Licensing helps newbies. A license is a government-issued credential that makes no distinction between the licensed veteran and the newbie (who was issued an identical license yesterday).
Any veteran inspector, who has worked hard to earn market share, should be against the government coming in and flooding that market with newbies all waving the exact same credential.
I personally don’t see anything wrong with dropping the license requirement in Kansas. It gives clients a false sense of security. May the best quality home inspector get the inspection!
Nathan, that has been the problem all along in this town. RE’s do not want quality inspectors. They want soft, basic, non-alarmists who are cheap in price, all to make the buyers happy, so the sale transactions will go through, so the RE’s will make their commissions, and keep their office brokers happy. Kansas laws just allowed those types of inspections, by law.
Cheap inspections will now continue, and Missouri inspectors will be welcomed back into Kansas, as long as they are under $199.
Gary … The last 3 days I’ve heard a half dozen realtors tell me how concerned they are now that there will be no licensing AND just anybody can do an inspection in the state WITHOUT oversight, etc, etc
I pointed out licensed PE’s in Kansas do that right now AND thats exactly how builders, contractors, foundation people, plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, roofers, etc, etc are in Kansas AND doesn’t that bother them a little bit MORE … Gues what their answer was.
I was wondering why I have done more re-inspections in the last two weeks than in the total last two years.
I heard that some offices may be requiring insurance of inspectors, however, they better be asking the same thing of contractors.
If only our legislators in Tallahassee were as enlightened.
Home inspection licensing in any state only levels the industry. Whether or not you are a veteran or a rookie, 15 years as an inspector or 15 days, everyone has a license, and can do a home inspection.
Laws allow for basic, minimum standards, which even veterans have to stoop down to, simply because RE associations want it that way, and ASHI promotes the laws and procedures when newbies are trained. It is either play with the minimums, lower your price to compete, or starve.
It is what the RE associations want, so as to sell sub-par properties to unsuspecting home buyers.
Most HI laws require some type of insurance, and education. Do contractors, tradespeople of all types, and home builders? How about Uncle Bob who installed a hot water heater per the request of the licensed, insured, and educated home inspector?
Quite a racket. Our governor of Kansas saw through the smoke. The Kansas RE association paid-off the lawmakers, who wanted to renew the law 121 to 17. Sad that money talks these days, and nothing else; except Governor Brownback of Kansas.
Boy there sure is allot of CMI’s commenting on this thread. I wonder how many CMI’s it takes to get the word out.
NO to Licensing.
No to big Stake Holders Meetings designed to line the pockets of the many.
I completely agree and have seen my full share of mistakes from Newbies.
I continue to be confused as to why Real Estate agents seem to believe that they should have any say in HI licensing or insurance requirements.
I have sent an e-mail to this lady asking just that question.
If I get a response, I will post it. Should be interesting, but I bet she doesn’t anwer me.
Go figure.
Does any have any figures to show what the cost of Licensing has been and how the balance sheet is .
Did it cost thee taxpayers or did it make money .
This info could be a great help to what is going on in Ontario Canada.
Thanks much
Roy … 4 years ago every Board we talked to in our state OR other states talked about minimum of $100k to have and run a Board.
The Realtors lobbyist and Jeff Barnes assured the legislative committee’s they had special knowledge and could be done for UNDER $20k.
AND to his credit Barnes did that. Very efficient & cheap operation. I believe I heard Realtors at Missouri Capitol use the figure of $16,000 runs the Kansas Home Inspectors Board when they tried to push it in Missouri and legislators told them that Missouri could NOT afford another BOARD, especially one NOT that needed.
KS ran a cheap Board because …
No Board Office or Personel;
An answering machine in an Accountants Office;
A FREE Wordpress Web site owned by Barnes & maintained by Jeff Barnes;
After the 1st year … About 90% of Board Meets done by phone; (so no need for paying people to travel to capital for meetings, etc)
After 1st six months, NO committee’s … Seemed like Jeff made decisions (so no need for paying people to travel to capital for meetings, etc).
AND as to cost I’m told that for the past year or 2 that Mr Barnes WAIVED a RENEWAL fee for existing licensee’s which if true would also keep costs WAY down …
Check My New Thread For New Info
Thanks Dan much appreciated … Roy
See the Texas Real Estate Commission, who regulates home inspectors there. Talk about conflicts of interest…
RE’s want their fingers in the pie, so we do not interfere with their home sales. Hence basic, minimum licensing state laws. Their money talks.
This is excellent.
This is actually a better outcome than if the legislation had never passed to begin with.
It’s now been proven that registration serves no purpose other than to drive good home inspectors out of business.
It sets a precedent for us to use in MO to stop the same thing from happening here.