This just in from Nathan Thornberry:

[ccurrins (Christopher Currins, CMI)]

@rhowell

There are indeed two views of “success” in this industry, much like the trades, generally speaking.

1 - You’re a one/two man/woman show, putting in a hard day’s work and build a solid book of business, save a little money, and retire with a good life. That’s awesome! I’m proud of people who accomplish this level of “success.” That’s the American dream right there and it’s beautiful…end of story.

2 - You’re a business builder. You can’t sit still because there’s so much work to do in order to build your kingdom. You like the idea of having employees in order to enrich their lives financially and otherwise–you lead. You love to tinker with systems to optimize workflows and constantly improve the speed and quality of your product or service. “Success” is therefore defined by a multiplier of the work you put into your business.

(Properly compliant) warranty widgets, as some of you are calling them, are lubrication for sales systems, and leverage for growth. And there’s just a lot more money involved. The “success” people refer to in this context often gets tied to “more money” like that’s a bad thing. But, it’s not! Wealth is freedom. It has just as much potential for creating a similarly beautiful life (for owners and their employees) as the first example.

The arguing on this board against Nick’s Buy Back Guarantee and/or Nathan’s Warranties is just two points of view clashing. People are not stupid for utilizing either one, or both of the warranty widgets. Likewise, people who refrain aren’t any less as a result. They just want different things.

Looks like you offer ALL of the widgets/gimmicks.

[jbraun (James E. Braun, CMI)]

@gromicko

I agree Robert. I don’t like the word “warranty” for inspectors because of its negative marketing connotation: It makes people think the inspector needs a warranty to cover his poor performance. On the other hand, some consumers love warranties.

Having said that, Nathan’s warranties appear to comply with state laws. I know he works very hard to make sure that regulators don’t have any issues with his warranties. If I were going to offer a warranty, I would get it from Nathan. His stuff works well and smoothly and his users seem very happy with his products and services.

How do you know his users are happy with his product? He has in his contract with inspectors that if they complain in public about his products, they can be sued. And the last time I looked, his business had a “D” rating with the Better Business Bureau.

[rhowell (Ryan Howell)]

@ccurrins

Looks like you offer ALL of the widgets/gimmicks.

Proudly! And gaining more referrals as a direct result. Hard to argue with the numbers.

[jkeilson (James Keilson, CMI, Certified Master Inspector)]

@gromicko

I agree Robert. I don’t like the word “warranty” for inspectors because of its negative marketing connotation: It makes people think the inspector needs a warranty to cover his poor performance. On the other hand, some consumers love warranties.

Having said that, Nathan’s warranties appear to comply with state laws. I know he works very hard to make sure that regulators don’t have any issues with his warranties. If I were going to offer a warranty, I would get it from Nathan. His stuff works well and smoothly and his users seem very happy with his products and services.

Would you ever actually get a warranty from Nathan or anyone else selling the same type of warranty if a requirement was you had to Release your clients Private Information in order to give the warranty to your clients**? ?**

You have said many times before that all these 90, 100 day warranties are worthless and useless to the client, and their only use is as a marketing tool for inspectors.

As far as the clients being happy with them, well you actually have no idea whatsoever, unless Nathan released the client info to you and you have spoken (personally) to each of them. If you are referring to the few inspectors that might actually still buy, sell, trade or whatever these types of warrantees and give them to their clients in trade for releasing all of their private information to 3rd parties, well you still have no clue if they are happy. As stated by others above they can’t speak the truth about how they feel as they are threatened with law suits if they do.

Jim

[jkeilson (James Keilson, CMI, Certified Master Inspector)]

@jkeilson

Would you ever actually get a warranty from Nathan or anyone else selling the same type of warranty if a requirement was you had to Release your clients Private Information in order to give the warranty to your clients**? ?**

You have said many times before that all these 90, 100 day warranties are worthless and useless to the client, and their only use is as a marketing tool for inspectors.

As far as the clients being happy with them, well you actually have no idea whatsoever, unless Nathan released the client info to you and you have spoken (personally) to each of them. If you are referring to the few inspectors that might actually still buy, sell, trade or whatever these types of warrantees and give them to their clients in trade for releasing all of their private information to 3rd parties, well you still have no clue if they are happy. As stated by others above they can’t speak the truth about how they feel as they are threatened with law suits if they do.

Jim

Still waiting for answers.

Jim

[gromicko (Nick Gromicko, CMI)]

Still waiting for answers.

Answers to your questions are as follows:

Would you ever actually get a warranty from Nathan or anyone else selling the same type of warranty if a requirement was you had to Release your clients Private Information in order to give the warranty to your clients? ?

No.

You have said many times before that all these 90, 100 day warranties are worthless and useless to the client, and their only use is as a marketing tool for inspectors.

No I have not ever said that. I actually don’t believe the word “warranty” has an overall positive marketing benefit to inspectors. The word “warranty” has a negative connotation and is associated with something bad. I prefer the word “guarantee” which is a cocky, positive word the exudes confidence. When Joe Namath was asked if he’d win the Super Bowl, he didn’t say “Well, I’ll provide a limited warranty that covers the price of your ticket less your deductible… bla bla bla.” He replied: “I GUARANTEE IT!”

As far as the clients being happy with them, well you actually have no idea whatsoever, unless Nathan released the client info to you and you have spoken (personally) to each of them. If you are referring to the few inspectors that might actually still buy, sell, trade or whatever these types of warrantees and give them to their clients in trade for releasing all of their private information to 3rd parties, well you still have no clue if they are happy. As stated by others above they can’t speak the truth about how they feel as they are threatened with law suits if they do.

Is there a question in there?