In 2008 Derek was longing for a career change but was unsure which path he should take. He was working rotating shifts at a local papermill. Five of their six children had left the nest and while the papermill had provided well for a big family full of teenagers, the shift work had lost its glam and Derek was ready for a change. Meanwhile Chris, Derek’s oldest son, was about to buy a house and called his dad to come take a look for hopefully a stamp of approval. Derek had been around construction for years so he felt confident he could guide his son. It was during this process of looking and evaluating the condition of that home that a light bulb turned on and Derek began to wonder about a career in home inspection. He knew he loved building and construction, awe the smell of wood, and watching things come together. He knew he loved meeting and helping people. He shared with Jessica the idea of becoming a home inspector and what that would look like for them. Jessica supported Derek 100% seeing how this would utilize his personality and skills and could be a very fulfilling career. Quickly they both got excited and set a plan in motion to get to school. The excitement and vision of a new world overshadowed the challenges of juggling his current rotating shift job.

After getting his license and passing his test with very high marks, he set out to see if he could establish a new business while maintaining his current job until it was strong enough to become a full-time career. Their evenings were spent with white boards, strategies, logo designs, brochures, and brainstorming. Derek and Jessica worked tirelessly together creating the Inspection Gator brand and enjoying the process. There was much discussion about the “Gator”. Derek wanted a happy memorable character and Jessica thought folks would think they were in the exterminating business. Guess who won! Little did they know that during this time, it was 2008 and the bottom had just fallen out of the housing market.

It was an eye-opening experience when they discovered there were 12 home inspectors in Texarkana and properties were not selling. Proving his commitment to integrity and quality, over the course of the next 3 years, he built the business up to the point he could leave the paper mill and became one of the top 2 inspectors in town. It was a dream come true. Derek said, “I just knew that I had been a consumer and wanted to treat people the way I wanted to be treated. It wasn’t work to me. I loved it and actually had fun meeting so many wonderful people and hearing their stories.” It was not without ups and downs but a life outside of shiftwork was worth pursuing. In 2013, the company had grown enough to add an additional inspector. The growth of the company was exciting.

Each year Inspection Gator continued to grow and in 2016 Jessica was able to leave her accounting job at the same mill to begin running the IG office. She answered the phone,scheduled inspections and kept things flowing smoothly behind the scenes. She said “when I hear the excitement in a first-time buyer’s voice and get to know them a little during their scheduling, then later read their review of how we helped them…. well it just doesn’t get any better. I think we have found our calling.” They enjoyed their new world tremendously even though there were many long hours, it was obviously a passion for them.

Today, as IG continues to grow, there are now several inspectors with additional help in the office and the coverage area spans from Paris Tx to Arkadelphia AR. They say that now the fulfillment is not only in helping clients, but also in knowing they have grown something strong enough to support multiple families and provide jobs. Additionally, the opportunities to give back to clients and cancer research is something they take pride in being able to do. They are proud to have affected the quality of homes and to have made so many new life-long friends along the way. None of it would be possible without everyone on the team seeing the vision and embracing the same dedication to providing customers with the type of service they would want for themselves, going the extra mile with details, timely reports and excellent communication.