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Topic:   Licensing Home Inspectors - 653 visits (1 today, 3 this week)

Phillip Stojanik
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From:Houston, Texas
Registered: Aug 2002

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posted March 25, 2007 10:12 PM            

The linked document below is a bit lengthy but contains some really interesting research into the licensing of home inspectors.

The document was prepared for the state of Ohio who is looking into licensing but data and surveys were drawn from within a variety of states, from agents and brokers, home inspectors, and home buyers.
www.procheck.cc/OhioLicensing.pdf

Warning! This file is 2 megs!

[This message has been edited by Phillip Stojanik (edited March 25, 2007).]

Jeff Beck
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From:Dundee, IL
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posted March 26, 2007 03:04 PM            

After a cursory examination of this report, it’s my opinion that we may have found another thread in the discussion about licensing home inspectors, namely that it really is only to keep state bureaucrats busy and maybe make some revenue for the state.

You might want to call me skeptical. Perhaps it’s too close to the April 15th Income Tax Filing deadline, or because I live and work in a State that has one of the highest rates for imprisoning its governors but this report wreaks of government speak and in my opinion misses the main point entirely.

It seems to me that the primary reason for licensing home inspectors is to protect the consumer, then perhaps the inspector and then lastly anyone else (real estate agents, attorneys and the sellers). You can juggle these groups anyway you like but the person with the most skin in the game is the buyer.

Buried in that 142 page report is the fact that a very minimal number of consumer opinions were actually considered. I’m not a statistician, but if I understand the survey data, they had less than a 7% response from people who purchased homes in the one month they examined (only one month???). Since that represented a total of slightly over 200 people, I doubt that you could say with any certainty that this report represents the actual experiences of the people who bought homes in the state of Ohio.
The time frame for the survey, the total number of consumers contacted and the minimal number who responded makes everything else just cannon fodder in a useless report.

YMHO

Jeff

Scott Patterson
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posted March 26, 2007 03:45 PM            

If memory serves me that study was funded by the Ohio Realtors Association. I could be wrong, lord knows it would not be the first time but I believe they initiated the study.

Phillip Stojanik
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From:Houston, Texas
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posted March 26, 2007 04:08 PM            

For those of you who do not want to read the entire 142 page document, I recommend you read or skim pages 74-86 (corresponding to pages 78-90 in the .pdf file) just to get the highlights and conclusions.

Here’s one of the first things you will see…

---------------------------------------------
Reasons for Pursuing Home Inspection Regulation

Despite the survey data offering little evidence that licensing home inspectors minimizes poor inspections, in our opinion, it appears the fundamental reasons for pursuing a licensing program are to:

Help to distance real estate agents and home inspectors from each other in the real
estate transaction by: Removing the responsibility of “qualifying” home inspectors from real estate agents and transferring it to the state; and Creating a legal barrier to limit liability for real estate agents in the event of a bad inspection. ...
---------------------------------------------

Has your jaw on your keyboard yet?

Thom Walker
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From:Corpus Christi, Texas
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posted March 26, 2007 04:55 PM            

Phillip,
Did you really think ours was developed as a consumer protection issue? How many times have you done a second inspection (for a different Client) on the same home and found that the realtor and seller never modified the seller's disclosure after your first inspection?

I think the real irony is that there are so many Texas Realtors who don't understand they should push tough inspections for their own protection.

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Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul.

Mark Twain

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