Former hotel sales exec eyes big growth for SWFL home inspection business

Hotel sales executive-turned-entrepreneur Joe Nugent, in seizing opportunities for his now 10-year-old home inspection company, has a never break rule: "I won't just hire a warm body."


Joe Nugent worked in hospitality for some 20 years before starting his own company.
Joe Nugent worked in hospitality for some 20 years before starting his own company.
Courtesy Image
  • Charlotte–Lee–Collier
  • Share

Joe Nugent had spent years in hospitality management when an expected job loss pushed him in the direction of a new career. He wanted to become his own boss, and hours of HGTV viewing with his wife had shown him the possibilities in home inspection.

“I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” says Nugent, 46. “So I started to really look into the home inspection world, and there was a big void in Southwest Florida. It was kind of one of those things where the more I looked into it, the more I fell in love with it.”

After getting licensed (while still working full-time in hospitality), he launched Naples-based Joe the Home Pro in 2015. He worked nights and weekends at first, then made the leap to full-time when the pandemic upended the hospitality industry.

He saw success right out of the gate. “It was some luck and some strategy,” says Nugent. “If you think about what happened in Southwest Florida compared to other parts of the country during Covid, our housing market went berserk. So that was a big part of it, I’m not going to lie. But I had really been working hard to build the right relationships, and I was primed to move to full-time.”

Joe Nugent founded Joe the Home Pro in 2015.
Courtesy image

As the local housing market heated up during the pandemic, the need for quality trade companies became even clearer. “I think a lot of fly-by-nights came in,” says Nugent. “They could see the dollar signs and they got really greedy.”

This is where Nugent’s hospitality background is an asset in his new endeavor. (Brands he has worked for include Holiday Inn, Radisson and Staybridge Suites, with local and regional sales executive roles.) “Something I tell a lot of people is that I am going to grow and scale a service-based company in Southwest Florida without losing the service aspect,” he says. “A lot of companies just think they need a bigger area of land to cover and more team members, but they lose what got them there in the first place.

“For me, having 20 years in the hospitality business in high-end hotels and resorts, I always want to remind myself why I got into this and who we do it for,” he continues. “The money will come, the accolades will come, but you’ve got to do the service side first. That’s a big reason why my No. 1 company pillar is relentless service. Every team member I bring on, they come on understanding that if they don’t deliver service, they’re not going to be here for a long time.”

Joe the Home Pro has grown anywhere from 15% to 25% percent in overall revenue each year in the last five years. The company offers home inspection services from Marco Island through Punta Gorda, with plans to move into Sarasota in 2025. It has four full-time employees in addition to Nugent — a number should grow, especially if the company does expand north. 

“I’m really hoping we can add a couple more inspectors and hire a scheduler in 2025,” says Nugent. “But I won’t just hire a warm body; it’s got to be the right person.”


‘Get it’ 

Sarasota isn’t the limit for Nugent. He wants to take Joe the Home Pro nationwide, and he’s got a plan to do that using a licensing model. He feels that will lower the barrier to entry for others and help with a major goal of his — putting veterans to work across the country.

“It’s a segment of our population that’s near and dear to my heart, and I want to help give back,” says Nugent. “If you look at the skill set of what a veteran has, a majority of them have a keen eye for detail. They’re organized, personable, handy. All these different traits lend themselves well to the home inspection realm.”

Joe Nugent, on ladder, hopes to increase the employee count at Joe the Home Pro from him and four others this year.
Courtesy image

He knows his philosophy of relentless service might get harder to maintain as Joe the Home Pro locations grow nationwide. “I had to be honest with myself that if we’re going to grow and scale this thing not just locally or regionally but nationwide, how do we keep what made us awesome in Southwest Florida awesome still in years to come,” he says.

Just like he won’t simply hire warm bodies for his local business, he won’t give a license to just anyone who’s interested. “I’ve spoken to seven people so far that I have said no to, the reason being because in my conversations with them, they do not have the relentless service aspect in their vocabulary,” says Nugent. “They’re not built for what we want to build with the right people who get it and are able to build a great business for themselves and carry on the Joe the Home Pro name and deliver relentless service.”


Push forward

His expansion plans will hopefully get a boost from the exposure he got after winning season 13 of entrepreneurship competition show “The Blox” on Amazon Prime, Facebook Series and other outlets. “It gave me a lot of validation,” says Nugent. “My 20 years in corporate America lent itself perfectly for me to own, operate, grow, and scale a company, no matter what type it is. I understand business principles and practices and strategies.”

In 2025, Nugent wants to increase the amount of business he does in Lee County. And if he sees success in Sarasota, he’ll continue to push into Tampa and St. Pete. “But that’s as far as I want to own,” he says. “I don’t want to own anything past Tampa.”

The rest of the state and country is for others to create their own Joe the Home Pro success. “Helping change people's lives is what I love doing,” says Nugent. “I know it sounds very cliché, but it’s just who I am. I just know that if I can help change other people’s lives, it’s going to change my life in the process.”

 

author

Beth Luberecki

Nokomis-based freelance writer Beth Luberecki, a Business Observer contributor, writes about business, travel and lifestyle topics for a variety of Florida and national publications. Her work has appeared in publications and on websites including Washington Post’s Express, USA Today, Florida Trend, FamilyVacationist.com and SmarterTravel.com. Learn more about her at BethLuberecki.com.

Latest News

Sponsored Content