If you aren't inspecting today... work on building your business.
Please Note: This page has moved. Please use http://www.nachi.org/success.htm from now on.
179 things you can do to improve your inspection business and make more money.
To succeed at anything, be it landing on the moon or building a successful home inspection business, you have to do many things correctly. Always work on building your business. If you are not inspecting... be marketing your business, learning more, or improving your services. Remember, if you offer a good inspection service, you have a moral obligation to let as many people as possible know about and benefit from your good works. Here are some things you can do when you are not inspecting:
- Join InterNACHI. InterNACHI provides over $50,000.00 worth of benefits to inspectors for just $289. It is the best thing you can do for your home inspection business. InterNACHI provides its members with over 1,000 free benefits.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/join.htm
Cost: $289/year.
- Make sure you've added any ancillary inspections you offer to our search engines. Many real estate agents use InspectorLocator.com to find a one-stop inspector that offers all the inspections needed. Such ancillary inspections include: chimneys, commercial buildings, green certification, energy loss, IAC2 certified inspectors, lead paint, log homes, mold, new construction, pools and spas, pre-listing, radon, septic, stucco/EIFS, thermal imaging, water quality, WDO/insects, and W.E.T.T. certification. There is no cost to list your ancillary services on our search engines.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/ancillary.htm
Cost: FREE
Make sure you are listed in InspectorNow.com and try the automated phone notification. The listing and phone notification services are free.
Site: http://www.inspectornow.com/
Cost: FREE
- Take an online inspector examination. InterNACHI's online exams have been taken hundreds of thousands of times and are great learning tools. Each exam is different (over 4 trillion different exams) and each contain built-in intelligence to help alert exam takers to their own weaknesses. There is no cost to take the exams and you can take them as often as you like.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/nie.htm
Cost: FREE
If you qualify, join IAC2 (International Association of Certified Indoor Air Consultants) and use the IAC2 logos. IAC2 is the non-profit, certifying body for home and building inspectors who have fulfilled certain educational and testing requirements including those in the area of indoor air quality. Indoor air quality issues include mold, radon, biologicals, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, pesticides, asbestos and lead. IAC2 members can also use the Trademarked tagline "Bringing Clean Air to Life." Membership in IAC2 is free and there are no annual dues.
Site: http://www.iac2.org/
Cost: FREE
- Take the online Safety Practices for the Home Inspector course. Open to all. This course helps teach inspectors to be safe during a home inspection. In keeping with InterNACHI's commitment to continuing education, this course is free to all, open to all and can be taken again and again without limit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/safetypracticescoursereleased2007.htm
Cost: FREE
- Use the online, electronic signature inspection agreement. It will protect you. InterNACHI's online inspection agreement is signable and legally binding. It allows the client to read and sign your agreement before you do the inspection or at least before they view their report online. We've provided InterNACHI's basic contract for you to start out with, but you can make changes as you like. You can also add your own clauses and/or hide others. It's simple: Start out with suggested wording written by InterNACHI's lawyers, make any changes you want, add additional clauses such as InterNACHI's Hold-Harmless Clause, hide clauses that don't apply to your business, and add specific notes pertaining to an inspection to each individual agreement. You can then: Notify your clients automatically by email when you create an agreement, check the signed status of your agreements quickly and easily, and receive instant notification by email when your client has signed the agreement, Other features: Agreements signed online by clients and confirmed by email are legally binding, you can require that the agreement be signed before the client views the report, and past agreements are stored online for you or your client to view and print at any time. The online, electronic signature agreement system is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/onlineagreement.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order the "Environmental Concerns" book. The book provides information on mold, moisture, radon, and lead problems found in homes. There are several advantages to giving your client the book at the time you start your home inspection: The full color, high quality book dresses up your inspection report, it properly explains issues to your client so you don't have to, it gives the client or real estate agent something to read while you are inspecting, it provides supporting literature to any environmental inspections you are performing such as mold or radon, it soft-sells un-ordered ancillary inspection services you might offer such as mold or radon while you perform the home inspection, it reduces liability by eliminating future claims that you should have alerted your client to environmental issues even if you don't inspect for them, and it creates an additional piece of literature, one your client or agent will save, that you can affix your business card to. Each Environmental Concerns book (full color, 32 pages) also comes with one free PRO-LAB catalog per order. This book is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/environmentalconcernsbook.htm
Cost: FREE
Set up a website at InspectorPages.com even if you already have a custom one. It will provide you with additional shelf space on the internet. InspectorPages is the first of several industry-specific web design and hosting services built on the Galahad modular content management system. It is also the first of several services utilizing the InterNACHI Exchange program. This program lets members of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors maintain most company-specific information on a centralized server (in InterNACHI’s membership database) and distribute all changes to other services transparently. These websites are free and hosting is provided at no charge, forever.
Site: http://www.inspectorpages.com
Cost: FREE
- Take the online "Structural Issues for Home Inspectors" course. In keeping with InterNACHI's commitment to continuing education, this course is open and free to everyone and can be taken again and again without limit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/structuralcoursereleased2007.htm
Cost: FREE
- Borrow a trade show display and do a home show or REALTOR Expo. To borrow a display email us and tell us about the event. There is no charge to borrow the displays, all we ask is that you email us picture of your booth after the event is over and return the displays to us.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/displays2008.htm
Cost: FREE
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Mail your home inspection brochure to all the real estate agents in your area. We provide a database of their mailing addresses. Give your inspection business a boost! It's simple. Each member can now search InterNACHI's database of 1.5 million U.S. real estate agents (Canadian database coming soon) by metro area or by state, then refine the search by real estate agency and/or company size, then refine the search even more by agents with email addresses and/or agents with websites. Finally the member can download the list as a CSV file to use for marketing purposes. There is no charge to use our agent database.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/agentdata.htm
Cost: FREE
Check CorrectInspect.com and make sure you are listed. CorrectInspect.com gets about 800,000 consumer hits a month. There is no charge to list your inspection company on CorrectInspect.com
Site: http://www.correctinspect.com/
Cost: FREE
- Take the "Water Discharge Piping" mini-course. This course helps teach members how to recognize improperly installed TPR valve discharge piping. In keeping with InterNACHI's commitment to continuing education, this course is free to all, open to all and can be taken again and again without limit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/waterheaterdischargepipingcoursereleased2007.htm
Cost: FREE
- Print off your certificates of completion and use them in your marketing packets. There is no charge and you can print off as many as you like.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/certificatesofcompletion.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order license plate covers for your inspection vehicle. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/plates.htm
Cost: FREE
Add the "Call me now" button to your home own inspection website so that consumers online can have our automated system notify you by phone. Each member now has his/her own "Have this inspector call me" button on InspectorNOW.com When a potential client clicks on it and submits his/her call back number the InterNACHI member is instantly called by an automated office assistant and given the clients call back number. The InterNACHI member is given several other options as well. There is no phone tolls, lead generation fees or other charges for this service. It is a free InterNACHI member benefit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/immediategratification.htm
Cost: FREE
- Enter your inspection website in InterNACHI's search engine optimizer. Most of your new customers don’t get to your web site by typing in its address. Instead, they use a search engine to find you. Though the best strategy is to let larger sites like InspectorLocator.com, InspectorLocator.com, InspectorSEEK.com, OverSeeIt.com or MoveInCertified.com push potential clients your way, it’s also important to make sure your web site can be found online. That’s why InterNACHI has Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools that will help you track and improve your site’s search engine rankings as well as a free Search Engine Submission tool that submits your website to over 900 search engines. Three of the major indicators of how well your site is doing are Google’s PageRank, Alexa’s Traffic Rank, and the number of other web sites that link to you. InterNACHI has begun tracking this information for all its members so you can easily see how well your site is doing now and how it’s done in the past. Google’s PageRank is a 0-10 rated system that’s a rough indicator of how important Google’s search engine considers your web site. Very few web sites reach the 8-10 range (MSN.com, one of the most popular sites on the ‘net is only a 9). On 8/22/06 InterNACHI had a PageRank of 6, which is very good. Most small inspection web sites should expect to be in the 0-4 range. Alexa’s Traffic Rank is a rough estimate of how your site compares to every other site on the Web. Sites like Yahoo.com, MSN.com and Google.com are in the top 10, while smaller sites are in the hundreds of thousands. A Traffic Rank of 2 million is completely normal because no matter how popular your home inspection web site is, it simply doesn’t reach a broad enough audience to compete with sites like Google and Amazon.com. Both Alexa and Google keep track of how many web sites link to your site. Because each uses its own system of gathering this number, they can be significantly different. That is why InterNACHI gathers both numbers for you. Every week, InterNACHI collects your web site’s PageRank, Traffic Rank, and number of incoming links. Once a few weeks’ worth of information has been collected, we will begin showing a custom graph of this data for each member. InterNACHI will be releasing other parts of our Search Engine Optimization Project to help you get a better position in search engines. We’ve released this tool first so you can track your site’s listing and see the effect that our other tools and tutorials have on your own site’s search engine rankings. We've released a second tool so you can submit your website to 900+ search engines. Members can view their custom Search Engine Optimization Tracker and also submit their web site to 900+ search engines. There is no charge for this service.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/seotrackerintro.htm
Cost: FREE
Check out the benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. U.S. InterNACHI members are automatically members of the Chamber. This unique partnership formed between InterNACHI and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce provides your business a membership in both organizations. By maintaining your InterNACHI membership, your business also receives access to benefits and services provided though your Federation membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. You can save up to 20% on select FedEx Express® services and up to 12% on select FedEx Ground® services. Membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is free for all InterNACHI members.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/chamberofcommerceinvitation2006.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take the online "Emergency Egress" mini-course. This course helps teach members how to recognize missing or obstucted basement and bedroom emergency egresses. In keeping with InterNACHI's commitment to continuing education, this course is free to members and can be taken again and again without limit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/emergencyegresscoursereleased2007.htm
Cost: FREE
- Start using a great multi-inspector tagline: "The right inspector, right away." InterNACHI members may use the Trademarked tagline at no charge. This tagline is especially good for mult-inspector firms' websites.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/rightinspector.htm
Cost: FREE
Check out InterNACHI's images and use them in your brochures, flyers and website. No more cartoons. InterNACHI's inspection-related images provide a professional, consistent look. The line art works with any inspector (female images coming soon). They are abstract enough to not overpower accompanying text. These images are available in both color or black & white. InterNACHI Images' entire 700+ collection is royalty-free to InterNACHI members only. Members may use the entire collection and the images within as they want, as many times as they want, as many as they want, and as many ways as they want in their own inspection businesses at no charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/images.htm
Cost: FREE
- Do the online "Photo Defect Recognition/Report Writing Tutorial." The purpose of this photo tutorial is to help you recognize very common defects and then see how to write a comment describing each defect as you would write it in an inspection report. Many inspectors spot obvious defects quickly but then find it difficult to put what they see into words. The order of the categories below correlates with InterNACHI's Standards of Practice. Simply click each category, view the PICs of defects, anticipate the comment you would use to describe each defect and click on the "Defect description" link to see a sample of how to word your report. Categories include: Roof, exterior, basement, foundation, crawlspace, structure, heating, cooling, plumbing, fireplace, attic, insulation, doors, windows, and interior. The tutorial is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/defectrecognition.htm
Cost: FREE
- Apply for a InterNACHI credit card. No annual fee. Introductory 0% APR. Earn airline frequent flyer points.
Site: https://wwwa.applyonlinenow.com/USCCapp/Ctl/entry?sc=LR2T
Cost: FREE
- Participate in the InterNACHI Wiki. Like a Wikipedia for inspectors. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/wiki/Main_Page
Cost: FREE
Stop by your local store and make sure the manager is carrying PRO-LAB kits which promote InterNACHI members. 50,000 retail outlets recommend that consumers contact their local InterNACHI inspector exclusively. PRO-LAB®, the leading provider of environmental laboratory testing services in the world has re-packaged all of their millions of retail kits to include a recommendation to contact solely InterNACHI members for further professional inspections and testing. PRO-LAB consumer home safety test kits can be found in retail stores such as: ACE Hardware, Avon, Chase-Pitkin, CVS/Pharmacy, Distribution America, Do it Best, Fred Meyer, Giant, H-E-B, The Home Depot, Kroger, Lowes, Menards, True Value and WAL-MART. On the back of each kit is the recommendation that consumers with environmental issues visit www.InspectorSEEK.com and contact their neighborhood InterNACHI inspector. This is a InterNACHI-exclusive deal.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/50000retailoutlets.htm
Cost: FREE
- Try to win a Daily Door Prize. Each new door prize is announced on the message board and the first member who replies to the post wins and will be sent the free door prize. Each thread will start with the words "Today's Daily Door Prize..." There is no cost to play or win.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/dailydoorprize.htm
Cost: FREE
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Join the Alternative Dispute Resolution Service. "A unique service, available exclusively to InterNACHI Members and their Clients. Using a common sense approach, InterNACHI ADRS combines simplicity and Internet-based dispute resolution methodologies, to deliver timely, conscientious, and cost-effective solutions to InterNACHI's family of Inspectors." InterNACHI's Alternate Dispute Resolution Service (ADRS) is available to InterNACHI members to resolve a wide range of disputes involving Home Inspections through mediation and out-of-court settlement procedures. To serve your dispute resolution needs, InterNACHI’s ADRS provides a forum for the hearing of disputes through the Internet, in an informal and relaxed venue. ADRS takes a common sense approach to dispute resolution, and relies on impartial home inspection industry experts to hear and resolve cases. Every year, millions of business contracts provide for mediation and arbitration as ways of resolving disputes. Typically, the parties’ agreement to mediate or arbitrate is contained in a future-disputes clause in their contract. In the InterNACHI Inspector’s case, such a clause exists for those who subscribe to ADRS. The service is unique in that flat-rates apply, and that no attorneys are involved. It is TRUE alternate dispute resolution, directly between the Plaintiff and Defendant. InterNACHI’s ADRS is a private, informal process by which all parties agree, in writing, to submit their disputes for mediation/arbitration, whereby an impartial person is authorized to gather and review evidence, and ultimately resolve the controversy by rendering a final award. As an agreement to arbitrate is included in the Inspector’s Contract, it might expedite peaceful settlement without the necessity of going to arbitration at all. Thus, an arbitration clause is a form of insurance against loss of good will.
Site: http://www.nachiadrs.com/
Cost: $90/year.
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Start using a great tagline:
"Anyone Else is Just Looking Around." InterNACHI members may use the Trademarked tagline at no charge.
Site:
http://www.nachi.org/anyoneelse.htm
Cost: FREE
Participate in AskNACHI.org which helps consumers. Have a question about inspections? Ask InterNACHI certified inspectors about anything and get an answer quickly. AskNACHI.org is a free service to consumers and real estate agents.
Site: http://www.asknachi.org/
Cost: FREE
- Take the "Vermiculite Insulation" mini-course. This course helps teach members how to recognize vermiculite and how to report its presence using guidelines drawn from the EPA, IAC2 and InterNACHI. Sample reporting language which gives the client advice about vermiculite insulation and language which explains how the inspection was restricted because of it is included at the end of the course. In keeping with InterNACHI's commitment to continuing education, this course is free to members and can be taken again and again without limit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/vermiculitecoursereleased2007
Cost: FREE
Add the Consumer Verification Seal to your website. When making a purchase online, most consumers will look for a seal of approval from a company such as Thawte or VeriSign. Now you can give your clients the same kind of confidence by letting them know that you're certified by the world's largest home inspection organization. By placing this "InterNACHI Certified" seal on your website, you can allow your clients to verify your membership with the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors. We provide you with the code to add the seal to your website. You will have to be able to edit the HTML code of each page you want to add it to. If you cannot edit the HTML yourself, send this code to your host/web designer - (s)he'll know what to do with it. You can change "seal.gif" to "seal-t.gif" for an image with a transparent background. If you're going to put the image on a dark background, use "seal-tb.gif" The interactive Consumer Verification Seal is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/webseal.htm
Cost: FREE
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- Enter your favorite real estate agent's email addresses in the e-Newsletter system. InterNACHI's “Home Inspection Tips for Home Buyers, Sellers and Real Estate Professionals” e-newsletter system just got better. InterNACHI's e-newsletter system now permits members to add any number of e-mail addresses with no limit. Some members already have over 15,000 e-mail addresses entered into the system under their name. The system also permits members to delete individual addresses, delete all their addresses, or download their entire list of addresses in a Microsoft Excel compatible "CSV" format, manipulate it, and upload it back in. changes. The newsletter has been a tremendous success. Of the issues that were sent out only about 0.2% of the addresses, or about 0.09% “unsubscribe” requests were received. Each newsletter comes from the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI) but has the name and contact information of the InterNACHI member who provided the agent's e-mail address. Coming from the inspection industry's largest non-profit trade association is far better than having members send out their own advertising spam as InterNACHI uses well written articles that are pre-tested to assure a low opt-out rate. InterNACHI members can add and remove names through the link in our members-only section to the Real Estate Newsletter. There is no charge for using this system.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/buyersrealtorsenewsletter.htm
Cost: FREE
- Offer this downloadable book link to your favorite real estate agent. Try printing and sending or emailing this book to home sellers and listing agents. The book is wildly loved by home sellers and REALTORs alike. It promotes the use of seller inspections to help sell homes while touting the advantages of hiring licensed real estate agents. All licensed real estate agents in the world, Certified Master Inspectors, and members of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors are free to copy this book in its entirety, reprint it, distribute it, and put it on their websites without written permission from the author.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/syhfm.htm
Cost: FREE
Visit the Inspector Mall online. Over 600 inspection industry vendors offer exclusive InterNACHI deals and discounts that you won't find anywhere else, not even directly from the vendor. Many of the products and services in the mall are totally free.
Site: http://www.InspectorMALL.com
Cost: FREE
- Order decals. Screen printed, 5 year vinyl. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/decal.htm
Cost: FREE
- Run through the Inspection Depot frames. InterNACHI and Inspection Depot Inc. have announced an agreement that allows InterNACHI to use 2,000-plus home inspection training illustrations from Inspection Depot’s industry-acclaimed, The Illustrated Home Inspection Guide™, as part of InterNACHI’s on-line member education program. These high quality images are in the popular Tip of the Day feature on InterNACHI’s Home Page and are also used as the header image in InterNACHI’s on-line education courses. Enjoy them at no cost.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/inspectiondepotillus.htm
Cost: FREE
- Form your own InterNACHI Chapter in your local area. Forming your own Chapter is easy and fun. We will help you. Besides, being an officer in your own local Chapter of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors is great for your business. A chapter can be an INFORMAL Chapter and meeting (nothing more than a named InterNACHI meeting where attendees are charged for the cost of the room and food) or it can be a FORMAL CHARTERED Chapter (separate entity)...You decide. Many Chartered Chapters start off as informal chapter meetings and evolve into fully chartered InterNACHI Chapters later. InterNACHI will reimburse all cost overruns.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/form.htm
Cost: FREE
- Set up your own InterNACHI Chapter website to promote you and your local members. In keeping with InterNACHI's efforts to give individual members more control in their local markets InterNACHI is pleased to announce FREE chapter websites for every member. Any InterNACHI member can form his/her own local chapter and now every member has one FREE chapter website which includes free hosting forever. Pick from any of dozens of site styles and change styles anytime you want without disrupting the content you've added. Upload up to 10MB of pictures to display. Take online registration and payments for events and classes with our event tracking system. Add as many custom pages as you'd like. Create pages with our easy-to-use interface - no need to know any code. The chapter sites are easy to create (all you need is your InterNACHI member username and password) and each site comes with a simple content manager so you can update it as you like, anytime you like. Chapter sites are free and hosting is free forever.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/chaptersites.htm
Cost: FREE
Place your next order from Staples online and get free shipping.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/staples.htm
Cost: FREE
- Offer to teach a course to real estate agents. "What Every Real Estate Agent Needs to Know about Inspections" is a full day continuing education course for real estate professionals. Course Summary: The real estate agent/student will go through the entire inspection process from writing an inspection addendum to handling post-closing complaints, covering nearly every inspection-related scenario, all with an emphasis on limiting agent liability. Course Instructor: Nick Gromicko, veteran REALTOR, inspector, home builder, real estate author, and Founder of the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI). Course Fee: Mr. Gromicko and InterNACHI offer this course FREE to all InterNACHI members or InterNACHI chapters that procure CE approval from their local Board of REALTORs and/or real estate licensing board. This is an excellent course for a InterNACHI member or chapter to host and offer to the real estate agents in their area. CE Approval for REAL Estate Agents: This course has already been approved for continuing education by several Boards of REALTORs . Submitting the course outline below to your local Board of REALTORs and/or real estate licensing board should result in its immediate approval. InterNACHI will provide additional advertising to real estate agents at no charge should a member or chapter decide to host this course.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/whateveryagentneedstoknowaboutinspections2006.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take the online "Roofing for Inspectors" course. Some features which make InterNACHI's roofing course superior to existing continuing education options: The course is free for all InterNACHI members, the course is written in pure XHTML code for quick loading, the course loads fine on old computers and loads fast, even with dial up. the course is designed using a hierarchal menu coupled with a sequential page navigation which provides the student with the option to easily repeat areas of weakness, the course permits the student to start, stop and restart any part of the course as often as desired, there are a variety of images referenced within the course including diagrams, illustrations and pictures of actual roofs, the illustrations can be enlarged for clearer viewing by clicking on them, the text is integrated into InterNACHI's Inspector Glossary so rolling over blue colored terms provides their definition, the final exam uses multiple choice questions that reference the images and the course's quizzes and final exam have numerous advantages over traditional exam systems: the course, quizzes and final exam incorporate built-in intelligence which identifies and strengthens each student's unique subject weaknesses, not only is each question weighted with regards to score but each answer is weighted as well as the correctness of each answer being weighted: Answers to easy questions are weighted such that the student is punished, in terms of score, for answering incorrectly but rewarded modestly for answering correctly, answers to difficult questions are weighted such that the student is rewarded, in terms of score, for answering correctly but not punished for answering incorrectly and answers to questions regarding basic safety or questions every inspector should know the answer to are weighted to such that the student is severely punished, in terms of score, for answering incorrectly. Upon passing the final exam the student can print out a certificate of completion which is auto generated in their own name. The student's (InterNACHI member's) information is recorded on InterNACHI's servers for membership compliance verification and automatically logs completion into InterNACHI's online continuing education log. In keeping with InterNACHI's commitment to continuing education, this roofing course is open and free to all members and can be taken again and again without limit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/roofingcoursereleased2005.htm
Cost: FREE
- Get help from InterNACHI's inspector help line. All InterNACHI inspectors are invited to call for assistance any time, at no charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/helpline.htm
Cost: FREE
List yourself in OverSeeIt.com. OverSeeIt.com helps consumers who are having a new home built, or repair or remodeling work done, find a certified inspector who can make sure the work is being performed properly. OverSeeIt inspectors offer a variety of services such as project and contractor oversight, new construction phase inspections, final walk-through inspections, 1 year builder warranty inspections, annual inspections for home and commercial property owners, investor consulting, pre-listing, seller inspections, foreclosure inspections, insurance inspections and general home inspections. There is no cost to be listed.
Site: http://www.overseeit.com/
Cost: FREE
- Try the exam prep tool. A few states and even some local municipalities require you to pass a separate exam for licensing purposes. Typically these government adopted exams are horribly inferior to InterNACHI's. If you are in a jurisdiction which requires you to pass such a licensing exam, don't worry. Help is here. InterNACHI has developed the ultimate licensing exam prep tool. It is an actual simulated exam designed to provide you with real practice. As you answer each question you will be told if your answer is correct or incorrect. A great learning tool! This exam prep tool allows you to return to it where you left off, again and again, from the comfort of your own home. The prep exam contains over 2,500 questions typically found on state and local licensing exams. More sample questions and their answers are being added every day, so check back. The exam prep tool is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/qa.htm
Cost: FREE
- Search for a great inspection company name. Trying to decide what to name your home inspection company? Want to see what other inspectors have named their companies? Want to see what state they're in? Want to see which company names are most popular? Want to see if others are using your company name? Need some ideas for a home inspection company name? InterNACHI has created a list of many actual home inspection company names and the states they're in. The list contains over 12,000 home inspection company names and their states. Scrolling over any one of the 63 page numbers reveals a tool tip which displays the names alphabetically. And yes, someone already thought of Sherlock Homes. The name search tool is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/namesearch.htm
Cost: FREE
Make sure you are listed in FindAnInspector.us. It gets about 1.5 million consumer and real estate agent hits per month.
Site: http://www.findaninspector.us./
Cost: FREE
- Use the Client Satisfaction Survey. InterNACHI's Customer Satisfaction Survey hits 7 birds with one stone. 1. It limits your liability. Often a dissatisfied client will describe your services to his/her REALTOR, or worse... to a judge, much differently than the truth. Procuring and maintaining a copy of this survey will bring them back to earth, so to speak. It is a nice document to have to present to a complaining REALTOR and can often end a legal action all by itself. Next best thing to a deposition. 2. It alerts you to weaknesses in your service. Often a client is too shy to complain to you in person about your service, or worse... complains only to the REALTOR that referred you. Providing this survey offers your client a way to express his/her dissatisfaction while you are still on the inspection site and can do something about it. Customer feedback is necessary to improving your service. 3. It reminds your client that you don't have X-Ray vision. It is important to explain to your client that a home inspection can't reveal every defect that exists, or will ever exist, in their new home. This Survey works in conjunction with InterNACHI's Agreement (between you and your client) in that it again reminds them of this fact. 4. It suggests that your client may wish to order ancillary inspections. Some InterNACHI members offer additional inspections such as WDO, radon, water quality and mold... for additional fee of course. This Survey reminds them to ask about other services you might offer. 5. It grants you written permission to discuss the report with others. And even more importantly, you can point to this document when a seller's agent demands a copy of the inspection report by saying: "I'm sorry, my client has given me written orders not to share the results of his/her report with anyone." 6. It lets your client know you care about his/her opinion. Everyone likes being asked. 7. It helps InterNACHI get you more work. By entering your InterNACHI ID# and your client's email address into our Tickler system your client will receive 4 e-newsletters a year packed with helpful homeowner maintenance tips. These newsletters are well received as they come from the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors. Each includes a reference to your inspector contact information. Once a year we will suggest that your client rehire you to perform a home checkup. This is a painless way to keep your name in front of your former clients... forever. The Client Satisfaction Survey is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/survey.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take the online "Electrical" course. The electrical course is 40 pages long and broken down into chapters covering: Basic principles, service entrance, grounding and bonding, distribution panels, and electrical wiring. In keeping with InterNACHI's commitment to continuing education, this electrical course is open and free to all members and can be taken again and again without limit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/electricalcoursereleased2006.htm
Cost: FREE
Make sure you are listed in InspectorSEEK.com. InspectorSEEK.com gets over 1.8 million consumer hits a month.
Site: http://www.inspectorseek.com/
Cost: FREE
- Print off your certificate of membership and use it in your marketing packets. There is no charge and you can print as many as you like.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/mycertificate.htm
Cost: FREE
- Use the radon waiver. Many home inspectors create potential problems for themselves because the client does not understand what the inspection will cover. For this reason, InterNACHI attorney Mark Cohen encourages inspectors to always have the client sign the InterNACHI Agreement (between inspector and client) that specifies what the inspector is going to do. Radon gas kills. So if the inspection is in a high radon area or if the inspector discovers a radon mitigation system during the inspection and the client doesn't want to order radon testing, the inspector might consider having the client sign a separate waiver of radon testing. The radon waiver is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/radonwaiver.htm
Cost: FREE
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Become a Certified Master Inspector. The Master Inspector Certification Board, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(6), tax-exempt organization dedicated to promoting excellence in the inspection industry. The Board holds the registered Trademark
Certified Master Inspector® (CMI), the inspection industry’s top professional designation, and awards it qualifying inspectors who have demonstrated a high level of competency by: Completing 1,000 fee-paid inspections or hours of inspection-related continuing education (combined) in their lifetime and abiding by the industry's toughest Code of Ethics and substantially following a Board approved Standards of Practice such as ASHI's, CalNACHI's, CREIA's, InterNACHI's or InterNACHI's, submitting to a criminal background check, and applying for Board certification by signing the affidavit in front of a Notary. The Master Inspector Certification Board, Inc. is not a trade association and the
Certified Master Inspector® is not a membership level.
Certified Master Inspector® is a professional designation available to all qualifying inspectors who wish to be
Board Certified™. It's mission:
By awarding the continuing education/experience-based Certified Master Inspector® professional designation, the Master Inspector Certification Board, Inc. supports the inspection industry's advanced education providers and encourages experienced inspectors to maintain excellence. Certified Master Inspectors® , the very best of the best. Certified Master Inspectors rightfully use their professional designation to justify raising their prices when their competitors are charging less. There is no higher professional designation in the inspection industry.
Site: http://www.certifiedmasterinspector.org/
Cost: $375 one time. No dues.
- Use the mold waiver. Many home inspectors create potential problems for themselves because the client does not understand what the inspection will cover. For this reason, InterNACHI encourages inspectors to always have the client sign the InterNACHI Agreement (between inspector and client) that specifies what the inspector is going to do. Mold causes health problems. So if the inspector notices mold or moisture or if the inspector learns that mold mitigation has taken place in the past and the client doesn't want to order mold testing, the inspector might consider having the client sign a separate waiver of mold testing. The mold waiver is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/moldwaiver.htm
Cost: FREE
- Use the log home disclaimer. The log home disclaimer is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/loghomedisclaimer.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take the online "Polybutylene Plumbing" course. This course helps teach members how to recognize polybutylene plumbing and how to report its presence using streaming video from a NACHI.TV interview with a polybutylene expert. Sample reporting language which gives the client advice about polybutylene plumbing is included at the end of the course. In keeping with InterNACHI's commitment to continuing education, this course is free to members and can be taken again and again without limit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/polybutylenecoursereleased2007.htm
Cost: FREE
- Attend a InterNACHI event. InterNACHI hosts over 400 inspection related events a year. Many are free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/events.htm
Cost: Not much
- Make sure you are listed in InterNACHI's thousands of sites. InterNACHI is the world's largest inspection association and the largest generator of leads for the home inspection industry. Search engines treat domain names and portions thereof differently than they treat text or meta-tags. Despite a domain name often being the combination of more than one word such as newyorkhomeinspector.org, google for instance, automatically splits up the search to be equivalent to new york home inspector. A full state or province name followed by the word or words home inspector are the most popular searches next to the phrase certified home inspectors. Therefore for search engine purposes we registered or purchased a variety of combinations that captures consumers and eventually whittles down their search results to solely InterNACHI members who service the area being sought. Search engine optimization experts often argue whether or not hyphens between words within a domain name effect ranking, so InterNACHI just bought them all. InterNACHI converted all these websites into InterNACHI member lead generators for its U.S. and Canadian members. "Inspectors outside of InterNACHI can waste their money building their own websites I suppose, but they won't get much traffic buried under all the InterNACHI lead generators. Our member's contact information is promoted on the internet even if they don't have a website," said Gromicko, InterNACHI's Founder. InterNACHI now has a designated website or web page for every single city and town in the U.S. and Canada. "Our goal is to own one million InterNACHI member lead generators" added Gromicko. You can list your inspection company on all of them at no charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/moredomains.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order a Tribble (microwave oven testers). Simple to use - put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, if it comes out warm, the microwave oven works! Reusable over and over again. Use it till you forget it in the microwave at your last inspection. Tribbles are free. Get yours.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/tribbles.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order a tablecloth for your next event. There is no charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/tablecloths.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take InterNACHI's tutorials. InterNACHI Interactive Tutorials can help you learn to use InterNACHI.org better. They are interactive videos that show you how to use different features of nachi.org more effectively. They are free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/interactive-tutorials.htm
Cost: FREE
- Visit the Citizen's Information Center where InterNACHI members can use inspection-related articles royalty-free. Subjects include: Asbestos, building a home, child safety, choosing the right home inspector, constructed wetlands, electrical safety, electromagnetic fields, elderly safety, energy conservation, energy efficiency, foundation insulation, hazards, high-performance buildings, green certification, holiday safety, homebuyer mistakes, home insurance, indoor air, lead, log homes, manufactured homes, mold, MoveInCertified program, plumbing, pollutants in the home, pool safety, private water wells, radon gas, rehab a home, roofs, thermal imaging, sellers inspections, septic systems, settlement costs, ten tips to speed up your inspection, termites, water damage, water quality, what really matters on an inspection and wildlife. InterNACHI members may use the articles or parts of them and put their own name on them at no charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/info.htm
Cost: FREE
- Visit InterNACHI's Inspector Glossary. Online and searchable. Totally free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/glossary.htm
Cost: FREE
- Download the real estate presentations. They are the best PowerPoint presentations in the inspection industry. All free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/presentations.htm
Cost: FREE
Check out InterNACHI's insurance discounts. InterNACHI members save thousands of dollars on GL, E&O and other types of insurance.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/insurance.htm
Cost: FREE
- Check out the Inspector's Websites of the Week. You can review all the winners over the past several years. Compare their sites to yours. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/websites.htm
Cost: FREE
- Check out the photo web gallery. InterNACHI's Community Web gallery allows you to browse through PICs of defects found on actual inspections at no charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/gallery/
Cost: FREE
- Reprint this article with your name on it. It works. InterNACHI Members may use this and other InterNACHI articles royalty free and need not credit the author.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/what_really_matters.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order a photo I.D. card. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/sampleid.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take the Ethics Obstacle Course. This course is an open book test of your knowledge and understanding of InterNACHI's Code of Ethics. Its purpose is to encourage our members to read and understand the Code of Ethics. It is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/ethicsobstaclecourse.htm
Cost: FREE
- Improve your website with these great logos, images, taglines and links.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/logos.htm
Cost: FREE
- Get a state-specific logo. There is one for every state and they are all free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/state-logos.htm
Cost: FREE
Get a Hertz discount card. InterNACHI members now enjoy: 10% off all rentals, one car class upgrade, $10 off weekly rentals, up to 15% off weekend rentals, and free child seats in weekly rentals. And in support of the InterNACHI Foundation Hertz is donating 2% to the InterNACHI Foundation. The discount card is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/hertz.htm
Cost: FREE
- Add this promise to your brochure and website. It works, and it is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/promise.htm
Cost: FREE
- Read about making your website better. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/brutal.htm
Cost: FREE
Get an Avis discount card. All members are entitled to enjoy the deep discounts on top of Avis' already low promotional rates for vacation or leisure travel. The discount card is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/avis.htm
Cost: FREE
- Enjoy the inspection industry's biggest and best message board. InterNACHI's message board gets over 200,000 new posts every year! That's 550 new posts a day! All are free to participate at no charge and without fear of censorship.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/forum/
Cost: FREE
- Create custom binders. They work!
Site: http://www.nachi.org/binder.htm
Cost: $100/case.
- Order free brochures. They work!
Site: http://www.nachi.org/3mistakes.htm
Cost: FREE
- Use the Report Review Committee. InterNACHI's Report Review Committee reviews member's inspection reports, checks them for adherence to our Standards of Practice, makes suggestions for improvements, and returns them to the inspector. Working members who have yet to perform any fee-paid inspections must submit 4 mock inspection reports to the Report Review Committee before performing any fee-paid inspections. A mock inspection is an inspection on performed for no fee. It can be performed on the member's own home, a friend's home, a family member's home, another inspector's home, or at a InterNACHI sponsored mock inspection. This is a membership requirement for members who have never done a fee-paid inspection. ITA provides free mock inspection reporting forms for InterNACHI members. The forms and the Report Reviews are free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/reportreview.htm
Cost: FREE
Watch a show on NACHI.TV. NACHI.TV is totally free.
Site: http://www.nachi.tv
Cost: FREE
- Link exchange with InterNACHI. Would you like your site to be accessible to millions of InterNACHI.org visitors? Have your site automatically added to InterNACHI's "Useful Links" page! All that we ask is that you do the same favor for us. It's simple, and it's free!
Site: http://www.nachi.org/link_exchange.htm
Cost: FREE
- Try to answer the Question of the Day. It's fun, educational and free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=27
Cost: FREE
- Make sure your contact information is correct on thousands of websites with InterNACHI''s member-controlled profile editor. InterNACHI members can now edit their own contact information and personal market areas on all InterNACHI-owned websites at once, anytime, and as often as they like (no limit). This easy-to-use editor allows members to change such things as their company name, address (not made public), phone number, fax number, email address, website, and zip/postal codes served (yes it is Canadian-friendly). There is no limit to the number of times you can edit your profile and zip/postal code service areas. Profile changes take effect instantly and simultaneously on all InterNACHI sites including InspectorSEEK.com, FindAnInspector.US, InspectorLocator.com, InspectorNow.com at InterNACHI's Membership Department, in your free Inspector's Quarterly subscription database, on your free website at InspectorPages.com and in your AVATAR on the message board (so double-check). It also changes it at www.IAC2.org (within 48 hours), at www.OverSeeIt.com, at MoveInCertified.com and on your fully tax deductible receipt. The member-controlled profile editor is another step toward giving members greater and faster control of their online market presence. The profile editor which changes your contact information on 4,500 sites at once is totally free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/profileintro.htm
Cost: FREE
- Expand your market into other zip codes. FindanInspector.US is now the internet's most prolific home inspection lead generator. It permits you the inspector to determine or carve out your own market regardless of where you live. In other words you can pick the areas you most want to service. You do this by submitting up to 20 zip codes (postal codes coming soon). Here is some information as well as tips for choosing and submitting your 20 zip codes: Because the home buying public is more familiar with towns than zip codes, submitting a zip code you service will cause you to appear to service the town that the zip code corresponds to. So if you want to appear to service a certain town, submit the zip code from that town. If a visitor searches for an inspector in a town you service, you will appear. You can carve out your own market. This is useful if you own a franchise territory or want to work or not work in a particular neighborhood. So if you want to service a certain town, just submit the zip code from that town. It does not matter what your physical address is (where you sleep at night). The system only cares where you want and are willing to service. Each zip code covers an area with a radius of 20 miles (over 1200 square miles!). Properly spaced out, your 20 zip codes will cover thousands of square miles. Each zip code submitted carries nearby zip codes with it. So if you submit a zip code area with a center that is closer than 20 miles to the center of another zip code area, you will appear as servicing both towns that correspond to both zip codes. In other words you need not submit both zip codes if they are very near each other. If a town has more than one zip code you will only appear as servicing that town once, regardless of how many zip codes you submit from that town. So more than one zip code from the same named town need only be submitted once. This system is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/tipsforzips.htm
Cost: FREE
- Borrow a book from InterNACHI library. The Library is fairly simple. Visit the request form to make a selection. A list of available library selections are listed in the drop down menu titled "Lending Library Selections" in the request form. The request form will capture a valid credit card as a deposit on your selection to guarantee its return. More selections including videos and CDs are being added to the library. A new twist that we will be implementing soon is "Pay it forward.” If there is a waiting list for your selection, the first member that requests the selection will get forwarding labels to the next member and so on until it is returned to the library. The member will pay for the shipping to the next member or back to the library. This reduces the shipping costs of the library and reduce the waiting time for members. You only pay for shipping. The books and videos are free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/library.htm
Cost: FREE
- Enter InterNACHI's chat room. It's wild at times and free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/chatroom/
Cost: FREE
Make sure you are listed on InspectorLocator.com. InspectorLocator.com searches for inspectors based on what inspection services they offer such as: chimneys, commercial buildings, energy loss, IAC2 certified inspectors, lead paint, log homes, mold, new construction, pools and spas, pre-listing, radon, septic, stucco/EIFS, thermal imaging, water quality, W.E.T.T. and WDO/insects. Agents love InspectorLocator.com because they can find one inspector who does everything they need. There is no cost to be list your ancillary services on InspectorLocator.com
Site: http://www.inspectorlocator.com/
Cost: FREE
- Read about logo usage. Logo usage is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/logosealtaglineusagepolicy.htm
Cost: FREE
- Get a professional e-mail account. InterNACHI provides professional e-mail aliases to each of its members. These state-specific e-mail accounts give members a professional e-mail address to advertise. Rather than something like johninspector28674@aol.com, members can now use an address similar to jinspector@ny.nachi.org. The address automatically forwards to the e-mail address you've provided to InterNACHI. "We find that many members use their personal e-mail address for business," said Chris Morrell, Director of Information Technology at InterNACHI. "Though their address may be difficult to remember (and often look somewhat unprofessional), members don't want to check multiple mailboxes. By offering a professional address that points directly to our members' personal e-mail account, we provide a clean, marketable e-mail address without any additional hassle." Member's email addresses are their username@their state.nachi.org. For example: jinspector@ny.nachi.org. This system works now without having to do anything. InterNACHI members already have their username@their state.nachi.org emails set up and may begin using them. Emails are forwarded to the member's email account of record in their profile. Send yourself a test email and then begin using this valuable member service immediately!
Site: http://www.nachi.org/membersemail.htm
Cost: FREE
- Use the Commercial Inspection agreement between Inspector and Client. This agreement was designed to be used in all 50 states and all provinces of Canada. This agreement was designed to be used in conjunction with InterNACHI's Professional Services Contract between Inspector and Consultant which should be used when hiring a team to perform commercial inspections. This agreement is copyrighted and for InterNACHI member use only. Members can download it at no charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/comsop.htm
Cost: FREE
- Use the Professional Services contract between Inspector and Consultant. This contract was designed to be used in all 50 states and all provinces of Canada. This contract was designed to be used in conjunction with InterNACHI's Commercial Inspection Agreement between Inspector and Client which should be used when performing commercial inspections. This contract is suitable when hiring any outside consultant to help you with any type of inspection including ancillary inspections. Members can download it at no charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/professionalservicescontractintro.htm
Cost: FREE
- Try an inspector crossword puzzle. It's fun and free.
Site: http://crossword.info/nachi/InterNACHI_CROSSWORD_1
Cost: FREE
Upload your reports online for your clients to view and print. As the inspection industry moves toward doing more work for home sellers and as inspectors are seeking more ways to add value to their services without additional cost, a robust and unified upload and download system with multiple benefits has now been universally adopted. FetchReport.com has already procured agreements from nearly every inspection software company, report form vendor, and testing laboratory to become FetchReport Friendly over the next several months. Uploading reports to FetchReport.com offers a number of advantages to everyone. Advantages to the real estate agent: Real estate agents receive the inspection reports faster and can share them with repair contractors to get estimates faster, they can download, read and print the reports easily, they can provide potential buyers a link (from the pages on their website that promote a particular property) to access all the home's reports for seller inspection marketing purposes, they can become acquainted with an easy-to-use, unified system for all the home sales they are involved with regardless of which inspector they use, regardless of how each inspector generates the reports, regardless of what supporting documentation or laboratory reports are desired, and regardless of what type of inspections are performed and they can provide added value (in terms of third party discount coupons and gift certificates*) to their clients through reports uploaded to FetchReport.com. Advantages to the client: Clients can receive the inspection reports faster and can provide others with access, they can download, read and print the reports easily, sellers can provide potential buyers a link to access all the home's reports for seller inspection marketing purposes, potential buyers can access past inspection reports when considering whether or not to tour a home and clients enjoy added value (in terms of third party discount coupons and gift certificates*) found in reports uploaded to FetchReport.com. Advantages to the inspector: Inspectors can upload their reports easily, they can control who gets access to uploaded reports, they can upload the reports under one unified system regardless of what software or forms they used to generate the report, they can upload information from various types inspections, laboratory analysis reports, and supporting documentation using one unified system, they can provide added value (in terms of third party discount coupons and gift certificates*) to their inspection reports. FetchReport hopes to soon provide so much added value to uploaded reports that consumers (who have no need for an inspection otherwise) order one anyway, just to acquire the downloadable gift certificates and they can enjoy added marketing exposure to potential clients who view reports of inspections performed on homes they considered, but did not purchase. Three other uses for FetchReport that are developing: Use of the system by home insurance companies, use of the system for marketing foreclosed homes to online buyers. use of the system to move toward Pay-Per-View report downloading and use of the system by real estate companies to mass market listings. InterNACHI's free, online, signable electronic inspection agreement system is FetchReport Friendly and MoveInCertified.com uses FetchReprot technology exclusively. The entire system is totally free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/fetchreportfriendlyseal.htm
Cost: FREE
- Use InterNACHI's authorization to pay at closing. So you want to pay for the inspection at closing? If your client asks to pay you at closing, have them sign this. Then get it to the title or closing company along with a copy of your invoice. The authorization form is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/closing2007.htm
Cost: FREE
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Order professional brochures that you can customize. This is a brand new kind of brochure. We've hired professional designers and handled the high quality, full-color printing for you—all you have to do is customize them with your own inkjet or laser printer, fold them and hand them out. And because we are able to order in bulk for InterNACHI members, you save hundreds of dollars. Financing is free.
Site: http://www.InspectorBOOST.com
Cost: FREE
- Take the AutoCorrect tutorial for report writing in WORD. It is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/tutorials/tutorial.php?width=640&height=459&tutorial=autocor%20rect
Cost: FREE
- Order the "Electrical Inspection Checklist."
Site: http://www.nachi.org/tedescobook.htm
Cost: $15.
- Learn the difference between farther and further. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/fartherfurther.htm
Cost: FREE
- Install InterNACHI's Glossary on your website. Give your clients and your website visitors access to InterNACHI's online, searchable Glossary of inspection-related terms and improve your site's search engine optimization at the same time. Feel free to use the code to put the glossary search box on your site (it will open search results in a new window). You can put it on your website or give it away. It's all yours.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/glossarycode2007.htm
Cost: FREE
- Download a "Grounding and Bonding" PowerPoint presentation. Free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/groundingbonding2007.htm
Cost: FREE
- Use a hold harmless clause. InterNACHI members are often asked by real estate agents if they carry Error & Omissions insurance (E&O) and if that E&O insurance indemnifies real estate agents. If you do not have such insurance you should use a hold-harmless clause in your pre-inspection agreement (between you and your client). You should explain to all real estate agents that unlike indemnification insurance which only pays for the legal defense of a real estate agent who gets sued over one of your inspections, your hold-harmless clause is even better in that your client pre-agrees not to file suit against the agent at all. A real estate agent is just a sales person. Having your client agree not to hold a real estate agent responsible for anything related to your home inspection is proper. Many real estate agents are worried about negligent referral claims. Ease their worries by letting them know you use a hold-harmless clause which protects them. This is a great tool for breaking-into new real estate offices. It is somewhat difficult to explain to some real estate agents but many members have found success when they present it to the broker/owner directly. Believe it, a broker/owner will be all ears as you explain how using your services protects his/her agents. The hold harmless clause is built into the online, signable agreement system. Both are free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/harmless.htm
Cost: FREE
- Build a tamper-resistant radon cage. The use of tamper resistant techniques in real estate radon inspections is often required. Here's how to build an inexpensive cage that looks and works great. This cage does not rely on electricity or batteries.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/cage.htm
Cost: Under $100.
- Learn how to convert every call into a scheduled inspection. The home inspection business is different than nearly every other business in that you don’t meet your client until after they hire you. It is all marketing (getting your phone to ring) and almost no sales (converting a phone call into a scheduled inspection). The only time you get to sell yourself is when the phone rings. You’ve probably done a lot of marketing to get your phone to ring. Don’t have it all go to waste when the phone rings… convert every call into a scheduled inspection. Here are some tips to converting. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/convert.htm
Cost: FREE
- Learn how to turn a complaint into a marketing gain. Handling complaints is a part of any business. Three out of every 100 people are nuts and you can't change that. You cannot find every defect that exists or ever could exist in every home you inspect. Do not think backward, think forward. The real problem is not with the sink, it is with the damage a complaint can do to your company's reputation. Don't think plumbing, think marketing! Here's how. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/dear_nachi1.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order a copy of "Inspect and Protect." Inspect and Protect is now available. It was commissioned by Nick Gromicko to help the InterNACHI family of inspectors avoid litigation. The book includes dozens of articles that were published in various journals that warn inspectors about the threat that litigation poses to their livelihoods. If all litigation was fair and honest there would be no need for concern, but it is not, as this book documents with actual case histories. And, unfortunately, the threat is growing. If you haven’t been sued yet, or received a demand letter from an attorney, you may not realize how real the threat is, but these are the facts. About one third of all inspectors will be sued at some point in their careers, and this statistic does not include lawsuits tried in Small Claims Court and complaints and demand letters that are settled out of court. Include these, and the rate is closer to one-hundred percent, and that is an alarming statistic indeed. For this reason, no sensible inspector can afford to ignore the threat that litigation poses. However, Inspect and Protect is not a depressing account of lawsuits, but a careful explanation of ways in which to avoid them. The good news is that it takes very little effort for inspectors to protect themselves; it is simply a matter of understanding the threat, and then making a few fundamental changes in the way that they inspect and report on properties. The book retails for $39.95 but is discounted to InterNACHI members at $24.95.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/inspectandprotect.htm
Cost: $25.
Download a copy of "Inspect and Protect" PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Keith Swift, InterNACHI's Editor in Chief. Great for chapter meetings. Free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/inspectandprotectppt2007.htm
Cost: FREE
- Learn about a real estate agent's duty in choosing an inspector. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/agentduty.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order "Manual for a Happy Home." This book was commissioned by Nick Gromicko and written by InterNACHI's report-writing consultant, Dr. Keith Swift, the manual is both the perfect housewarming gift for clients and the perfect addendum to a professional report. It contains 81 pages of recommended maintenance, as well as 150 annotated colored photographs showing common household issues and components. It's not only a maintenance manual for homeowners but a reference guide that inspectors can refer to in their reports to avoid those annoying nuisance calls. It doesn't get any better than this.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/happyhome.htm
Cost: $5.
- Send a seller inspections letter to all your local sellers. Advantages to the seller: The seller can choose a certified InterNACHI inspector rather than be at the mercy of the buyer's choice of inspector. The seller can schedule the inspections at the seller's convenience. It might alert the seller of any items of immediate personal concern, such as radon gas or active termite infestation. The seller can assist the inspector during the inspection, something normally not done during a buyer's inspection. The seller can have the inspector correct any misstatements in the inspection report before it is generated. The report can help the seller realistically price the home if problems exist. The report can help the seller substantiate a higher asking price if problems don't exist or have been corrected. A seller inspection reveals problems ahead of time which might make the home show better, gives the seller time to make repairs and shop for competitive contractors, permits the seller to attach repair estimates or paid invoices to the inspection report and removes over-inflated buyer procured estimates from the negotiation table. The report might alert the seller to any immediate safety issues found, before agents and visitors tour the home. The report provides a third-party, unbiased opinion to offer to potential buyers. A seller inspection permits a clean home inspection report to be used as a marketing tool. A seller inspection is the ultimate gesture in forthrightness on the part of the seller. The report might relieve a prospective buyer's unfounded suspicions, before they walk away. A seller inspection lightens negotiations and 11th-hour renegotiations. The report might encourage the buyer to waive the inspection contingency. The deal is less likely to fall apart the way they often do when a buyer's inspection unexpectedly reveals a problem, last minute. The report provides full-disclosure protection from future legal claims. Use the free sample letter sellers.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/sellerinspections.htm
Cost: FREE
- Send a seller inspections letter to all your local real estate agents. Advantages to the real estate agent: Agents can recommend certified InterNACHI inspectors as opposed to being at the mercy of buyer's choices in inspectors. Sellers can schedule the inspections at seller's convenience with little effort on the part of agents. Sellers can assist inspectors during the inspections, something normally not done during buyer's inspections. Sellers can have inspectors correct any misstatements in the reports before they are generated. The reports help sellers see their homes through the eyes of a critical, third-party, thus making sellers more realistic about asking price. Agents are alerted to any immediate safety issues found, before other agents and potential buyers tour the home. Repairs made ahead of time might make homes show better. Reports hosted online entice potential buyers to tour the homes. The reports provide third-party, unbiased opinions to offer to potential buyers. Clean reports can be used as marketing tools to help sell the homes. The reports might relieve prospective buyer's unfounded suspicions, before they walk away. Seller inspections eliminate buyer's remorse that sometimes occurs just after an inspection. Seller inspections reduce the need for negotiations and 11th-hour renegotiations. Seller inspections relieve the agent of having to hurriedly procure repair estimates or schedule repairs. The reports might encourage buyers to waive their inspection contingencies. Deals are less likely to fall apart the way they often do when buyer's inspections unexpectedly reveal problems, last minute. Reports provide full-disclosure protection from future legal claims. Use the free sample letter to agents.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/sellerinspections.htm
Cost: FREE
- Download "10 Top Problems Found in Homes" PowerPoint presentation. It works and it is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/chicagorealtor.htm
Cost: FREE
- Download "How Sellers can Speed Up their Home Inspection." Sellers can speed their home inspection by following these suggestions. The inspection will go smoother, with fewer concerns to delay closing.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/tentips.htm
Cost: FREE
- Learn what to say when they complain about the inspection fee. It works! No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/picasso.htm
Cost: FREE
If you are a member, use your IAC2 logos.
Site: http://www.iac2.org/logo.php
Cost: FREE
- Order a PRO-LAB catalogue. It's free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/prolabcatalogue.htm
Cost: FREE
- Make sure your location is in our databases. InterNACHI maintains a database of nearly 1 million coordinates for locations all over North America. We use this data to provide accurate search results for consumers and agents. Though we are constantly updating this database to reflect new towns, zip codes and postal codes, you may occasionally find that a location is not in our database. If you have found a missing location, or simply want to verify that a location does exist in our database, please let us know using this system. If the location is not found, our system will automatically gather the data needed to create a new database record. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/location-verify.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order an LED microwave oven leak detector. Reuse these meters again and again. The LEDs light up! Great give-aways as they are inspection-related. Each comes in a bag that you can add your business cards to.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/microwaveovenleakdetectors2006.htm
Cost FREE
- Order an inspection newsletter. Free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/opt-in.htm
Cost: FREE
- Learn about incorporating. No charge.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/inc.htm
Cost: FREE
- Visit InterNACHI University. InterNACHI University includes online courses, exams, classroom education, videos, PowerPoint presentations mock inspections, hands-on training and more. Much of it is free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/education.htm
Cost: FREE
- Check out this seller inspection marketing idea that doesn't cost anything.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/syhfmidea2006.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order the IAC2 Mold Report Writer. Or just download the Report Writer demonstration at no cost.
Site: http://www.nachireports.com/mold_report_writer.shtml
Cost: $200.
- Try InterNACHIGauge for 30 days. Home inspection software especially for InterNACHI members.
Site: http://www.InterNACHIgauge.com
Cost: FREE
- Download InterNACHI banners. They are free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/banners.htm
Cost: FREE
- Download the Electrical Defects and Code Violations PowerPoint presentations. They are free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/joetedescoppt2007.htm
Cost: FREE
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Make sure your auto phone notification works in MoveInCertified.com. MoveInCertified homes have been pre-inspected by InterNACHI certified inspectors and the sellers confirm that there are no major systems in need of immediate repair or replacement and no known safety hazards. The inspection reports are hosted on FetchReport.com. The listing and the phone notification system are both free.
Site: http://www.moveincertified.com
Cost: FREE
- Get insurance inspection work with our approved 4-Point reporting form.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/4point.htm
Cost: FREE
- Be in your own commercial promoting your own inspection business. NACHI.TV produces and hosts these commercials online at no charge to InterNACHI members. Members can link to their custom commercials from their own websites and even email the link to potential clients and to local real estate agents. Production, publicity and promotion are all free.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/commercials.htm
Cost FREE
- Read the latest InterNACHI News. It's free.
Site: http://nlfiles.nachimail.org/vol14/vol14sept23_w.html
Cost: FREE
- Look for the Home Head Start Guide in your mailbox. With help from companies like Home Depot, Glad, DIRECTV, Bowflex, Vonage, Budget, ConnectUtilities, PODS, Domino's Pizza, Lamps Plus, Done Right, PRO-LAB, Mayflower, Best Buy, Brinks, Allied, Bank of America, and Clorox, InterNACHI has created the Home Head Start guide full of maintenance reminders, home improvement advice, advantages of having a seller inspection performed, home security tips, and a moving checklist. Each guide includes over $1,000.00 worth of gift certificates and savings coupons of interest to homebuyers and homesellers. Nearly 1 million have been shipped to consumers across the United States at no charge and more are being mailed every day.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/homeheadstartguide2007.htm
Cost: FREE
- Add the MoveInCertified report download box to your website. If you are using your own web site for MoveInCertified clients, you can use the following form to let your clients download MoveInCertified reports directly from your site. Simply copy the HTML code to a page on your site and you're set.
Site: http://www.moveincertified.com/sitewidget
FREE
- Make sure you are listed in the 430 million page North American Inspector Directory. This is the world's largest directory of anything anywhere.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/directories.htm
Cost: FREE
- Offer accessibility inspection services on existing commercial buildings. Download the free forms.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/accessibility.htm
Cost: FREE
- Download a standard mold inspection agreement template.
Site: http://www.iac2.org/agreement.php
Cost: FREE
- Order bundles of Real Property Times®.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/rpt07.htm
- Download a copy of InterNACHI's International Standards of Practice for Inspecting Commercial Property.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/comsop.htm
Cost: Royalty FREE
- Take the online Green Building Inspection course. Free and open to all.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/greenbuildingcoursereleased2007.htm
Cost: FREE
- Get Infrared Certified™
Site: http://www.nachi.org/ir.htm
Cost: FREE
- Read about how to make a better NACHI.TV commercial for your inspection business.
Site: http://www.nachi.tv/articles/on-camera-tips.html
Cost: FREE
- Learn how to inspect stairways.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/stairways.htm
Cost: FREE
- Use InterNACHI's infrared addendum.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/iraddendum.htm
Cost: FREE
- Check out the free General Liability insurance offer from FREA.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/freegl.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order this book which promotes InterNACHI members to real estate investors.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/armchair2008.htm
Cost: About $20.
- Offer Green Certification. The certification was created through the joint efforts of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, Inc. (InterNACHI), the International Association of Certified Indoor Air Consultants, Inc. (IAC2), and MoveInCertified.com. Move In Green is a designation for homes that use design features, technologies and products that: improve energy efficiency, reduce polution, provide healthier air, increase comfort, reduce water usage, preserve natural resources, increase durability, make a home quieter, reduce maintenance, lower monthly costs, and improve resale value. Move In Green homes are healthier, environmentally friendlier, and economically smarter than average homes.
Site: http://www.moveincertified.com/gogreen
Cost: FREE
- Send this article to local real estate agents. The article reminds agents that inspectors are their first line of defense. If the inspector gets sued, the agent will likely get sued too.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/agenthelp.htm
Cost: FREE
- Link to this free, online 20-question quiz for consumers to find out how green their home is. It encourages consumers to hire InterNACHI members to perform full environmental inspections.
Site: http://www.moveincertified.com/gogreen
Cost: FREE
- Take the online Plumbing Inspection course. The electrical course is 103 pages long and broken down into 15 chapters with hundreds of pictures. In keeping with InterNACHI's commitment to continuing education, this plumbing course is open and free to all members and can be taken again and again without limit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/plumbingcoursereleased2008.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take the online Log Home Inspection course. The log home course is 240 pages long and broken down into 13 chapters with hundreds of pictures. In keeping with InterNACHI's commitment to continuing education, this plumbing course is open and free to everyone, even non-members, and can be taken again and again without limit.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/loghomecoursereleased2008.htm
Cost: FREE
- Check out your free Accident/Death insurance policy with Travel Assistance. It all comes free with InterNACHI membership.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/accidentinsurance.htm
Cost: FREE
- Email blast this membership requirement comparison to the local real estate agents in your market.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/requirementcomparison.htm
Cost: FREE
- Read about the biggest inspector marketing plan ever undertaken... to promote you!
Site: http://www.nachi.org/boom.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order your free MoveInCertified.com signs.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/moveincertifiedsigns2008.htm
Cost: FREE
- Get paid for submitting your commercial inspection PICs.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/sendmepics.htm
Cost: FREE
- Watch advanced, online, video courses. State approved for continuing education purposes. Includes free, downloadable course material (yours to keep), final exams, printable certificates of completion.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/advancedcourses.htm
Cost: Inexpensive
- Order your free, 5-year, gold InterNACHI pins.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/5yearpin.htm
Cost: FREE
- Visit InterNACHI's House of Horrors.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/houseofhorrors.htm
Cost: FREE
- Order the Inspection Narrative Library.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/narratives.htm
Cost: $99
- Visit InterNACHI's "Green" section.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/green.htm
Cost: FREE
- Check out how Home Depot, Lowes, and Guardian promote InterNACHI members.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/homedepotlowesguardian2008.htm
Cost: FREE
- Offer warranties. Even if you're the best inspector in your state, you need to stand out. Mountain Warranty Corporation's limited home warranties can help you differentiate your business from the crowd.
Site: http://www.mountainwarranty.com
Cost: Very inexpensive.
- Take this short survey to help us develop more InterNACHI membership benefits.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/survey-2008-1.htm
Cost: FREE
- Watch this show and print off your card for free insurance.
Site: http://www.nachi.tv/episode38
Cost: FREE
- Download and print your IAC2 membership certificate.
Site: http://www.iac2.org/certificate.php
Cost: FREE
- Download and print your Infrared Certified certificate.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/ir-certificate.htm
Cost: FREE
- Check out InterNACHI's program to acquire the commercial inspection market for its members.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/cominspect.htm
Cost: FREE
- Read Attorney Mark Cohen's warning on marketing yourself as Code Certified.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/codecertifiedwarning.htm
Cost: FREE
- Download your free copy of Inspector's Quarterly.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/iqfall2008.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take InterNACHI's free, online Commercial Inspection Prerequisite course.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/commercialcourse.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take InterNACHI's free, online Inspecting Foundation Walls and Piers course.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/wallsandpierscoursereleased2008.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take InterNACHI's free, online Mold Inspecton course.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/moldcourse.htm
Cost: FREE
- Get listed for free and forever on Closing.com.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/closingdotcom2008
Cost: FREE
- Take InterNACHI's free, comprehensive, online Wood Destroying Organism Inspection course.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/wdocourse.htm
Cost: FREE
- Take InterNACHI's free, online 25 Standards Every Inspector Should Know course.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/25standardscourse.htm
Cost: FREE
- Offer indoor allergen testing with National Jewish Health.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/nationaljewishhealth2008.htm
Cost: Call.
- Boost your search engine optimization by contributing to this solely inspection-related blog.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/blog/2008/11/welcome-to-internachi-blog/
Cost: FREE.
- Offer a discount on PODS to your clients.
Site: http://www.pods.com/internachi.aspx
Cost: FREE
- Offer Commercial Green Features Inspections.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/comsop.htm#15
Cost: FREE
- Offer Commercial Fire Door Inspections.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/comsop.htm#16
Cost: FREE
Coming soon: InterNACHI is pleased to announce that it has begun building its new, international web site, InterNACHI.org which will be fully functional by 2009. The site will boast hundreds of "under-the-hood" changes such as more robust database and memory-based caching for faster page loads, a more advanced content management back-end for wider granular control over content, modified character encoding to support non ISO-8859-1 characters, and load-balanced servers to handle the expected growth over the next two years. These back-end changes are being set in place to not only handle large expected growth, but also pave the way for the advanced multimedia features of NACHI.TV and similar outside initiatives such as live voice-over-IP/screencasted education, FetchReport (already in use at nachi.org), and video-based online courses in multiple languages. Along with the major technical changes and upgrades will come a major information architecture overhaul and usability analysis. With such a giant site, it can often become difficult to find everything on InterNACHI.org (currently 215,000 pages). As the old data from is ported to the new system (which began July, '07) it will be evaluated, sorted and tagged for easier access. Although the site will be much larger in size, it will navigate like a much smaller site due to advanced taxonomy and layout techniques. Existing products slated for the new site, such as free report uploading and free electronic agreements have already been released as they were developed. New products, such as customized video commercials to promote member's own inspection businesses will also be launched separately and immediately so that members need not wait. Shortly after the launch of the new site, we will be releasing our remote mentoring and instruction service with live, web-based video using a helmet cam and wireless transmitter. A new tagline has been chosen as well, "Inspecting the world," and has been adopted at InterNACHI.org. InterNACHI.org has also changed its inspector search engine (located above the logo on InterNACHI.org) to InspectorNOW.com which is Canadian friendly (postal codes, provinces, kilometers) and has automated phone notification which already works in over 70 foreign countries. The new site will use the tradename InterNACHI to more closely reflect InterNACHI's current dominance of the North American continent and growing presence internationally. InterNACHI.org has already changed its logo and tagline to reflect this evolution toward international status. We have also obtained tradename protection for the term "InterNACHI." The new site's domain name will be InterNACHI.org. Although individual InterNACHI members, chapters, volunteers and vendors are not required to do anything or change anything ever, we nevertheless wanted to reveal our plans to go fully international and offer our new logo and tagline (below) which is available now to anyone who wants to use it. We do encourage everyone to switch to our new logo at their convenience. Inspectors everywhere can expect that the new InterNACHI.org will be nothing short of the 8th Wonder of the World.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/8th.htm
- Enjoy some inspection cartoon strips. Free and open to all.
Site: http://www.nachi.org/cartoons.htm
Cost: Free
- Join InterNACHI: https://www.nachi.org/applications/
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