You should forget about HG and purchase the HIP software, it’s the best software out there with the best people around to help you should you have any questions. Too many HG users on here complaining about the lack of customer service regarding help with the software.and actually getting a response back from HG.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Companies charge what they are worth.
@gromicko I’m struggling to figure out what it is about a free service offering that makes people so miserable. It’s obviously not something you are imposing on people. You are simply offering an option that was not available. It doesn’t matter if they don’t like the option because they don’t have to choose it. So, if it doesn’t affect them in any way then why be so miserable about it?
It seems to me they either are troubled because they are afraid that this free offering will hurt people because they speculate there are some nefarious intentions behind the deal, or they are troubled that you are lowering the barriers for newcomers to compete with them. Occam’s razor leads me to guess the latter is more likely. You don’t seem too concerned about those who want to rain on your parade, and you shouldn’t be. Let it be a miserable journey for everyone who chooses to be miserable about the opportunities you provide. Keep them coming. I’m registered and hopeful. If it turns out to be a crap deal for me then I’ll learn from it and move on.
Wow, this paragraph is loaded. Rather that competing on merit you want to win by favoritism? You would rather block potential competitors from winning prospects with great deals than outmaneuver them with superior strategy? You would lean on friendship at the expense of customers and competitors? Even broke students? But when you begin leaning on associations to stop improving opportunities for broke students to get their first break, I don’t even have a name for that. You are testing the line between competition and thuggery. I think this deal is probably going to be better for you than you imagine. Most reviews I’ve read of HG have been reports of how they hated it so much they had to switch to HIP. Take advantage of this situation. Whining about it makes you seem unstable.
That’s not what I’m saying. Competing on merit is exactly what should be occurring. When things are given away for free, the value is lost, a race to the bottom begins and inspectors lose as no further innovation will occur.
What is going on (or at least what we’re being told by Nick is going to occur, we’ll see what actually happens) is equivalent to real estate agents telling every buyer that they have a home inspector that’ll do the inspection for free as they’re being compensated in another way. This has been an actual fear in the inspection industry for years and has come close to happening a few times.
What do you think the chances are that the client is going to look for another inspector and pay them appropriately when they can get what they’re being told is a good inspection, for free? The bigger issue was this was being laid out as a ‘punishment’ against software programs that didn’t give InterNACHI members an exclusive deal. After 17 years in the industry, winning InterNACHI vendor and member of the year and tens of thousands of posts here helping, giving members exclusive deals, etc, that was a bit of an insult to hear.
Without a doubt, we have thousands of home inspectors that I’m sure will continue to use Home Inspector Pro and we’ll continue to innovate for them. To continue to grow and succeed though we also need new inspectors to sign up. New inspectors have very limited sources of information. We continously have inspectors switch from other platforms as you mention and we look forward to that. When companies come into the industry though with unlimited funds backed by other sources, it does tend to change how things work though. Somethings may for the better, some may not.
I wouldn’t want an industry with no competition. Inspectors switch between programs because they want something better. Having competitors helps keep us on our toes and constantly looking for how to create the next USP (Unique Seling Point) for our users.
Why shouldn’t vendors who charge InterNACHI members the same as non-members be punished? Winning awards and making lots of posts doesn’t allow anyone to break the rule. Everyone knows the rule, learn to play by it. Competing by cheating isn’t fair.
InterNACHI members have always gotten better discounts from us, you know that. We give them 3 months free vs 1 month of the software ($267 savings exclusive to InterNACHI members), we run a $250 off for InterNACHI members for a month each year that’s exclusive and 50% off for InterNACHI members that’s exclusive as well for those that donated to Cozy Coats.
Can you please show me where your rules for vendors are posted? Since you feel you’re pushing all 20 software companies in the industry, you’re saying none of them followed your rules?
The main rule hasn’t changed in 20 years. If we catch any vendor offering their products and services to a non-member for the same price as members, we do our best to launch or procure a competing product and provide the discount FOR the stupid vendor. How do you think we ended up with all this free stuff for members?
This is nothing new to you Dom. It all started with ITA which was owned by Michael Casey. He had a school and we caught him red handed charging an InterNACHI member the same price as an aSHI member. At the time he had a bunch of brick and mortar schools across the country, maybe 15 of them if I recall. We were furious. So we decided to launch accredited, robust courses online for free, forever. To this day, all of our online courses are free. And ITA is long out of business.
We did the same because of an inspector logo company. We caught them creating logos and marketing materials and charging InterNACHI members as much as non-members. We immediately hired professional graphics designers and began offering free logo design services for free, forever. To this day, you can get all your design work done at InterNACHI for free. And the unscrupulous vendor is long out of business.
Competition keeps the market strong. Keep up the good work Nick!
I don’t know what people want from me. I founded InterNACHI. I work here. My job is to get the best deals for InterNACHI members.
Another example: We caught an insurance company quoting an InterNACHI member the same as a non-member for E&O. InterNACHI members are supposed to be getting discounts on everything in our industry. Don’t like the rule?.. get out of our industry. It isn’t illegal rebating because InterNACHI members are demonstrably lower risk, what with all the free education they have access to. Anyway, I called them and told them to stop. They refused. So we launched our own in-house insurance company that has better coverage and we run it at zero profit so that our premiums are unbeatable. And we are going to do that forever.
Some of these vendors are goofy in the head. They know the rule, yet openly violate it. Then complain that I’m putting them out of business. I’m like… Dude, you caused me to enforce the rule by being a scofflaw!
As a trainer since 1993, I was given lots of inspection reports or software systems to demo to students. The 2 most widely preferred systems by our students were ITA’s paper check list and later on a few years later Home Gauge. I personally looked at or tried 3D, Inspect It, HIP, Horizon, and several others. I’ve been using HG since 2005 and American Family since 2008 and have been happy with both. Also I’ve never had a customer tell me they’ve been hounded by AmFam, etc
Lotta worry warts on here that seem to enjoy dreaming up problems that haven’t been problems.
For the record… HG and AmFam have only been affiliated since Nov. 15, 2017… NOT 2008!
Reread my post. I said I have been with American Family since 2008. I said nothing about when HG and AmFam were affiliated.
It’s all about context. Separately, one has nothing to do with the other. This thread is about both of them together. When you mentioned them both in the same sentence, you carried through the subject matter of this thread with your deceitful inference.
David, this message board is used to vet vendors and deals to members. Not everything that Nick has offered up has passed the smell test.
Seeing as how you have been here less than a year means that you have missed a lot of different companies hawking their wares, some with unfavorable outcomes, so your ignorance of the situation is understandable.
Often times, a lot of these previous vendors offered “free” deals but in exchange for these “free” deals all an inspector had to do was turn over their clients personal information. Data mining is huge these days and companies are willing to pay handsomely for your clients personal information. Ethical companies go to great lengths to prevent having their clients personal information being released.
Businesses have to make numerous decisions every day which will determine whether they will be successful or not. Again, free sounds great but then you have to really look at what you are giving up for this free offer.
On a side note, you don’t want to start any company being “broke” a lack of a sound financial backing is the number one reason the majority of businesses fail.
Good luck with your company.
Well, I’m glad you understand that much, but you don’t seem to understand that this is how business works. My ignorance about this industry, this association and this forum does not prevent me from noticing that several members don’t want me to have the advantage of trying out this software for free.
Thank you all for informing me that this vendor might try to steel my data. I suppose that’s a real possibility and I will go forward with that possibility in mind. But just leave it at that. Thank you Nick for offering me this opportunity, but it’s not for me. That’s all you have to say. There’s no reason to complain about Nick doing his job and bringing us better discounts, better deals, even if they don’t all work out great for everybody, every time.
Everyone who joins InterNACHI is looking for some advantage. We all want every shortcut we can get. Not all shortcuts actually work but we have to pick and choose which ones we want to take a chance on. That’s business. I haven’t figured out how Nick can afford to offer all that free education. I don’t think the membership fees cover it. I have my guesses but it certainly is not a charity. I pay my dues because I want the advantages and I’m accepting that Nick is getting whatever other value he can out of my membership so he can justify all that he does. All his vendors are doing the same. I get that and as a business man I have to pick and choose who to take my chances with. I’m glad that other members are warning me against HG but leave it that. No reason to spoil the deal for everyone else just because you got shafted by a past deal Nick brought to the table. He can’t make that final decision for you. He just brings them to the table for us to decide on.
I haven’t chosen one yet. I was waiting to see if someone would bring a free option to the table. I was thinking of using spreadsheets until then.
I’m not planning to inspect full time so I can’t justify these high expenses, at least not until I’ve been doing this long enough to know and understand what my needs will be in the long term. So, free is the best option right now.