Hey everyone,

This has been a subject over on the Home Inspector blogs that has created quite a controversy, and I was wondering how others in the profession feel about it. It is about the Home Inspection organizations such as NACHI, ASHI, NAHI, NSHI etc. and how important are they really to a potential buyer when it comes to choosing a Home Inspector? It has been my experience with my clients that they dont even know anything about these organizations and what, if anything it means to be a member of one of them.

I know that a lot of Real Estate agents, Brokers, Loan officers etc. will only recommend a Home Inspector if he/she is affiliated with a certain organization. But do you really know what you are getting when doing so? There are certain things that you as well as the potential buyer probably do not know about these organizations. For instance, in many states that require licensing (such as Indiana), in order for a Home Inspector to hold his/her license, they HAVE to belong to one of these organizations. So the Home Inspector picks one, sends them a check for 300.00 (annual dues) and is a member. There are some requirements for the Home Inspector in order to become a member other than sending in a check, but to be perfectly honest, the requirements are minimal at best. The argument is that the only thing these organizations really care about, is getting that annual check from the Inspector. Whether or not that is true or not, I will leave up to you. There are also other mis-conseptions about these organizations, such as the code of ethics and standards of practices put in place for Inspectors to abide by. What happens if the Inspectors do not abide by them? Does anything happen to them? The answer is NO. These organizations do not police or enforce any of the above mentioned. I can tell you this first hand, as I have tried on many occasions to alert them to other Inspectors who were not following certain codes of ethics. I was actually told by the president of one of the organizations, that they are not in business to police the Inspectors and have no way of enforcing their own rules for their members. I'll let you be the judge on that one.

So with all that being said, how do you truly know what you are getting? If you are just choosing or recommending an Inspector based on the affiliations he/she has, you could be in for a big surprise. Personally the only reason I belong to ANY Inspector organization is because the state of Indiana makes me belong to one in order to hold my license. If they didn't, I wouldn't belong to ANY of them. I believe the best organization for anyone in business to belong to, is the Better Business Bureau. Granted they have nothing to do with Home Inspections per-say, but they are a well known, trusted organization that has been around longer than any of these Inspector organizations (since 1912), and one that "real" people recognize and understand the importance of being a member of.