Foreclosure project status update. Spin-offs lead to more NACHI member benefits.

[Nick Gromicko]

As some of you know who follow the message board, NACHI was contacted about 9 months ago by the country’s largest foreclosure company based very near NACHI headquarters in Colorado. They want us to pre-inspect every foreclosure in the U.S. This could mean a couple hundred of thousand additional inspections for NACHI members. Their idea was to have NACHI members inspect them, then have the investors who normally bid on these homes be able to view the reports online. This would provide valuable information to the potential bidder without him/her having to travel to the property to inspect it themselves. Often investors aren’t qualified to do the inspections themselves anyway. Access to the reports would be available for a $15 or $20 fee/view (a bargain for an online or in person bidder). This in turn would generate more bids and more informed bids. So it would act as a marketing tool to sell the properties as well. Bidders would have to sign an online agreement acknowledging a bunch of stuff and pay the access fee first of course.

To accomplish this NACHI needed an online agreement system that accepted online signatures and allowed for easy modification with just the click of a mouse. This would require the purchase of additional server hardware, legal work, IT work, beta testing etc. Anyway… WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/onlineagreement.htm and it was so good, we decided to launch it as its own stand-alone free member benefit.

We also would need a report uploading/viewing system that worked no matter who the inspector was, what the inspection was, what the report looked like and what software it was generated on. Wow. This would require the purchase of much additional server hardware, legal work, months of IT work, beta testing, etc. It would be NACHI’s biggest project ever. Anyway… WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/fetchreportfriendlyseal.htm and it was so good, we decided to launch it as its own stand-alone free member benefit. FetchReport was born.

We also would need agreements from the major software reporting companies that the would make their stuff FetchReport-friendly. WE GOT IT DONE!

This would also require a FetchReport-friendly seal to be created. WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/images06/FetchReport-Friendly-Seal.jpg

At this point we got to thinking. Why not shoot for the moon? Let’s do this for every seller in the world and flip the inspection industry upside down (work for sellers not buyers). So we went for it.

To accomplish this we would need a great domain name that said it all in one phrase. WE GOT IT DONE!: MoveInCertified.com. I can’t think of a better URL.

We also would need a website for it that was interlinked to our report upload/viewing system (FetchReport). WE GOT IT DONE!: www.MoveInCertified.com

We also would need a logo for it. One that visually makes sense like our URL does. WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/images06/moveincertifiedlogo.gif

At this point we were contacted by a Florida insurance company who wanted the whole FetchReport system for themselves. Trouble was that the other bigger insurance company hadn’t approved of our 4-point style form. So we worked with them all to get it approved by everyone. Although this is a side issue, we needed it in FL so that bidders could eventually get insurance and re-insurance on properties they were upgrading. WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20369

We also needed a sign design for Move In Certified. WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/images06/moveincertifiedyardsign.jpg

Trouble was, the sign only looked good online. In the yard (we made a few to test) the colors were too dull. We needed new, bright colors. WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/images06/moveincertifiedyardsign2.jpg

Now back to the original foreclosure company that inspired all this. They informed us that although they were making progress with a billing system that would allow bidders (the public at large) to access our member’s reports pay-per-view (now remember, they have their own legal and IT issues and they move much slower than us, we have no control over that)… they would not pay the fee to the inspector up front. What we needed was financing so that our members could get paid upon completion, not $15 or $20 at a time. With help from our friends at Pro-Lab, WE GOT IT DONE!

Now just like the foreclosure pre-inspection idea got us to thinking’ and coming up with all these other member benefits and projects that we‘ve launched, many of which are in full use… the pay-per-view reports got me a thinking’ too . We’ll talk about that at some later date. I just wanted to reveal what is on my mind.

Now what do out of town investors who know nothing of construction or inspections need after they hire a contractor to update the foreclosures they buy? They need their own inspector to watch over the project. This inspired www.OverSeeIt.com There was much work that went into this spin-off project (IT, Legal, site, etc.), but yes, WE GOT IT DONE!

We still have the problem of REALTOR acceptance to the whole seller inspection idea. And although we already had sample form letters http://www.nachi.org/sellerinspections.htm what we needed was a national movement toward doing seller inspections. So we started getting articles printed here and there. Broker Agent News did an exclusive story with NACHI and sent it to every agent. LA Times, the nation's 4th largest paper just ran a story about seller inspections, mentioning NACHI only, etc. But members still needed a simple way to announce this new service to their local agents. What we needed was a database of every agent’s mailing address so that members could snail mail the sample letters (within above link) on their own letterhead directly to their local agents. WE GOT IT DONE!: www.nachi.org/agentdata.htm and it was so good, we decided to launch it as its own stand-alone free member benefit.

But what we really need is to provide members with a a link to a TV show explaining it all and explaining why it would help agents sell their listings. Hm… I wonder who has an online TV show and production company ???


Are we all done? Nope. We never are. Every project leads to other projects which lead to more member benefits created at different paces (depending upon how much control we have over them), each inspiring more projects which in turn...




For a partial list of inspection business success tips involving many of our fully completed projects visit www.nachi.org/success.htm

[Cole Calhoun]

Nick,

One thing's for sure, You are always thinking three steps ahead. Good work. We appreciate it.

Cole Calhoun
Reveal Inspections
Atlanta, Ga.

[Russell Spriggs]

Nick, the NACHI site is where I spend my spare time - no TV reception up here, so we just do NetFlix.

Due to the work accomplished by NACHI & the great contributions of members' posts, by putting it all to use and locally marketing,
I have had the best month ever in my inspections career.

So much for slow markets. As you have said so many times, You guys just grow your business - I'll grow NACHI!

Again, thanks for calling me, years ago, encouraging me to take the NACHI test. NACHI - and its members' ideas - is the backbone of my success.

Russ

[Nick Gromicko]

Congrats Russ. The chapter you started in Colorado is reporting the same. They came up to shoot the www.nachi.org/commercials.htm and they all had a great August. Some of them doing 40% seller inspections now.

[Carl H. Lederhaus]

Nick,
I knew I joined the best when I joined NACHI. I now see why NACHI keeps growing with you at the helm. YOU ROCK!!!!

[David P. Valley]

Originally Posted by gromicko

As some of you know who follow the message board, NACHI was contacted about 9 months ago by the country’s largest foreclosure company based very near NACHI headquarters in Colorado. They want us to pre-inspect every foreclosure in the U.S. This could mean a couple hundred of thousand additional inspections for NACHI members. Their idea was to have NACHI members inspect them, then have the investors who normally bid on these homes be able to view the reports online. This would provide valuable information to the potential bidder without him/her having to travel to the property to inspect it themselves. Often investors aren’t qualified to do the inspections themselves anyway. Access to the reports would be available for a $15 or $20 fee/view (a bargain for an online or in person bidder). This in turn would generate more bids and more informed bids. So it would act as a marketing tool to sell the properties as well. Bidders would have to sign an online agreement acknowledging a bunch of stuff and pay the access fee first of course.

To accomplish this NACHI needed an online agreement system that accepted online signatures and allowed for easy modification with just the click of a mouse. This would require the purchase of additional server hardware, legal work, IT work, beta testing etc. Anyway… WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/onlineagreement.htm and it was so good, we decided to launch it as its own stand-alone free member benefit.

We also would need a report uploading/viewing system that worked no matter who the inspector was, what the inspection was, what the report looked like and what software it was generated on. Wow. This would require the purchase of much additional server hardware, legal work, months of IT work, beta testing, etc. It would be NACHI’s biggest project ever. Anyway… WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/fetchreportfriendlyseal.htm and it was so good, we decided to launch it as its own stand-alone free member benefit. FetchReport was born.

We also would need agreements from the major software reporting companies that the would make their stuff FetchReport-friendly. WE GOT IT DONE!

This would also require a FetchReport-friendly seal to be created. WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/images06/FetchReport-Friendly-Seal.jpg

At this point we got to thinking. Why not shoot for the moon? Let’s do this for every seller in the world and flip the inspection industry upside down (work for sellers not buyers). So we went for it.

To accomplish this we would need a great domain name that said it all in one phrase. WE GOT IT DONE!: MoveInCertified.com. I can’t think of a better URL.

We also would need a website for it that was interlinked to our report upload/viewing system (FetchReport). WE GOT IT DONE!: www.MoveInCertified.com

We also would need a logo for it. One that visually makes sense like our URL does. WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/images06/moveincertifiedlogo.gif

At this point we were contacted by a Florida insurance company who wanted the whole FetchReport system for themselves. Trouble was that the other bigger insurance company hadn’t approved of our 4-point style form. So we worked with them all to get it approved by everyone. Although this is a side issue, we needed it in FL so that bidders could eventually get insurance and re-insurance on properties they were upgrading. WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20369

We also needed a sign design for Move In Certified. WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/images06/moveincertifiedyardsign.jpg

Trouble was, the sign only looked good online. In the yard (we made a few to test) the colors were too dull. We needed new, bright colors. WE GOT IT DONE!: http://www.nachi.org/images06/moveincertifiedyardsign2.jpg

Now back to the original foreclosure company that inspired all this. They informed us that although they were making progress with a billing system that would allow bidders (the public at large) to access our member’s reports pay-per-view (now remember, they have their own legal and IT issues and they move much slower than us, we have no control over that)… they would not pay the fee to the inspector up front. What we needed was financing so that our members could get paid upon completion, not $15 or $20 at a time. With help from our friends at Pro-Lab, WE GOT IT DONE!

Now just like the foreclosure pre-inspection idea got us to thinking’ and coming up with all these other member benefits and projects that we‘ve launched, many of which are in full use… the pay-per-view reports got me a thinking’ too . We’ll talk about that at some later date. I just wanted to reveal what is on my mind.

Now what do out of town investors who know nothing of construction or inspections need after they hire a contractor to update the foreclosures they buy? They need their own inspector to watch over the project. This inspired www.OverSeeIt.com There was much work that went into this spin-off project (IT, Legal, site, etc.), but yes, WE GOT IT DONE!

We still have the problem of REALTOR acceptance to the whole seller inspection idea. And although we already had sample form letters http://www.nachi.org/sellerinspections.htm what we needed was a national movement toward doing seller inspections. So we started getting articles printed here and there. Broker Agent News did an exclusive story with NACHI and sent it to every agent. LA Times, the nation's 4th largest paper just ran a story about seller inspections, mentioning NACHI only, etc. But members still needed a simple way to announce this new service to their local agents. What we needed was a database of every agent’s mailing address so that members could snail mail the sample letters (within above link) on their own letterhead directly to their local agents. WE GOT IT DONE!: www.nachi.org/agentdata.htm and it was so good, we decided to launch it as its own stand-alone free member benefit.

But what we really need is to provide members with a a link to a TV show explaining it all and explaining why it would help agents sell their listings. Hm… I wonder who has an online TV show and production company ???


Are we all done? Nope. We never are. Every project leads to other projects which lead to more member benefits created at different paces (depending upon how much control we have over them), each inspiring more projects which in turn...




For a partial list of inspection business success tips involving many of our fully completed projects visit www.nachi.org/success.htm

Nick,

The Realtors do not know what's going on with this new idea.

Why can't NACHI send out a mass email to all Realtors with all this information?

[Russell Spriggs]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Congrats Russ. The chapter you started in Colorado is reporting the same. They came up to shoot the www.nachi.org/commercials.htm and they all had a great August. Some of them doing 40% seller inspections now.

Well, then, I'm in good company - it's a great bunch we have down there in Colorado!

So, if I've done well this month with no commercials, I'm looking forward to you and the crew coming up here to shoot for our CDA / Spokane guys!

Getting close to Scheitzer Mtn. time . . .


Russ

[Nick Gromicko]

Got the sign download done so that members can make their own yard signs: http://www.moveincertified.com/download/yardsign2.zip

[Mark Nahrgang]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Got the sign download done so that members can make their own yard signs: http://www.moveincertified.com/download/yardsign2.zip

What type of document is a "psd" file? I apparently don't have the software to open it.

[Nick Gromicko]

Your printing company or sign company can open it. They use PhotoShop. Give them the URL (link address).

[Nick Gromicko]

Ooops. I forgot to include in the opening post of this thread that we had to hire another webmaster to help us with the project. Many thanks to full-time staffer Tim Eaton for all the work done.

Thanks Tim!

[Joseph T. Burkeson, CMI]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Got the sign download done so that members can make their own yard signs: http://www.moveincertified.com/download/yardsign2.zip

Nick,

Nice sign, have you thought of a small one to hang below the Realtor's yard sign?

Thanks - Joe.

[Nick Gromicko]

Good thinking.

[Nick Gromicko]

I'm going to ask Dee Sign company to make some and have them in their catalogue.

[Scott Gilligan, CMI]

Originally Posted by jburkeson1

Nick,

Nice sign, have you thought of a small one to hang below the Realtor's yard sign?

Thanks - Joe.

Here in Philadelphia, there usually isn't a yard to use a sign that sticks in the ground since a majority of the houses here are row homes. All of the real estate signs are hung from the building. I think a sign rider would be the only way to advertise this program here in Philly.

It might be nice to also have small riders made up, or maybe stickers to denote any ancillary testing that might have been done. For example, radon, mold, termite, etc.

It would be really nice to have a trifold brochure explaing what MoveInCertified is all about that we could hand out to real estate agents and pass out to home owners.

Just my 2 cents for what it's worth.