Thread: Pass the Hat or Ammunition?

You decide...

Realtors live close to the edge
By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY

Jack Jentzen never saw it coming. Four years ago, as a real estate agent in Elgin, Ill., he was enjoying the rewards of the most frenzied U.S. housing market in decades, and money poured in.

Now he's fighting to keep his home.

Read it all here: Realtors live close to the edge - USATODAY.com

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It may not be to long before you start seeing home inspectors dropping off the planet.
Scary times and it will be awhile before things turn around.

Gee, isn't that too bad. Those poor realtors making the same mistakes they were talking other people into and have to now suffer similar consequences.
The good part is that it will hopefully get rid of most of the bad ones.

You really want a hoot, read some of the 13 plus pages of comments on the article. (Link at bottom of article).

It'll get you rolling.

Originally Posted by Erby Crofutt

You really want a hoot, read some of the 13 plus pages of comments on the article. (Link at bottom of article).

It'll get you rolling.

I love the first one


"Don't make insulting comments on a live blog and you would not get called out. Now go get a piping hot cup of shut the hell up and move on."

Home Inspectors starting to flee???

Its already happened and will continue to happen. Although I have not seen any official numbers the school enrollments are way-way down, renewals at all the associations are down and will continue to drop in 2009. I don't believe that NAR is saying that they have only lost 1.5% of their members. I know from my association that we have lost more of the order of 5-7% and Washington is considered a stable market compared to California, Texas, Florida, Nevada and the heartland states.

I wouldn't be surprised if the number of surviving inspectors is half of what we were in 2006. Anyone disagree?

//Rick

Originally Posted by Rick Bunzel

Home Inspectors starting to flee???

Its already happened and will continue to happen. Although I have not seen any official numbers the school enrollments are way-way down, renewals at all the associations are down and will continue to drop in 2009. I don't believe that NAR is saying that they have only lost 1.5% of their members. I know from my association that we have lost more of the order of 5-7% and Washington is considered a stable market compared to California, Texas, Florida, Nevada and the heartland states.

I wouldn't be surprised if the number of surviving inspectors is half of what we were in 2006. Anyone disagree?

//Rick

That's funny. I heard Texas had the most stable market out there. Investors leaving California and Florida and other areas because of the market is parts of Texas.
The biggest factor being home prices being lower than most parts of the country, especially Washington.

Not defending anything. This is what I have either seen or read in the past month or so.

I’m northeast of Phila. Bucks county. I know several good inspectors that have bailed. I wouldn’t be around if my wife didn’t have a successful business. Like most inspectors, I haven’t done and I am not good at marketing. I also made a decision about 5 years ago to do no marketing to realtors. No brochures, no presentations, no Christmas cards, nothing. That may be the death of me. However, the multi inspector franchises appear to be busy. The agents that are making sales need to make payments so they are flocking to HI companies that sugar coat everything. I saw one of their reports the other day. It was so sugar coated and lawyered up that by the time the buyer read about the defects he was happy he had them.
Any body else just barely hanging on?

Originally Posted by Herb Scott

I’m northeast of Phila. Bucks county. I know several good inspectors that have bailed. I wouldn’t be around if my wife didn’t have a successful business. Like most inspectors, I haven’t done and I am not good at marketing. I also made a decision about 5 years ago to do no marketing to realtors. No brochures, no presentations, no Christmas cards, nothing. That may be the death of me. However, the multi inspector franchises appear to be busy. The agents that are making sales need to make payments so they are flocking to HI companies that sugar coat everything. I saw one of their reports the other day. It was so sugar coated and lawyered up that by the time the buyer read about the defects he was happy he had them.
Any body else just barely hanging on?

I got 10 calls from Thursday thru Saturday that I did not get the appointment for the inspections. That was literally 10 in a row. Half were from North of Dallas where inspection pricing is a little higher than where I am from. I gave the going prices.

I got three quotes from potential clients where the homes were in the 2500 square foot range and the inspectors were doing them for the $200.00 range and termite inspections for $55.00.

I would say there are some folks seriously hurting out there.

I also know of a couple of franchises that live at the Realtor offices. There prices are not so cheap. They have marketing agents that do nothing but visit and market the Realtor offices. That is where they get most of their work.

I know one inspector in my area that has an office in a Century 21 office on the second floor that the Realtors walk buy every day. I have called Realtors that referred me in the past from that office and they say the other guy in their office is more competitive and it is more convenient where he has an office in the same building.

Oh well, such is life. As far as working goes I am not doing to bad. Maybe some of these 200 dollar inspectors will fade away and life get real again.

I am fortunate to get many larger homes with decent prices to hold me thru the pricing battle. My take use to be about a minimum of 70% of inspection calls I booked. That has dropped of quite a bit but I get more calls than I have in the near past. I have only been in Texas 4 years with an increase every year.

License renewal is Sept 30/Oct 1 in North Carolina. It will be interesting to see how many renew their license in a couple of months. We normally have a $150 license renewal fee but it has been waived this year because the licensing board has too much money and they have too much surplus and not enough expenses.

It seems like if you were an inspector and were thinking about hanging on, this would be a good year to renew the license since there is no fee. Will have to wait and see how many drop this time around.

Tomorrow I am taking Train The Trainer course to teach the mandatory training required by the state. Should be an opportunity to talk with other inspectors about volume in their area of the state. 8 hours of training to teach a 4 hour course. At least the training is free and I get credit for the course so don't have to pay to take the course later in the year.

Originally Posted by Ted Menelly

Maybe some of these 200 dollar inspectors will fade away and life get real again.

Ya think? I'm still waiting for my aunt to grow testicles and hit Lotto too.

great, looks like i picked a heck of a time to get into this business.