Inspecting the Bluegrass
Charles Romans
The Ashland Beacon
Josh Agee grew up in the Nitro/Poca area in West Virginia and has been around construction and retail his entire life. “I was a store manager for Lowe’s for almost 20 years,” Agee said. “I was on the commercial sales side of it, and that made me interested in the whole building process,” he said. His position at Lowe’s not only inspired him to start his own business but also led him to the Ashland area. “Ashland was my last store, and I left there right before the pandemic.”
“I was really wanting to get into something on my own,” Agee said, because becoming his own boss had always appealed to him. “I actually had some friends that had gotten into the field back in West Virginia, so that piqued my interest a little bit. So, I decided to open my own business, and everything went from there to where I am now.”
Agee now owns Bluegrass Property Inspections, a business that does real estate and private inspections of the entire home and property. He has been offering complete inspections for about four years now and enjoys helping people know exactly where they stand. Predominantly, it is real estate inspections during the sale or purchase process, Agee said, where he goes through and checks for any safety or security issues. “We look at the entire home, interior and exterior and roof,” Agee explained. “We’re looking at electrical, HVAC and structure of the build. We can even do termite inspections.”
Agee is certified in Ohio and Kentucky, and his inspections go by state and national standards. “It is a really thorough inspection that typically takes three or four hours to complete. We always put out a nice digital report for our customers the same day,” Agee stated.
Property inspection can also be important at several different phases, Agee said. He regularly provides inspections for different phases of construction or remodeling, which is a necessary step when some lenders require progress reports for different stages of financing a project. Bluegrass Property Inspections also does environmental inspections of sites, such as when a business intends to come in and build on a parcel of land, to make sure there isn’t refuse or other issues on the site. “They give us a checklist, and we can check to make sure things are favorable,” commented Agee.
Agee said that Bluegrass Property Inspection isn’t a Code Inspection business, but he does keep up with the codes because they affect everything. “I keep up with things because I like to help educate my customers about what the codes are,” he said. Different lenders or even types of loans have different requirements for what must be fixed before buying or selling. “VA loans are probably the most stringent,” Agee shared. “They require you to install GFI (ground fault interrupt) receptacles in certain areas and handrails, for instance. I like to let my customers know because something as simple as that might cause your loan to not go through.”
According to Agee, much of their business comes to them by ‘word-of-mouth,’ whether that is individuals recommending them to other individuals or realtors and lenders reaching out to them. Agee is very active on social media such as Facebook as well because he wants to give people the personal touch that seems to be lacking in today’s world. “People can message me on Facebook, or they can call or text me,” Agee shared. His number is listed on the Facebook page, and he encourages people to use it if they have any questions. “I’m used to helping customers from being a store manager all those years, and it’s not surprising to be talking to customers now sometimes at 11 p.m. It doesn’t bother me at all. I enjoy helping people with the process.”