Yup! I hear you there Paul, home inspecting is like a walk in the park in comparison!
Sean, from what I’ve seen of your posting/pics what you need out there are more building inspectors! :shock:
Well then Paul, you are the first to be in our pool of inspectors available for hire.
Nick,
Can you also check with NC to see how much an unlicensed helper is allowed to do?
My guess is that its not allowed unless they are licensed.
Here is the contact page
http://www.ncdoi.com/OSFM/Engineering_and_Codes/HILB.aspx
thanks!
Any idea when you will have this program up and running?
Yeah add pool guys also 
Nick, Put me in the inspector pool also when it starts.
Thanks,
Carl
Nick,
Just a thought here, along with some marketing ideas… what about information for inspectors about how to legally have employees etc?
I think most multi-firms in my area operate with the false notion of “independent contractors” (just my opinion, not a lawyer) when most any research will tell you that financial and time control = employee which equals payroll/worker’s comp etc. I also feel that many multi’s put themselves at risk via OSHA rules for employees (not always just Money / Fines if someone gets hurt… lots of trouble) as well as possibly leaving an employee that’s just trying to make a living in a terrible financial state should they get hurt while on the job.
Sure, we want to grow our biz’s, but a level playing field is advised.
Quite frankly, I’d love the help, but have held back for some of the reasons above… at least in my state here, most research with Work Comp, phone calls to dept’s say that if I tell someone where/when to go, etc etc, they’re my baby :D, which is fine… just not as profitable IMO, maybe works for others…
For those doing this, what/how are you doing it?
Tim, you are correct. It’s the state unemployment agencies that don’t look favorably on you paying your people as sub-contractors. Remember, the rules your state uses to determine is someone is an employee or an independent contractor are likely much more strict than the IRS’s.
Just an update… I have not heard back from Florida DBPR licensing department yet. Our request for their “opinion” might have been bumped up to their legal counsel.
Thanks Ben.
Judging by my emails over the past few days, we might be able to do this entirely in-house. All we need now is the infrastructure to allow members to offer to help other members and vice verse so that it all goes smoothly. We can immediately get all our student members in as they want to go out on inspections with veteran inspectors anyway. I’m starting to believe we already have all the pieces of this puzzle.
We can also include those who want to provide radon, mold, and WDO add on inspections for other members.
Huh? Super duper poor idea, unless you don’t care about quality or your reputation. I actually have experience in this and quite a bit of it.
For you to maintain a level of high performance, you cannot just grab a guy here and there and get them just to check windows and take some dictation. It is much more difficult than this.
Either hire someone or don’t. Is Nick doing any background checks? So your just gonna bring a person and let them walk around the house without any knowledge of the past history? Clients have many expensive items in the house.
What you think is common sense, is not so common anymore. Bring an old timer on who has done AC for the past 30 years and give him your program and a camera and I bet you spend a week just trying to get him to type.
When I hire a person it takes about 3 months before they are trained enough to start SAVING me time. These first three months they actually cost me money because they slow me down. These are people I work with on a FULL time basis and the past 6 months the slowest week we had was 55 hours.
With today’s technology, its not about just knowing the information, its about conveying it in a program to the client in a comprehensive and understandable manner.
P.S., if they work for you for one day they are your employee. You are responsible for them and their health and workman’s compensation if they are injured. Watch and see what happens when that “part timer” falls off your ladder…say bye bye company…
If your going to make the move, then make it and I agree with the direction. Part timers will only ruin your name, reputation and so much more.
When a client asks a question, they will answer it, any many times they have no idea what they are talking about.
Been there done that…I don’t see this working neither. But who knows, maybe people don’t and won’t care. Unless Nick is a hiring agency, YOU ARE responsible from DAY ONE for that person to include all taxes and workman’s compensation…
I’ll give it a shot Nick.
What will be your “administrative fees” for each of THESE inspections, Nick?
Blah blah blah.
It won’t work…trust me he is babbling again.
He is going to pay them? So Nick is getting workmanship comp in 50 states, going to do payroll and withhold taxes in 50 states? I don’t see it happening they way he has laid out.
But hey, go for it. If you want to hire people off the street, train your competition, and take these risks with your company…knock yourself out!
Is Nick intentionally trying to loose NACHI? Because sure isn’t building it, its ruining it.
None. There aren’t any administrative costs.
I already have our I.T. department building a members-only subset of www.InspectorSEEK.com whereby any member can enter his or her special skills, licenses, ancillary inspections offered, market area, and willingness to work for other members. This way for example, member A can offer radon tests performed by member B (who is licensed to perform radon tests).
Russell writes:
I checked with our CPA: Payroll wouldn’t be needed on B2B payments made from one member’s inspection company to another. In other words, you’d be hiring the inspection company (just like consumers do now without putting you on their payroll).
We’ll release it as soon as I.T. can get it done.
This would not work for me can you just imagine in your wildest dreams Bushy working for me I don’t sell hearing aids so he would be up the creek:shock: