Certified Master Inspector coming to Ontario in a big way.

[Nick Gromicko]

You heard it here first.

[mellison]

Due to licensing? Due to grandfathering CMI's like in Alberta. We really need your weight to push against the Provincial Government's apparent total lack of regard for our profession. Vern has been working tirelessly in Alberta and still this ridiculous model has been approved. If I knew what to do here in Ontario I'd be doing it. We need an advocate that has the expertise to speak for us all against the oncoming surge of out to lunch thinking that has hit our friends in Alberta.

Will you... can you helps us please?

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by mellison

Due to licensing? Due to grandfathering CMI's like in Alberta. We really need your weight to push against the Provincial Government's apparent total lack of regard for our profession. Vern has been working tirelessly in Alberta and still this ridiculous model has been approved. If I knew what to do here in Ontario I'd be doing it. We need an advocate that has the expertise to speak for us all against the oncoming surge of out to lunch thinking that has hit our friends in Alberta.

Will you... can you helps us please?

Mark...effective and successful battles against licensing are waged at the local level. You have local businessmen who are lobbying for laws that will mandate attendance in their classes, paying them for mentoring, paying them for testing inspectors, etc etc....

You have to have at least as much local influence as they do. The media can help, but you have to have balls which the majority of your fellow inspectors will lack. You need to help the public see that licensing solves nothing ... just as the people who are beginning to express their lack of satisfaction with Mike Holmes' inspection services are doing. Make a very loud public stink at how these men want to jack up the costs for inspections by jacking up your expense to stay in business .... all for nothing that actually helps the consumer.

You will have to fight many of your fellow inspectors who think that licensing laws will limit their competetion but you will have to make the choice between being popular among other inspectors --- which will gain you absolutely nothing --- or standing up for your profession.

But do it, locally.

[Russell J. Hensel]

You talk about fighting licensing when others, right here, want it.

Read the title of the thread.

[Dale Duffy]

Originally Posted by rhensel

You talk about fighting licensing when others, right here, want it.

Read the title of the thread.

If I was selling $1,000.00 logo's I'd want it too---

Nicks a good businessman...!

[Russell J. Hensel]

Originally Posted by dduffy

If I was selling $1,000.00 logo's I'd want it too---

Nicks a good businessman...!

Very smart....

[James H. Bushart]

Nick will not argue in favor of licensing and, in fact, will be among the first to call attention to its inability to address any of the problems that these laws are promoted to solve.

Yet ... at the same time, he has helped victims of these laws who are being exploited by the carpet baggers to find a way out.

This year in Alberta ... an inspector who is otherwise qualified can pay Nick $1000 to become a CMI or pay somebody else over $5,000.00 to take a freakin' course on how to be a home inspector...something that we ALL know cannot be learned in a classroom.

I would imagine that there are many who are finding the CMI alternative as a real bargain ... particularly those who were wise enough to take advantage of it before the increase.

Licensing is a scam. We all know it. Licensing laws are initiated and pushed through by scammers wanting to use the law to push their wares. We all know that, too.

As long as the scammers in Canada are the most vocal in opposing the fact that CMIs do not have to pay them for their courses (that NACHI members can get for free)... I think it proves that Nick is doing the right thing.

[Russell J. Hensel]

James I would expect you to say nothing less

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by jbushart

Nick will not argue in favor of licensing and, in fact, will be among the first to call attention to its inability to address any of the problems that these laws are promoted to solve.

Yet ... at the same time, he has helped victims of these laws who are being exploited by the carpet baggers to find a way out.

This year in Alberta ... an inspector who is otherwise qualified can pay Nick $1000 to become a CMI or pay somebody else over $5,000.00 to take a freakin' course on how to be a home inspector...something that we ALL know cannot be learned in a classroom.

I would imagine that there are many who are finding the CMI alternative as a real bargain ... particularly those who were wise enough to take advantage of it before the increase.

Licensing is a scam. We all know it. Licensing laws are initiated and pushed through by scammers wanting to use the law to push their wares. We all know that, too.

As long as the scammers in Canada are the most vocal in opposing the fact that CMIs do not have to pay them for their courses (that NACHI members can get for free)... I think it proves that Nick is doing the right thing.

So, James, get your logic straight....you're so up tight about licensing coming to your area that you can't think........period. I and the majority of HI's want licensing.....most of us sell NOTHING....what's your beef now???

[Nick Gromicko]

Nearly all of the time, the interests of InterNACHI (the association) and the interests of its members are in harmony. Licensing is a point where those interests conflict. Licensing is generally good for InterNACHI and bad for InterNACHI members.

If I wore an InterNACHI cap, I'd be compelled to run around the world pushing for licensing that requires membership in InterNACHI and licensing that requires InterNACHI's courses. This would be best for InterNACHI. But I don't wear an InterNACHI cap and never have. I wear an InterNACHI member cap. So why don't I run around the world fighting licensing then? Well, because about 1/2 the members I represent want licensing and the other 1/2 don't.

So, being trapped between a rock and a hard place, here is what I do: While explaining why licensing isn't good for inspectors (I've explained it many times) and while personally opposed to licensing, I don't permit InterNACHI to officially fight for or against licensing.

Instead, I work to make sure that IF licensing is going to be adopted, that the rules are InterNACHI member-friendly. I also work to make it convenient and inexpensive for members to get their licenses. And I also work to make it convenient and inexpensive for members to keep their licenses (mostly with free, online, approved continuing education). And lastly I work to help members succeed in a licensed environment where, since everyone is licensed, it becomes an all out marketing race.

I think my approach to these built-in conflicts of interest is reasonable.

Critics could argue that it is almost impossible for me to represent both the interests of InterNACHI and InterNACHI members at the same time. Other critics could argue that it is almost impossible for me to represent pro-licensing members and anti-licensing members at the same time. All I can say is that the critics are right... it's almost impossible.

I do my best.

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by Brian A. MacNeish

So, James, get your logic straight....you're so up tight about licensing coming to your area that you can't think........period. I and the majority of HI's want licensing.....most of us sell NOTHING....what's your beef now???

The "majority" of home inspectors will be selling men's suits in a department store for a living (or some other new career venture) before their third year in business. I suppose you have your own reasons for including yourself in that number. I choose not to and am not too concerned about what they (or you) think about the subject.

What I know is that ... in the history of the licensing effort, no consumers or consumer advocacy groups have ever joined the push for it. Only those who hope to gain, financially, from such laws are willing to spend the money to push for them.

They benefit the few ... and they harm the consumer. Licensing has never, in its history in any state or province, ever resolved a single issue that it was intended to address. Another way of saying that ... licensing solves nothing.

[Nick Gromicko]

Since we are in the Canadian forum, I'll use Canada as an example to support Jim's contention.

In Canada, licensing is pushed aggressively by Carson Dunlop and the associations that use their material to offer over-priced, poor-quality inspection courses. And son of a gun, wouldn't ya know... those same associations require that their members take (and of course pay for) those very same over-priced courses that they pushed to have pre-approved in the licensing rules. A 6-year old could connect the dots.

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Nearly all of the time, the interests of InterNACHI (the association) and the interests of its members are in harmony. Licensing is a point where those interests conflict. Licensing is generally good for InterNACHI and bad for InterNACHI members.

If I wore an InterNACHI cap, I'd be compelled to run around the world pushing for licensing that requires membership in InterNACHI and licensing that requires InterNACHI's courses. This would be best for InterNACHI. But I don't wear an InterNACHI cap and never have. I wear an InterNACHI member cap. So why don't I run around the world fighting licensing then? Well, because about 1/2 the members I represent want licensing and the other 1/2 don't.

So, being trapped between a rock and a hard place, here is what I do: While explaining why licensing isn't good for inspectors (I've explained it many times) and while personally opposed to licensing, I don't permit InterNACHI to officially fight for or against licensing.

Instead, I work to make sure that IF licensing is going to be adopted, that the rules are InterNACHI member-friendly. I also work to make it convenient and inexpensive for members to get their licenses. And I also work to make it convenient and inexpensive for members to keep their licenses (mostly with free, online, approved continuing education). And lastly I work to help members succeed in a licensed environment where, since everyone is licensed, it becomes an all out marketing race.

I think my approach to these built-in conflicts of interest is reasonable.

Critics could argue that it is almost impossible for me to represent both the interests of InterNACHI and InterNACHI members at the same time. Other critics could argue that it is almost impossible for me to represent pro-licensing members and anti-licensing members at the same time. All I can say is that the critics are right... it's almost impossible.

I do my best.

Looks like you failed in the 2 Canadian Provinces that will be regulating HI's........INACHI "certified" (sic!!) members were hung out to dry...... or as 1 BC member has on his website "Gone fishing".....not doing inspections currently!! See http://randyinburnaby.shawwebspace.ca/

[Kathleen Luuk]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Since we are in the Canadian forum, I'll use Canada as an example to support Jim's contention.

In Canada, licensing is pushed aggressively by Carson Dunlop and the associations that use their material to offer over-priced, poor-quality inspection courses. And son of a gun, wouldn't ya know... those same associations require that their members take (and of course pay for) those very same over-priced courses that they pushed to have pre-approved in the licensing rules. A 6-year old could connect the dots.

Yer, I like to think of myself a little smarter than the average 6 year old, but yep, I connected them dots, and had to come here for further help after I felt like I had been hung out to dry after my CD courses. They may well be good courses, but they really do leave a lot to be desired. I hate to think how many inspectors there are out there that feel these courses are sufficient to become a HI.

[Nick Gromicko]

Yer, I like to think of myself a little smarter than the average 6 year old, but yep, I connected them dots, and had to come here for further help after I felt like I had been hung out to dry after my CD courses. They may well be good courses, but they really do leave a lot to be desired. I hate to think how many inspectors there are out there that feel these courses are sufficient to become a HI.

Yep. Carson Dunlop courses were good 30 years ago, but the inspection industry and inspection education has really evolved past CD.