Ohio Home Inspectors - FYI

Ohio Residential Building Code Gets Energy Update

Any new “energy efficient” home building standards will not save any home buyer any money. You may make the home more energy efficent, but the utility rates will only keep increasing. Buyers will not be saving money; only spending more for the effiency upgrades, better appliances, etc.

Utility companies must continue to make revenue, or increased revenue, to appease stock holders every year. To do this, they have to increase rates.

This is only a scam to help the revenue incomes of contractors and utility companies who want the added regulations, and more money that comes with them. Sad for home buyers in Ohio. There is no longer a freedom of choice.

You still got a bug up your a s s about energy audits/upgrades Gary. Bushy claims to be making money on them in Missouri. Why don’t you get certified and compete against him. The training is easy(any CMI can do it) Most states and the Feds no longer give energy efficiency rebates or tax breaks so many will not get an audit unless they get something in return. Air sealing and insulation upgrades do save on energy consumption (money). The only ones making money on this right now are auditors in states that have tax saving programs, energy audit equipment salespeople and the energy audit training providers.

Being a CMI I feel, as per codes of ethics, is to be fair and honest.

Taking people’s money for any type of energy audit, when that information can be found on line for free, is not in my, or my client’s, best interest.

Utility rates everywhere are going up, and home owners saving money on their utility bills will not happen.

My home uses less energy than any other of my family’s homes, and even my neighbor’s homes. I have extra insulation, Andersen windows, heat pump, etc. My utility rates go up annually. My energy usage has never increased.

You cannot predict weather conditions, usage conditions of the home, or how high the home owner sets the thermostat. All you can do is give the home owner savings tips that are all available on line for free.

IMO, charging a home owner with that info, is not right. Contractors are making a killing on this deal, scamming home owners of thousands of dollars, all to help them temporarily save $5 per month on their electric bill.

Then why do you charge so much for your home inspections? Isn’t your competition doing it for a lot less? They get a home inspection for almost free, why pay you a lot more for the same thing?

Inspectors in Kansas and Missouri charge low fees. Some are $249 on any size home with termite and radon. They do that because in Kansas, you are not required to check any appliance and their connections (stove, disposal, dishwasher, etc.), only required to check one outlet, one switch, one window per room, etc. It takes them less than an hour, and agents love them.

I will not stoop to that level. This is just one reason that NACHI member of the year, Dan Bowers, will also not stoop to these “state laws”, and was so upset with them that he refused to be licensed to do home inspections in Kansas. Because of languages in the law, he can do home inspections, but has to have a “state licensed” inspector sign the reports. This is how other home inspectors send out uneducated, cronnie office workers to do inspections, then the head of the office signs the reports, who may have only driven by the home that some home buyer hired him to inspect.

It is bad here. The shafting of home owners by agents and their buddy inspectors is unspeakable. Heck, there is even an appraiser on our home inspector board, and the “head of the board” is still running it, even though his term expired.

When someone other than the person actually performing the inspection “signs” the report, whose name (inspector) is on the pre-inspection agreement?

Agreements are not required in Kansas to be signed. However, insurance companies may want that signature. So, I cannot answer your question. Most of these comments are on my web site, and the bottom of the home inspection page. Several of my clients have commented on my honesty about the laws in Kansas on my web site, so they hired me. But, I am sure that it has worked the other way around, too.

Some people cannot handle the truth. Sorry for being off topic here.