In the mid-1970s, long before “home inspection” was a profession in Canada, Alan Carson and Bob Dunlop were fire protection engineers inspecting industrial buildings for insurance companies.
Their days were spent evaluating massive mechanical systems, risk protocols, and structural vulnerabilities on behalf of insurers. It was technical work, rooted in a single responsibility: keeping people safe.
Then Dunlop bought a crumbling old house in Toronto’s historic Cabbagetown neighbourhood. Carson walked through it with him, approaching the structure not like a buyer, but like an inspector. They weren’t thinking about resale value. They were thinking: Does this thing hold up?
Carson still sees the Realtor’s grin and hears the question that would change their lives: “That was smart. Can you do that for my next client?”
Where Canadian home inspection began
It was a casual comment. But like most turning points, it arrived without fanfare.
Carson and Dunlop thought they had invented a new service. A few days later, they discovered that detailed residential inspections had been a common practice in the United Kingdom for generations. The United States had just started to formalize it, too. But in Canada? It was uncharted territory.
One snowy afternoon while inspecting a facility in London, Ont., the two got snowed in and started talking. By nightfall, Carson Dunlop & Associates was born. They each threw in $1,000 and started the first dedicated home inspection company in the country.
No strategy decks. No growth targets. Just hustle, humility, and the simple belief that homebuyers deserved to know what they were walking into.
Carson was 26 years old.
“Take care of the client, always.”
Ask Carson what made Carson Dunlop different, and he’ll tell you without hesitation.
“It’s ridiculously simple,” he says. “We built everything on the idea that we need to take really good care of our clients. Buyers, sellers, Realtors, they’re all our clients. Treat them how you want to be treated.”
This wasn’t just philosophy. It was policy, and it shaped the company culture for decades.
When a client once took issue with a home that had UFFI (urea formaldehyde foam insulation), Carson could have argued it was undiscoverable. Legally, he was likely in the clear. But the client brought in a lawyer. Carson didn’t fight. He listened. They settled for a small amount. Then something unexpected happened.
The lawyer called back.
He asked for a stack of business cards.
“I’ve never seen anything more professional,” the lawyer said. He referred clients for years after that.
That kind of story became common. A student once left a negative Google review on the company’s inspection page. It turned out he was actually upset with a community college the company partnered with. Carson mentioned it to his team, and without being asked, they reached out, contacted both sides, and resolved the misunderstanding.
That was the standard. Not because it was mandated, but because it was modelled. Do the right thing. Make the extra call. Own the outcome. And always, always leave people better than you found them.
A business built without chasing one
Carson Dunlop was never designed as a high-growth business. It grew by proximity to trust. Carson often jokes he’s a terrible businessman (“I give myself a four or five out of 10,” he says) and openly admits that sales and marketing are words he “can barely spell.”
What he is, however, is a master communicator. And to Carson, inspection has always been about communication. A home might have 1,000 complex components. The inspector’s job? Filter, interpret, and explain.
“We’re in the communication business,” Carson says. “We just happen to do home inspections.”
Inspectors were trained not just in structure and safety, but in tone. Carson teaches inspectors to read the room. Speaking to an engineer? Use technical terms. Talking to an artist or first-time buyer? Find analogies. Make it human.
“You want them to feel the same way about the house that we do,” he says. “Not overwhelmed. Not afraid. Just clear.”
They understood that language could calm or confuse. And it mattered. Carson believes it’s one of the most overlooked skills in the entire industry.
“You can inspect the same house twice in the same day and use different language each time because people need different things.”
The same went for Realtors. Carson Dunlop didn’t chase deals. They built partnerships. Carson recalls walking into brokerages with a glass case full of termites to teach agents what to look for. They hosted homebuyer seminars that doubled as education for Realtors. Their goal wasn’t just to inspect, but to inform.
In doing so, they earned the trust of a generation of agents who saw them not as deal-breakers, but as partners in helping clients buy wisely.
Educator first, entrepreneur reluctantly
Carson’s favourite role wasn’t CEO. It was the teacher.
In the early 1990s, he attended a conference in California where inspectors were running two-week certification courses. He brought them to Canada, sat in the back of the room, and winced the whole time. “It just wasn’t applicable here,” he says.
So he decided to write a better one.
He partnered with a university’s distance education team and developed a 10-course curriculum. He built it out with tradespeople, engineers, and educators. Then he moved it online long before remote learning was the norm.
During the pandemic, Carson Dunlop’s education division didn’t just survive. It soared.
He doesn’t brag about that. He talks about the education team. “The level of care in this company just blows me away,” he says. “They go the extra mile when no one’s looking.”
His dream is for home inspection to become a true profession, the kind you can explain at a family dinner without qualifiers. Not a cottage industry. Not a fallback. A calling.
He envisions a post-secondary path that includes an apprenticeship, like in the trades. Maybe even augmented reality training for hands-on experience without travel or time barriers. “We need to build professional judgment, not just knowledge,” he says.
Hard-won lessons
Like any business, Carson Dunlop had rough patches.
The dot-com bust almost derailed their early venture into home management software. They’d signed a term sheet with an investor, then the bubble burst, and the deal evaporated. So they built the software in-house and later sold it to Sears.
Hiring became a marathon. For over a decade, Carson and Dunlop tried to step back by hiring a COO. They went through more than 15 people. None lasted.
“We thought we could let someone else run it and do what we loved,” Carson says. “But the truth is, we never really let go.”
Dunlop eventually stepped away. Carson stayed on.
When bidding wars in the late 2010s began eliminating inspection conditions from offers, the entire industry suffered.
Then the pandemic hit. They shut down inspections entirely for two months to keep their team safe.
In late 2020, Carson Dunlop was sold to Fax Capital, and Carson remained a part of the team post-acquisition.
“I wouldn’t trade it,” he says. “Not for anything.”
Carson adored the work, but numbers never thrilled him; raising the industry’s bar did.
The next chapter
In February 2024, Carson and Dunlop was acquired by Co-operators, a leading Canadian multi-line insurance and financial services group, bringing the firm under a national company with similar values and eyes to the future of home services.
Carson has once again returned to his passion. He is now getting back to the classroom that started it all, pushing the industry forward while a new team carries on the legacy of Carson Dunlop.
Guiding the next chapter is Karen Yolevski, former COO of Royal LePage’s corporate brokerages. This isn’t a new direction; they’ve grabbed the baton and are pushing the same mandate forward: Put their clients first.
“Our north star is the same one Alan set,” she says. “Inspect first, care forever.”
The vision
Carson has long argued that inspection shouldn’t end at the offer.
“If you’re going to spend 10 or 20 times more on a house than on a used car,” he says, “why wouldn’t you have someone inspect it first? Of course you would. It just makes sense.”
But to Carson, the real opportunity lies not just in that first inspection, it’s in what happens afterward. The vision is simple: treat homeownership like healthcare or car maintenance. Don’t wait for something to break.
“You don’t go to the dentist once and assume your teeth are good forever,” he says. “You go for regular checkups. Your house deserves the same.”
The company believes inspections should be part of a regular maintenance schedule. Not to nitpick, but to protect. Roofs age. Appliances wear down. Drainage shifts. Knowing what’s coming isn’t just about catching problems, it’s about preventing them before they become expensive or unsafe.
Carson Dunlop sees inspectors as long-term partners, advisors you call for a second opinion. People who are there for you when something smells off, leaks unexpectedly, or just doesn’t feel right.
That’s what’s next: a profession that doesn’t just help you buy a home, but helps you keep it, care for it, and understand it for the long haul. Co-operators is embracing this vision and scaling it nationwide.
What he leaves behind
Ask Alan what legacy he hopes to leave, and he keeps it simple.
“I’d like to think we made a difference in the quality of homeownership in Canada.”
He did.
More than that, Carson built a company that showed how to succeed by doing the right thing even when it was slower, harder, or less lucrative.
He didn’t chase attention. But he earned admiration.
He didn’t sell hard. But he built trust.
He didn’t run a business
He raised it, like a home worth living in.
Now, with the torch in new hands, the mission carries forward. Bigger, broader, and still beating with the same heart:
Put the home—and the people who live in it—first.
Partnered stories produced by our team in collaboration with industry leaders. Want to tell your story? Find out more here.