I truly hope your hat is Red they seem to work better. I am holding my breath on this one so please hurry 
And you have to be a Level III to certify yourself!?
Explain that one…
No you don’t. The whole “level” thing is totally made up. No government agency on the planet earth has awarded it any official approval. It’s just a marketing gimmick. (OMG, I can’t believe I just said that!) LOL
So you think your marketing gimmick CMI is better than my IR level lll.
Lets do a test, you get one of your 3 year CMI wonder boys MM to publish a HI report with Certified master inspector plastered on the cover page and I will do one of my reports with thermal images embedded in the report, give both reports to a Realtor of the CMI’s choice along with one other report and have the Realtor present all three to a client to choose the inspector that will do the inspection.
BTW I know the answer already
How many consumers choose their inspector by being in a scenario where they are first presented three sample reports to study by an agent where only one of the reports has IR photos within it? Not a real-world test.
I’m not saying it never, ever happened in the history of home inspections, but more likely the agent presented the consumer with three brochures and only one was a Certified Master Inspector, and even that scenario is unlikely.
Hey, don’t shoot the messenger, I wish all consumers would choose their inspectors by first procuring and reading through three sample reports. That would be an awesome world. It’s just not one we live and market in. I’d be happy if consumers spent 10 minutes researching their inspector. I’d be happy if they spent 5 minutes choosing. I’d be happy with 2 minutes. I’d be happy with 1 minute. But unfortunately consumers, on average, spend seconds on inspector choice. Certified Master Inspector works in seconds.
Besides, who is to say the CMI in your hypothetical doesn’t also offer IR services? Many do. I just skimmed through a bunch of inspector websites and it certainly appears to me that a higher percentage of CMIs offer IR services than do non-CMIs.
Perhaps some CMI’s do offer IR but bet most do not include images in their reports and if they do it is a hit and miss insulation image that is meaningless.
You must be living in a bubble why do you think I offered up my scenario of the 3 reports that is how I get most of my inspections. I work with intelligent Realtors;-)
Many referrals I get have someone saying “Tim, my agent gave me a few names…”
And yes, well placed in the report… the IR images have attracted a number of intelligent agents, for sure. Kinda nice when you perform the inspection for the buyer… end up having the seller’s hire you and referrals from both of the agents.
Works for me.
The INFRARED CERTIFIED process that InterNACHI offers is already free to all members. Those who take my class do so, not because it is a requirement, but because they have heard good things about it and like the idea of a LIVE teaching session with a real person to explain things and answer questions.
Charley… as only a few of us per community seem to have high resolution (320 x 240 or better) IR cameras, any thoughts on how to best relay that and it’s importance to a consumer? After all, even when a buyer finds 2 or 3 that offer inspections/IR, they (consumers) have little to no idea as to training/equipment and what that means to them… ideas?
That is the scenario I find my self many many times. Works for me also!!!
As for educating the consumer about the difference between low end cameras and grainy out of focus images in a report I simply don’t get in a comparison contest with any competition, I let my images and the amount of repairable items found speak for themselves. We should give the consumer more credit in the knowledge department.
Don’t confuse sales with marketing.
Anyway, back to the level thing. It’s all backwards. Most consumers think of one as better than three. We can’t fight consumer perception, we’d be swimming upstream.
First-rate vs. third-rate.
First world country vs. third world country.
First place vs. third place.
Number one vs number three.
First class vs third class.
So we’re going to fix that and make Level I the top.
Can you imagine if Budweiser had this for a jingle? “When you say Bud you say the king of beers the big number three”
No one except Nate advertises numbers, 3 years to be a CMI
level lll thermographer is used on my web site for commercial clients
If you start trying to change the number game you may be rowing a boat with just one oar
BTW FIX is only used for cats and dogs
Well a tiered system that puts Number One behind number three is a “dog” in terms of marketing. The Philly game just ended, I didn’t see the Eagles fans holding up 3 fingers when it ended.
I have never proclaimed to be a fan of the number system my self it came before me. Noah used it on the arc 2x2.
Personally I prefer apprentice, journeymen, master but that would make HI a tier system ???
If Thermography Levels is such hype, would someone explain to me how CMI is any different?
I’m not knocking CMI (to start with), but just what is the difference?
CMI is not required to inspect anything.
CMI is not anything more than a designation due to some experience and training.
CMI’s are expected to be more proficient than other inspectors.
CMI’s are likely to get paid more for their work.
A CMI whould be handy in your multi inspector business to supervise other inspectors.
CMI’s whould be the logical one to write company policy?
Stick Lvl II or III in there in place of CMI.
Why does your potential client choose a CMI over some other inspector
(or do they really care)?
Its a great idea, now you just need someone with 20 plus years of field experience to develop I, II, III and someone to come up with the advanced stuff you will offer in IV and V. This same person would have to have almost no vested financial interest in the training field as giving it away for free will basically erode all income possibility for anyone else.
At the end of the day basically all training of any type is a scam if you want to look at it that way. I know IT guys that fetch over $300k a year and have never stepped foot in to any type of classroom for their field. One of the greatest mathematicians, that has ever lived, died earlier this year and she never even attended grade school…she wasn’t a savant btw.
Good question. It goes to the heart of those 3 little words that work in seconds. Buying a home is a rare event for a consumer so they simply are never going to be versed in what “Level III” means. I’ve been in the business for 25 years and I actually thought Level I was a higher professional designation than Level III. (First-rate vs. third-rate, first world country vs. third world country, first place vs. third place, number one vs number three, first class vs third class, etc) Consumers certainly don’t know what Level I or Level III means, and worse, are unwilling to spend the time to figure it all out. Your window of opportunity to get them to pickup their phone and dial your number is only several seconds long (I’m with you, I wish they spent more time doing their research, but they don’t). If the meaning of your professional designation isn’t evident to them within that short window, it is meaningless.
Certified Master Inspector’s meaning is evident to every Joe Blow you pass on the street (you can go out on the street and test it if you want to) and delivers a clearly understandable message to Joe Blow, the right message, almost instantly. Nothing else comes close to accomplishing that important task in our industry.
BTW: Let’s not derail this IR thread into a CMI thread because if you turn me loose, I’ll talk about CMI all day.:roll:
Correct. Like all our Free Home Inspector Training Courses & Online Classes - InterNACHI® we’ll hire the right subject matter experts. That’s not my problem. The level thing being backwards is. I’m unwilling to fight consumer perception that number one is best. That’s utterly impossible to change and so we have to go with the flow. The top designation should be I, not III.