InterNACHI Update

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

The InterNACHI website can be viewed at http://www.internachi.org/

InterNACHI Moves ahead

The purpose of this post is to let you know where we stand and generally, where we’re headed and how we intend to get there.

Strategic Plan

The Strategic Plan (see website) was developed to provide objectives and goals for InterNACHI to meet and pursue as we move toward becoming a viable, working organization. Its details serve as something of a road map to help us move forward. As stated in that plan, InterNACHI’s mission is to provide certification, training and support for Home Inspection professionals worldwide.
Because no other organization has provided this in the past, we are inventing ourselves as we go. This means that although InterNACHI will have an organized structure as illustrated in the plan, we will maintain a fluid approach to providing our services worldwide and to developing inspection industries in selected areas worldwide.

InterNACHI Website

In addition to providing information for home inspectors, buyers and sellers, the purpose of the InterNACHI website is to serve realtors and their organizations, lenders and other professions central and peripheral to global real estate.

At this point there is a wide variety and a huge amount of real estate-related information available online; the problem is that finding information requires looking in a lot of different places.
The goal is to have the InterNACHI site become- in addition to a comprehensive Home Inspection site- the main online source for global real estate links and information. That’s one reason that at this point, website content doesn’t consist of a high percentage of inspection information.

Becoming an information clearinghouse will raise the InterNACHI profile and help provide work for it’s members. In addition to providing information, InterNACHI will link with many real estate-related organizations in addition to working to increase search engine standings for our members and pages, much as NACHI has done.

This site is now in its infancy. Some of it will need to be reorganized to make navigation easier. Most of the links are working, but there are many features to come. The InterNACHI Shopping feature will look familiar to most of you. There will be articles posted on both Inspection and international Real Estate in general. Inspectors should make suggestions about what might be helpful and appropriate. Suggestions can be sent to US_InterNACHI@msn.com Don’t expect a reply at this point because I am swamped with work.

The application process is shut down for now but we’re working to get things in place, please bear with us.

An important part of the website will be the core Education and Training programs.

Core Indigenous Training and Education Programs

One of InterNACHI’s goals is to provide as much education and training as possible online. This project is currently getting underway. The idea is to develop courses similar to Gerry Beaumont’s electrical course which can then be translated and changed as necessary to apply to regional conditions.
This will take some time and will delay InterNACHI’s work to develop an indigenous inspection industry in Latin America, the first area of effort. Mexico is first on the agenda.

Inspectors Working Abroad

InterNACHI will provide a venue for Inspectors willing to travel abroad to perform inspections. Inspectors will need to apply for membership, then fill out contact information for countries in which they are willing to work.

Inspectors should take time to research countries in which they’ll offer to work. There has been no time or money to research considerations such as

• National regulations governing work performed by non-citizens.
• National regulations governing the home inspection business.
• Insurance requirements
• laws pertaining to contracts and disclaimers
• Local building practices
• Cultural factors affecting the inspection

An article titled Performing Inspections Abroad will be posted in the MISC. forum. Please take time to read it. Inspectors should have realistic ideas about what they’re offering to do in traveling abroad to perform inspections and both the Inspector and InterNACHI may suffer if things go badly because Inspectors fail to understand the requirements of an inspection because they didn’t do their homework.

Much of the information and links required to do this homework can be found on the site now and more will be there in the future. You should contact the embassy of nations in which you are offering to work to ask about visa requirements such as lag time between submission of the application and the time the visa is actually issued. In some situations you may need to apply well ahead of time.

Membership Dues

Developing and maintaining an organization such as InterNACHI requires working capital. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Without working capital InterNACHI won’t get off the ground.

Initial capital comes from two sources, sponsorship and dues. Without some indications that we are here to stay and moving ahead, such as members, we’ll have difficulty gathering sponsors. As much as we’d like to offer free dues to NACHI members, I’m afraid the result would be members getting what they paid for.

To get an idea what’s required, take a look at NACHI’s website and the work, energy and money that has gone into creating what NACHI offers, imagine trying to put that together for free, and then remind yourself that NACHI serves only North America, InterNACHI’s mission is to develop inspection worldwide.

So far, the website content has been assembled or written by me for free and that’s not going to continue.

So the argument for no dues is to develop a membership quickly and the argument for dues is to have capital with which to move ahead with initial development and provide something worthwhile. Then there’s the question of the amount of dues.
I’d appreciate feedback on the dues question. Please post it in this thread

Translators Wanted

English/Spanish Translators wanted for personal website development. If you have contact information for translators you’d recommend, please send it to US_InterNACHI@msn.com

Thanks for your patience and suggestions,

Kenton Shepard, President, International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI)

[James H. Bushart]

Kenton,

What does InterNACHI offer a NACHI member that we do not already have?

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

Access to lucrative inspecton work abroad and in North America. The real estate industry works in both directions and inspectors flying out to perform inspections stand a good chance of making contacts which will lead to additional lucrative work in North America.

Latin America especially has many areas in which high-end homes and developments have been built and are being built with absolutely no existing inspection industry to serve buyers or sellers. This is a totally untapped, very large market.

[Dale Duffy]

Originally Posted by kshepard

Access to lucrative inspecton work abroad and in North America. The real estate industry works in both directions and inspectors flying out to perform inspections stand a good chance of making contacts which will lead to additional lucrative work in North America.

Latin America especially has many areas in which high-end homes and developments have been built and are being built with absolutely no existing inspection industry to serve buyers or sellers. This is a totally untapped, very large market.

Kenton,

We will have to finish a couple hundred thousand here first.....

Before we head south.....

If it pans out, I call Columbia......!!!!!!!

[ekartal6]

I got Buenos Aires covered.

[Doug Edwards]

I got dibbs on Rio....

[Dale Duffy]

Originally Posted by ekartal6

I got Buenos Aires covered.

Oh, oh, Erol....I hope we don't get everyone calling countries like they were calling states and portions of states in the

"I just landed a couple hundred thousand foreclosure inspections" thread....

[Dale Duffy]

Originally Posted by dedwards

I got dibbs on Rio....

............

[ekartal6]

Let's send a copy of NACHI News to every realtor in the southern hemisphere.

[ekartal6]

Just funnin' Kenton. Nice work.

[James H. Bushart]

Crap...I just heard that ASHI is rushing their licensing model to the Southern Hemisphere.

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

Well boys (and girls), nobody has to dibs anything... you just fill out the form that tells where you are willin' to go... and InteNACHI'll do the rest. InterNACHI will be in those countries as soon as you sign up to inspect there.

As you know, all the places you mention have areas with many multi-million dollar homes and no one, no one to inspect them. Name your price. You have no competition at this time and InterNACHI will help you go out there and do it, that's our job. If InterNACHI members want help with anything... All they have to do is ask.

Buyers of big-money homes in Latin America are begging to stick thick wads of money into all your pockets. They have no one else to turn to. Try googling Home Inspection in any Latin American Country and see what you get. Nothing.

Your services will build your reputations, make you a lot of money and in the long run help improve building practices in those parts of the world that need to develop safe building practices.

Is anyone willing to get on a plane and make some exceptional money?

[Nick Gromicko]

NACHI regularly gets contacted by consumers and corporate relocation companies to recommend inspectors in all parts of the globe.

If Kent succeeds with InterNACHI... we'll have our International RELO service we've tried for so long to create.

[wforsyth]

Originally Posted by kshepard

Well boys (and girls), nobody has to dibs anything... you just fill out the form that tells where you are willin' to go... and InteNACHI'll do the rest. InterNACHI will be in those countries as soon as you sign up to inspect there.

As you know, all the places you mention have areas with many multi-million dollar homes and no one, no one to inspect them. Name your price. You have no competition at this time and InterNACHI will help you go out there and do it, that's our job. If InterNACHI members want help with anything... All they have to do is ask.

Buyers of big-money homes in Latin America are begging to stick thick wads of money into all your pockets. They have no one else to turn to. Try googling Home Inspection in any Latin American Country and see what you get. Nothing.

Your services will build your reputations, make you a lot of money and in the long run help improve building practices in those parts of the world that need to develop safe building practices.

Is anyone willing to get on a plane and make some exceptional money?

Where's my flight?

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

Originally Posted by ekartal6

Just funnin' Kenton. Nice work.

Thanks, Erol. It's been a lot of work.

In doing research for the InterNACHI website I was blown away by the amount of opportunity out there for anyone wanting to inspect abroad. National realtor associations formed international consortiums five years ago and Home Inspection associations are crouched in the backs of caves whacking skulls with leg bones.
`
You know I was thinking about the things that might make an inspector hesitate to inspect abroad. Going into unfamiliar territory to do a job isn't easy. If an inspector has a problem, who're they gong to call? The US State Department? If they're there to inspect and have a problem, whether it's a question about a minor legal question concerning working issues or a major problem, he needs someone who'll work to help him. It seems to me that this is where InterNACHI should shine.

I guess this is another argument for full dues paid by inspectors serious about working abroad, because if an InterNACHI inspector has a problem while he's working way from home, we want to provide all the support possible. To provide that kind of support you need resources.

It all comes down to money. If a home buyer is considering spending big money for a home, they need to have avenues to protect their investment. There are areas in Latin America which have homes in the multi-million dollar range and there are complete developments selling at prices similar to Southern California prices, starting at $250,000.

Because there are no indigenous inspectors, North American inspectors can charge whatever they can get at this time. InterNACHI intends to develop indigenous inspections in Latin America eventually, but it will take time.

I don’t believe that NACHI members really understand what they’re being offered and I don’t have the time to dig out the statistics, which are available to those willing to dig, from the National Association of Realtors international research branch, or from the international real estate links on the InterNACHI site, or more…