We are the result of three generations of Franklin's involved in the housing industry. My grand-father, Durward Franklin, Sr., owned and operated a hardware store in St. Petersburg, Florida when my father was just a kid. 

(circa 1950, l to r - my father John, my Uncle Johnny Edward, my grandfather Durward Sr., ?, my Uncle Bob)

My uncle, Durward Franklin, Jr. built homes and did carpentry work in Florida and eventually here in Virginia. My father worked with his older brother on and off over the years.

(circa October 1958, my father helped my Uncle Durward build what is now know as Mt. Ararat Baptist Church's Chapel.)

In the early 1970's, my father got his Class A contractor's license, REALTOR's license and started a construction company in Stafford County with a friend. Soon after he opened two Ace Hardware stores and a lumber yard in Stafford. I grew up working in these stores and on the construction sites. I literally learned about houses from the ground up.

 (circa 1980, Ace Hardware @ Brafferton Shopping Center in north Stafford, my father John Franklin and Earl Parker) 

By the mid 1980's, my father closed down the hardware stores, lumber yard and concentrated on building houses with me as his superintendent. During this time, real estate agents would ask my father to look at houses for them as a favor. More and more agents started asking him to look at houses. My father researched the home inspection industry in the late 1980's. In 1989, my father and I bought into a home inspection company franchise. Home inspections were not common here at the time. I worked part time with my father doing home inspections and building houses while I was a full time computer programmer in northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.  After a few years, the home inspection industry started booming and I began working full time with my father. By 1997, my father's health problems kept him from performing home inspections so I kept the company going for awhile. Then I withdrew from the franchise and started an independent home inspection company called Pro-Spect Home Inspection Services, LLC.

Dedication

John Franklin, 1935-1999

Home Inspector, Contractor, REALTOR, Korean War Veteran, Church Deacon, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Man of God

Pro-Spect wouldn't exist today if it wasn't for the vision, hard work, determination and integrity of my father.