Where're We Going?

[kurt]

This is an informal poll, spurred by the avalanche of news articles Mike recently posted about the large corporation planning on "uniting the home inspection and mold inspection fields into a unified body".

What does anyone else think about the likelihood of this occurring?

Does anyone else wonder @ the obstacles to accomplishing this unification?

Does anyone else think it is in competition for "worst idea in the home inspection profession?"

Briefly stated, this is bothering me. What, if anything, can be done about it?

[Brad Manor]

My two cents as a rookie: Home Inspectors should concentrate on inspecting homes. I think that people feeling our profession must merge with another makes it look as though we don't provide a complete service, which we do.

-Brad

[Chris Bernhardt]

I read a research paper out of Finland yesterday which was concerned with whether hidden moisture damage could be inferred from air quality testing. The answer appeared to be yes but the judgement needed to perform the testing and analyze the results, "wow!".

And we think a bunch of inspectors running around with thermal cameras is going to cause trouble.

As an engineer I did lab tests of sort often and again often I had to defend my results when some other engineer repeated the testing and got a different result. Its all about how you do the test.

You better be able to explain what you did different and get the same results over and over again or you will be in deep doo doo.

Chris, Oregon

[Les]

Chris, you are right. The second most important thing in the inspection business is Protocols and their ramifications.

Kurt, For me you are preaching to the choir! But I seem to hear that little voice that keeps saying "Increase your sales and get into xxxxxxxxx". Lots of folks listening that can't seem to understand how complex inspection is. Forget about the business side of it and just look at the vast amount of knowledge an inspector must know and then think of the hundreds of inspectors that don't even have a clue.(and they don't even suspect anything!) I sure don't know it all, but I am quite confidant I know more than many!

[Scottpat]

Another set of standards won't help anyone or anything. They will just be another set of standards, but they will cost money and won't be free like the current standards one can use. Look at how many states have adopted home inspection standards as part of their regulation on the profession. Those standards will not be changed simply because ASTM has a new set of standards to sell.

Another thought is that many states are changing their current standards so that they do not have any bias to a particular organization. I don't see ASTM offering free generic standards to anyone.

[mgbinspect]

I'm certainly against it for all the reasons sited above.

Also, as humid as Richmond is, the public interest or concern with mold seems to be less than a couple of percent! It's VERY rare that rhe subject ever comes up as a concern or a problem.

[emalernee]

An article in todays local paper tells about a local company that is famous worldwide for their safes and ATM's that is getting out of the electronic voting machine business because of criticism over the reliability and security of its voting machines. This little side business that they got into has tarnished their reputation and may affect future sales of in their core market.

Will that be us, as Inspectors, sticking our finger into a little side business and blowing what little reputation we have for a few extra dollars?

The one good thing about mold is that Agents hate it even more then we do and will go to great lengths to see that this "smoke and mirrors" inspection doesn't become part of a normal real estate transaction.

Ezra Malernee

Canton, Ohio

[davidlord]

The trend in these parts by mostly the franchise or big multi companies is to offer varying "levels" of inspections. The "best value" inspection includes the home inspection, WDO, mold sampling, and thermal scan.

But wait if you order today we will also include a knock off Prada handbag for your realtor.

[paul burrell]

Originally posted by davidlord

The trend in these parts by mostly the franchise or big multi companies is to offer varying "levels" of inspections. The "best value" inspection includes the home inspection, WDO, mold sampling, and thermal scan.

But wait if you order today we will also include a knock off Prada handbag for your realtor.

Just had a large well known franchise inspector do a home I am selling. Gross incompetence and lack of knowledge of the inspection process is an understatement of what I observed first hand. His tools consisted of a two cell flash light with weak batteries period that was all.

I think in place of the prada handbag he was offering his deluxe package of who do you do voodoo.

Paul B.

[Eric B]

Kurt:

I really believe that there will always be efforts to make our industry "better". In other words, someone will always be looking for a way to make money with little regard for actually making an improvement. I try to ignore such efforts. My number one objective is to be the best inspector that I can be. My number two goal is to make some money while working on my number one goal.

I've tried to encourage ASHI's powers that be to think along these lines. Build our own nitch - the most dedicated and educated. So what if the inspection universe passes me by? I firmly believe that if you concentrate on being the best that you can, that you will eventually receive the recognition that's desired. It's a long term plan and long term is not the common approach anymore.

[randynavarro]

Originally posted by kurt

This is an informal poll, spurred by the avalanche of news articles Mike recently posted about the large corporation planning on "uniting the home inspection and mold inspection fields into a unified body".

What does anyone else think about the likelihood of this occurring?

Its a real possiblity. Lots of folks trying to add additional services to their standard home inspection to make some extra $$.

Does anyone else wonder @ the obstacles to accomplishing this unification?

What obstacles? Take a 5 hour mold class (online probably in the near future) and you're a mold expert. Off you go selling mold services.

Does anyone else think it is in competition for "worst idea in the home inspection profession?"

Not the worst but certainly bad. That's all we need are more greedy folks selling services they're not qualified to fulfill

I'm all for adding more services to my business for more profit, but every time I've checked something out, the cost-benefit doesn't pencil.

I want to be the best I can be. The cost to become one of the best in another field is expensive and time-intensive. I couldn't charge that much more to make up for that investment.

I'm focused on improving what I'm already good at - home inspection.

Briefly stated, this is bothering me. What, if anything, can be done about it?

Not a clue.