Gazette Articles

February 2004
By: Arthur S. Lazerow
Ask Mr. Home Inspector

Home inspection industry reaches for next level

Special to the Gazette

Defining roles
First, letÕs define the key players in a real estate transaction. There are three distinct and different key players in a real estate transaction: the Realtor, the appraiser, and the inspector. The Realtor is the generalist, assisting the buyer through the buying process, from viewing homes, preparing the written offer to purchase, keeping track of financing and moving the transaction to settlement. The appraiser determines value and represents the mortgage company. The home inspector on the other hand focuses on the property as a physical asset, performing an inspection of the interior and exterior portions of the home and all operating systems and educating the prospective new owner on how to live successful in the home. Defect recognition is important, but is truly secondary to the educational experience.

The latest and greatest
To keep home inspectors up-to-date on the home inspection industry, the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) holds annual conferences with this yearÕs InspectionWorld Conference for ASHI members held in Albuquerque, New Mexico last month. This was my fourth straight year attending InspectionWorld and it was clearly the most important. Besides numerous educational seminars and classes, the exhibition hall contained displays of the latest and greatest gadgets.

This yearÕs conference was by far the most important for the home inspection industry and specifically for home buyers and their Realtors. The conference subtitle was ÒCome Live the ASHI Experience, the NEW Standard for Home Inspection.Ó  At the conference, ASHI made its first public announcement of the new ASHI branding program designed to make ÒThe ASHI ExperienceÓ the standard for the home inspection industry.  ÒWe Speak HouseÓ will be the national tag line.

In the big picture of the home inspection industry, the ASHI branding effort will raise the bar for the quality of all home inspections, whether performed by ASHI members, by inspectors affiliated with another national organization or by unaffiliated inspectors.

ASHIÕs prominence results from its position as the oldest and largest of the national associations with approximately five times more members than the next largest national organization. ASHIÕs Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice are recognized as the most demanding criteria for performing home inspections and result in a level of technical proficiency that clients can rely upon.

This is not to say that members of other organizations working with home buyers perform sub-standard inspections. Since ASHI sets the minimum standards, others are in fact performing ASHI quality inspections. This has become so important that many non-affiliated home inspectors add to their brochures that their inspections are performed to ASHI standards.

ASHI has always stood for technical proficiency. Its educational programs and organizational structure were designed to create the most knowledgeable inspectors, focusing on a homeÕs structure and its components. Rich Matzen, then ASHI president, wrote in the December 2003 ASHI monthly periodical, the ASHI Reporter, ÒIn its first 26 years, ASHI focused on technical excellence in home inspection. Technical excellence refers to propounding our standards and ethics. This value will never change, but we have added exceptional customer service.Ó

Bringing clients into the loop

Last yearÕs keynote speaker in Orlando spoke about making each home inspector or home inspection company a micro-brand within the macro-brand of ASHI. Suddenly, the home inspection business has become a combination of knowledge and emotion. Sounds like sales training techniques. Every Realtor knows that people do not buy sticks and bricks; they buy space to have and raise their families, for holiday dinners, and for family experiences. Home buyers purchase their homes from the heart, not from the head.

Now comes The ASHI Experience
ASHI has verbalized this through the following consumer contract: The home inspection client can count on the ASHI inspection to bring personalized, exceptional service and expert knowledge, enabling smart decisions and peace of mind in our clientÕs home buying experience. Superior technical knowledge combined with superior customer service is The ASHI Inspection Experience.

Deficiency of the Week

Someday I will write a book containing all the strange and wonderful things people do to their own residences. At a recent inspection in the Lone Oak area of Montgomery County, I noticed that the base of the chimney started in the basement near the water heater and the circulating hot-water boiler. But there were three vents entering the chimney. The largest was the boiler gas flue and above this and correctly placed was the water-heater flue pipe. But since the owner wanted to vent the clothes dryer hot air and moisture out of the home, the owner proudly installed the metal accordion clothes dryer vent into the chimney above the other two flue pipes. Seemed clever to the owner at the time, until I explained that adding the moisture from clothes drying into the flue containing hydrocarbons created by natural gas combustion, acids were created which deteriorate the inner core of the chimney. Oops!

Seasonal tip

March column: Seasonal Tip: Spring self-inspection of your home

Have a question relating to a housing problem? Email it to aslaz@erols.com. Each question will be answered and some will be included in this column.

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