A honest list

Why on earth would you post this in the REALTOR section?  You obviously think that REALTORS should not have anything to do with your profession.  I have noted your posts before, and I think you are misguided in your appraisal of REALTORS in general.  I recommend that every buyer get a home inspection, and I recommend ones that have impressed me with their attention to detail and professional designations and demeanor.  Your list only says what not to do, it gives no real advice on selecting a inspector.  You have said don't look to testimonials, don't look to a inspector with a checklist, etc.  To be honest your post seems a little self serving, and you don't seem to have any real reason why someone should use you. Just a list discrediting your competition.

All right! Here we go! Here's one (other) inspector's analysis, item by item:

1) Define "solicit."

2) Excuse me, Mitch, but aren't you one of those Hyena IHINA guys?  Isn't that an association?  Doesn't it serve as a marketing agent for its members, based on some sort of moral premise that realtors and inspectors should ALWAYS practice enmity one to another?

3) Please publish the IHINA SOP, and let's compare notes.

4) Well, can't disagree with you there.

5) Ditto

6) In Washington state, inspectors HAVE to do termite inspections and be certified to do so.  Mold remediation is serious business, only to be undertaken by those fully educated in the entire process. But I see no problem with that being an anxillary service IF one is truly and fully qualified....in other words, from recognition to sampling to getting rid of it all in one person.

7) Hmmmm...good point, in most cases.  But if you do happen to know a qualified guy or three, I see nothing wrong with supplying your client (or the realtor) a list of guys you know are qualifed and honest. As a matter of fact, you just may be performing a good service to do so.

8) Agreed....HOW's are rarely, if ever, worth the paper they're written on.  See, we do have things in common!

9) Take a full battery of ICC tests and get back to me.

10) If the check list is the final product, I agree.  I've developed a field check list just to make dead certain nothing gets overlooked, so checklists in and of themselves are not a bad thing.  Narrative gets written later, in full sentences in layman's language.

11) But what if your state or insurance company requires it?  It happens.

12) For the record, and for anyone who cares to read MY testimonials on my profile...I can back it up, and have.  But, you're correct...the consumer should check out those testimonials.

LOL! LOL! LOL!!

Mitch, I wonder if you would sign off on a project idea you have given me.  Now, stay with me on this.  I'm going to call it the "Inspector Mitch Doll" for lack of a better name at the moment.  This will be a talking doll, with a colorful and varied oratory.  The theme is "fun and education."  Choose an item of controverial discussion from the menu built into his butt, or enter a subject of your own, as long as it has to do with real estate sales or home inspections.  Push the "RANT" button, and watch him go!!

For toy retailers, the Mitch Doll offers:

1) A product offering substantial differentiated appeal to consumers, both children and adults,

2) The experience and knowledge of an expert home inspector (educational),

3) Hours of fun.

Besides running his ascerbic mouth, the Mitch Doll also has built in animations, such as fist pounding, eyebrows with curl into threatening frowns, and various facial expressions, from snarling to teeth-baring.  He also stomps his feet and moons you.

Whattayathink, Mitchell...will it sell? :-)

Mitch, not to worry.  If you become incapacitated as a result of voodoo, no one will believe you, and, in fact, everyone (including your family) will become convinced that you have finally gone over the edge, leading to your incarceration in a nice nervous hospital somewhere.  It won't matter who sues you at that point, since all your worldly possessions and wealth will be under someone else's control anyway, and you will have at last realized the frivolity and downright insignificance of it all.  I will, of course, come and visit you now and then and check you out for a day cruise on my yahct, purchased from the proceeds of royalties and sales of the now-famous "Mitch the Inspector Doll."  You'll never have to worry about marketing to anybody, let alone realtors.

Do you think that my doctor would not recommend a specialist I needed because the insurance company hinted that if he did he would be off the insurance list.

That just made me spew coffee out of my nose after reading that one Mitchell!! Good one!! :-)~

WHAT!! An insurance company hack practicing medicine??!!??  Say it ain't so!  That's a whole other rant.  I can hardly imagine any honest doctor with his integrity intact not standing up to such an audacious demand, list or no list.  Now, you've got my blood steaming!  It was bad enough that I was already frothing at the mouth this morning.

Fortunately for me, I have an appointment within the hour that should bring me back to reality, at least for a short time.

Mitchell, my eyes are held wide open by toothpicks on the subject of insurance, especially since I have begun doing a great deal of field work for the shysters benevolent caretakers of all mankind.  My medical site review/audits are beyond comparison, and I have sold my soul to the devil in order to be able to eat, and to keep those pesky doctors and their nit-picky hippocratic oath nonsense in check!

Mitchell,

This is an interesting list, but I'm not sure how helpful it is to a consumer. In its wording you tell consumer who not to use, but you don't really tell them how to find a good inspector.

As written your list reads as if the consumer should not rely upon the recommendations of their Realtor. While this may be your opinion (I'm not sure, the wording is a little sketchy), the majority of Realtors take their recommendations very seriously and are truly working for the best for their clients.

I'm not sure why an inspection company that attempts to market itself should automatically be removed from a consumers list. I believe that you are trying to tell the consumers not to put too much weight the various associations. The wording of the statement tends to infer that all inspectors that use associations are bad inspectors.

The best addition to the list would be to tell consumers how to find a good inspector. There has to be something better than asking walking your fingers through the yellow pages.

But Mitchell, you belong to http://www.independentinspectors.org/.  This is an association of sorts, granted their mantra is that you can't solicit agents, but that does not stop its members from working with them.

I know that you posted this list just to get a rise out of some folks, but I must admit it is working! 

I really love the part about not using an inspector with a pre-inspection agreement.  This is required by law in many states and also by most if not all of the insurance providers.  This also protects the client and spells out what is done in the inspection.  Kind of silly not to work with one if you ask me...

So, I'm strictly guessing but I going to assume that you meet all of the requirements that you have listed.  Well, that is almost all of them as you do belong to an association for independent inspectors.

Keep the post coming, they are enjoyable!

LOL!! LOL!!  LOL!!!!! Where's my Mitchell the Inspector doll?

That guy was lyin', and I can prove it.  Obviously, you have some skills with Google Earth.  Where is Conway Drive, anyway?  I'll give you a hint:  The closest country lanes near me are named Sycamore and Bett Road.

Oh, yeah.  So, does that go all the way through to 305?