Can someone explain "FREE" Thermal Imaging

Its all fine with me.
Judge not, at least not at this time!:cool:

That is fine just keep your antennas up and don’t be a slow learner;-)

The feeling is mutual. I told you when you first started you would be a good HI by all the dumb questions you asked

I always play to the level of my audience.:wink:

Worth repeating!!! I have all but one of them blocked…

You guys crack me up.
On asking questions, I am helping to repopulate the Mpls Internachi group where I look forward to asking quite a few questions and hopefully share what I know, which according to my wife is not a lot.

I have no problems with the trolls as being new comes with that.

I have lived through being an apprentice carpenter and had the old “get me the left handed screwdriver, or the board stretcher” and all those other fun things including having my new tool belt nailed to the deck with 16p cement coated nails.

Bring it on!

These guys are so far past “send the FNG to get the skyhook” that it ain’t even funny…

Some inspectors here in Ontario offer the IR camera for free service not because they are not good inspectors but because the ones that do either inspect part time or do 250 plus and their business cash flow allows them to buy a tool. Nobody here would pay extra for the service and to market the camera for a fee inspection is very difficult. I for one do not have a camera and have only been asked 3x for it’s use.

After 15 years in this Business, this is one of the most accurate statements ever made.

I have been using ITI Technology since 2007. I have charged a premium fee for the service, but now offer it as a FREE service included in all my residential inspections. The majority of my referral base chooses me because I use ITI with my inspections.

I routinely find issues that other people miss. That alone equals more referral business. Anyways, I don’t make a lot of money doing residential work. Commercial ITI is where the real money is at.

Kevin

Paul …

Every locality has its own: what works / what don’t.

To many guys on here IR is crap. To others its great. To the guys that think its great, anybody that doesn’t think its great is just plain NOT marketing it right.

**Facts: **I’m in Kansas City … Quite a few of our local inspectors spent $8,000 to $15,000 for a good quality upper end IR camera. Then went to one of the approved Fluke or Flir training programs (Snell, ITC, or others) to get Level I or Level I and Level II certified. That cost another $1,800 to $2,500

Then they started advertising and marketing IR. Since they were mostly residential inspectors with little commercial inspection experience, that’s where they aimed at. AND in our area finding MORE defects in a SLOW real estate market was NOT what most REA’s were looking for …** SO **Now 3-5 years later they’re either selling their IR cams OR if they still have them, they’re raising their inspection fee’s by $25-$30 and HOPING that a buyer will go for that OR they’re offering IR on their inspections FREE.

THEN you have the other home inspector who looks at an online video on IR, spends $1,000 to $2,000 on a low end IR and starts advertising he has an IR camera uses it on EVERY home inspection AND its FREE.

At that point, we start having clients start seriously questioning WHY we try to charge for USING the IR camera when all your competitors do it FREE and acting like we’re trying to rip them off for charging for its use.

In short in Kansas City, its been a lead balloon for our home inspectors. At this point I know of NOBODY doing anything worth talking about with an IR.

Thanks DBowers, its like free estimates, free estimates cost the estimator money and attaches no value to the years of learning how to do an accurate estimate. Free is free so why am I charging for a worthless service.

Its high end inspecting or nothing as someone who understands paying for expertise will fund this service, most people will attach no value since the inspector has not convinced people of the value of IR.

This has been a very good thread for me, thanks!

I won’t try to persuade your thinking one way or the other

A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still;-):mrgreen:

Our Office Offers Professional,Inspections.
with homes averaging more / less than 150 plus years…
Infrared is rarely an issue routinely recommended…

Ha Mr Bottger, I think your assuming I’m making an assumption. Maybe I’m wrong so let me state my position.

I personally think IR imaging is a valuable service but until I have the income to buy a decent camera after taking a respected IR class and getting certified I will see this as another dog and pony show for the uninitiated.

As a contractor I earned a number of certifications which was me working towards my personal best, plenty of guys without these certs downplayed their importance but what they didn’t realize was I didn’t get certifications to impress them, I got them to be a better contractor so I could offer a better service and ultimately make more money than they did.

My point is still when offering IR to clients it should be a usefull service and you should get paid more for it.

You want sprinkles on your cone at Dairy Queen, that will be 50 cents more please.

I operate on that same theory that is why I obtained all the education that was available at the time I started my IR business including adding IR into a home inspection. I take my IR very serious and that is why I am the only Level lll in Okla that has written my own standards for incorporating IR into a home inspection. We have a few HI’s in the State that bought cheap cameras and no training and have a thermal image of the front of a car in their advertising go tell what that has to do with the price of apples I will never understand.

What others do in this business I care less I work and my wife laughs all the way to the bank!!!:wink:

I have Water Intrusion Experts that I Defer and Refer to routinely.
While Infrared is a tool…
it is not the determining factor…
There are limitations…

I don’t defer any thing your preaching to the choir

I think its all worth looking into and interesting too.

You all confirmed what I guessed, after the initial SOP anything else should be done to the highest standards because if not dilletantes will only cheapen the profession.

I was a carpenter for a long time and used to hear one ccomment that drove me nuts, “I was a carpenter in college”!
Now I am hearing “I do IR also”!

A carpenter in college can build what?
A cheap camera and no training is worth what?

I am floored to hear the good cameras start at $5000

There are no limitations in IR.
IR is like beauty is to a woman
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder
IR limitation is not IR itself , it is limited by the training of the beholder