Which was it, MIC or Pre-listing? Two different animals.
What do you perceive to be the difference?
MIC = That you certified the house.
Pre Listing Inspection = Same as a buyers inspection without the word “Certified” involved. I’m not sure what some you don’t understand but Certified means…
guaranteed; reliably endorsed:
If you truly want to advertise MIC then tell people the truth that your only certifying your work on the day of inspection. MIC makes potential buyers believe that the home they are looking at “on any given day” is certified. If I was a judge in a court of law I would rule this way.
Of course it means something! It means that the house has no major systems in need of immediate repair or replacement and no known safety hazards. That’s the definition. And that is a WHOLE lot less than what you are going to certify tomorrow morning on your inspection when you look at 400 items… for your client… who has standing in a claim against you… and who is moving into the home you inspected.
If you are worried sick about “certifying” that a home you inspected has no major systems in need of immediate repair or replacement and no known safety hazards, for someone who isn’t even your client and can’t sue you… you must be really worried, throwing up, head-in-the-toilet, on-your-death bed, sick about certifying an entire inspection report for someone who is your client and can sue you.
In other words, if you are worried about doing an MIC, there is no way you can offer traditional home inspection services.
Some of you remind me of the fat lady who passes on a regular coke and insists on a diet coke… to wash down the two foot-long hoagies she eats every day for lunch. LOL.
Correct me if I am wrong but I don’t think I am. When this program was first announced, it was not the home inspector that “certified” the home. It was the seller that was certifying the home, based on the inspectors report. There is a difference. The buyer is issued the report and makes the repairs needed, then certifies the home is ready. The program never intended the home inspector to certify the home since repairs would need to be made in probably 99% of the homes inspected.
Pre-listing inspections are great and I have done many for years. I don’t call them “move-in certified”, though. Do you?
You’ll find pre-listing inspections are difficult to sell. I couldn’t sell one.
The MIC’s done around here are almost all post-listing.
So a MIC inspection requires the inspector to go back and certify the repairs to the house were done? Or does the seller provide the inspector a signed document stating that he will have the issues professionally repaired?
Anything less is asking for trouble.
Around here, we call it a prelisting inspection anytime its done for a seller.
For those that are certifying their inspections, you should understand that inspectors are allowed to report their opinions which may very well differ from yours. I think every single inspection I have done on a house that was already inspected for the seller ended up causing the other inspector to issue a refund to their client (the seller) or an upset seller that did not even bother to call the other inspector.
I do not call them MIC.
I call them Pre-Listing but many are done for the Seller after the home is in the MLS.
When I was affiliated with HouseMaster, they called them Pre-Inspections.
Call it whatever you want. If it works and gets more Inspections on the schedule book… all is good… 
What do you perceive to be the difference?
There is no difference between calling it
- MIC
- Pre-Inspection
- Pre-Listing Inspection
- Guaranteed Inspection
-Pre-Own Certified Inspection - Seller Inspection
etc…
Call it whatever works in your market…
I have found calling it a Pre-Listing Inspection works best. I market to the Agents identifying the benefits to the Realtor and their Client.
They in turn sell it to their prospective clients (listings) as an additional marketing tool.
After the Realtor sees that it works, they are sold on the concept and continue to refer business.
I do a couple things that are unique and not a part of the MIC Program.
Again, the goal is more Inspections and more revenue.
An MIC is a general home inspection, but done for the seller, and confirms a couple things (no major systems in need of immediate repair or replacement and no known safety hazards)… things no competent inspector should fear confirming. This provides some level of confidence to the real estate agents involved that a deal on an MIC home isn’t going to fall apart in the eleventh hour. For that reason, buyer’s agents should always show their clients MIC homes first. MIC inspections typically performed after the home is listed but before there is an offer. Sometimes, a major system is found to be in need of immediate repair. In that case, the seller can choose to hire the inspector to return to re-inspect after repairs are made. MIC always recommends that buyers hire their own inspector.
Now let’s see here, how many inspection is that?..
- MIC inspection, that’s 1.
- Re-inspection, that’s 2.
- Buyer hires his/her own inspector, that’s 3.
- Seller hires MIC inspector again to inspect the home he/she is buying, that’s 4.
Hm. And how about promoting the MIC inspector by providing copies of the product (report) home inspectors produce as professionals to others in need of inspections? Where does MIC do that?..
- Once to the seller.
- Once to the listing agent.
- Once to every buyer’s agent that tours the home.
- Once to each of the potential buyers that tour the home.
Let’s summarize by making a hypothetical tagline: MIC… less risk, more inspections, free marketing.