InterNACHI members might get tens of millions of dollars worth of inspections!!!

[FONT=Verdana]As far as inspectors fee’s, I also agree the current environment of giving away free or lowball services is damaging to the profession by undervaluing the service provide. It is a (mostly) free market however, and ultimately the forces of performance, value (actual and percieved), reputation, fees and liability will resolve themselves.

[/FONT]

The only problem is that every client is new and don’t take into account “[FONT=Verdana]forces of performance, value (actual and percieved), reputation, fees” they are only looking for the lowest cost, How many call do we get where the customer is price shopping?[/FONT]

quote=ktownsend;660177]

[FONT=Verdana]As far as inspectors fee’s, I also agree the current environment of giving away free or lowball services is damaging to the profession by undervaluing the service provide. It is a (mostly) free market however, and ultimately the forces of performance, value (actual and percieved), reputation, fees and liability will resolve themselves.

[/FONT]

The only problem is that every client is new and don’t take into account “[FONT=Verdana]forces of performance, value (actual and percieved), reputation, fees” they are only looking for the lowest cost, How many call do we get where the customer is price shopping?[/FONT]
[/quote]

You are right all the customer cares about is the price. :shock:

A couple of point to consider:

I redo wind mits on the new form that I did a year ago on the old form.

I have many repeat clients. People change insurance more often they one may think.

You can only save 45% on the Wind portion of the premium.

All insurance companies are required to inform their clients about wind mitigation. They just need to read the information sent them. They state even had newspaper adds and commercial.

Many insurance companies use wind mitigation to gain clients and keep old clients.

There is less liability with a wind mit(if done properly) than a home inspection.

Prices will never go up as long as people are willing to do them for less.
We have a GC doing wind mits and four point combos for 87.50. I have heard of people doing wind mits alone for $50 dollars and $35 dollars.

Claiming that benefits vs pay (saving vs cost) is a way to charge is non sense. You should get paid for time/services done. I do not charge more because they paid more for the house. What they spend or save is not my business.

I have proven many previous inspections wrong, including re-inspections. It is about having the proper proof.

Managing wind mits is not easy, everyone needs them now. Checking all inspectors work is time consuming and necessary.

There are tricks to the Insurance inspection business, first being volume. Making good money at it is a matter of perspective. To the person not working, doing a couple a day a $50 is good money. To the seasoned inspector not so much.

Stop crying about the price qualified inspectors charge for their services. Nothing personal, it’s going to get far worse before it gets better.

The reason prices are low is simple economic principle of supply and demand.

The prices dropped because too many people could perform the inspection, and too many inspections were given out for free thanks to My Safe Florida.

Supply was high/ Demand low.

Now, due to homeowner turn over, failure of insurance companies, and the new form. Demand has increased.

Higher demand, coupled with a limited the supply of qualified inspectors, would work to produce higher prices.

But wait!!! Now their will be 5,000 newly qualified licensed home inspectors to perform wind mits.

The going price for a wind mit with any Full Home inspection will drop to around 20 bucks.

Simple economics.

Stop B i t c h i n g ! You all got what you wanted.

we got paid more $ before and during msfh and were busier than ever, when ANYONE could perform an insurance inspection… Properly servicing and maintaining a solid client base is about accurate inspections, professionalism, consistency, and good customer service. There is alot of drama involved with the insurance inspection business and the selling yourself short is a self inflicted death sentence.

This contract, if InterNACHI is awarded it, changes all that. The portion of the fee that goes to the inspector is fixed and more than reasonable.

I’m in. I’ll take 50 a week please. :smiley:

Please do not give them all the secrets in one sentence;-)

Write a book!

Again the issue of who will be allowed to perform inspections or re-indpections for Citizens Insurance Company next year is very clear at least at this point in time. The ITN Proposal specifically states the qualifications of the permitted inspectors. Home Inspectors (licensed or not) are not on the list. Possibly politics will change Citizens’ mind but if it does then the bidding process will have to start over again.

For those people who want to get a handle on the severity of the wind mit inspection fiasco go to Citizens’ website and look at the Inspection and Outreach Program Update dated 27 May 2010. They analyze the results of the reispections being done by Inspection Depot. Personal lines policies show that 90.4% of the policies had a change in feature (eg gable vs hip) and that 74.68% of the policies had a change in premium. The number of reinspections was 699. The total additional premium impact was $489,273.

No wonder Citizens wants to change the way inspections are being done. I think that all of us can agree that this level of error ratio is totally unacceptable and that drastic steps need to be taken to find a remedy and soon.

The remedy started last year with requirements as to who can perform the inspection and also with reinspection/auditing requirements. Everyone knows the old inspections were wrong. Its been no secret on this message board. I personally have inspected hundreds if not thousands in the past year or more in which the policy holder has lost previous credits. Like any other program/industry, ect there is an evolutionary learning curve. If there are still people out there doing inspections in a fraudulent manner(i doubt there are many) they will be caught soon and dealt with. As far as citizens discrepancy percentage, I would take that with a grain of salt, because anyone in this business can attest that every carrier has there own requirements/interpretation of the 1802 wind credit delegation. For instance what about gable vents? Do you count those? Does Citizens? Maybe next year they will? Would you conscider that a fair and accurate error rate? What about plywood? Does that count? How about a strap with two nails on each side? Is that a single wrap or a clip? They could advertise a 100% error rate but its propoganda either way. Also, if you read the experience requirements for the main contract, there is really only one company that fits the bill, wonder why.

I wonder if these error rates included the several reported accounts of fraud on Ameripro’s part.

For instance, it was reported that several re-inspections were being marked “unknown or undetermined” for several of the mitigating features found in the attic portion of the wind mitigation inspection. This was happening because the inspector completing a re-inspection never entered the attic. There have been many reported cases were credits such as roof to wall, and deck fasteners were removed despite the homeowner claiming no one ever contacted them to re-inspect the home.

The bottom line is Mr. Rowan with Amerispec or “Inspection Depot” has ties with a sitting board member of Citizens. Thats why the original contract was handed to that company without a bid process and why it stands a good chance it will be awarded the contract through public bid.

The insurance companies goal is not about actual risk assesment and it never has been. Its about finding any way possible to wiggle out of credits the homeowner are intitiled to.

Take a look at how the whole re-inspection process works.

  1. If the inspection is completed by a company not on the prefered vendor’s list (I.E. Ameripro) then it is automatically flagged for re-inspection.

  2. The results of the re-inspection are considered gospel. After all its not possible for the “prefered vendor” to be in error right?

  3. Its is then up to the homeowner to hire another inspector to dispute the discrepancies. After which an underwriter will determine the outcome.

The same underwriters who have no answers when questions are asked.

The industry as a whole is completely corrupt.

Here’s the link to the ‘Citizens Inspection and Outreach Update’. I love the wording.

IMO the average Florida homeowner has no idea of what’s coming their way. Many still think wind mitigations bring automatic reductions in their insurance, even if they live in a house built in the 60s / 70s (with no upgrades), which many of our beachside communities are. Yes, the information is out there, but only if you look for it and make an attempt to decode it, which most homeowners I’ve spoken with, don’t.

The concept of checking a home for wind resistive features and educating people about what they could do to strengthen their homes and reduce the risk of loss was noble. However, IMO it became an entitlement program fueled by misinformation, inaccurate inspections and the promise of ‘guaranteed’ reductions (‘or your money back’ as many inspector website say to this day). That said, there are still many homeowners in newer and properly upgraded properties who continue to benefit from a properly performed wind mitigation verifications.

It will take some time for this mess to work its way out of the system. Having InterNACHI and InterNACHI inspectors in the solution would be great. I would hope a better job is done educating the consumer.

Jeff Tatlock
BEACHSIDE Home Inspection
Serving Brevard County FL. Areas include Cape Canaveral, Merritt Island, Cocoa Beach, Satellite Beach, Indian Harbour Beach, Indialantic, Melbourne Beach, Viera, Melbourne.
www.beachsideinspection.com/why_beachside

Justin Deese writes:

InterNACHI has now given Citizens a no-excuses opportunity to un-corrupt the whole mess by awarding InterNACHI the contract.

The 1802 form was developed by the OIR ie., by a committee. No one at the OIR can answer questions or address ambiguities in the form. Furthermore most professionals would agree the form doesn’t go far enough to really address the wind mit features. Be that as it may the form is what we must use and what underwriters must use to justify windstorm premium credits.

I believe our job is to deliver to the customer an accurate assessment of the structure’s features based upon personal visual inspection and supporting these conclusions with photographic and other physical documentation eg. roofing contracts, permits. It is unlikely any inspection can be unequovically deemed accurate but at least the customer can see from the report enough information that they can draw their own conclusions. Hot dogging should be minimized.

I think it is foolish to opine on insurance companies being greedy etc. Bear in mind this windstorm premium credit business was forced upon them by the OIR. They are only asking one thing from us. It’s very simple. Answer the questions on the form accurately so they in turn can rely upon our report to do their job. Don’t try to solve the world’s problems all a once.

Over time the process will evolve and improve. I hope that NACHI and it’s membership can be a valuable resource to the OIR in this evolution. Certainly we have seen the worst side of this inspection process and I know we all have suggestions on how it can be improved.

what the carriers must accept in order to justify a premium credit for windstorm coverage.Ambiguities in interpretation are not addressed.

Deleted

I also wanted to add that Mr. Smith seems to be confused about who can “certify” an individual to complete these inspections.

It appears Mr. Smith is under the assumption that Ameripro and Skytech are the governing entites for “certifying” an inspector. Who needs the DBPR?

CLASSIC

Just wait until the insurance companies start sending out letters to the people that you did wind mitts for telling them that their discount will not become active until your work has been verified. The homeowner can speed up the process by paying for their vendor to perform another inspection. How many phone calls do you think you will get in the near future when people start to find out that the inspection you are selling them today is of no value?

By the way you can’t give a few companies multi million dollar monopolies and then take it all away.

Actually it is the insurance company that can choose who to accept work from. They have chosen to place the two mentioned companies at the top of the hill. They can also choose who they want to review all the reports.

When you consider the fact that every inspector was instructed during the program (msfh) regardless of WCE to change the way the form was filled out at least three times from the origninal pilot program. It hardly seems reasonable to expect that the forms would be able to meet any criteria for scrutiny as to discrepancy in reporting. Everything I have ever read concerning the enginneering aspects regarding wind load and pressurization seems in fact to be getting turned upside down. I think they left the science behind on a lot of this “new” form.

Anyone heard of the term racketeering?