Below is the email we (Kaplan) sent out last week to inform our current students and inspectors of the changes to the rule of becoming an inspector in the great state of Texas. I urge you to send your thoughts to TREC and cc me: richard.whitsitt@kaplan.com. I believe this is going to have long lasting negitive effects on our industry and the consumers. Thanks for your support!
We were just informed about an important change that may affect you. On August 24th, 2007 TREC posted a major change to inspector licensing requirements on their website. A TREC legislative****change now requires education and specific experience to become an inspector under the Fast Track method.
Effective with applications postmarked September 1, 2007 or later, applicants for the Real Estate Inspector and Professional Inspector license who apply under the Fast Track alternative method must provide proof of both education and specific experience. At its August 6, 2007 meeting, the Commission adopted new rules](http://www.home-inspect.com/newsletter/inc/rdr.asp?1081___07829205052___http://www.trec.state.tx.us/pdf/rules/535.206_.208_.210-.212_.215-.216_.224.pdf) ( click on this link to see a copy of the ruling) regarding the combined education and experience requirements.
To qualify under the previous requirements you need to take the following steps between August 28, 2007 – August 31, 2007:
You should fall under the ‘no experience’ licensing requirements if you send an evaluation of education request form, course certificates and fee, followed by the license application form, ONLY if you have already completed the 448 hours of education.
·You should mail via overnightmail to TREC the request for Evaluation of Inspector Experience and Education Documents](http://www.home-inspect.com/newsletter/inc/rdr.asp?1081___07829205052___http://www.trec.state.tx.us/pdf/education/Ed-eval-insp.pdf) (click this link to download the form). This must be overnighted to arrive no later than Friday, August 31.
·Next, mail the inspector license application form by regular mail. The Prof. Inspector License Application (by Individual)](http://www.home-inspect.com/newsletter/inc/rdr.asp?1081___07829205052___http://www.trec.state.tx.us/pdf/forms/insp/REI-6-9-ProfInspectorApplication.pdf) (click this link to download the form) must be postmarked by the post officeon or before Friday, August 31. An application will be rejected if all education has not already been evaluated and approved.
NOTE: Do not send both forms together. TREC must process the Request for Evaluation of Education BEFORE they receive the license application. If the license application is processed before your education is approved, your application will be rejected and you will have to apply again under the new ‘experience required’ rules that become effective September 1st, 2007.
If you have further questions contact: Texas Real Estate Commission at 512-459-6544 or visit www.trec.state.tx.us](http://www.home-inspect.com/newsletter/inc/rdr.asp?1081___07829205052___http://www.trec.state.tx.us)
Thanks,
Richard Whitsitt
Director of Real Estate Inspector Training
Kaplan Professional Schools
Better late than never I suppose Richard, today’s 9/4 right? This new rule was posted here several months ago and if anyone was interested they could have participated in the TREC meetings, the Inspector Committee meetings and even at the legislative session. Little late to be complaining now. Besides, how will this new rule not better serve consumers?
As I am reading the complaints of the citizens coming out of Texas, the majority of serious allegations of abuse and malpractice are aimed at the builders. I think the acronym is TRCC (pronounced “trick”).
Now, how is it that the people who are connected with the faulty constructions that have the citizenship in such an uproar…will be able to claim this very same “experience” as a positive thing when becoming a home inspector?
Leave it to politicians to come up with such absurd solutions to problems created by their own legislation.
In a nutshell…some of the horror stories being told about the builders in Texas are being used, under the label of “experience”, as a means of “improving” home inspectors. “Experience” with a bad builder will now count toward eligibility to inspect homes.
Your legislators would do well to read the Ohio Real Estate Commission’sreport that concluded (after studying Texas and the other licensed states) how licensing did nothing to improve the quality of inspectors/inspections.
Well, sorry, I still don’t know what that means but never mind. As far as the Ohio study you continue to mention, you’ll remember it was just a couple of weeks ago that we sparred on that as well. I do not see where that study says what you say it does and I posted that evidence then. Obviously, licensing does solve some problems after all.
Experience combined with poor ethics = poor workmanship.
This is true in all trades. Poor ethics is the problem, not experience.
The Ohio report lack serious creditability for several reasons, but I’m
not going to bother now.
Does enforcing the CoE on some NACHI membership help anything?
Not all enforcement is bad… I think you would agree.
Laws that enforce the SoP are not all bad.
Read the full statement you quoted, Mike, and remember it was a commission of real estate agents that wrote it.
They said “Given that the data do not support the notion that an extensive licensing program directly affects home inspectors’ qualifications”…that is, the data does not support that licensing has improved the quality of inspectors…“a program with minimal components may be all that is necessary”…so, don’t put too much emphasis on qualifications.
They are real estate salesmen and they feel a need to control the home inspection process, since their commissions are directly affected by the sale of the house. Thus…in spite of the facts showing that licensing does nothing to improve the quality of inspectors of inspections…“a full home inspection licensing program on par with the real estate licensing program is necessary”.
What I brought up is that, after years of writing laws to govern home inspectors, the quality of the inspection and inspector has yet to be increased in Texas. This is evident not only from the study commissioned by the Ohio Real Estate Commission that reported on the lack of improvements resulting from Texas HI laws, but from the recent flurry of attempts to address the quality of home inspectors by your legislators.
The mandating of E&O has been significantly addressed by many, so we will let those comments stand.
The other…mandated contracting experience…in a state where builders (those providing this “experience”) are under fire by a myriad of consumer advocacy groups, the Texas press and the Texas legislature - adds to the futility.
Is “experience” bad, as you attempted to accuse me of stating? Of course not, generally speaking.
But does five years of building bad houses make one a good home inspector? Your legislature seems to think so.
I’m not picking on Texas, for this ridiculous attempt to quantify quality is a common error among all states attempting (and failing) to write good laws.
The market determines the good from the bad. It is happening right now, as the pressures fall on inspectors competing for enough inspections to stay in business. Just as the market has determined the good lenders from the bad, the good builders from the bad, and the good real estate salesmen from the bad (with tens of thousands not renewing their licenses this year) - consumers (and not politicians) will/should govern our industry.
JB you’re right about contracting experience. It’s easy to go down the steet here in Texas and pick up a group of cheap laborers. Most home builders around here don’t have permanent crews. What’s the experience in that?
I enjoyed my days working a crew where one days I was pounding nails and the next day I was pulling wire or building cabinets.
Now days a contracter is a one man band and subs out everything. No oversight on the job. Things get coverd up.
