Scottpat

I did belong to our local Realtor association for about five years, and I met a good number of people. My problem was with the association. I could not get a Supra/lock box key, and they would not offer any help to the home inspectors when we were battling the home builders over some licensing issues even though the Realtors all agreed that the home builders were wrong, they did not want to make the builders mad! So I and a couple of other home inspectors dropped out. I never noticed any decrease in my business from not being a member. If they would allow me to have a Supra key I might reconsider and rejoin, although I don't know if I want to enter a home without an agent in tow. Has anyone heard of or know about home inspectors being accused of misappropriations in a home when they were by themselves? Just curious.

It might be a problem if you don't see the cracks in front of you as you are walking the ridge, but when you start walking back on the return trip and you see them, then "Houston" you might have a problem! [:-jump2]

Keep in mind that if you charge for an "Extra" service you have just become an expert in that field!

I am getting about 3-6 months on a bulb, it all depends on how much I drop the blasted thing!

Good question Darren! From what I understand the ranking is done by the ASHI legislative committee. They look at what the state law requires such as testing, insurance, education hours, experience requirements, type of regulatory board, CE hours, standards, and several other factors. I don't have the list so I am not sure what else is used. The reason that NJ is at the top is that it meets all of the requirements; it's just that they are on the high end of the scale!

As far as I know only one state PA has this requirement. From what I have been told it was for testing and experience that they did it this was. The state did not want to have the task of testing and verifying, so they let the associations do it. PA is a poorly written law (just like the NJ law) and is used a model of what not to do.

I lost my hampster!

They do not give you the air temperature, but rather the register or the duct work. You need a good digital thermometer. The IR thermometers are good tools; I use one to test ceilings and walls for insulation among a few other things. I have a four year old Raytex, which I paid dearly for back then. I think you can pick a good up for around $200 or less. The more expensive the smaller the measurement area. I think my Raytex reads 6" at 10'. As for buying one I would try Ebay at first and if you have a Grangers or similar store near you I would try them and then I would try the various gadget guys (Professional Equipment, Etc).

Yes I work out of Uganda! Oops, I guess I made a foopaw! My last payment for a mud hut was 2 Chickens and a Goat.

Hi George, I am glad you are on this forum; your HVAC talents are needed. As for my post, well I guess we are both passionate about our profession just in different ways. I wish you the best in your personal and professional life and I look forward to many of your post and the chance of meeting you in person someday. Scott P

I always report K&T as needing to be replaced with an updated system.

George, It's not even worth the effort to try and talk about this with you. You are so far off base. The program was not even put out to the membership till mid October, so if you left in August how do you know so much about it?

Roy, I respectfully disagree with you on your opinion of licensing, home inspector licensing is working in several states. Many states have fairly good license laws on the books that are protecting the inspector and the consumer. As for the real estate agents, being licensed takes a lot of the argument out of any conversation about the qualifications of a person inspecting homes; however this only holds true for those states that require an examination, insurance and the law is enforced by a regulatory board that has the powers to do so. As for the quality of inspectors; Meaningful license laws do cull out the weekend warriors and the bucket heads. If a person can pass the NHIE and meet the insurance requirements chances are they are going to be fairly competent. As for giving soft reports, this will never stop until the inspectors who do this go out of business due the number of claims or complaints against them. In my state we have already revoked several home inspector licenses and we are entering into our third year of licensing. The home inspectors in Washington need to get together and introduce a “Real Home Inspector licenses law billâ€

All I can say is I’ am behind it and will support it, Kurt and I both attended a meeting that gave us both a lot of insight into what is going on. I have had more insight than Kurt and I can honestly say that the money is being spent with care. (Lesson’s were learned at IW 2003[:-jump2]), the consultants learned that home inspectors want the facts without hype. As ASHI is the first home inspector origination to ever attempt anything like this, the consultants had no history to rely on. The consultants have told us time and time again that we are like no other group they have worked with. Everyone has their own opinion; none of us trust anyone and everyone wants instant results. What a challenge! The cost is a hard pill to swallow, but if everything falls into place (as it has been doing), this years assessment will be the highest and it will then decrease. I am not involved in the finance but this is how it has been explained to me. Many ways of developing revenue (not from the membership) to support a massive program like this have been developed, the initial supply of funds needed to come from the members, as there was not other source at first and they will be the ones that will benefit. If we all get behind it and give it our best effort it will work, but if we sit on the sidelines and wait to see if it will work then it will fail. The best thing about this program is that everything that has been accomplished has been designed to be self supporting or freestanding. In other words the parts of the program that have been completed do not depend on future items to maintain them. So if for some unknown reason the board of directors decide to stop the program a year or two years from now nothing will be lost. This is a safety feature that the BoD and the consultants built into the program.