Spring Conference

April 27-29, 2012

Code Regulations

ON-LINE REGISTRATION OPEN FOR CREIA’S SPRING CONFERENCE!

Take a look at the following conference schedule for details.

Unable to view the schedule? Please click on this link.

We have reserved a block of rooms at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, 1380 Harbor Island Dr., San Diego, CA 92101. The deadline for room reservations at our group rate is

A complaint to the BTR does not need to be your worst nightmare.  Are you prepared to defend your inspection report and findings?  Will the content of your inspection report provide the BTR staff and/or the Enforcement & Advisory Committee enough documentation  to dismiss the complaint or refute the allegations?  This seminar will teach you the following:

• How to avoid complaints
• Proper ways to respond to complaints
• How to write your report to assure your clients have a clear understanding of the property
• How to navigate the BTR complaint process

Presenters will include Manuel Maltos from the BTR and four current members of the BTR Enforcement & Advisory Committee.  During the course a mock interview will be conducted including the alleger (home buyer) and the respondent (home inspector).  This two-hour segment will be performed according to the states requirements and focus on nine common allegations/complaints by home buyers and the ten most commonly missed items on an inspection report.  After both interviews the EAC members will discuss the allegations and explain how the recommendations of their findings are sent to the BTR staff to determine the final result/resolution of the complaint.

Be sure to bring a notepad and pen.  This is guaranteed make every inspector in attendance go home and change something (or a lot of somethings) on their reporting narratives!

The seminar qualifies for 4 ASHI CE credits.   [Note: Most of the other home inspection associations will accept ASHI CE credits.]

All AZ home inspectors are welcome and encouraged to attend.  Please note that pre-registration is strongly advised.  We will need an accurate head count to provide adequate handout materials and light refreshments.  Payment at the door will be accepted by is discouraged if you are able to register in advance.

Homewood Suites

9880 N Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85253

November 12 – 1PM-5PM

Cost:

$50.00 Members - Click here to register as a member

$75.00 Non-members - Click here to register as a non-member

ASHI is pleased to announce its newest educational offering – the ASHI e-Learning Catalog. This resource will offer an ongoing variety of educational and Continuing Education subjects available to both ASHI members and non-members:

• ASHI members will earn ASHI CE credits for completed online modules
• Non-member home inspectors and anyone interested in home inspection skills will also have access to all the materials

 Click here now. 

The initial core of course offerings consists of 30 online sessions – reissued from recent InspectionWorld education programs. Each module is two hours in length and includes a 20-question exam, a course evaluation and a certificate of completion.

We have plans to offer a wide variety of online modules, podcasts, videos and all nature of electronic educational materials in the near future. 

We are simultaneously releasing the MP3 audios of these same 30 sessions as downloadable podcasts. Conveniently listen at your own pace to these 2-hour podcasts in your vehicle on the way to inspections. 

 We invite you to explore the outstanding materials available to you on the ASHI e-Learning Catalog. You sign in once, and a student file will be created for you so that every time you complete a module it will be registered. Your file will be an easy reference for you to keep track of courses completed and earned CEs.

 Click here now.

 Questions? Contact Michele George, ASHI Education Manager at micheleg@ashi.org

Status of the legislation.

The Senate has sent the financial overhaul bill to President Obama’s desk. In addition to many other provisions, the bill includes a section that will add home inspection to the HUD housing counseling program in a big way.

 HUD will be enlisted to do the following:

 Actively advise homebuyers across the country to obtain home inspections as a key element of buying a house

• Tell buyers that obtaining a home inspection is a decision they need to  make, and should make
• Tell buyers what professional characteristics to look for in a home inspector, and where and how to find one
• Ensure that homebuyers reached by the HUD counseling programs consider obtaining a home inspection as early as possible in the process  — when home inspections have the greatest utility to homebuyers
• Develop new documents and training materials both for training HUD counselors and for distribution to the buyers they counsel
• Make all of these messages available to all homebuyers regardless of whether they finance using government-backed programs or private sector lending.
• This national de facto marketing effort will occur at no cost to ASHI members, and will be conducted under the authority, funding and staffing resources of HUD.  

With completion of this legislative phase of the project, ASHI will shift to the next phase – administrative implementation. We have set the stage for ASHI to meet with the key HUD staff, who will implement the new home inspection counseling provisions. We fully anticipate that ASHI will have important input into the implementation phase. In fact, ASHI has already helped HUD draft some of the key documents that will be used by HUD staff – the “For Your Protection, Get a Home Inspection” document, as well as the “Ten Questions to Ask Your Home Inspector” document, that prompts homebuyers to consider the quality, professionalism, ethics, experience issues that strongly favor ASHI home inspectors.

Further, we note that there may be training opportunities in which the ASHI office might participate as a grantee. We will discuss possible funding opportunities for ASHI to engage in such a role and perhaps generate a new revenue opportunity. 

Purpose of the legislation

Previous research conducted by GAO (also requested by ASHI) demonstrated conclusively that there are numerous reasons why homebuyers do not obtain home inspections, and many of those reasons are unrelated to cost.  Many of those reasons relate to confusion, lack of adequate information about the benefits of a home inspection, poor timing, simple lack of awareness and failure to attend to details, not knowing when a home inspection should be obtained, and more. 

It is reasonable to assume this confusion costs ASHI members large numbers of prospective client opportunities and considerable revenue. Yet, nearly all ASHI members do not have the resources to, on their own, fund or staff a coordinated effort to redress this revenue-sapping confusion and misinformation. 

However, the federal government does have the resources to address this problem. 

 ASHI developed a compelling comprehensive argument that it is in the national interest, and consumer interest, for the federal government to help.  ASHI associated home inspection with consumer protection, a winning strategy in the current environment.   

Further, ASHI devised an acceptable mechanism to implement such a national program by modifying existing programs – the HUD housing counseling programs (which are receiving increasing attention, priority and funding in the current environment). 

Further, ASHI crafted a new legislative proposal to provide the legislative authority for HUD to apply resources specifically to home inspection counseling on a nationwide basis.    

ASHI was successful in convincing key Members of Congress at the heart of housing legislation that the legislation was substantive and would help homebuyers make better homebuying decisions. 

The effort culminated with passage of the ASHI language within the larger financial reform bill. 

 The Turnaround: History of ASHI legislative activity

1. Ten years ago, HUD was spending millions of tax dollars, with congressional approval, to tell homebuyers that they did not need a home inspection, that they only need a good appraisal (the “enhanced appraisal”). 

 Today, ASHI has turned Congress and HUD 180 degrees.  Congress is passing ASHI legislation and HUD will soon use its funding and staff to deliver precisely the opposite message, a package of messages delivered by government and designed to drive homebuyers to hire home inspectors.

 2.  Within the home inspection community, only ASHI has this capability. ASHI has demonstrated that it can effectively represent the interests of its members before the federal government, that it can successfully prevail on the federal government to provide ASHI members what they cannot provide for themselves. ASHI is the voice of the home inspection profession in Washington DC. 

3.  Only ASHI may legitimately offer legislative and regulatory proposals that will be taken seriously and can be sent to the President of the United States to be signed into law. 

ASHI has fully separated itself from other organizations in a way that is unique, pays dividends, achieves tangible results and is very difficult if not impossible for its competition to match. 

 4.  ASHI has been able to accomplish this feat for a surprisingly meager amount of money.  It has been able to do so using a highly targeted, exceptionally efficient advocacy model, identifying the key protagonists inside the Washington Beltway and convincing them to adopt ASHI thinking in ways that merge with the needs of the current environment.  In addition, ASHI has invoked enhanced political support with highly targeted use of the modest but valuable InspectPAC, the political action committee for ASHI, again at minor cost to the association and its members.

These efforts to build the ASHI reputation, and to construct a relationship between home inspection and consumer protection, are creating derivative benefits in other directions.  For example, your president David Tamny and executive director Jeff Arnold have been fully briefed on opportunities to work with the federal government to develop new specialty inspections that could be offered by ASHI members as new revenue opportunities that would not be tied to the home sales market.

The point is that your successes in advocacy in Washington DC are not limited to home inspection counseling, and will open doors for other opportunities that could drive new markets, new revenues and more to ASHI members. 

Prepared by:

Randall G. Pence, Esq.

Capitol Hill Advocates, Inc.

ASHI’s advocate in Washington DC

7/21/2010

What happens to an organization when all the support is only provided by less than a third of the total?

Answer: it fractures.

 Two main things make an organization viable; providing a service to its members and members actively supporting the organization.  A volunteer organization can’t provide services without members providing time to the organization. Right now there are 5 to 8 people supporting the other 90 AZ AZHI members. This includes the 2 or 3 people who are supporting AZ ASHI through their work at ASHI National. Are you concerned that we had only one educational seminar this year and that there are none scheduled for the rest of the year? Are you concerned enough to plan an educational seminar? A viable organization has committees that provide support to a board that keeps the organization functioning for the members. We have no committees. We only have individuals who try desperately to function as a committee and they are also the board members. It is time to step up or cease to exist. AZ ASHI has two main goals; make its members better home inspectors and get the word out to potential clients that ASHI home inspectors are in fact better home inspectors. If you think those goals are worth pursuing, you, not the guy that sits next to you at the seminars, need to help plan the next educational seminar or be at the AZ ASHI booth at the next Real Estate convention. 

 Neil Brogren

Immediate Past President

AZ ASHI

NEW this conference

• ONE FREE DAY OF EDUCATION! That’s right, you can attend Friday’s “Social Media Revolution” at no additional cost. We want to thank you for being loyal CREIA members.
• BBQ dinner with the exhibitors on Saturday night.
• Two-tier registration pricing instead of three.

• One Apple iPAD will be given away to those who book their hotel stay at the host hotel, the Doubletree Hotel Sacramento! Once your reservation is made, you are automatically entered. Drawing will take place on Sunday, October 16th.
• Dance Card Prize! Take your dance card to visit the exhibitors, get a validation stamp and return the card to the CREIA registration desk to enter to win a great prize! Prize details coming soon.
• And more prizes given away by exhibitors, too.

Multiple education tracks! Something for everyone.

Topics include:

• Pool Inspections
• Foundation Inspections
• General Trusses
• Chimneys and Fireplaces
• Carbon Monoxide
• and much more!

Click here to register or view the complete brochure here.

The information on the Copper Chopper was forwarded to Big ASHI and we are asking them to attempt to have the Copper Chopper available for Inspection World 2012 in Phoenix.

On August 25^th 2012 AZASHI will have a booth at the WeMar (West Maricopa Association of Realtors) in the west valley for their 9^th annual Realtor Expo and on Thursday September 29^th 2012 AZ ASHI will have a booth at the SEVRAR (South East Valley Regional Association of Realtors).  

The new Marketing Committee is one of the best things that came out of the board meeting for our present members this weekend. Hopefully the committee will be supported with all the help and tools they need to make us the best we can be and should be.

I think or at least hope we all know teaching Home Inspectors how to market and put money in their pockets should be job 1 for ASHI. Without clients who needs technical skills !

You need to be a good marketer to have clients as well as good technical skills. Unfortunately if you do not have clients you do not need technical skills !!

So what came first the chicken or the egg ??????  

WOW, how I would love to see all our members achieve great wealth and have multi inspector firms. If this training came from ASHI it would even be better. ASHI could be better than the GOLD standard if we provided agressive Top Notch Marketing Training as well as Technical Education !!!! 

Lets teach marketing so our association and members will have a need for all those technical skills !! This may also be the key for inspectors to want to join ASHI !!

RETIREMENT LOOKS MUCH BETTER WITH LOTS OF MONEY IN YOUR POCKET AND INSPECTORS WORKING FOR YOU WHEN YOUR SITTING BACK ON AN ISLAND WITH A DRINK IN YOUR HAND !!!

Preparing for a Home Inspection

The seller of a home I was recently inspecting stated as I entered the house, “so you are the person I will be hating”. Once the surprise wore off, I asked her why she would say such a thing. “Because you are here to pick my house apart”, was her reply. I had to admit there was some truth to what she expressed. Home inspectors are paid to identify defects. It often feels like buyer’s love us, but seller’s are much less adoring. What is the best way to get prepared for the inspection? See the following tips:
1. Have maintenance/evaluation done on the house before the home inspection is ordered. Areas to focus on include the roof, electrical system, heating and cooling system. Get a handy man in to eliminate the nuisance items prior to the inspection (i.e. sticking doors, leaking faucets, loose toilets, etc.). Buyer’s will equate problems in these areas as evidence that the home has not been cared for.
2. If you discover that a system needs major repair or replacement as the home is listed, disclose it and offer a credit to the buyer and adjust the sales price accordingly. Most buyers appreciate the honesty conveyed with an accurate disclosure and feel good about getting a credit for needed repairs.
3. Make sure you are aware that the inspection will reveal numerous defects – don’t be surprised or alarmed. Even newly built homes often have long lists of problem areas. Preparation is the key to avoiding the shock that everyone feels when they are fully informed about property condition. The buyer should avoid expecting the seller to bring the home up to today’s standards. When you buy a 1967 Mustang you don’t make the seller put in an air bag, do you?
4. Keep things in perspective. I once observed an experienced Realtor explain to a buyer that if termites are found at the property that is a good news/good news scenario. If no termites are present that is good news, but if termites are found then you will get a whole new barrier of chemicals applied and that is also good news. Most buyers forget why they fell in love with the property and how it compared with other homes as they are hearing about the problem areas. Keep your perspective.
5. Get another opinion and an accurate quote to make any repairs. Home inspectors, for good reason, are often uncomfortable making estimates of repair costs. The best bet is to always get actual bids from several licensed contractors during the re-negotiation process. Buyers and home inspectors often over-estimate the cost for repairs and sellers often under-estimate. The only figures of any value are those presented as an actual offer to perform the repair.
7. If you are deeply disturbed about the news of the homes’ condition it is probably best to let some time go by so you can process the information. Make follow-up calls to the inspector to gain additional perspective. If you are the seller, it is important to focus on the good reasons for selling and the need to work with a ready/willing buyer. Once informed about the defects they become matters to disclose to any future buyer so it makes sense to be reasonable.