Can we talk?

[Les]

I have been running into more and more interference from lenders, appraisers and sales folks regarding our refusal to assign a "pass - fail" type designation.

I finally read the attached link, especially pages 35-37 and would like to know if any other inspectors are dealing with this. If we are not involved in this, I can see the appraisers continue to inspect and minimize our work.

https://www.fanniemae.com/content/techn ... ndix-d.pdf

[Scottpat]

This is what ASHI is fighting against with their lobbyist in DC. The Appraiser don't want to do it anymore than we want it, it is being forced by Fanniemae and HUD is also looking at it now.

[kurt]

I have mixed feelings about it.

It's wrong; it's a messed up matrix and summarization. It is misleading, and open to all sorts of interpretation.

OTOH, the vast majority of home inspection reports I see are vague piles of information with little usefulness. Most of them don't even competently list defects let alone characterize conditions in a way to allow customers to put things in context. Most of these report systems are endorsed by my professional society; I don't expect change.

It's another day of being the smallest flea on the dogs ass.

Thankfully, I don't have to deal with it. Yet.

[hausdok]

It's got nothing to do with us and we should fight it tooth and nail.

The feds are trying to blur the line between inspection and appraisers. They don't really have any hold over us, so they're pushing this quality rating thing on appraisers. That in turn is probably pissing off the appraisers who are pushing their pols to get us to do it.

A rating is the dumbest thing on the planet. How do you categorize a house in Seattle versus one in Appalachia. You're going to have some houses graded the same in both places with a huge void in difference of quality and upkeep.

Whoever thought up this obviously didn't think an appraiser's or home inspector's opinion was worth a hill of beans. We should all plug in the email addresses of every pol in the house and senate in DC and then email bomb the hell out of them with emails of protest telling them how retarded this is.

Just think, the idiot that dreamed this up might have already lost his make-work job due to the sequester. That's not good enough; someone needs to get the guy to turn his back on a horse and get too close so he can get his ass kicked big time.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[kurt]

Whoever thought up this obviously didn't think an appraiser's or home inspector's opinion was worth a hill of beans.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

No one does except our customers. As usual, real estate isn't about buying, it's about selling.

It is a really stupid idea.

[Marc]

I understand Les's concern and I know the feds are dumb but I don't see them either dumb enough, or influential enough to usurp state regulation of this industry. Lord knows they'd blow it to high heaven if they did.

Marc

[Les]

I understand Les's concern and I know the feds are dumb but I don't see them either dumb enough, or influential enough to usurp state regulation of this industry. Lord knows they'd blow it to high heaven if they did.

Marc

Marc, it is not about regulation of inspectors. It is all about what the Feds demand before they pick up the tab for marginal mortgages. It is about unqualified folks assigning a ranking to a building when they know absolutely nothing about "buildings".

Go ahead and do what ever inspection you want and it still will depend on the appraiser to assign a quality rating to that building. ie: 100 amp entrance panel with all alum branch wiring, no handrails, no tempered glass, hole in gas forced air furnace exchanger and it still will get a rating of very good from the appraiser. Inspections will not be needed because an appraiser has already rated the property!

This does affect you if you are a home inspector in the US.

[Scottpat]

As far as I know ASHI is the only HI organization that is avtively fighting this with money and staff. Their representatives have been working on this since last year in DC and from what I understand they are making inroads. Insurance providers(E&O) have also joined the fight the last I heard about this at InspectionWorld back in January.