Getting to Hell Yes! with Tim Wallace from zInspector

There are certain people in PropTech you meet and immediately think, “Yep… this guy gets it.”
Tim Wallace is one of those people.

He has the rare combination of hands-on operator empathy, startup grit, and a marketer’s instinct for human behavior. Before we even hit record, we were already deep into a conversation about the chaos that operators are navigating legislation changes, inspection backlogs, tech integration nightmares and how important it is to find the buyers who already know they have a problem to solve.

Tim has lived through four startups, countless integrations, and more than a decade of chasing operational clarity inside property management. And through it all, he’s developed one truth:

“Buyers don’t want to be sold to. They want to solve the problem that’s already burning them.”

This conversation is about inspections, yes but it’s also about leadership, accountability, field operations, and why the industry is being forced to change faster than many feel comfortable with.

“Am I a masochist?”

That’s how Tim answered when I asked why he keeps joining startups.

He joked that being called a “serial” anything usually isn’t flattering, and that after jumping into his fourth early-stage venture, maybe he should stop saying yes so quickly.

But the truth is, Tim’s path makes perfect sense.

He got his start in tech back in 2014 with InsideSales.com, learning the SDR grind and eventually leading teams. Then came PointCentral, where he dove headfirst into PropTech and fell in love with partnerships and integrations. Then Tenant Turner, where he helped steer growth, marketing, and customer success through both COVID and acquisition.

And finally, zInspector where the stars aligned.
The CEO reached out the moment Tim announced he was leaving Tenant Turner:

“There’s no way you’re leaving the industry.” And Tim didn’t. He jumped straight in.

Today, he leads partnerships and helps shape how operators think about inspections, documentation, and the workflows that have been stuck in 2004 for far too long.

The Real Problem Isn’t Inspections. It’s the Way We Think About Inspections.

Operators don’t wake up thinking about innovative inspection workflows.
They wake up to a text message from a tech who didn’t show up, an owner frustrated about deposit reconciliation, or a batch of move-outs that should’ve been done three days ago.

Inspecting isn’t the pain, fallout is.

Tim said it plainly: “Inspections get done. They just don’t get done well.”

Photos misplaced. Reports inconsistent. Documentation missing. Evidence inadequate.

And the cost isn’t small. When documentation fails, owners pay for damage they didn’t cause and operators eat the liability.

Tim sees it every day:

• Paper inspections still being used (yes, in 2024)
  
• Teams uploading photos into random Google Drive folders
  
• Phones overloaded with hundreds of property photos
  
• And, shockingly, 10,000-unit portfolios using sticky notes taped to doors to track make-readies
  

When he told me that story, I had to stop him. Sticky notes? In an industry with billions under management?

This is the gap. This is the opportunity. This is the pain point that creates a Hell Yes! buyer.

“Efficiency” Isn’t a Buzzword, it’s the Lifeline

Tim kept coming back to one theme: efficiency.

Why do operators finally call?

Not because inspections aren’t happening but because they’re costing too much time, too much money, and too many headaches.

That’s where zInspector starts to shine:

• Cutting a 2-hour inspection down to 30–45 minutes
  
• Eliminating admin work with voice-powered, AI-generated reports
  
• Creating side-by-side move-in/move-out comparisons
  
• Syncing offline and online data seamlessly
  
• And maybe most important standardizing documentation across the entire team
  

It shouldn’t matter if your inspector has been there 10 years or 10 days. The software should level the playing field.

Tim told me about their “Z Assistant” AI tool, which listens to the inspector’s narration, parses the video, takes the needed photos itself, and generates the report automatically.

It doesn’t just make things faster, it makes everything consistent. And consistency is what keeps you out of court.

The Truth About Burnout: “My Team Just Won’t Do It.”

When operators don’t move forward, it’s rarely the product. It’s rarely the cost. It’s rarely the implementation.

It’s the fear that the maintenance team won’t adopt it.

Tim hears it constantly:

• “My techs won’t change.”
  
• “They’ve done it their way for years.”
  
• “I can’t add one more thing to their plate.”
  

But as we both acknowledged… This is a leadership gap, not a tech gap.

Because the hard truth is this:

If we avoid innovation because we’re afraid the team won’t like it, we’re guaranteeing their burnout.

Every technician is drowning. 50-hour weeks, reactive chaos, nonstop resident calls. Every extra step feels like a burden because the job is already impossible but the path out of burnout is not less structure, it’s better structure. It’s giving techs tools that help them work smarter, not harder. It’s replacing admin tasks with automation.

And this is the big one. it’s giving them a way to measure output, so one day, they can justify being paid more.

As I told Tim: “Nobody gets paid more for doing the same amount of work but if technology doubles your productivity? Now you have a case.”

The Buyers Who Say Hell Yes!

Not everyone is ready.
Not everyone is willing.
Not everyone is looking for change.

And that’s fine.

But the Hell Yes buyers share three traits:

1. They are already on top of their business.

These are the operators with systems, processes, and a maturity curve.
They’re not trying to fix disasters. They’re enhancing what already works.

2. They want to connect inspections and maintenance.

They don’t just want photos.
They want work orders auto-generated from the field.
They want maintenance coordinators triaging before the inspector even leaves the home.

3. They believe that “good enough” is no longer good enough.

They’ve seen the rise in costs.
They’ve felt the pressure.
They know compliance and litigation risks are rising.

And they know sticky notes aren’t cutting it.

The Big Insight: Maintenance isn’t a Cost Center, it’s a Productivity Center

Imagine if maintenance was measured like revenue:

• More jobs = more money
  
• More inspections = more output
  
• More productivity = higher wages
  

Suddenly, the incentive shifts.
Suddenly, tech adoption isn’t a burden, it’s an opportunity.
Suddenly, efficiency becomes the path to equity.

We’re nowhere near this reality, but it’s coming. It has to because the market isn’t giving operators any more time, people, or money.

And that means: Efficiency is the only lever left.

From my side of the mic… here’s what I’m still thinking about:

🔹 What if “good enough” is the biggest threat to the industry?
🔹 How many problems would disappear if teams had clean, consistent documentation?
🔹 Why are we afraid to tell techs that productivity is the path to better pay?
🔹 If maintenance became a revenue center, how fast would innovation follow?
🔹 And what would happen if leaders stopped negotiating with change and led from the front?

Tim reminded me that inspections aren’t a chore. They’re the backbone of asset management. The foundation of maintenance. The evidence that protects owners. The source of truth for every decision downstream.

And right now, that source of truth is leaking everywhere.