Thanks to the Master Inspector Certification Board’s many volunteers such as John McKenna, we were able to keep our 2009 costs down to an unbelievable $1,480. This means that there will be no dues or assessments again for 2010.
I’d like to thank John, the many volunteers and the many vendors who provided free services to allow the inspection’s highest professional designation, Certified Master Inspector, to be administered for another year at no charge to inspectors.
I’m not convinced yet. The $375 inital cost isn’t a “can’t afford it” issue, its explaining to the boss what that $375 is going to do for business. I was told before that if you were the first in your province/state to make CMI, that it was free. Guess I heard wrong. I’ll have to ponder the investment…
When people are looking for a home inspector they fall into two main camps.
1 - Price Shoppers.
2 - Quality Shoppers.
I will not address the price shoppers, but deal with those looking for quality.
If someone is looking at all the inspectors in a local area, they will briefly
scan over a lot of information very quickly. If you want to make them stop
and give you a second glance, then you need to show them something,
within a few seconds, that will make you stand out from your competition.
This is what CMI does. Within a few seconds, a potential client can see, or
hear on the phone, that you are a “Certified Master Inspector”, which denotes
you have experience that has been verified. It gives you credibility from a
a third party (the Master Inspector Certification Board) that says you are not just
another inspector, who may say anything to get hired, but you have been
certified to be a Master Inspector.
The CMI designation helps people cross over the “trust” bridge and give you
extra consideration when they are hearing so many voices and do not know
who to believe in. This gives a CMI a HUGE marketing advantage and many
have told me it has worked for them, month after month, to earn extra income.
You still have to sell yourself, but CMI gives you that extra edge.
**I am debating the thought of applying for the CMI also. I do qualify but being an old fart I am going to wait to see how many licensing hurdles the state of Florida throws in my way before I apply. I believe it is a good promotional feature and several of the local HI’s do use it successfully as part of their sales spiels. **
Stop debating. Do it. If you don’t believe it is making you (each year) 20 times the one-time $375 fee, let me know and I’ll personally refund you back $400! No questions asked.