Correct. Not only do I have sole discretion to make the call, I have the actual Porch checks in hand, hanging on a wall in my office. And as you all know, I’m very accessible to all of you should you or any of your clients have any issue at all.
So sleep well everyone. I’m now one of the owners of Porch.
Many of you who have been in InterNACHI for for a while already know this: I set InterNACHI up years ago so that it could never be bought out because InterNACHI isn’t owned and legally can never be owned by anyone. It never issued stock. It’s both a non-profit and a federally tax-exempt organization.
And since InterNACHI can never be owned by anyone (Unlike HON and ISN), InterNACHI can never be bought out.
InterNACHI is structured to last for centuries.
Thanks Nick ISN is a very good system for all of us and for you to do what you did makes me feel a lot better. Thanks again great job.
An update the I would like to suggest is a CASE BY CASE opt in. If ISN had a check box that we could select (not selected by default) on the order details screen it would allow us to ask our clients if they wanted to be contacted by Porch. This is the only form of opt in that I think I can get fully behind.
I do a ton of investor inspections and I know for sure that they don’t want any more “spam” calls than they already get.
Yep, I opted out of Porch. I don’t want my customers getting calls from anyone else other than someone I specifically recommend. I tested Porch and looked at the recommendations. They listed a bunch of young and inexperienced companies. Do you really want your clients to get an inexperienced contractor and have the client blame you? Of course Porch.com is free to ISN inspectors, but they should be paying us (although I do not accept referral business). Also,in Texas it is illegal for us to accept referrals in any way. An attorney may construe that we are getting a benefit from Porch via the free “fix-it if we miss it” policy. Is that I violation? I don’t know but it is enough to make me not want to be a part of it. Also, it is free for now, but I have been down the corporate merger stair-step process before. First it is free, then it is “if you participate in Porch you get a discount” or something along those lines. I don’t blame Dan for trying to make money, but I see Porch as a conflict of our interest. So much so that I am looking for an alternative to ISN. If I don’t find one I may have one written.
I also am not a fan of Miss it Fix it.
Anyway, it makes no business sense to keep wasting money calling a consumer about something the consumer doesn’t want. So in a sense, those types of calls are already self-regulating. On top of that, I’m taking additional steps to keep InterNACHI members’ clients from receiving spammy sales calls.
Why don’t you buy out the rest of ISN! Now that would be the ticket!
I would rather you take additional steps on the weekly / monthly spam sales calls from companies that have “partnered” with InterNACHI.
Thank you Nick for all you do!
Very, very impressive. Thank you, Nick!!!
What type of a monetary “fine” are you thinking for customer complaints, $100, $500, $1000, $10,000?
A fine should be made to deter the company from repeating the violation. I’m thinking anything less than $10,000 to start, and getting substantially larger with each occurrence, might be a good starting point. Anything less than that and Porch won’t even notice it.
I don’t think the purpose of my “Wall of Checks” is to punish Porch, but rather to demonstrate (In typical Nick Gromicko fashion) how many complaints their operation actually causes our profession. If they do what I’m suggesting, there will be nearly none and the “Wall of Checks” will last for years without needing to be replenished.
As expected.
Here is a hypothetical. IF Nachi buys out pooch… I mean porch then MAYBE our info won’t be farmed out. PONY UP!
Porch’s founder and CEO Matt Ehrlichman recently visited me twice. We’re committed to making sure InterNACHI members’ clients experience nothing to complain about.
Matt and Nick:
He looks like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar. I sure am glad I don’t have to complain as I have never been a part of ISN. We recently had someone try to hack my contact list which contains my clients e-mail’s. We had recently purchased PC- matic for our computers so the hackers got nothing. A very good investment.
So you influenced the parasites to opt in rather than opt out?.. Or is it still set up to shaft Clients?
I think we’re OK as an industry. The CEO of Porch is coming out to see me again on the 30th and we’re going to cut a video that inspectors might find useful in assuring them that their clients are safe. I think I have this issue close to being buttoned up.
Hey Nick,
If you want to really corner the market, as in “inspector market”, you should purchase ISN, kick Porch to the curb, and offer all InterNACHI inspectors FREE use of ISN as a member benefit. 
Although at this point that’s probably not an option, it’s still a nice thought.
