Sounds familiar…competition for your school, Nick???
Competitors…you think that the high #'s of newbie NACHI HI’s aren’t going to end up competing against each other. Get on this planet!!
We have only a few schools now. Bellingham Tech where Steve Smith teaches, Tacoma Community College has limited courses and ITA opened a new school about 1.5 years ago. The hard part that these schools will have to explain is the initial $680.00 license fee and the fact that in Western Washington, the market has tanked in the last 6 months. Well known established inspectors are putting out discounts during the supposed busy months. Washington Realtor membership has dropped 2500 agents between the end of 2007 and the end of June 2008. 1700 of those have been in the last quarter alone.
It will be interesting to see who survives through the end of this year, let alone whether the newbies can even get a decent start.
They will be like the newbies in St. Louis, no doubt. One new NACHI member, in particular, is going to change the entire industry to his satisfaction before performing his first home inspection.
The last time I saw his site, he was charging $250 for 3,000 + sq ft…with crawlspaces free…as soon as he returns from his overseas military assignment.
That always seems to be their answer. Lower the fees…:roll:
What Brian, Stephen, and Jim’s posts point out is that price is a function of supply and demand and that most try to compete on price, especially after state licensing comoditizes everyone.
I, on the other hand, love tough neighborhoods and do best in business, any business, when supply is greater than demand… oh… and I don’t do it with price cuts.
Take the inspection industry as an example. When times are great, it is nearly impossible to knock out the frontrunner. He’s busy as can be and is hardly affected by anything you do.
Now when times are lean, he’s weak. Marketing counts. He actually has to learn to market to compete. Forget it. I’ll eat him for lunch. A lean market, especially one that is worsened by the state dumping thousands of new, fully-licensed (state deemed competent) inspectors into the market, separates the men from the boys. Time to gain market share.
Talking about marketing… I wanted to show the need to market your web site in my last IR class. I choose a set of IR related words for Texas and did a search on google. To the surprise of myself and everyone in the class, I had every single listing on the front page of google. My different pages and articles showed up on the entire front page.
google search - thermal imaging texas inspector
Kickin’ butt John!
And a 800 Room Hospital----:lol:
John,
Great job. You’re lucky I’m not in Texas with you because I’d be right there with you on the front page (I’d be your competition). I’m all over Google’s front page also.
Google search - “thermal imaging massachusetts inspector”
Google search - “infrared imaging massachusetts inspector”
Nick your slipping up, if your opposed to the AZ lic reduction.
Just think, if approved ,AZ inspectors will have an additional 765.00 , over a 3 year period to spend on your instant on-line certifications.:roll:
If you come to Texas, I will try to easy on you…:mrgreen:
Hey Steven;
Congratulations on your appointment to the board!
Thanks Harold. Appreciate the thought.
The first board meeting was today in Renton. In answer to the question, all meetings are intended to be “transparent” in that the public is encouraged to attend. That applies to sub-committees as well. There are three sub-committees – education, licensing, business/standards of practice. The state will post dates of the various meetings. The public is encouraged to speak at the end of the meeting.
Stephen
And this does not surprise you?? OHandley (and others) have always maintained they are independents (wanta buy a bridge?), The consequence of this law, and those who advanced it, has come to pass, over the objections of many of us. It is all what I expected and feared as this law was being proposed, (by a group of various individuals with their own agenda) and then pasased.
With the high cost of a license, and other unintended consequences surely to come out of this, the cost of doing business in this state will definately hit our bottom line.
With the 2.7 billion dollar state budget shortfall, 70 million dollar king county budget shortfall, and Kirklands 2 plus million budget shortfall, me thinks it time to cut and run.
What do we have to look forward to? Increase in the B&O tax?, sales tax?, and property tax?, even as the value of that property has declined.!!!
This board is “payback” to those individuals by the Queen (aka governor) of this state.
As with all licensing laws, they are not for tje benefit of the consumer nor for the benefit of the majority of those being licensed. The only ones who benefits from such laws, is the state in controlling our lives, and those few individuals who push such laws for their own self interest.
We have, in this state, a very uncertain and shaky future, as our cost of doing business goes up, cost of living here goes up, and no end of control by Olympia in our lives. How much can we raise our prices to offset these costs, and if we can or do, what’s next, price controls by the governor of what we can charge for our services? Anything is possible in the Peoples Republic of Washington state!!!
For those of you who backed licensing, be careful of what you wished for, it is going to come back and bite even you!!!
LOL Stevie’s back. I was wondering what happened to you:twisted: :twisted:
Quick questions for ya.
Did you summit your name for any of the committee’s in your state.
Or did you choose to do nothing and just sit back and bash the ones that chose to get involved?,
Being the smart business man you claim to be, how will adding $6-8 per inspection, the additional cost of doing business with licensing, put home inspectors out of business??
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Good post. The truth behind the motivation of those pushing it extends beyond the borders of your state.
Thanks for the update Steven. I was thinking about attending that meeting. However I had two last minute bookings, making a full schedule for Thursday.
I looked at the DOL site for the meeting minutes, but they are not posted yet. Was there anything of interest talked about? Maybe a short summary?
Harold,
Basically the chair was selected, Bruce MacIntosh and vice-chair Micheal O’ Handley. Three sub-committees were setup – standards of practice/business; education and testing; licensing. I am on licensing which will work closely with the other two. There is a fine line between some of the duties.
A few members of the public spoke. Interestingly enough, some suggested that home inspectors should be IRC code inspectors.
I have to be careful what I say so remarks are not misinterpreted as being the opinion of the whole board. Facts should be safe. There will be several more meetings. Two full board meetings before year end and several sub-committee meetings, each committee, between now and then. The public is encouraged to go to all of these, sub-committee or board meetings, and time is given for those people to speak. The whole idea is for meetings to be transparent, not secretive. The legislature passed a law with many specifics but, within that law, the board has to define the specifics such as testing – what to use; what education and continuing ed; is there reciprocity with other states; what are the standards of practice, etc.
Thanks for the information Steven. I will need to make time to get to the next meeting, to follow the process, and understand how our business will be impacted.
If nothing else it may be a source of entertainment. Like the suggestion that home inspectors should be IRC inspectors. When the public is asked what they think, that is what you get. 
…I have a better suggestion, maybe the city code inspectors should be trained to recognize IRC violations… :roll:
Any idea when the next meeting will be?