The Dangers of Calling Yourself an Expert by Mark Cohen, Esq.

If you qualified for your CMI and became a CMI, it matters not who paid for it. You are a Certified Master Inspector if you paid by check, if you financed it, if someone paid it for you, if you work for an inspection company who paid for it, if you paid for it with corporate funds, if you won the fee at an inspection event contest, if you put it on your wife’s credit card, or if you packed up just weights and measures (gold & silver) on the back of a donkey and it arrived via a mule train. It is not a requirement that the one-time, lifetime application fee come directly from the applicant personally.

If your Mom and Dad paid for you to go to medical school and you became a doctor… you are still an M.D. (even though Mom & Dad paid).

But did those given free CMI’s qualified?

Who care how they paid, it was given…

Nick has made it very clear in several past threads that if someone is given the CMI, they still must qualify. Per Nick, nobody is given the CMI designation that is not qualified to receive it.

Do a search and you will most likely find the previous threads/posts where Nick has clarified this.

Correct. And for at least a few years now, I have had no technical access to even get someone on the CMI website without them qualifying. Every CMI has to go through the online application process. The application is in separate stages where you can’t even progress with the application submittal until certain documents demonstrating certain things are scanned and uploaded through the links in the application. It’s then verified twice (neither time by me). The documentation is then time-stamped and archived. It’s all very bullet-proof and defensible. We had to do this all for Alberta when they grandfathered all CMIs and we liked the defensibility of the system so much, we kept it.

The last addition we made to the requirements (demanding hard-copy evidence of being in the inspection business for more than three years) was put into force about 7 years ago… so the CMIs who didn’t initially meet that requirement (and there were some CMIs who did not meet that requirement) have all certainly met it by now.

InterNACHI then liked the system so much, it adopted large portions of it. For example, I can delete an InterNACHI member, but I can’t make him/her visible. I no longer have technical access to that. And the member can’t make him/herself visible either until the system verifies that certain membership requirements have been met. InterNACHI has probably gone overboard with regard to time stamping. InterNACHI’s online transcript system literally time stamps everything, every course you start, every course you complete, every quiz you take, every exam you pass, etc. And you can’t make yourself visible on any of our inspector search directories if you haven’t completed our membership requirements. The computer system simply won’t let you. This verification system is, in part, why InterNACHI has been granted so many governmental approvals: www.nachi.org/approved.htm

Nick,

C’mon.

The reason behind this whole “expert” issue is obvious. You don’t want Nathan as a competitor in any way shape or form, and I don’t blame you for that.

His CEI or whatever it is, would, and still may, compete with CMI, so you want to quash it before it gets going. Totally understandable from a competitive point of view since more $$ for CEI means potentially less $$ for CMI. Pretty simple concept.

Here’s the way I see it.

Home Inspector = Generalist

What’s the difference between being a master at being a generalist, and being an expert at being a generalist?

IMO - there is no difference.

Hey Kevin hope all is well bro. I agree with your above post, but to expand a little one must realize the power CMI has if used and Marking correctly. I can tell you first hand that it is working fantastic for us.

Now this other CEI is new and in my opinion was created just to copy Nick. It may in fact also have some good marketing value if one uses it correctly.
Now unlike CMI CEI has no credibility behind it yet and I personally would never call myself an expert OF ALL THINGS Inspection related unless I truly was. Also since there is no meal requirements (that I know of) for it I wonder what Inspectors sy when asked what CEI means and how and what they had to do to achieve this designation… :shock:

Just how I see it all in my little piece of the world.

Jim

Don’t call yourself either unless you really are one. I can call myself a *Certified Master Inspector *because I am one and can prove it. I can’t call myself a medical doctor because I’m not one and can’t prove that I am.

See the difference? The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office does.

Common theme expressed by one CMI after another for many years.

I understand what you’re saying Nick, I’m just pointing out the fact that there is really no difference in the “meaning” between being a Master Generalist and an Expert Generalist.

Now as far as qualifications to obtain the title are concerned, that’s debatable, as has been proven for years on this MB.

CMI is your baby and you have the final say on what the qualifications are to obtain it, just as CEI will be Nathans baby and he will have the final say on it.

In the end, it’s all about marketing. And I will say CMI is an excellent marketing tool.

It was my understanding that there are no qualifications for CEI. If you want to use it, you can. Am I wrong?

You’re correct Frank, but be prepared to answer the question of “what are the requirements to be a CEI”?.

If the answer is “to be a client of Nathan”, you probably won’t get a very favorable response. :wink:

After 45 years in building construction, I would still be a little reluctant to call myself an expert.
There are great many opinions on that definition. :slight_smile:

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