Here’s one of many quotes that some of you may recall… the author has since moved on, but the articles are still in the public domain - take a look for yourselves:
http://www.dirtminer.blogspot.com
Friday, June 24, 2005
Editor’s note: The Nonachi blog occasionally receives requests from readers to post their thoughts, most of which we decline. Occasionally we come across a well written piece that speaks the truth in a way we couldn’t and we’re proud to be publishing one of those today.
Recovering NACHI members offer us the best perspective of how the organization works. They signed on for the promises, and left upon learning the truth. Here’s a few words of perspective from a man who was once one of the highest ranking NACHI members in Canada, Gil Strachan:
I’m posting my thoughts here fo all to read, and making myself an obvious personal target. Why would I do this? To heighten awareness of the real purpose of NACHI, and to apply pressure on Nick to pay his advertsing bills up here in Trenton and Montreal.
Simply put, NACHI is the invention of Nick Gromicko. It was originally designed to skirt PA licensing requirements; and to allow him to practice real estate while doing home inspections. ASHI wouldn’t let him do it, so he created a front called NACHI which, by his own design, wouldn’t question his status. A surprising thing happened… lots of people heard about it and wanted to buy the credentials they couldn’t earn. That goofy online test is meant to sanctify it all in the public’s eye. We all know about Invisi-NACHI and Infanti-NACHI, but it all started when Nick’s ethical deficit couldn’t find a home in the many respectable HI organizations, so he did what he had to do. Inventa-NACHI. This inevitably led to a short burst in membership, which he tried to leverage into to dreamy-eyed programs like ADRS, CRF, LDF and lots of other money-making schemes which benefit Nick, who is after all the sole owner and shareholder of NACHI.
The membership side of the organization steams ahead on the backs of good-willed, un-witting volunteers just like me… I did it for a year. We started to realize that everything created in Kingston, we had created for ourselves… the drive to do it came from the dream of a great organization with endless ideas and unlimited potential. If you look at the unbelievable benefits NACHI offers, you might wonder how it could all be possible, and when you learn how few of the benefits are actually delivered (aside from the odd trinket) you understand. It’s all sizzle and no steak.It’s an old formula, proven over the eons: Nick offers the world, delivers a little, and pockets the difference. Except he will pay you $10 to say something nice about NACHI in public and he’ll pay real estate agents $100/year to put a link to their HI search engine on their web site, too.
NACHI looks like a very powerful marketing machine… it looks like anyone in the HI biz would be stupid not to belong. Here’s one example of how it works… if you are a fervent volunteer and an active BBS poster you will recieve your mousepads and other trinkets, leading you to post a lot of good hype about Nick and NACHI - and to dispell any criticisms from the nay-sayers who might not have received their mousepads (or whatever.) Shoot, he’ll even invent a chapter and make you president, if you’ll trade your soul for it. Here’s some examples of fantasic promises never kept: - the Realtor email newsletters for members (never happened)
- the mousepad program (half assed support at best)
- ads in Real Estate Book (never happened)
- IQ newspaper rack at every Re?Max office in North America (never happened)
- Real TIMES mag to every Realtor in North America (still waiting)
- Consumer Recovery Fund - this was a great gag to attract new members, but when Wayne Fulton and his crew actually created it - Nick refused to support it. It’s gone now, but would appear to still exist.
- The InterNACHI Convention was a GO… Nick wanted to have “the biggest show on earth” in Kingston. Lorraine Shalitis spent a lot of time securing deals, co-ordinating with the travel industry and the city of Kingston, and preparing a management proposal - Nick dropped the ball, and now claims to have never authorized any such activity.
- Two large ad companies inserted NACHI ads in hundreds of real estate folders throughout Canada and the US without deposit, and have never been paid for their work. Although Nick displayed samples on this website, he claimed to have already paid, subsequently denied authorization, and then claimed non-delivery and refuses to pay.
- Nick announced that he was on the board of directors of NFCI. When NFCI was exposed as an identity-theft scam, Nick had absolutely no comment, except to mention that he thought William Harrison seemed like a nice guy.
-It was mentioned the other day on one of the other boards that Towers Perin, NACHI’s supposed E&O carrier isn’t actually an insurance company, but a business consulting firm who have never even heard of NACHI. To date this has not been refuted.
NACHI members and non-members alike shouldn’t believe everything they read from Nick and his tightest cronies, and avoid disbelieving everything they read elsewhere. If everything Nick said were true, it shouldn’t be hard for him to produce evidence for it, right?:
Ask Nick again, why does he maintain the NACHI office in CO while maintaining a PA mailing address?
What does the straw man MAB actually do?
Is token removal of the Blind Inspector BS their sole achievement?
What function does the President (or the ED for that matter) serve, and why do we never hear from him?
Why does NACHI suffer with the torment and embarassment of that sliver of our field which has even heard of it?
Why do the NAR and all North American Federal governmental organizations consult ASHI and other HI orgs, and never consider NACHI in their policy deliberations?
In fact, why is it that the majority of home inspectors and the OVREWHELMING majority of other real estate professionals have never even heard of NACHI before?
Gil Strachan
posted by NoNachi at 3:44 AM | 50 comments ](http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=10550934&postID=111961046526093740) ](http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=10550934&postID=111961046526093740&quickEdit=true)