Advanced Quality Inspections in Clayton, North Carolina, and he’s here to talk to us a little bit about his home inspection business.

How in his grown rapidly in the area. How you get 965, 5 star reviews and common mistakes, homeowners looking to buy a house make in working with their home inspector. I think you’re gonna find this interesting and fascinating, and I’ve been looking forward to this since he booked it because I bought enough properties and sometimes I like the home inspectors and I’ve lo I’ve sold enough properties to [00:02:00] where sometimes I don’t like home inspectors.

So it depends on which side you’re on. But before we get to that. I would like to invite you to like, follow, to subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re seeing it, whether it be on Apple, Spotify YouTube, TikTok X Instagram, or any of the other social media channels of The Best of Johnston County Podcast.

The Best of Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday and has now for over 18 months, so go back and listen to some of our previous episodes. We’ve had a lot of great guests. Over the years. We’re well over 80 episodes now and I think you will find it interesting and fascinating. And if you love Johnston County as much as I do and as much as Randy does, this is the podcast for you.

Welcome Randy.

Randy Berry: Welcome and thank you for having me on the show today. I certainly appreciate it.

Jonathan Breeden: Hey, no problem. No problem. So tell the people that are not familiar with your business, who you are, what you do.

Randy Berry: Yeah, so we are a QI advanced quality inspections. We perform residential and commercial inspections in Johnston County and surrounding areas.

We are a multi-inspector locally owned [00:03:00] firm. We perform all inspection services, so, not only home inspections, but your ancillary services such as radon testing, mold testing, indoor air quality testing, termite inspections, septic inspections. The list goes on and on. If. If you’re buying a property and you think of any inspection you may need I guarantee we take care of that for you.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, one of the ones you do that you don’t really think about is you do drone inspections.

Randy Berry: Yeah. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: So talk about why you do drone inspections and why you know, I’ve been looking at buying and building a property in the mountains, and drone inspections are crucial because sometimes you can’t get to the roof.

Randy Berry: Yeah, absolutely. Even townhouses, you know, stuff like that. Number one is safety. So the safety of our inspectors is very important. We definitely want to keep the industry safe and a lot of inspectors are turning towards drone inspections. They’re getting their part 1 0 7 license, so they can operate that.

And it’s much more efficient. You do have some old school folks that want you to get up there and walk on the roof, and they insist on seeing that. So we can still do it if we need to, but for efficiency purposes, [00:04:00] it allows you to look at every square inch of that roof with a 4K camera up close.

Or if you’re walking on it, you might not wanna reach all the way out on the edge to take a look at the drip edge with a drone you can fly right up to it, provide great pictures and videos for our clients. So definitely adds value.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and that’s that’s a, a new technology

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm

Jonathan Breeden: for sure. So, when and why did you get into home inspections?

Randy Berry: So, I was actually a kind of a quality nerd. So I, grew up you know, welding and electrical trades, and then got into quality management. Worked in quality management field for several years and we purchased our home that we live in now in March of 2020.

And we had a home inspection completed, and I thought the process was a little broken. We used the home inspector that was recommended by the builder, and of course we received this report that was pristine. I paid $500 for them to tell me nothing was wrong with his house. And as a quality inspector myself and a managed quality team I realized quickly that there was [00:05:00] opportunity for improvement.

And it’s somebody’s not being quite honest with us. So that’s what we set out to begin our own business. Studied all that summer and in October of 2020 is when we opened our doors as advanced quality inspections.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright. And what I know there’s, there’s at least one test you have to take to be a home inspector.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: it’s not quite as onerous as being a general contractor, but it’s similar.

Randy Berry: It is.

Jonathan Breeden: So what is, what is involved in becoming a home inspector?

Randy Berry: With the general contract, it’s all through department of insurance. So they hold the licensure board. So your home inspection licensure board is who holds the license In North Carolina, you must be licensed.

You can’t just go out there and say you’re a home inspector like you can in some states, which is a little scary. But you must first start with your education. So you gotta have 120 hours of online training, then you have to do 80 hours of field training in order to qualify for the state exam. Once you qualify for the exam, you go to Department of Insurance, everybody in the whole state has to come right here to Raleigh to take it.

And you go take the test, you [00:06:00] pass it, now you gotta go get your general liability, your insurance all that good stuff, licensed, bonded, and then you’re a home inspector. Well. In your barely legal home inspector. So this is Ben Gromicko, who is a who is the chief of InterNACHI a big international inspectors education company.

He says that people who are licensed are barely not criminal because that’s the bare minimum. So our goal was to get that bare minimum that everyone must have and then set ourself apart by getting extra education.

So that’s why we are  InterNACHI, we have certified professional inspectors. And I’m actually a certified master inspector as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Alright. And so, so you started the business in COVID?

Randy Berry: We did, yeah. We.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s an interesting time to start a business.

Randy Berry: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: I was trying to keep my doors open.

Randy Berry: Yeah, right.

Jonathan Breeden: You decided to start a business,

Randy Berry: right? Yeah. One of the other things that kind of triggered us to start that was when we ordered the home inspection, we noticed [00:07:00] there was a two and a half week lead time on that.

And then the appraisal was like three weeks out and I was like. Should be a lot quicker. Then I started talking to other folks in the industry, and apparently that was holding up a lot of real estate deals, you know, waiting on the appraiser, waiting on the inspector. I said, well, if we can, you know, jump in the market’s here, the, the opportunity for work is definitely here in this industry.

And we all know what’s happening in Johnston County

Jonathan Breeden: oh yeah

Randy Berry: with the growth, so,

Jonathan Breeden: oh, there’s no doubt about that. And so your inspections, I mean, you turn these around in two or three days.

Randy Berry: Same day. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Same day.

Randy Berry: Yeah. So we, we’ll come inspect your house, say at 1:00 PM and by 5:00 PM you’ve got a, a digital report in your hand that you can use for negotiations with the seller.

So yeah, we do same day reporting.

Jonathan Breeden: So how are you able to do that?

Randy Berry: Software. Yeah. It’s all, all about the technology. So we utilize the best inspection software in the industry. It’s called Spectora. It’s no surprise to every other inspector out there. It is a surprise to some agents. Who have not received a [00:08:00] report from that software system.

But it’s color coded. We can add videos, annotated images. Everything is broken down into categories. There’s a repair request builder you can generate from there. So a lot of good features that help save real estate agents time, which is most important for them and for us, is we want them to go get busy on that next buyer so that we have another inspection to do.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So your business comes from referrals, I guess. Largely.

Randy Berry: Largely.

Jonathan Breeden: Is it from realtors? Is it from builders? Or where do you get your referrals from?

Randy Berry: Yeah, so real estate agents make up a large chunk of our referrals that we receive. And once they give us one shot and we treat ’em right, then they just keep on coming back. So that’s communication is the big thing during real estate transaction, you know, they’ve got a lot of different balls they’re trying to juggle. So, if we can be as upfront and helpful to them kind of take some stuff off their plate and they appreciate that and reward us by [00:09:00] contacting their next client and letting ’em know about us as well.

The real estate agent also on the seller side. Some folks are not aware that, you know, we do pre-listing inspections. So you mentioned how, you know the sellers usually don’t like home inspectors. Well, the seller can like a home inspector if you get your home inspection done before you list your house.

So the big benefit of a pre-listing inspection is that you get a list of things that a buyer’s inspector’s gonna find. ’cause we’re all trained the same. We all should have about the same base knowledge. So during that short due diligence period, after you’re under contract, you’re not you know, with your back against the wall trying to hustle and, and get a plumber to come out and replace the water heater because now he’s gonna charge you premium rates.

So if you get everything inspected and repaired before you list it, you’ve got the upper hand and can save money.

Jonathan Breeden: And I actually did that. I mean, I had a house out here in the Cleveland community. The first house I ever bought, and it was on a hill.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: So the water ran under it. So it was [00:10:00] wet, not standing water. But you know, I think it can be 17, 18% moisture, you’re checking for something.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: It’s somewhere in there. And I wasn’t sure, and of course, you know, people come around wanna sell me $20,000 vapor system underneath it. But I wasn’t sure how wet it was. Would it pass? So I actually did get a home inspector who happened to be a neighbor to come over and sort of pre inspect that basement and tell me whether it was gonna pass or not, and it was kind of on the edge, and so I ended up putting in a french drain across the entire front of the house.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I had a contractor come in and so that was diverting a lot of the water and then it was fine. But if I’d have tried to do that while I was in due diligence, I mean, to find somebody to come in, put the French drain, I mean, like, it, it, it wouldn’t have, it wouldn’t have worked so.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I think that’s important. I think people need to, to realize that if you’re thinking about selling your house and your house has got a few ears on it, you really should call somebody and get one of those [00:11:00] pre-inspections because then that lets you fix it on your timeline, not somebody else’s.

Randy Berry: Spot on. Yes sir.

Jonathan Breeden: So what percentage of y’all’s inspections are pre-inspections? Like where somebody’s calling saying, I just wanna know what I’m facing.

Randy Berry: Yeah, very small. A lot of times folks are maybe not wanting to spend the money or something like that. So we, we, we try and market it as much as possible. And when you do that pre-inspection, now you have a report that is your property.

And you can then sell that to any potential buyer. So say you’ve got a showing day and 10 folks come in, you can put a sign out, says, Hey. Scan this code and people pay you 50 bucks to view your report and maybe now they don’t have to get an inspection kind of deal. So there’s potential for that as well.

You can, you can recoup some of that cost.

Jonathan Breeden: I didn’t know that. Okay.

Randy Berry: It is a, it is a very, a very small percentage of, of our inspections.

Jonathan Breeden: I gotcha. One of the other

Randy Berry: ’cause of the larger percentage of our inspections is new construction right now around the area.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that would make sense. Right? Well, so with new construction.

The MGOs and the sort of the track builders are building the vast majority of the houses and [00:12:00] they are for the most part gonna try to hit the minimums of the county building code.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Are you familiar with the county building codes and do you know where these track builders like to try to cut corners and maybe you can catch ’em?

Randy Berry: Yeah, there are some as far as the codes, we are not code inspectors. But we do have good resources and friends in low places in our back pocket. So, I happen to know some folks that can always verify things for us. Shout out to Robert Klein Bell. And so, as far as cutting corners, they’ll do it until we get back for the third or fourth home in that subdivision.

And then we actually kind of help their process ’cause if we’re able to come in and identify an issue. You know, they’re an ethical builder. They can do the correct approach and maybe fix it so that would save them time down the road as well. ’cause if a code inspector comes in and bust them, they’ll write it up.

They will fail the house and put a little note in their permit box and then leave. And then now the builder’s gotta pay for them to come back so that they can pass their plumbing rough in or [00:13:00] whatever stage they’re trying to get passed. So if we can start identifying those issues for them and they take it as, you know, quality control, I.

And improve their building processes, then we can help the builders as well. So,

Jonathan Breeden: okay.

Randy Berry: A lot of builders do appreciate us coming out there. It’s almost a pre-inspection for them before the code guy comes.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well that’s interesting. I really thought about it that way,

Randy Berry: Uhhuh.

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Jonathan Breeden: So what are the most common problems in the new construction, particularly track building that we have out here? That you see most commonly?

Randy Berry: Well, the most common thing is that humans build it. So no matter what, no matter who the builder is. Something can be and usually is, is wrong. You know, we make [00:14:00] mistakes. We’re just there to give a extra set of eyes. We’re not there to, to blow up the deal or make anybody upset.

We’re just there to, you know, provide our expertise from our experiences. Some common things that you’re gonna find are really simple cosmetic stuff. You know, we do write up, you know, nail pops and corner cracks and things like this. You have broken glass in homes. One of the bigger ones that might kind of hold things up is gonna be any damage to your engineer trusses.

So up the attic area, if any of those trusses that any of the wooden members are cracked or split, or the mending plates that hold it together are not in place, and that turns into something major because they have to have a structural engineer evaluate that and then provide them with a letter of repair, and then they have to have that repair done.

So that’s one of the most important things that we do find is and that’s just based on the building process.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Randy Berry: You know, if you’ve ever seen ’em drop off a big old stack of trusses that are on the back of a flatbed semi, they just sling ’em off in the mud and then hook a [00:15:00] crane around them and they fling ’em around and things, things happen.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Randy Berry: So that’s one area that we really focus on as inspectors to make sure all that’s good. ’cause we don’t want our buyers to move in. Five years down the road, they go to sell their house, they bring in another inspector and then see that and say, oh, well Randy with a AQI didn’t tell us about that crack trust.

So, we wanna give ’em as much information as possible.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well that’s cool. That’s cool. So, what about the sightings, you know?

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: We have Hardy Plank now. We got the stucco stuff. You know? What has been your experience with the different types of sightings? What are the problems with some of these sightings that you’ve seen?

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: And what suggestions would you have depending on what kind of siding of a house somebody’s buying.

Randy Berry: Yeah, so we see a lot of vinyl. Vinyl is kind of the inexpensive I’m not gonna say it’s less maintenance than anything else. So that’s kinda what we see a lot of. You’ll see it installed too tight where it can’t expand and contract, so it’ll start to warp.

You see, you know, reflections from [00:16:00] adjacent windows can melt the siding. All types of interesting things. The premier, what everybody really wants is their fiber cement, your hardie board and stuff like that. That’s what we all would want to have on our home if we could. They’ve changed throughout the years, their installation requirements, you know, from the manufacturer.

So we kind of have to keep up with manufacturer’s requirements on, on how they install the material. And you know, if it’s an 18-year-old house with fiber cement siding, then you’re gonna see caulked seams on it, where the new ones, they don’t caulk the seams, they put flashing behind it. So there’s a lot of little nuances that come into it, but if I had my choice, I would swap out my vinyl for hardie board right now.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Well, yeah, that’s true. That’s true. And I was fortunate that the house I live in now is a brick house, so,

Randy Berry: okay.

Jonathan Breeden: I don’t have to worry too much about that, but I’ve, I’ve, I, you know, I, I live out here. You live out here. Everybody’s got a story about the track builders and, and some version of something’s happened to the siding. So the, the hardy plank is. [00:17:00] Is is not doing what it’s supposed to do. I mean, you know, that kind of stuff. So I was just curious if there was but as a general rule, these, all these houses around here are well built and you don’t find major problems, right?

Randy Berry: Yeah. In general. It really comes down to the project management at the sites. You know, you can, you drive it. Here’s my advice to people. ’cause we get asked every day, oh, what, what do you think about this builder or this builder? I said all the builders are essentially the same. ’cause they’re using the same subcontractors, the same crew that did your framing on your house was probably working for a different company last month.

And they’ll be at a different company next month ’cause they’ll get paid 10 cents more per hour, you know. So, it all depends on the construction manager and how well they’re managing the project. When you drive into a subdivision, if you see trash everywhere and you see it just looks like a messy job site.

We generally know, all right, we’re gonna find some stuff wrong in this house. But if you go in and they’re maintaining everything and it looks clean and somebody’s keeping up [00:18:00] with everybody, and you generally have a a better home. So that’s kind of my advice when, when answering that question in short, is when, when you go into a subdivision, is is it clean or does it look like a war zone?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I mean, that’s a thought. I mean, I’ve never really thought about that.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: But I’ll have to, and believe me, there’s tons of construction subdivisions here in Johnston County.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I know that you’re big with, veterans And you give discounts to veterans, I think is that right?

Randy Berry: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So we are locally owned and a majority of our inspectors that we employ are veterans. So we have four veterans that work for us. We are proud patriots. We do offer a 10% military discount for veterans. We also offer a 5% discount for first responders. And then we honor our return clients with a little discount as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay, cool. And I know one of the things you do and I did this, and I think this is important, is you do 11 month inspections. Talk about why that is so important and why people should do it. It is crucial, in my opinion, that everybody should get 11 month inspection.

Randy Berry: Absolutely. Absolutely. So we call ’em our 11 [00:19:00] month warranty inspection because at the 12 month or the 12th month, typically your builder’s warranty will expire. So that gives you a full 30 days for us to come in. We’ll do the inspection and provide you with a report. You can summarize anything or fill out any paperwork that you need to on the builder’s end, and have them come out and do a walkthrough and show ’em anything that may be wrong with the home.

it’s so important because a home’s gonna settle when you buy a brand new home. You think you see everything when you first walk in after it’s. The punch list is complete and the blue tape’s all, all fancied up. Then you’re like, all right, this is gonna last forever. Well, within that first year, a lot of things move and creek and expand and contract, so you’re gonna have a, a lot of little nail pops and cracks.

And sometimes people think it’s major structural items, but it’s, it’s usually not. So we’re able to kind of ease their mind about that. But we’re also able to help them formalize that in our report that they present straight to the builder. They come out and get the things fixed and then they can move on to their five and 10 year for their [00:20:00] structural warranties.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and that’s exactly what I did. And I’d had a house that, that settled and there was some cracks, nothing major, but it had settled a little bit.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: And, and the builder I used, down of contracting came back and they, they fixed it. And, and you know, I really appreciate that. ’cause not all builders are as responsive as other builders.

Randy Berry: That’s right.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, I’m just being honest. So anyway, not as responsive as other builders. See you we’re in a rotary pen.

Randy Berry: Yeah. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So are you in the rotary?

Randy Berry: I’m actually the president of the Clayton Rotary Club.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, awesome, awesome.

Randy Berry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: So talk a little bit about Rotary. I, I’ve got the four way test hanging in my office.

Randy Berry: Oh, you do?

Jonathan Breeden: My grand. My grandfather, I’m not in rotary. My grandfather gave me. The a, a picture frame with the four way test in it when I was in college.

Randy Berry: Oh, wow.

Jonathan Breeden: And I have kept it, and I keep it in my office because I always want to ask people, particularly in the divorce law business. Is it the truth?

Randy Berry: Well, yeah. Is it fair at all concerned.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So anyway, so talk a little bit about Rotary.

Randy Berry: Yeah. Yeah. So I’m the president. We’re [00:21:00] actually the rotary year ends at the end of July or at the end of June. So I’m in my last quarter of my presidency. Lynn Roman, a real estate agent here locally. She’s gonna be, she’s our president elect who will be taking over middle of this summer.

But we’ve got a really strong club. We just celebrated literally last week, the 100th anniversary of our club. So, had a big old party over at the farm. And we also set a, a goal by our 100th birthday of the club to have over a hundred members. So we have 104 members in our club right now.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s awesome. Awesome.

Randy Berry: So yeah, we, we’ve been growing. We still meet at Rainbow Lanes.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s awesome.

Randy Berry: You can come on down for some free breakfast on Thursday mornings.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, yeah.

Randy Berry: You done at eight o’clock And continue about your day.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. ’cause y’all meet at like 7:00 AM right?

Randy Berry: Yeah. Yeah. It’s good networking.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, man.

Randy Berry: And you’d be surprised, you walk in rainbow lanes, there’s. 60, 75 people in there. You’re like, wow, everybody is awake.

Jonathan Breeden: Man, that’s early. I, I know. I mean there used to be two rotary clubs in Clayton.

Randy Berry: There was.

Jonathan Breeden: There was a midday.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: And then there was an [00:22:00] evening, they didn’t have a breakfast one.

So maybe, which one would yours go from midday to the, or to the breakfast or were you the evening one that went to the breakfast?

Randy Berry: So it used to be evening and my sponsor Lee Hudson.

Jonathan Breeden: Lee hudson just passed away.

Randy Berry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Great man.

Randy Berry: Yep. Absolutely. He was my sponsor and he’s the one that came up with the bright idea to do the morning thing.

Because they were losing interest and you know, as they were, they were trying to get a younger club and it was tough for them to get a younger club and remain in the evenings because, you know, now sports were starting, you know, soccer, all that stuff back in eighties was starting to, you know, really kick off and, you know, families are just so busy.

So that’s when they came up with the morning deal and they had midday midday club is no longer around. They had, they had dissolved, so we’re. We’re standing strong. Now we also have the Cleveland.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, the Cleveland Rotary Club.

Randy Berry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I don’t know when it meets. I know it meets the Cleveland Draft House, or at least it did.

Randy Berry: Yep, they do. They do. So I was actually hanging out with Russell Camper. He’s their, their president over there. We, we were just in Dominican Republic last week.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh man. Okay.

Randy Berry: So we were there, we were there for a week building houses [00:23:00] in Los Cocos, right outside of Santiago.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, he’s a builder.

Randy Berry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean he, rose Camp was a very good builder.

Randy Berry: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: So that’s, that’s awesome.

Randy Berry: So he was out there as a builder and I was at another site as, as the inspector. So everybody told me I had to have blinders on the whole week, which is a good thing I did. ’cause. Whew.

Jonathan Breeden: Well,

Randy Berry: construction’s a little different there.

Jonathan Breeden: Their construction’s a little different than American construction. There’s no doubt about that. Well, that, that’s great. The I actually spoke. To the  Clayton Rotary Club. a few years ago, when it was in the evening, I was invited by Ernest Blackley,

Randy Berry: okay.

Jonathan Breeden: Who passed away a couple of years ago to come and speak and, I had a really good time and, and I’ll, I’ll always remember that. It’s been a while, but it was, it was a good time and I, I really enjoyed it and I appreciated him doing it. And I try to participate in the Rotary stuff. I just got some of the Flax for Heroes.

Randy Berry: Yeah,

Jonathan Breeden: I just, I just, I just saw your name on.

That’s right. I just got a few of those. By the time this episode runs, the Flag Hill is probably over, but Flag Hill usually runs Memorial Day. To about July 4th. Is that right?

Randy Berry: Yes, sir. Mm-hmm. And so it’s coming up.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. And so, and it’s, they put out flags for out [00:24:00] there next to the hospital in Clayton.

And I think that’s great, but I learned just the other night. It is for you can honor people that are alive because I thought it was only for people that had passed away.

Randy Berry: So are you the one that asked Stewart that question?

Jonathan Breeden: I did. I did.

Randy Berry: Okay. Stewart said, you hear me? Lemme okay. That was true. How funny. What a small world.

Jonathan Breeden: Right? Right. I was with Stewart and I was like, I didn’t know you could do people that are alive. And he was like, oh yeah. So, so anyway,

Randy Berry: that’s funny

Jonathan Breeden: you don’t have to be dead to, we have a flag honoring you at the flags for heroes. That Clayton Rotary Club with the Cleveland Rotary Club and club, the murder clubs do.

And, and I think that’s beautiful. I, I encourage everybody to go out there and I think it’s neat. I think it’s great that y’all do that. And I mean it’s, I mean, it’s moving. I mean, I don’t know how many it was 150, 200 flags

Randy Berry: 1500,

Jonathan Breeden: 1500 flags.

Randy Berry: Yeah,

Jonathan Breeden: it’s a lot.

Randy Berry: It started the, the Lee Hudson and at the time Michael Sims was president and they kind of were presented with this project and thought about it, and they were, they were shooting for 200.

That was their goal. Michael Sims said, ah, I don’t know if we can get 200 people to do this. Well, next thing you know, they turn [00:25:00] around and they’ve got 500 flags out there and they said, wow, we can really make this grow. And this was right during COVID when we started doing it here. And we said, this is a great way to get people back out, engaged, get the community back together.

I think it was something really heartfelt that brought the community back together during a really tough time for a lot of folks. It just kept growing and it’s our biggest fundraiser throughout the year. All of our proceeds that we use for that goes to, you know, stop soldier suicide. The schools for all of our scholarships that we give.

Other projects that we do in the community as well. So that’s, that’s our biggest fundraiser for that.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s awesome. So how can people reach out to you at AQI?

Randy Berry: Yeah, so they can either, most importantly visit our website at AQInspect.com. You can read the bios about all of our amazing inspectors that we employ.

They are all our W2 employees. We don’t contract anyone out. And you can call 9 1 9 6 0 7 0 2 8 8. I answer the phone as much as I can. That’s the beauty, beautiful and downside of being a small business owner.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. I understand [00:26:00] that. Yeah, I understand that. And the last question we ask everybody on this podcast, what do you love most about Johnston County?

Randy Berry: Well, you kind of gotta take it back to the Rotary Club again. You know, I’m just so involved with it. The community is amazing. Once you see the folks in the, the, we love supporting local small businesses. You know, Lee Hudson had brought me into the Rotary Club and introduced me to a lot of local folks.

And so yeah, it’s a really good feel here. We moved here from Colorado and don’t plan on going back ’cause I can’t stand shoveling snow.

Jonathan Breeden: I can understand that you’re not the first person to move to Johnston County because of the weather, that’s for sure. So anyway, we’d like to take Randy from AQI for coming and being on our podcast here today. If you learn anything of this podcast, give us a five star review down below with comments. We’ll make sure that he gets those reach out to him and his team if you need any home inspections or any of the other services he talked about offering today. Also, as we mentioned earlier, please like follow, subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re seeing it so you’ll be aware of future episodes of The Best of Johnston County Podcast.

The [00:27:00] Best of Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday. And if you’d also do us a favor and share it in your Instagram stories and tag us at The Best of Johnston County, we would much, we would much, much appreciate you doing that for us. Till next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.