FIHI

[Les]

Received a letter from Foundation for Independent Home Inspection, Emmaus, Pa. Does anyone have any experience with them? The tag line is they cost less, give more and make my inspections shorter and more thorough. www.fihi.info I have gotten no response from them yet.

[Bill Kibbel]

I am located about 15 miles from Emmaus so I was curious.

Registrant:

Lionel Barnaby

LAB Pro Home Inspections

5119 Valley Stream Lane

Macungie, PA 18062

www.labprohomeinspection.com/about.html

Never heard of him or them.

[Bill Kibbel]

The FIHI website states: "We have no relationships with builder or realtor organizations", but Mr. Barnaby is a paid affiliate member of the Lehigh Valley Assoc. of Realtors.

www.lehighvalleyarea.com/affiliates/home.stm

[Bruce Thomas]

Les,

The law in PA states that you must belong to a trade association that meet certain tests. This my be an attempt to start a new association that meets the legal requirements for PA. Proceed carefuly.

Bill,

Either the zip code search doesn't work or they don't have many members, I tried several.

Thanks for the info I'm sure PHIC will be interested.

Bruce

[Les]

Thanks for the info. It appears LabPro does much more than I can for a single fee. I think my name was from an ASHI mail list. Only thing I do in PA is eat "cheese steak".

[Chad Fabry]

I spoken w/ Lon a few times on the phone and via email. FIHI is rather like IHINA except with educational requirements. The basic philosophy of no REALTOR solicitiation is there and along with that an hour or two of CE each month delivered to the members via internet.

There aren't too many members right now..I viewed the list on the website and I'd guess there's about a hundred folks.The list was hard to find. I didn't recognize any of the names, but my entire scope of contacts is through this electronic medium.

[Inspectorjoe]

I took the first twenty names from the member list and Googled them, i.e: +"john aaron" +"home inspection". Nearly all returned just one result: the FIHI site map page. The only one of those first twenty that appeared to actually be a home inspector was Lon Barnaby. It doesn't seem that those other "members" really exist.

I went to the search by zip code section and put in Lab-Pro's Emmaus Zip Code 18049 and got There are no certified FIHI® home inspectors near you at this time. This listing is updated weekly, so please check back soon. I then put in Mr. Barnaby's home Zip Code of Macungie, 18062 and got the same message. It appears that the search feature is not meant to be functional, but with no members to search for, that's understandable.

I looked at the Membership Application. It didn't ask anything about qualifications, education, training etc. In fact, it doesn't ask for much more than name, address and phone number.

In addition to apparently endorsing FIHI's independence from Realtors stance, Lab-Pro is also listed as a member of IHINA. That's kind of odd, considering, as Bill Kibble pointed out, that Lab-Pro is a paid affiliate member of the Lehigh Valley Association of Realtors. That brings me to a story.

We recently got a call from a young woman, a first time home buyer. She was under contract on a house and wanted it inspected, but "her" agent was pressuring her to use a certain inspector. She wasn't comfortable with that and did some research and chose her own inspector. At the inspection last week I asked her the name of the company "her" agent was trying to strong-arm her into using. It was Lab-Pro.

Joe Hancaviz

Nazareth, PA

[Bruce Thomas]

Anyone can go to www.PHIC.INFO and see what the site is about. It only applies to PA home inspectors and our attempt to help eachother comply with uor law. It has nothing to do with anyone outside of PA but it may be an example if you need help with you own law.

Bruce Thomas

[Les]

Bruce, thanks for the info. However, I did not send or inquire abt the organization.

I always need help, but after twenty years of this, I have developed some skepticism and am quite vocal about the profession that has fed my family and given me high blood pressure. Somehow the organization got my name and company and sent the letter. We are a multi-inspector firm and I am the only inspector that got the letter. Makes me wonder? Gotta tell you that any inspector organization is fair game for my curiosity.

Lawmakers in every state look at all organizations in all states when attempting to regulate us.

I guess my original question stands - Does anyone out there know anything about The Foundation for

Independant Home Inspection??

[Richard Moore]

Les…

From what I can see FIHI is Lab-Pros. The sites were obviously written by the same guy, the FIHI site is registered to Mr. Barnaby, and the contact phone numbers are the same. I also notice that the FIHI inspection list (their SOP?) http://www.fihi.info/insplist.html includes lead, asbestos, and mold. This is convenient as the Lab-Pro site advertises that they include these analyses free.

I actually don’t think there is anything wrong with having your own SOP and COE. When I see the constant bickering between the other orgs, it seems almost desirable. FIHI’s stated goals, etc look fine and probably work great for Lab-Pros. I’m just not sure whether an organization tied so closely to an operating HI business would be a good fit or idea for others.

[Richard Stanley]

Sounds like a carbon copy of Gromicko - Realtor, PA. etc.