Argh: ASHI President tells radio show listeners to hire contractors, not inspectors.

In a 5 minute Real Estate Today radio show interview, the President of ASHI Tim Buell recommended hiring a roofing contractor, HVAC contractor, and insulation contractor instead of a home inspector to perform annual inspections. In fact, he never mentioned the phrase “home inspector” at all. What the heck!

Some excerpts from the interview include:

Host:How can I really know if my roof is in trouble or not?

ASHI President:I would recommend contracting a qualified roofing contractor and have them come out and inspect your roof. They can let you know if there is any damaged shingles. They can also let you know how long your roof will last.

Host:Is that another area (HVAC) that you should have inspected prior to winter?

ASHI President:Absolutely. A lot of HVAC contractors have maintenance contracts where they charge you a nominal fee if you have both of those checked and so what they do it they come out in the fall and they check your furnace and they come back out in the spring and check your air conditioners. So that’s a good thing to do every year.

Host:Another area that I know is really important, especially in the cold weather months is insulation. But Tim, how does a homeowner inspect that?

ASHI President:Sometimes that is difficult, especially in the wall. But in the attic people can get up there and measure the insulation and see how much they have. I would strongly recommend hiring an insulation contractor to come out and inspect that.

You can listen to the interview here (have a barf bag ready): Tim Buell, The American Society Of Home Inspectors by realestatetodayradio | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Annual inspection products and advice from InterNACHI:

Good catch Nick .

I had a radio show for 7 + years and was always very carful to make sure I did not make a mistake like this . Thanks for the info … Roy

When is ASHI going to do us all a favor and close up shop?

Gee if we lost ASHI look at the fun we loose .

How bizarre! Wow…

Interesting approach, if you hired specialists for every system, that’d cover it, right?!

Wait, no it wouldn’t… there’d still be almost an entire structure to look at and put all the pieces of the puzzle of components together with. This failed concept has been discussed before, it’s not a winner and what’s worse, coming from a HI Association, that’s a shame IMO to confuse consumers.

WOW!

Perhaps he has a really good understanding of the value of his own work???

My God, That was dumb!

Not even a mention of a Home Inspection or Home Inspector!

I thought this can’t be right.

So I listened to it myself.

Holy moly, what was he thinking?

I wonder how ASHI members feel knowing their leader threw them under the bus.

I have been fighting this for years even went to the State Capital and talked to State Reps about the unethical practice contractors are allowed to perform in Okla. They are allowed to inspect within the State License HVAC. Plumbing, Electrical and so forth.

But my problem is they are allowed to make the repairs on any problems found by them and they can do it the very next day. By law they should have to follow the same standards as home inspectors. We can not make repairs on any home we have inspected for a period of one year.

I don’t like calling people things like idiot, after all we are supposed to be kind, but this guy is clearly clueless. what an idiot.