Super Slow in PA

[Nick Ostrowski]

If I'd have known things were going to be this slow, I would have stayed out in the woods and done more hunting.

Dead, dead, dead are the phones. I haven't gotten an inquiry or a job at all this week. I had six scheduled last week with two canceling at the last minute. It never fails to amaze me how quickly the market can go stagnant. Here's to hoping some of the work you guys are getting in other areas of the country will catch on up here.

[David Banks]

Nick. Same thing here. I am fortunate my wife works or I would be back on the construction site soon.

[Nick Ostrowski]

Dave, I'm lucky to have a working wife as well who carries our benefits. I don't know how the inspectors, who are the sole income-providers, support their entire household during these types of slowdowns.

[Michael Thomas]

Yup. This is my second full year, and I was finally doing pretty well. Then in mid-August business just fell off a cliff. I have a neighbor - an ASHI guy, *very* competent and successful inspector with 15 years in the business and a *deep* referral base - same for him.

Meanwhile I'm fortunate in that I have excellent (though expensive) insurance through my wife's employer.

But if that job was to go away, the next morning we would both have to be looking for *anything* that provided coverage for her - the high-deductible individual policy route does not work for us as she's had cancer (at the moment, she's OK) and insurers would want to pre-existing condition that out of the coverage, period.

So as things stand I'll renew my E&O and keep marketing through this time next year, but if things are not back to at least the level of last spring by then, I'm going to have to give this a long, hard look.

I'd just add that IMO the health insurance situation in this country is absurd - it's not that we can't afford to pay for insurance, if she lost her job tomorrow we would be willing to pay the *entire* amount (ours + her employers - around 14K a year) paid for her current coverage out of pocket to keep it.

As it stands, we know to the *day* how long that job has to last for us both to be able to transition to Medicare via COBRA, but between then and now...

[Rick Hurst]

Business has slowed here too. We had a party the other day at our home and some of the mortgage people here said they had picked up in the last couple weeks with applicants.

The problem they say it that there is no more easily obtained loans. The days are over with processing low document type loans or obtaining loans without decent credit scores and downpayment. Getting seller contributions and having your closing cost paid are over they said.

I remember when I bought my first home if you didn't have great credit and a down payment you didn't even consider buying a home. The last few years that has not kept people from obtaining a home and in my opinion is the reasoning for all the foreclosures we have now. Those people who got into a home so easily do not have the self discipline to handle their finances. They figured a way to get in a home with a payment probably cheaper than the rent they had been paying out before.


On a personal note:
We carry our health in$urance through the NASE (National Assoc. of Self-Employed). We have been very pleased with it and the coverages we have. They have always paid off any claims in a reasonable time.

We pay around 550. a month with a 1500. deductible.

Rick

[Jim Luttrall]

That is the gist of the conversation I had this morning with a realtor friend (no comments please, he is a good guy);)
He basically fired a client this week that could not understand why he could not get them into a house that was 30,000 more than they qualified for. He tried twice and both deals bit the dust because of unrealistic expectations.

I have NASE insurance, too but I have never used it.

[Billy Stephens]

Met a closing Attorney a little while back. He said it"s slower than he has seen in 35 years.

Continuing with comments of caused by fraud in the mortgage industry and the investors
who buy those loans from the mortgage companies aren't,thus the finances are not
available.

[Michael Thomas]

Lots of problems with NASE, they have signed consent decrees in several states, buyers of the policies didn't realize that there was no cap on out-of-pocket expenses and the daily maximums don't come close to covering typical hospital charges. Many people have ended up in bankruptcy after discovering that their NASE "catastrophic" coverage came tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars short of covering their medical costs.

Here's a Business Week Article:

It's Enough To Make You Sick (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_37/b3899076_mz021.htm)

[Nick Ostrowski]

I feel for you guys paying for health care insurance totally out of pocket. My wife and I are very fortunate.

[Rick Hurst]

We have carried NASE provided insurance for 10 plus years and have never had such problems as Michael mentioned.

My wife has had 3 major surgeries and has always had the most excellent doctors. They actually paid over the maximum hospital room allowances because of where the doctors scheduled the surgery.

No problems in my opinion.