Ethics and the home inspector

Howdy Mitchell

Nice blog post you have here

I enjoyed reading your article on ethics.  It was very interesting.

Don Bradbury

Referring to ethics and the Home Inspector, I thought I would mention something I have started running into.  It is called "preferred Vendors".  This is a practice by some Real Estate companies that set up a marketing group that includes "only" the vendors that have paid to advertise in their program.  In the case of Home Inspectors, they are paying to market to the real estate company.  In turn the real estate company will only accept any form of marketing from their "preferred vendors".

 This means that the realtors working for that company are only going to recommend an inspector who has paid to be on their list.  The realtor has a fiduciary duty to look out for the interests of their client but they are only going to recommend an inspector that has paid to be on the list even if he is the least experienced inspector?

In addition, the Code of Ethics of the major Home Inspector Associations specifically prohibit paying to get on preferred lists.  That means that not only is the realtor recommending an inspector based on a financial arrangement, but they are recommending an inspector who has already shown that he is willing to ignore the code of ethics he agreed to work under by paying to get on the list.  

What happened to ethics here? 

The important thing as far as I am concerned is that we as Home Inspectors live up to the code of ethics we agreed to follow.  It may mean that we lose a few inspections to the inspectors who have less concern for ethics, but in the long run we will come out ahead.  Home buyers will appreciate our honesty.

Robert Sole

www.REMinspections.com 

ASHI has specifically stated that these programs are a violation of its CoE. Members who participate in them will be disciplined, i.e. lose their membership.

In my opinion it should not take a statement from an association or even require debate to understand these preferred vendor programs are unethical. They are simply for the greedy, poor business people who want a short cut to a "successful" home inspection business.

On the subject of ethics I see that it goes both ways. Here is something that I have recently been seeing from some of my other competitors. There are inspection companies here in Indy that offer "Realtor sweepstakes" offering 500.00 a month to the winner. Some offer a bunch of other freebies like free lunches, parties etc. to local agents. I won't mention any names, but I can tell you they are out there. What is even more disturbing is how they sugar coat it and get away with it by stating that it is available to ALL real estate agents, I have sent a few emails to various home inspector organizations concerning this, and according to NACHI,  it is ok by them as long as ALL real estate agents are invited. I STRONGLY disagree. I was appalled at their response to me. How can an organization like NACHI who is supposed to be there to protect the integrity of our profession, say that this kind of activity doesn't violate any code of ethics??  I guess when they are getting 300.00 to 400.00 a year from 10,000 inspectors, they tend to look the other way on certain things uh??

Any thoughts on this?

I haven't heard of this in my area and I hope I don't. I would rather the client just contact me on their own via my advertisement or referral. I have been in the business since 1994 and most of my clients are through word of mouth. My yellow page advertisement and internet is a good source.

I am anxious to hear other comments on this one.

Mike,

By offering the prizes to all agents it covers the scheme in a thin veil of legitimacy.

I recently went to ASHI LTC in Chicago. The first day of the conference was almost entirely devoted to ethics. My group took this knowledge away with us back to our Chapter here in CT. At our January meeting we put on an ethics workshop. This particular case was one of our ethical examples. Most everyone at the meeting agreed this kind of marketing program is unethical.

If NACHI has stated that this type of program is acceptable, then the membership needs to voice their opinion and change the organizations position.

CoEs are in essence for the publics benefit. They give the consumer piece of mind that the professional they have hired has some ethical standard. This of course is simply not realistic. An inspector, Realtor or an Attorney can be unethical despite a CoE for their particular profession. Ethics can not be legislated it is ultimately up to the individual to conduct themselves and their business in an ethical manner.

Mike,

I can not speak for the other organizations, but ASHI is certainly strongly concerned with ethics. As I stated in my previous response ASHI puts on a yearly Leadership Training Conference. A large part of that conference, about one third, is devoted to ethics.

I just do not think that these organizations like NACHI, ASHI ETC. are doing us any kind of justice other than allowing us to say that we simply "belong" to their organization.

I do not quite understand your statement. "belonging" to an organization has many benefits. But I will also say if you join an organization and expect them to work for you, that is not realistic. You get out of it what you put in. As a member you need to participate in your organization.

My local chapter is excellent. We have very high member participation. We have many committees and programs for members. But none of that happens without member participation.

I think many people look at joining an organization as a way of legitimizing themselves and their businesses. Being able to display a logo or symbol as a sign of quality and competency. If that is your reason for joining, then I think you are missing the point of what a good organization is about.

I completely agree with what you are saying James as far as what to expect from an organization and you get what you put into it. I guess I should have clarified that this is just strictly my opinion. I am EXTREMELY pro-active and I just have not had good luck with these organizations at all. I do not as you say expect the organization to work for ME, however I do expect the organization to work for the profession. And yes I believe they do to some extent, but staying on the blog subject of ethics, at least with my experiences anyway, they seem to be very leniant on the subject. When I go to a president with an issue of ethics that is CLEARLY out of line, I am sorry, but I do not expect an answer like "oh well". And that's fine if that's how they want to handle it, but at least lie to me and make me feel like my complaint is being looked into.

As for me, I will stick with the smaller organizations where your voice is actually heard.

Peace