Detroit inspector Dwight ‘Skip’ Stackhouse’s unconventional journey

Dwight “Skip” Stackhouse is a longtime Detroit home inspector and award-winning storyteller. His journey begins like many others — inspired by a close-knit family — but the plot line to his success follows an unconventional path. 

As a teen in 1960s Detroit, Stackhouse was introduced to his future career by his uncle — one of Detroit’s most competent and exacting builders, Stackhouse said. Despite his expertise, as a Black man his uncle was denied a builder’s license. Stackhouse and his brothers got a rigorous education from their uncle in everything from building fundamentals like the concepts of level, plumb and square, to “cutting in” — a painting technique that gives sharp lines quickly, without needing painter’s tape. (Stackhouse himself was a licensed builder until 2008, when a client filed a complaint against him. The state suspended his license, and he never tried to get it reinstated.)

Stackhouse says there was one major thing that delayed his career in the building trades: his uncle’s notorious hostility.

“He did marvelous work,” Stackhouse said. “But he was tyrannical. He wouldn’t let you make a mistake and gave everything a profane nickname. Years later, his lessons were still with me, though. So eventually, I got back into it.”

Stackhouse started with odd jobs before taking on larger projects. He later started teaching home repair classes for new home buyers. At the time, a student asked him to look at a house she wanted to buy, but Stackhouse didn’t know home inspection existed as a service or profession. He approved of the newly renovated home, but shortly after, issues arose. Cabinets fell off the wall. The driveway was only an inch thick. 

“I told myself that this would never happen to anyone that knows me again,” Stackhouse recalled. 

Determined, he began offering home inspection services and eventually enrolled in a home inspection class, where he discovered how little many inspectors actually knew about construction. That inspired him to develop his own training program, which he said has trained more than 1,000 home inspectors in the past 30 years. He said he’s rehabbed more than 500 homes and inspected more than 20,000. 

“Just when I think I’ve seen everything, I realize I haven’t,” he said. “There are all kinds of weird and unsafe things homeowners will do on their own. On the surface, things look like they work, but they’re actually hazardous. It’s just the illusion of safety.” 

Becoming a storyteller

After more than 30 years as a home inspector, Stackhouse’s business has flourished, thanks to word-of-mouth referrals. He attributes his success to his high standards, honesty and commitment to doing the right thing.

“I try to bring comfort to my clients in times of stress,” he said. “Moving can be high stress, so I try to soften the moment with sympathy, kindness and warmth. There can be a performance quality to being a home inspector.”

Stackhouse’s performance skills — which he’s put to use not just as a home inspector, but as an award-winning storyteller — were shaped by his family long before he applied them in his careers. Growing up in the years before televisions were in most households, he discovered a love for storytelling through the radio programs his family listened to. He also enjoyed watching his father command the room with his dramatic stories and seeing his brother reenact movie scenes for the rest of the family.

His mother, a devout Jehovah’s Witness, had hoped Stackhouse would become a minister, and encouraged him to practice public speaking. Although Stackhouse did become a minister, a career that lasted 10 years, his heart wasn’t really in it. He left the ministry, consumed by anger after his mother’s death in 1976. He eventually found himself in Boston, where he was drawn into a dangerous lifestyle surrounded by drug dealers, addicts and sex workers.

“I felt like I couldn’t be me anymore,” he said. “I was in indescribable pain, and I felt like I was in someone else’s body.”

During this period, he collected the stories of people he encountered — businessmen, teachers, priests — who, like him, were in this underground world. His brother eventually  persuaded him to return to Detroit. The stories from this time seeded a book he eventually wrote, titled “Mother’s Milk.”

Preserving stories

In 2013, Stackhouse met Satori Shakoor, founder of The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers, an organization that hosts storytelling events. Shakoor convinced Stackhouse to share the story of losing his mother. Though initially hesitant, Stackhouse agreed, and his performance gained recognition, and he continues to perform with the group. In 2018, he won a Kresge Artist Fellowship, a prestigious grant that provides funding for metro Detroit artists. 

Stackhouse’s other projects include a book of poetry titled “Forever My Heart Desires.” He co-wrote a play exploring discrimination, featuring the conversations between a former white supremacist and a Black man whose childhood was deceptively free of racism. The play explores how both men confront their experiences. 

Despite his success as a storyteller, Stackhouse has no plans to leave his career as a home inspector. He considers himself a historic preservationist, committed to maintaining and restoring historic homes to their original condition. His own home, built more than 100 years ago, is believed to be an Albert Kahn design, Stackhouse said. Just as he is dedicated to preserving the stories of the people, he is passionate about preserving the history of older homes. 

“It takes an enormous skill set,” he said of home restoration. “It requires a high level of quality, materials and techniques to retain their stories.”