Hi to all,
here is the other poll on this issue.
Happy now James? 
Regards
Gerry
Can real estate agents visiting this site vote on this poll?
Funny, with the tons of discussion on this board in various forums & threads in regards to home inspector licensing we still have folks who vote undecided, well raise my rent! 
Sure, but it appears from the current stats that they are not flocking here in droves 
Regards
Gerry
Here’s a Poll from another board, even though the board is compaosed mainly of the “Other Guys”, they also have a voice in whether or not their State regulates HI’s.
That pole was conducted back in 2003 when inspectors still thought that could eliminate their competition by passing licensing laws. Today everyone is familiar with the destructive forces that get unleashed when anti-home inspector bills are passed into law without regard to the consumer.
If it’s true that it is ASHI pushing for State Regulation then the numbers on the Poll I posted wouldn’t have changed much, they probably would have increased, Read the KIRO Report that has been posted on other threads and see who is pushing for legislation in WA State, the main problem with most State Regulation seems to be that it has almost always been too weak, its fine to fight and try to defeat legislation, but you also have to be aware that you may lose your battle, so at the same time you are fighting it you should be making sure that anything passed would actually be a meaningful Bill, instead of some BS that sets no standards and protects neither the consumer or the inspector.
With the Home Inspector Licensing score at thirty-one to zip in favor of vastly reduced standards, (as opposed to the ASHI model) the message is loud and clear that lawmakers are not interested in passing licensing laws that protect a class of inspector by restricting trade. It appears that it would take a strong contingent of disgruntled homeowners petitioning their legislators for protection from home inspectors to get the type of legislation passed that ASHI actively promotes.
Joe,
Have you read the article that I and others have posted about the Inspection in Seattle? If not read it and you will see right under the part where Sen. Kohle-Wells says she is going to bring up legistration, you’ll see the name of the ASHI Seattle Chapter President, all they or anyone else needs to do is keep the issue in front of the public, even add another incident or so, its all about perception and timing.
I take great pleasure in assessing risk and I’m pretty good at the track too, I’ll take 31 to 1 odds against everyday. Everybody says that it will be different this time, but it won’t.
If legislators ever took the time to examine the data of consumers being duped by home inspectors vs. the number of inspections being performed using scientific method or probabilistic modeling, then if the data was ranked, correlated and shown as probabilities; the state could arrive at no other logical decision but to set the bar where it best protected the public without reducing services which would be far below the ASHI model.
On the other hand, say I’m wrong and you get a stringent bill passed (like in New Jersey). Well, if it puts voters out of work expect just like in New Jersey for the bar to be lowered in the next legislative session and all your good works to go down the toilet and you will have accomplished nothing except to turn over our profession to government control.
Face facts, the government just ain’t going to pass laws so that you can protect your market from your neighbor or put other voters out of business, don’t waste your time. Smart home inspectors should continue to resist state licensing for as long a possible.
Exactly.