Over the last week I've had several calls for pricing and many have told me that many of the HI's phones are not working or out of order.

I've had several HI's that I have got to know that have called me about buying some of their equipment because they have decided to bail out.

Guess this downturn in the market is putting the squeeze on many. It has to be tough if your a new HI in this market at this time.

I would be curious how many have decided not to renew their license this year.

rick

Not to try and discourage anyone, but in many areas around the country this definitely is not the most opportune time to be starting a new career as a HI. Here in Northern VA the competition has become fierce among inspectors. The market is flooded with foreclosures and people are dumping their properties desperate to get out from under their ARM and Interest only loans. Logic would tell you, “hey, it’s a buyers market” and there should be a windfall of investors picking up on all of the spoils...so our phones should be ringing off the hook, but people are scared. To compound the problem, there are a number of these “Home Inspector Factories” in the area (not to knock them for a profitable business) who are turning out “certified” inspectors by the dozen each month, thus flooding the industry with lots of ambitious new entrepreneurs looking for a piece of the action. That’s capitalism so hey, no foul for wanting the dream, but local markets can only support a certain number of HI’s at a time. Home inspections are a very specialized field and demand for our particular area of expertise is, unfortunately, often dictated by such men as Ben Burnanke.

I’m pretty well connected here in Northern VA and have lots of friends who are realtors, mortgage writers and real estate investors, but in spite of all this, business is definitely slowing down. I’m blessed to own a separate general contracting business as well, because it may get tougher before it gets better.

On the bright side, this may help to weed out the remedial among us and create more breathing room for the long-term committed pros.

Hang in there guys!

The recent 'boom' didn't do us any favors either. It brought people into all facets of real estate in record numbers, at least in my area. Anyone with a phone could make a living inspecting or appraising homes, writing loans or selling homes over the last few years before the slowdown.

Now, there are just too many people chasing too few dollars. I'm really trying to just watch my business vs the overall market rather than year over year sales.

If there is any good news here it's that this should weed some people out and there should be nice run of business as we come up out of this valley, whenever that is.

I've had similar calls, one guy asked if I was still doing inspections, he said the reason he was asking was that many he had alreadt called were no longer doing them. I have not gone the lowering my rate route so I very rarely hear back from these callers.

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Clarksville Home Inspection
JW Goad
TN License #307 | KY License #2402

It’s pretty frustrating – the first half of last year – my third in the business – jobs from previous customers and referrals were steadily picking up, then around Sept it was like someone turned a tap, things really slowed down, and it’s been very slow since, for example though I’m on Google’s first page for my community there is almost no one currently searching for inspectors and I’ve see my hits as a result of searches for inspection services go down from 20-30 a week last spring to 2-3 a week so far this year!

As a result while I just wrote the check for another year’s insurance there are many other things I can’t do, for example I was planning to start doing IR this year and that’s just very difficult to justify at the inspection volume of the last few months.

OTOH ….I’m getting some business, and several of the people who started around the same time I did are getting close to none, while my neighbor – a very competent ASHI guy who has been in the business for 20 years - has seen his volume go *way* down as well, so it’s clearly a general slow-down and not a bombed marketing effort on my part or a problem with unhappy clients unwilling to refer new business my way.

My decision has been to see what else I can do to stir up some additional business and give it at least another year – what I won’t do though is cut either prices or corners: either can I get paid what I must to earn a decent living doing what I consider a quality job, or it’s not worth doing.

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Michael Thomas
Paragon Property Services Inc., Chicago IL
http://paragoninspects.com

There is a plus and a minus to every situation. My feelings on the last year are this, The cream will rise to the top. Not only are alot of semi pro inspectors hanging it up but the part time homemakers who have nannies and maids are failing in Real Estate for the same reason. They didn't know what they were doing in the first place and now it's too obvious to ignore. YAHOOOOOO!!! Good Riddance!!!

I sure miss it but I'm glad I jumped ship when I did. My phone #s never changed, I closed up (sorta) back in Oct. I've had 1 call for an inspection since then. Calls were few and far between before that.

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Consistency is a direct path to perfection.

What I won’t do though is cut either prices or corners: either can I get paid what I must to earn a decent living doing what I consider a quality job, or it’s not worth doing.

I thought the same way about my prices until things really reached "rigor mortis" status around here in January. Then I decided I needed to do something to break out of my self-imposed box if I didn't want to stare at the walls and watch the checking account get smaller by the day. Discounts are not the way I want to go long term but they have helped me get business since I started offering them and I am actually right on pace with my 2007 volume for both January and February. I am making a little bit less per inspection but the reduction is something I am able to live with as it is a temporary means to an end. When the market begins to right itself, my prices will go back to or above the pre-slowdown rate.

Even the "Dark Side" is having problems
California sees drop in real estate licensees

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Critical Home Inspection Services
www.Home2Spec.com

A woman called today that got my name from a previous client. I gave her my price and she said she was going to continue to call around. She said she had got a quote of $190.

I didn't get the job.................didn't want it at that price.
JF

That's pretty good Jack. I talked to a previous client of mine a couple weeks ago who I actually declined to work for again because we were not in the same hemisphere on price. He wanted me to perform a HI with WDI inspection for over $100 less than my normal fee. I told him if he felt my services were worth that little based upon my previous work that he would need to look elsewhere for his HI needs. I thanked him for calling and hung up. Discounts are one thing but some people are just insulting in what they expect.

Also from the article Victor linked to: (bold is mine)

Total Realtor membership, which includes U.S. members and Realtors in Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands, fell 3.7 percent in January 2008 compared to the same month last year. The association reported 1.29 million Realtors as of Jan. 31, 2008. Realtor membership has fallen on a year-over-year basis since Oct. 31 and on a month-to-month basis since Sept. 30, according to association statistics.

The association reported that its membership stood at 1.37 million as of Aug. 31 and has since fallen about 5.9 percent. Realtor membership in California peaked at 200,681 in November 2006.

Realtor membership declined most in Michigan, falling about 12.8 percent from January 2007 to January 2008. That state had 27,398 Realtors as of Jan. 31, 2008. Membership dropped 10.6 percent in Minnesota and 10.3 percent in Florida during the same period.

Realtor membership in Florida dropped 15.2 percent between Oct. 31, 2006, and Jan. 31, 2008.

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Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )

Sounds like an old Cheech and Chong movie...
"Things Are Tough All Over"

What ever happened to those knuckle-heads?

RR

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"If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?"
Richard Rushing, HCRI
Duncanville, Tx.

We are really the lowest paid professional relating to a real estate purchase. I will not lower my price because I feel that more can be cut elsewhere for the client to save money. Realtors, appraisors, surveyors, mortgage brokers, etc. are a dime a dozen and can easily be replaced by the buyer as it is hard to stand out from others in their industries.

A realtor working for the buyer simply looks for homes that the buyer may be interrested in and shows them the home.

Appraisors calculate square footage and ammenities in the home and base a value against other homes within a given area.

Surveyors are using a GPS or other device to make measurements against a given dimmension.

Mortgage brokers are falling all over themselves trying to get business. They are simply the middle man and use your credit rating and hook you up with someone willing to take the risk and len you money. The main factor here is the vuyers credit.



Home inspecting, on the other hand, is a skill. It is based on knowledge, experience and education, as well as trouble shooting and deductive reasoning. While everyone else can be replaced and still achieve the same results with the real estate transaction, the difference from one home inspector to another is huge.



I may give a discount to a repeat customer, but if a person is only calling and shopping based on price, I will try to sell myself but will not present a bargain.

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Integrity Inspection Service, LLC
www.irsindy.com
(317) 345-1828

"A realtor working for the buyer simply looks for homes that the buyer may be interrested in and shows them the home.

Appraisors calculate square footage and ammenities in the home and base a value against other homes within a given area.

Surveyors are using a GPS or other device to make measurements against a given dimmension.

Mortgage brokers are falling all over themselves trying to get business. They are simply the middle man and use your credit rating and hook you up with someone willing to take the risk and len you money. The main factor here is the vuyers credit."

Jon, I think I know what you are saying, but I think you are over-simplifying these jobs a bit. There are people in all these lines of work that are good enough to make a difference for their client. However, we as HIs must not think as much of ourselves or we would be able to demand and get more money for our services. If we are worth so much more than these other services, why in the world do we make so much less than they do on average? Part of the reason for our less than professional wages is the fact that most home insectors do not know how to truly market their services so they try to get work on price alone. To make it even worse, most home inspectors get most of their biz from realtor referrals and the realtors know what everyone is charging and some of them think they are doing their client a favor by getting the lower priced inspection for them.

Another reason is the fact that the business is too easy to get into so many folks do it part time. Now don't get riled up if you are part time, because I too started that way and it is probably the most common way to do it. But you don't see many licensed professions of any kind where the majority of the practioners are part timers. Why, because you have to be more committed to getting that license in most professions. We must first raise our standards before our pricing will be on par with other professionals.

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If it weren't for lawyers, we would never need them.

The $100/hour or more we typically bill out is not bad income for a job that only requires a high school diploma. For that matter, states without certification don't even require that.

To try and knock down the other professions in the housing industry is pointless. This is the USA and at the heart of it is our (mostly) free economy and things like supply and demand. If others are making more, than their services or product are more in demand and people are willing to pay more for them. Agree with it or not, that's just the facts.

I agree in a perfect world crawling through rat crap would pay more than filling out numbers on closing documents. But we don't live in a perfect world. A teacher, policeman or social worker should probably make more than a home inspector. You can try and justify and rank things all day long but, in reality, the money isn't always in line with the job done. I'm too young (and not enough of a history buff) to know but I belive if the money lined up directly with the job done our system would be called Communism or Socialism or some 'ism' that we don't have here.

Jon said, "Realtors, appraisors, surveyors, mortgage brokers, etc. are a dime a dozen and can easily be replaced by the buyer as it is hard to stand out from others in their industries."

I think you can substitute home inspectors for any other category and they could say the same thing. Face it, home inspectors are a dime a dozen, and can be easily replaced. It's happening every day when jobs are being scheduled by the $99 inspector.

Sure the bargain basement inspector is worth next to nothing compared to the high class service we all give (wink wink), but the reality is the average consumer does not know the difference, and sometimes doesn't care.

I ask a lot of my clients if they have ever had a home inspection. Many say "No". I then tell them that they really don't know if they just had the best home inspection possible, or an average one. In fact most clients are not going to know how good an inspector was, until they have something to compare it to.

Your attitude toward those other real estate related occupations, is what's wrong with ours. Everyone on your list thinks that THEY are the end all in the loop, and everyone else is just not as important, or "a dime a dozen". That's why realtors tell their clients to look for the lowest price, or they look for the lowest price when they are calling around for them. They do not value our profession.

Some of us think of ourselves as being indispensable in this whole process. Well here is how you check to see how indispensable you really are...

Get a 5 gallon bucket of water.
Put your arm in the bucket and touch the bottom.
Let it stay there 20 seconds.
Gently remove your arm.


Now measure the hole you left in the water and you will know how indispensable you really are.

Maybe it's just me, but in the realm of human characteristics, I view egocentric as a negative, and humility as a positive. That's just my 2 cents for what it's worth.
JF

Well said Jack. While we as HIs play an important role in the home buying process, we are just one cog in the machine. We should neither sell ourselves short or take ourselves too seriously.