Your,home,inspection,and,the,f homerepair how to Your home inspection and the franchise home inspection opera

This year when you go up into the attic to get the Christmas decorations take a look around the attic to see if there is any frost on the roof ceiling or rafters. If there is then you have a moisture problem that should be taken care of. Moi Elegance and style are mostly the factors why timber flooring is well-liked to home builders. Aside from that, timber flooring is one of the most gorgeous and long-lasting flooring options that any homeowner could make. It's going to add val

12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;mso-para-margin-top:0cm;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}I had a prospective client call me the other day regarding ahome inspection in the Orillia area I serve. I quickly discovered that evenafter many years of doing this type of work some questions can still take me bysurprise. Her question to me was how was I better than a local nationalfranchise operator. Well I know about the 600 hours of home inspection specificeducation I have, and I know I have over 40 years in building construction andrenovation, but, I was unable to answer because I had no Idea what requirementsa franchise operator had to meet training wise to become a home Inspector. Idecided after I got off the phone to find out. I was in for a shock.               I beganas so many of us do nowadays by beginning a web search. Typing a request into asearch engine for   home inspectionfranchises I came up with several to choose from and so as to be fair I choseone from each of the first five pages to look at.  In no special order there was Lighthouse HomeInspections, Global Property Inspections™, Pillar to Post home Franchises andyour Home Inspector inspection, A Buyer's Choice Home Inspections,   and AmeriSpec of Canada. I went to theofficial home page for each and delved into the individual web sited to see ifI could find out how much home inspection specific training they offered andwhat, if any, outside training or experience they required for their homeinspectors.On Lighthouse home inspectionsfranchise page I find this statement. Lighthouse is looking for businessminded, focused and motivated people to join the team.  Though a background in the home industry ishelpful, it is not mandatory. Wow, no experience, background or outsidetraining necessary. Then I read on a little further to find “ Our fieldtraining includes several mock inspections and attendance at various homes, soyou will be experienced from the moment you start your business.  Then further into the site I find thisstatement: The Lighthouse Home inspection training courseprovides both in-class and extensive field training, including technical,customer service, sales, marketing and office management.  It would seemthat the franchise owners believe no experience, no outside training, and nobackground in building is necessary. It would also seem that they consider ”severalmock inspections and attendance at various homes”  to be “extensive field training”  Shocking, at least to me. I couldn’t believethat this attitude towards minimal training and experience would be sharedamong other franchise owners though so I went on with the search. The nextfranchise I looked at was GPI or Global Property Inspectors where I found thisstatement: “ Whether you have construction, marketing or salesexperience, or you’re just looking for something new in a stable, growingindustry, an GPI home inspection franchise is your best choice to benefit fromyour hard work and determination.” Once again there was no mention of outsidetraining or experience being necessary. They do say “After you’ve completed theGlobal Property Inspections Business and Inspection Training Academy, we willmatch you with an experienced professional in the field, giving you up to aweek to use the knowledge you’ve learned at the academy while performing realproperty inspections with another franchise owner. You’ll get hands-onexperience performing inspections in the real world.” “ Complete trainingpackage with more than 100 hours of education”Once again Wow.. 100 hours oftraining with a week in the field as part of that. Since some of the sixtyhours at the ‘training academy” are devoted to marketing and running abusiness, after all that is what a franchise offers a proven business systemthe franchisee has to learn, that does not leave much time for training on homeinspection for an inspector that may have no experience in the building or renovationfield at all. On to the next franchiser Pillarto Post home inspection.  They do say ontheir website ” Initial training is split between classroom sessions, homeworkassignments and hands-on inspections of off-site houses”  But, they do not specify on how  long those courses are or how involved theyare. Once again no mention of background, experience, or other training ismade.  There is though much mention ofthe fact they have marketing alliances with real estate and relocationsprofessionals. They state that they are “Approved supplier status with majorRealtors – Re/Max, Keller Williams, EXIT, Long & Foster and others” andthat “ By reinforcing the local level relationships between our franchisees andthe real estate and relocations professionals in their areas and by emphasizingPillar To Post's credibility to home buyers and sellers, corporate alliancesplay an important role in our franchisees' success.”   Now I did not say that, their Website does.Forming alliances with those types of businesses you have to wonder who theinspectors are working for. I cannot imagine a homeowner realistically hopingto obtain an impartial and unbiased home inspection from an inspection servicethat admits alliances with Realtors and relocators supply a large portion ofthe business. After all the home owner is only likely to use the service oncewhile if the inspectors keep the Realtors happy they will make manyrecommendations for them. Frankly I find a lack of credibility in these typesof alliances.Hoping to find something a little more positive the nextfranchise I looked into was A Buyer's Choice Home Inspections. Here is what Ifound on their website:  They offer theprospective inspector The boot camp. This is an intensive interactive course atour head office. Your professional trainers will guide you through alltechnical subjects pertaining to inspecting, including customer service, fieldtraining, marketing, business law, operations, staffing, and all relevantbusiness topics in order to successfully operate your business. It concludeswith participation of actual customer inspections and a test inspection,followed by graduation ceremonies and a certificate of completion. While here too there is no mention of any experience orbackground in building or renovations required and most of the subjects seem topertain to the business end rather than learning about the home and the systemswithin it, they do add, “you are then guided through our mentoring programwhich includes an ongoing weekly training call which continues for a minimum of6 months.”In effect a person with no background, no experience inbuilding or residential construction, after a short intensive course most ofwhich involves how to run the business, and while receiving a once a week callwith home office is now qualified to inspect your home. Oddly enough this franchise offers a “ master franchise”opportunity. Here you can buy the right to sell unit franchises and one masterfranchiser says “With the excellent support from the Head Office I have soldmore franchises in the first six months than I gave myself three years to sell.There are a lot of people who want to become business owners. Head Office showsyou how to sell them franchises. It has been that simple and straight forwardfor me." At this point I figured I had maybe just picked some poorexamples It just does not sound like training and educating people to properlyinspect and protect the home buyer is what is going on with these franchiseoperations.  I decided to take thefranchise from the top of the list on the front page, surely the top rankedsite / franchiser would be better.Up came Amerspec a quite large franchiser in the US andCanada.  I found this information on thewebsite. “The AmeriSpec Academy is a two-week intensive training course Duringweek two, you will focus on marketing and managing your business. The week issegmented into the three critical core competencies needed to operate thebusiness, AmeriSpec continually strives to understand how to market to both thereal estate professional and the end customer.” It would appear heretoo that one week is considered sufficient training and focus on structure andsystems in the home to begin performing home inspections with the followingweek devoted to learning how to run the business.Now I have to admit there probably many people with somebackground and experience in the home systems and structure buying intofranchises for the business expertise they offer. There is also no reason thatan inspector cannot continue his or her education, I know I do. However it istroubling to me that by buying into a franchise someone with little or nobackground and a one or two week training program can put up a recognized namebrand letting people believe they are getting an unbiased, educated, andexperienced home inspection. I now know what to tell a client when they ask howI am better than a national franchise operator.