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Today I will be interviewing a husband and wife team who have risen to the top of the ranks of RV inspectors.
Jason and Lisa Carletti’s RV inspection business is located near Tampa, but they provide services throughout central Florida. It’s something they have been doing since 2017.
There are only a handful of master certified RV inspectors in the National RV Inspectors Association (NRVIA), and the Carletti’s are in that group. To get to that level, they had to do things like complete at least 50 RV inspections, promote the career field at various conferences and in publications, and be evaluated by their peers.
Prior to becoming inspectors, Jason was a low-voltage technician working on video equipment in theaters and large conference rooms. Lisa was a traveling nurse, and they lived in a Class A motorhome. But sitting alone in a motorhome while his wife worked wasn’t very appealing, so Jason was looking for something to do.
It was Lisa who spotted an advertisement about NRVIA on Facebook. They spoke with some other inspectors to verify it was something Jason could do while the couple traveled. After investigating the opportunity, Lisa got a job in Tyler, Texas, which was about 30 minutes from the National RV Training Academy, so Jason could get training. A few months later, Lisa took the course herself.
At the time of the interview, the Carlettis were about to complete their 930th RV inspection.
It was funny to Jason’s story about evaluating an RV for a home inspector who admitted to completing 40 to 50 home inspections every week. By comparison, Jason and Lisa do no more than five because of the detailed work that goes into evaluating a recreation vehicle.
The Carletti’s final reports average 150 pages, which buries the detail of most home inspections. However, the couple is quick to point out to their clients that everything they find is fixable. For example, there may be a problem with the sealant in 20 areas of the roof, but it can be corrected in one repair.
Lisa said that helps new RV owners to better understand the RV’s condition in terms of what it would take to correct major problems and minor issues.
The couple documents all their findings with videos and photos because there have been instances where something worked during an inspection, but wasn’t working when the owners started using the RV. It could be something happened to the RV after it was inspected, such as a technician unplugged a wire in order to access something else and forgot to plug it back in.
To promote their business, the Carletti’s joined the Florida RV Association and they pay for a booth at the wildly-popular Florida RV Supershow held every January. They also developed a YouTube channel on which Jason posts videos of big things he’s uncovered during his inspections.
The goal is to save clients some money by showing them how to look for deal breakers upfront, so they can hire an RV inspector to conduct a detailed evaluation on the unit they are really considering.
The Carletti’s also developed a side business called MyRVResource.com, which is a directory of companies providing service to RV owners. It includes listings for inspectors, mobile service technicians, towing companies, storage units, RV detailing and other services.
MyRVResource helps traveling RVers find the services they need wherever they may be. It also helps mobile-based businesses, which provide those type of services, to update their listings while they travel, which is something Google will not do with its business listings.
To connect with the Carletti’s visit www.myrvinspection.com, where you can find their phone number and email address as well. The couple can also be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Today’s episode is sponsored by the National RV Training Academy in Athens, Texas. The academy’s one-week live training or home study course will teach you everything you need to know to fix about 80 percent of the problems people experience with their RVs.
You can also sign up for additional training to become an RV inspector, campground technician or to provide mobile RV service. For more information, visit www.nrvta.com.
That’s all for this week’s show. Next time, I will be interviewing a Navy veteran and full-time RVer who runs a business providing RV inspections, fixing problems and performing preventative maintenance. I’ll have that interview on the next episode of RV Tech Talk. Thank you for listening!