Hey Russel,

No one is "going after someone else's profession" by supporting a home inspector licensing law.

The Tennessee Real Estate Commission's stated mission is to protect Tennessee consumers, not exist for the benefit of real estate licensees.

http://www.state.tn.us/commerce/boards/trec/whatwedo.html

"The mission of the Tennessee Real Estate Commission is to protect the public through establishment and administration of minimum requirements for candidates and licensees, effective professional education of licensees and enforcement of professional conduct."

I'm not sure which Agency will be regulating Tennessee home inspectors but their mission statement shold be very similiar to the above.

Paul's post talked about CAR.

I think there would be a big difference between a "Real Estate Commission" and a state "Association of Realtors."

One, the real estate commission, exists for the purpose quoted. The other, the association of Realtors, exists for Realtors.

The association of Realtors, in my opinion, should not be instituting legislation regulating someone else's profession, such as home inspectors.

The real estate commission, I believe, could and should institute legislation regulating any profession having anything to do with real estate, including home inspectors, Realtors, plumbers, electricians, roofing contractors, and others, when necessary and in the public's interest.

Russel,
It sounds to me that is is you that has a problem with getting the California Association of Realtors involved in calling for home inspectors to be licensed.

CAR has the political machine in place to get it sponsored.

In my opinion sponsoring such a bill is in the consumers best interest and just another way that we Realtors are helping to look out for our clients best interests because it is our clients that pay the price for an unqualified inspector.

And before you get that itchy edit finger going this is not an attack on the home inspection industry but a statement on unqualified people calling themselves home inspectors.

CAR has the politial machine in place to get a lot of things done. However, they focus on their clientele, which is Realtors. They don't sponsor legislation trying to legislate someone else's profession, and I agree with that.

If the legislation is there, and they have an opinion, they can voice it, as can anyone about any legislation that is there.

Sponsoring legislation is a different matter altogether, at least in our state. We tend to try to play nicely with each other rather than one trying to regulate or license the other.

So what would be your solution to having some sort of mandatory standards of competency for home inspectors AND more importantly, some enforcement mechanism to make it work???

Hey, Jim.

As I said previously, I like the Massachusetts legislation relative to the Realtor/Home Inspector relationship. Too often throughout the nation (just read some home inspector web sites--inspectionnews.com and nachi.org, just to name a couple), Realtors are more interested in their commission paycheck than dealing with the issues that a home inspector has identified. I personally think it is a conflict of interest for a Realtor, who is getting paid by the seller, to be referring a home inspector. Logic there dictates that the Realtor will choose the home inspector who misses things, doesn't note certain things, or downplays things.

Now you and I both know that there are many, many good Realtors who want only the best for their Clients, regardless of whether they are the listing agent or the buyer's agent. And if you read my posts throughout the various Internet sites, you'll see that I often come to the defense of Realtors; maybe that's because I sat on that fence for six years one time, I don't know. But I'm an optimist. I look for the best and expect the best, and when it doesn't happen, then and only then will I resort to government action.

I had a Client a couple of years ago who called complaining about the $85 service charge and $14.99 that the HVAC tech charged her for an air filter. I noted in my report that the filter needed cleaning or replacement. In talking with her, she said that her Realtor had said not to worry about reading the report because Mrs. Realtor would take care of everything. Well what does "take care of everything" mean? So I suggested that my Client call Mrs. Realtor since she volunteered to take care of everything. In following up later, it seems that Mrs. Realtor didn't want to deal with "too many small issues," so Mrs. Realtor ignored them. Prior to that callback, Mrs. Realtor had been using me regularly to the tune of about an inspection a week, most of them 900 SF condos. Well, the Realtor made a commission of $12,000 on that $400,000 condo. I made $199. Haven't heard from her in two years now. Hmmmmmm. And there are too many horror stories like that in the home inspection industry concerning Realtors. Realtors have their horror stories about home inspectors, but it does work both ways. So in that respect, I would have to submit that licensing, testing, and regulation in order to become a Realtor didn't work in that case.

CREIA does a creditable job here in California in helping create standards for home inspectors. CREIA is specifically referenced in our Business and Professions Code, so basically any home inspector who works in this state, if he follows the law, basically must follow CREIA Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics.

Both CREIA and CAR are very powerful here. They support each other when necessary. Sometimes they also are on opposite sides of the fence. But I don't believe either of them would sponsor legislation trying to license or otherwise regulate the other's industry.

If there is going to be licensing, and I believe even California eventually will have it, then I believe the government should license it, regulate it, etc., and not a specific trade or business association.

Plumbers are not licensed or regulated by the Plumbers' Union. Ditto for electricians. Ditto for Realtors. Etc. Therefore, I believe it should be the same for home inspectors. The state and a specific state licensing/regulating body/committee should do the licensing, regulating, and enforcement.

Passing licensing/regulation and then letting the home inspectors and/or their trade associations do the enforcement would not seem to make sense since those same home inspectors and/or their trade associations probably failed to begin with, which is why someone resorted to licensing and legislation.

I like the TREC's licensing/regulating/enforcing procedures in Texas. I think that was a very good law that they passed down there.

On the other hand, I believe there is one state where the state Association of Realtors regulates home inspectors. Huh? Definitely cannot agree with that. That's like attorneys regulating doctors because attorneys are involved in so many malpractice lawsuits involving doctors. Doesn't make sense to me.

That's the way the new Tennessee law will work; it will be administered by the state.

Associations of Realtors, whether they be state, local, or national have no regulatory authority over any other profession and frankly, not much over their own.

Real estate licenses are issued and regulated in most states by a state real estate commission or licensing board.

What state is that where the Realtors regulate home inspectors???

I'm thinking it was a Southern state. I don't remember, but I believe I can find out within the day. I'll be back. . . .

Here's an example of a thread on a fully public home inspector web site that, while it has some useful information, a lot of it should be reserved for a private home inspector trade association web site.

Some of the talk does absolutely nothing to create a healthy relationship between Realtors and home inspectors and seems to seek to create problems rather than solve them.

http://inspectionnews.com/ubb/Forum14/HTML/000500.html

One person says something to the effect that "since Realtors are always late." Perhaps, "If the Realtor is late for whatever reason, I can always get started. . . ."

Considering the traffic that we put up with in San Diego, I rarely am late, and Realtors rarely are late.

At our early morning inspection yesterday, we were told that we would be inspecting a 1,600 SF house. Nope. It was a 1,600 SF duplex, and the public records that I pull from RealQuest before every inspection was no help. So with two kitchens, four bathrooms, two water heaters, two furnaces, two compressors, and two garages, I knew we were going to be late for our 11:30 inspection since I had only sent two inspectors instead of three. So I called the 11:30 Realtor and postponed that inspection by an hour. She was very appreciative of my call (rather than just showing up late) and very easy to work with, very professional. Fortunately, most of the Realtors I work with are like that. Professionalism requires positive communication. Some of it, I suspect, has a lot to do with my Southern attitude about things and my former experience as a Realtor, knowing what many Realtors go through in their own profession.

And how is this relevant to this thread?

Well, if Realtor associations are trying to license home inspectors, it does show some of the animosity between the two groups, as well as some of the professionalism that exists between the two groups.

In Texas, it seems the TREC is overloaded with Realtors. So Realtors have almost a supermajority say in licensing, regulating, and enforcing the regulations on home inspectors there. That I disagree with. The standards themselves in Texas are great. Enforcement by appropriate individuals acting as a commission might leave a little to be desired.

Realtor Associations can't license anyone, not even themselves.

Association of Realtors are trade associations that theoretically exist for the benefit of their dues paying membership.

The Tennessee Association of Realtors (TAR) is in full support of the General Assembly and their bill to regulate and license home inspectors. Our General Assembly passes laws; not TAR.

In Tennessee real estate licenses are issued by the state's real estate commission.

There are several real estate licensees that are also Realtors in addition to being members of the Tennessee Real Estate Commission. TREC commissioners are appointed by the governor. It goes without saying there may be some politics involved in these appointments.

One would think at least a superficial knowledge of the subject would be necessary in order to be an an effective commissioner.

Home Inspector licenses will be issued by whatever the state decides will regulate home inspectors.

There may be some animosity between TAR and some Tennessee home inspectors. There also seems to be some animosity among various home inspectors and different home inspector groups.

Everyone not being in agreement on all things is what makes the world go around.

Russel you are missing the key point as usual.

It is the individual state that does the licensing and whatever state agency is decided on will administer and enforce the licensing provisions.

Realtor organizations are simply trade organizations and have no standing with the state to enforce licensing.

Animosity between Realtors and Home Inspectors is not relevant to the fact that Home Inspectors should be licensed, regulated and admininstered by a state agency.

I have checked out several of the Inspector Forums and the common thread to animosity between the two groups seems to be that we make more than the home inspector so how dare we expect anything from the inspector.

Since Realtors are regulated by the state and our associations a complaint can be filed against us and should the complaint be proved then action is taken against us. Nothing can be done about an unlicensed inspector except not to use them again or possibly file a lawsuit. So get over this animosity hangup because it is not the realtors that will be licensing the inspectors.

Good, because there is too much animosity between the two groups already.

That's why CAR would not sponsor home inspector licensing in our state. CAR lets CREIA sponsor home inspector legislation, and CREIA lets CAR sponsor Realtor legislation. Then, once the legislation is open for discussion, both groups will voice their opinions as they see fit.

That's the point that Paul seems to have missed in my discussion of the animosity between Realtors and home inspectors. CAR sponsoring home inspector legislation would do nothing but increase the hostility between the two groups, and the same would be true if CREIA sponsored Realtor legislation.

STILL missing the point Russel.

CREIA will not call for licensing since it feels it can police its own which even you admit is not a good idea since it is a voluntary organization.
The animosity is due to what we make compared to the inspectors. They chose their profession so get over it.

AGAIN CREIA would not call for realtor regualtion BECASUE WE ARE ALREADY REGULATED BY THE STATES not because of any lame reason as sticking to their own profession. Realtors have no problems with competant inspectors it is the incompetant ones that licensing and requlation would help to weed out that we have our problems with.

Your own fellow inspector Kevin even stated that there is no downside to licensing and regulation so why do you keep trying to sidestep the real issue of should inspectors be licensed and regulated by the states.

What home inspectors do is just a little piece of the big puzzle we put together everyday for a sucessful real estate transaction.