full time vs partime

[Dan Wynans]

are you full time?

[Erol Kartal]

Most full time inspectors starting out would be homeless (no pun intended) if it wasn't for a hard working wife or substantial savings to live on. There are a few here who did 400-500 inspections their first year which is close to a miracle, but for the most part you will go weeks or months without a call as a newbie. Don't let people convince you that having a full time job while starting out is a bad thing. That's absurd. You do what is best for you and your family.

[ldapkus]

I started out full time and am still part time. The only ones that do 300 or more a year are either married to a realtor or screwing one.(or visa versa)

[Richard W. Washington]

If you find yourself enjoying the far corners of an attic in the dead of a 100+ degree summer then you know your wired for this business.

[Richard W. Washington]

my bad. forgot this was a canadian thread. maybe you substitute the cold for the heat up where you guys are.

[Mike G. Howard, CMI]

Up here you can pull your head out of an attic and have snot-sicles hanging from your face. Well........maybe not in Toronto.......lot a hot air there.

[Erol Kartal]

Originally Posted by ldapkus

I started out full time and am still part time. The only ones that do 300 or more a year are either married to a realtor or screwing one.(or visa versa)

[Nick Gromicko]

I was at the Denver Chapter meeting on Tuesday night and Jim Michael's (the Chapter President) firm is doing 6 to 8 inspections a day and has been all year. All the www.moveincertified.com inspections he did in the first part of the year are now producing many buyer inspections. The system works... almost too well.

[Erol Kartal]

Nick,

You have top notch inspectors in large cities like my buddy Dale who couldn't give one away for free. Why and how has this program been so successful in the Denver area?

[Nick Gromicko]

Their marketing material is top of the line stuff, full-color, professionally printed, and all about how a sellers inspection HELPS THE SELLER SELL. Homes nowadays sit for months. Inspectors have a captive, motivated target to hit.

One might argue: "Well, I'm not willing to pay for the development and printing of $5 brochures as that is too much risk to land one seller inspection."

But such an argument forgets the fact that multiple copies of your inspection report (the product you produce as a professional) will be available and picked-up by every agent and buyer that tours the home for sale. You've put an actual copy of the product you produce (the report) in the hands of dozens of buyers about to hire a home inspector in your market. Then of course, the seller will likely also hire you to inspect the home he/she is buying. So divide the $5 up by 10 inspections and your costs go to 50 cents. Then also consider that every buyer that walks through one of your www.moveincertified.com homes and sees that you've pre-inspected it might also have a home for sale to pre-inspect. Now your costs have dropped to 25 cents... and the whole thing explodes over time like a nuclear chain reaction.

Home Sellers

Advantages of selling a home that has been Move In Certified:

• The seller can choose a certified InterNACHI inspector to inspect the home properly before the buyer's inspector arrives.
• The seller can schedule the inspections at the seller's convenience.
• It might alert the seller of any items of immediate personal concern, such as radon gas or active termite infestation.
• The seller can assist the inspector during the inspection, something normally not done during a buyer's inspection.
• The seller can have the inspector correct any misstatements in the inspection report before it is generated.
• The report can help the seller realistically price the home if problems exist.
• The report can help the seller substantiate a higher asking price if problems don't exist or have been corrected.
• A seller inspection reveals problems ahead of time which:
  • might make the home show better.
  • gives the seller time to make repairs and shop for competitive contractors.
  • permits the seller to attach repair estimates or paid invoices to the inspection report.
  • removes over-inflated buyer procured estimates from the negotiation table.
• The report might alert the seller to any immediate safety issues found, before agents and visitors tour the home.
• The report provides a third-party, unbiased opinion to offer to potential buyers.
• A seller inspection permits a clean home inspection report hosted on www.FetchReport.com to be used as a marketing tool.
• Move In Certified yard signs attract potential buyers.
• A seller inspection is the ultimate gesture in forthrightness on the part of the seller.
• The report might relieve a prospective buyer's unfounded suspicions, before they walk away.
• A seller inspection lightens negotiations and 11th-hour renegotiations.
• The report might encourage the buyer to waive the inspection contingency.
• The deal is less likely to fall apart the way they often do when a buyer's inspection unexpectedly reveals a problem, last minute.
• The report provides full-disclosure protection from future legal claims.

[Erol Kartal]

Very nice...

[Darren Spencer]

Originally Posted by bboerner

Nick please delete this off the pubic message board. I understand why you said it however many may not. That's the bad part about writing your thoughts out on the net. One message is read in many different ways.

Have you not turn on public radio?? Better yet watch Cartoon Network, even the cartoon characters are on drugs.

[Nick Gromicko]

I wasn't trying to be funny. I honestly believe that a steady job is a type of slavery, designed to work you to death and leave you with nothing to show for it. It's deadly.

[Erol Kartal]

Originally Posted by gromicko

I wasn't trying to be funny. I honestly believe that a steady job is a type of slavery, designed to work you to death and leave you with nothing to show for it. It's deadly.

Nick,

I agree nothing beats having your own business, but in my opinion this is not a good time for a new inspector to quit his steady paying job for an occasional inspection. This is the perfect market for a newbie to break in gradually.

[Nick Gromicko]

I don't think we'll ever see a better time to capture abandoned markets than right now. But you can't break in gradually, you have to kick the door in.

I don't want you to think I'm just advising everyone to take the hill from the war room either... I'm practicing what I preach:

InterNACHI capitalized on this down market and launched more projects and added more membership benefits than any other year.

InterNACHI Education did similarly, releasing more courses and getting more approvals and accreditations than all the previous years combined: www.nachi.org/education.htm

NACHI.TV did similarly and produced more than twice the number of episode hours as in 2008.

On top of all that we completed some major projects including the WDI Field Guide, expanding into Asia, launching of InspectorPages II, holding the cross-continent success seminars, publishing a series of inspection books and inspection articles, overhauling our home page, helping launch our sister store InspectorOutlet and developing the massive inspection graphics library.

While other associations went under or cut positions, we hired more staff. I'm pretty confident in saying that InterNACHI is the only inspection association that got bigger and stronger in 2009.

The time to gain ground (market share) is when your opponents (competing inspectors) are weak or off-balance. It may be painful, but now is a great time to get up and attack.