Jeffrey is right. Especially veteran agents who can’t stomach one more “discrimination” course.
Of course you do.
Legitimate agents will refer certified home inspectors to inspect decks. The others will certainly find your course outrageously popular. 
I would not be surprised to see this course rejected by the Missouri Real Estate Commission. The wife of the broker of the largest real estate firm in Jefferson City, who is business partners with the largest broker in Columbia, is the chairman of the board of education of the Real Estate Commission (the last I heard). She runs the show because The Missouri Association of Realtors (based out of Columbia) is strongly backing her. The State does not do anything without the approval of MAR. She told me in several occasions, she does not want any agents to know how to tell if anything is wrong with a certain component of a house because that makes the agent liable for just knowing it. The NACHI sponsored class we had in Jefferson City took me 2 1/2 years to get a verbal that it would get approved. It took about another four months for the class to get approved after Lisa submitted it. They made Lisa submit documents over and over again. I finally called somebody I knew high up in the State and she sent a carefully worded email to the lady at the Real Estate Commission that was making Lisa jump through all those hoops. The course then was approved in a matter of only a couple days.
The courses such as Bushart suggested will probably make it through the Commission.
I know several agents that use their husbands for home inspectors. Their brokers do not care, as long as the deal closes. Legally, all the agents have to do is disclose it. Sad but true!
I remember this one. A fellow NACHI member from another state, who was a friend of the buyer, asked me to go down there and help this buyer out. The buyer did not want to pay me to drive down there, let alone not even close to my fee for performing an inspection. His comment was to me, something like, well I did not pay that much for the orginal home inspection (the piss poor one he just got).](*,) The inspector was the husband of the Realtor which had several pending legal cases due to his vision problem, he had only while performing home inspections.:shock:
Sad but true!
Im with Nick on this one. This is a GREAT marketing idea.
Yes there are unscrupulous Realtors out there, but this does not empower them at all. If anything, it should scare them away. Maybe give them a gracious respect for our profession. I have never met a Realtor yet that was gunning to be my competition. (although some wish I wasn’t in business)
The more Realtors know the benefits of NACHI, the better it is for all of us, and all of our customers.
I would be careful what city or state I submit that deck class to.
As in Kansas, every inspector has to sign an application that states “the inspector will abide by the standards of practice of the state of Kansas”.
These standards state that, by law and by me signing the application, that I now must only check one outlet, one window, one switch per room; no appliances, only one staircase, etc. etc. etc.
It is now the cheap inspectors who write soft, basic Kansas SOP reports that the agents will now only suggest that their clients hire. This has dramatically dumbed-down our profession. Agents could care less on what any class is about, only that they get their CE’s. “My inspector does not have to check the deck in detail; only that there is one”.]
Sad. And now the same laws are being pushed in Missouri. The NAR recently raised agent dues up $40 for “political initiatives”. As of July 1, agents now have to be finger-printed.
We are next on the list.
Where did you hear that? That is nonsense.
Application: Read the bottom of the page carefully.
Read page 5, the definition of “representative number”
Then read page 9, electrical components, and page 14, other systems/components.
The home buyers are really getting shafted in Kansas; and legally.
What comes to mind reading this…Pimp-Prostitute!:mrgreen:
Do we need or want Realtors involved any more than they already are?
All we are doing is teaching the agents what to say to home buyers, so the client will not hire an inspector. The buyer and his/her agent can look themselves, and save that $350 to $450.
Appears to me that we are going backwards.
It is a way to get Agents to acknowledge Nachi. We need to somehow break their love affair with ASHI.
WOW, I really think this is a BAD BAD Idea !!! the last thing our profession needs is wannabe Inspectors (RE Agents) not only taking away work that could be ours, but gaining more respect from the general public as Qualified to Inspect Decks. There is absolutely NO good that can or will come out of this ridiculous idea. This will degrade any professionalism we are gaining in our profession, it is simply a BAD Idea.
Nick I have always respected you and what you do for our profession, and I Really am into Ben and all his great Instructional help as well as all the other people you have on staff, but this is a completely BAD Idea.
There is NO As…S Hat RE Agent that I want involved in my profession, this is degrading at best and self destructive at least.
Jim
I 100% agree. My post above gives my opinion. This is a ridiculous Idea and a GIANT step in the wrong direction. We should make a poll and see whats up and who is for this and who is against, and the voice of the masses should prevail as this effects us all in a big way.
Jim
I agree that the premise of this idea has merit… does the topic rub most of us wrong…maybe.
Having said that, I think many small business types (myself included) are bad at marketing ideas, and even though this is just one way… we have been asking for recognition to be expanded. Nachi has more to lose by scaring people/agents/public than do I… my business would continue either way.
I will reinterate. I do not like the deck course idea but I think classes such as Bushart suggested would be really great.
Good stuff jim …
This RE agents doing any type of Inspections, decks or anything is WRONG in so many ways for our profession and has no positive effect on anyone including NACHI…Just a Horrible idea.
NACHI now offering FREE Deck Inspection Certification to Real Estate Agents ??? WTF that is simply against MY COE and SOP !!!
Jim
Jim
Nick,
Everybody seems to like the idea about NACHI educating Realtors. We just do not want Realtors telling us how to inspect a property more than what they are doing now. HGTV and the DYI channels have made Realtors seem like they are experts in construction, but only in their minds. Sad but true!.
Our deck course is perfect for this project. It’s one of those things that laymen (which is what agents are) think is simple to inspect. The deck course will change their minds and give them a better understanding of just how much knowledge is required to do a proper inspection on the rest of the house.
But that’s just the icing. The cake is that we end up with a venue to market their local InterNACHI inspector back to them at the very point where they just thought about inspections for 3 hours. It just doesn’t get better than that. This thing is going to be huge.
http://buildingcodes.jocogov.org/documents/Deck%20Brochure%202009.pdf
There are many web sites on deck construction. Here is our local code guidelines on decks. Open to all. Agents can reference this.
Classes and books to agents need to be presented that teach agents about inspection procedures, limits, etc. Most are not taught about this in RE classes. Oh. Maybe they do teach it; the wrong way.