pete

George, I actually let everyone know what I am doing. I want them to know that we are watching out for them. SOmeone will sue, but hey thats what insurance and lawyers are for. I am going to try dougs suggestion. I keep looking in the electrical section, I will look with the fasteners. Thans Pete

Does anybody know where I can get a large volume of panel cover screws. I know we are not supposed to make any repairs but we do replace the panel cover screws if they are tapping. We have made the decision that it is to dangerous to ourselves to put tapping screws back in place. We also carry wire nuts to cap protruding unterminated wires--once again we feel we are just protecting ourselves. SOme of you will say we are taking on a huge liability and you may be correct, but someone please tell me where to get these screws. I have tried the internet and HomeDepot to no avail. Pete

I read Douglas Hansens article on FPE panels and thought it was great. Even before reading his article we had been telling our clients to have them evaluated/replaced by an electrician. His article helped to reinforce that position and helped us to explain it to our clients in a more articulate fashion. In addition I feel better prepared should an electrician challenge us. Thank you for helping in our education. Pete

I agree with your last statement. Not all Realtors are evil, not all home inspectors who solicit realtors are bad. But I think the appearance of impropriety, and the non spoken pressure can do damage. I believe that is what the NJ case law (Herner v Housemaster) is saying. In addition, each business or inspector needs to differentiate themselves. This can be difficult, let's assume that everyone in this discussion is a great inspector. The potential client may now have a hard time differentiating between us except by price. I believe the other two IHINA inspectors who are near us are 30 miles and 180 miles away. Makes the local competition and I pretty different! When we started marketing HI as a seperate business, I sort of had your thought. We could market to only those realtors who seemed ethical. We struggled to find them and could not. I know a couple as a builder that I think are ok but for various reasons, I would not solicit them for HI biz. Especially since we are signed up with Dennis!! You also hit the nail on the head with the paragraph about profitability. I can not get over how many posts I read on all the forums that reveal that the majority of Home Inspectors are working very hard to build themselves a job not a business. Pete

Originally posted by Brian G. Most of us newbies would love to reach the point where we could forget about realtors, but for most of us that's a point on the mountain that must be climbed to since we don't come in with helicopters (big money or a big customer base). Let me jump in here Brian I understand what you are saying and you are right. To be doing volume as quickly as possible you need to get with the Realtors. But if you have a solid business plan with realistic goals and good marketing, you can make more money per hour and feel better with the IHINA ideas. We have been doing Home Inspections as a stand alone business for two years now. Our volume might lag slightly behind the goals for most new companies. But we charge more than the most established guy in our area and we charge almost double what the newest Realtor chasing coupon offering new guy charges. Like Brian my partner and I work another job, we build new homes. So we live breathe and eat homes. I think working another job, is worth the pleasantness of not dealing with Realtors. It is scary and last year we went 9 weeks with no jobs and I had visions of mopping the floors at Realtors offices to get biz. But I held out. I still say do half as many inspections for twice the price, the Realtors won't give you stress, you can focus more, and believe it or not the world will treat you with more respect. Our society says "Costs more=Better". Pete I believe Dennis is right, I also believe people perceive him to be a zealot and that scares people.

I do not think that the ASHI branding campaign is well designed or well presented. However the real questions is am I willing to put $250.00 per inspector on the line to see if it works? I agree with Dennis the realtor angle is nonsense, Realtors around here recommend you if you are low cost and clueless. But we get enough jobs from the ASHI website to make it worth it. SOmetimes we get 3-5 calls a week, from there. So if branding brings in another few it is worth it for us. As I said I am not a fan of what I know about it, but people find me on there site so I am there. I must confess that I do not participate, in a chapter or anything other than reading the forums constantly and the Reporter. If it works great, if not I have wasted more money than that on advertising/marketing. Pete

Looks very nice. STill checking it out, but it seems to have alot of info..