Peter, Contact me at [email protected]. I would like to visit with you about this company.
I did 30 days with them back in 2004 wouldn’t work for them again, the biggest cluster**** imaginable.
And THAT, my friend, is putting it lightly!
THanks so much for posting this info. I won’t bother with FEMA work if one has to go through PARR or another group of chistlers trying to make the front line eat all the operating cost.
Duh, I think we’re already there
Just want to clarify something that Mr Baker apparently does not understand regarding Federal contracts. The contract that PaRR Inspections has has a CEILING of $750M. It is not a guaranteed amount. FEMA pays PaRR on a per inspection basis as well.
The contracts were competitively bid and were awarded to PaRR and PB Disaster Services. If they were making 85% margins as Mr Baker assumes, they would have lost the contract during the bid phase.
PaRR, along with PB have certain overhead costs they assume to maintain a readiness. The independent contractor inspectors assume no such risk.
But again, the $750M is purely a Contract CEILING. If there are no major disasters, FEMA pays PaRR and PB very little. FEMA will never pay PaRR or PB $750M unless there is a Katrina every year.
I am no longer an iNACHI or private Home Inspector, but when I was a private Inspector I took the PARR FEMA disaster inspector training.
I could not finish the training, I made it through the initial training, but the second tier training was enough for me.
The only focus and main driving force during the entire training process was making money. I was under the mistaken opinion or idea that the focus would be on helping people. Sure the inspectors had to make a living or pay for expenses, but that wasn’t even close to what they were proposing. The all mighty dollar was the only thing that mattered, or so PARR stated.
I personally could not be a part of it.
Unfortunately the story or info in this thread does not come as a surprise.
A lot of ill informed criticism of PaRR has been vented here so I must weigh in. I’m the most hyper critical guy you’re likely to meet BUT I’ve been happy with PaRR’s commitment to my capacity for performing well in disasters and to be paid well, sometimes VERY well. It took me a few disasters to earn respect in the company - however if you learn how to be both accurate in your inspections and also have a rapid turnaround time you WILL get more work, often more than you feel is possible to finish in a reasonable time-frame. I’ve had the occasional disappointment when the FEMA servers crashed and work became scarce and I’ve been assigned some depressing regions where the cost of living was absurdly high and inspections were nearly impossible to line up but I’ve also gotten lucky and had times where I could comfortably turn in 20+ inspections in a day. It is what you make of it. I can’t speak for how much profit PaRR makes on the gov’t dime, but based on their corporate HQ (yes it exists) and the RV command centers and the call center for fielding inspection questions, I can assure you they have an expensive overhead that consumes most of the profit margin.
Recently I realized I hadn’t successfully submitted my mileage expense forms, months after the disaster had wrapped up. PaRR deposited the large sum into my bank acct. without any fuss. I’m firmly in their camp and suspect that the people badmouthing them expected more hand-holding than they deserved.