If you aren't inspecting today... work on building your business.

More Than 200 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, and 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 work. 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 more than 1,000 free benefits.

Site: Join InterNACHI

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 who 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: Ancillary Inspection Services
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: Inspector phone notification services
Cost: FREE
Use the Inspection-Related Article Library for marketing purposes. It's very educational as well.
Site: Inspection-Related Article Library
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 contains 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: InterNACHI's Online Exam
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: IAC2 Membership

Cost: FREE
Take the online Safe 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 and open to all, and can be taken again and again, without limit.

Site: Safe Practices for the Home Inspector course
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, then make any changes you want, such as adding additional clauses (for example, InterNACHI's Hold-Harmless Clause), and 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 email notification when your client has signed the agreement.
      Other features include: 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 you can store past agreements online for you and your clients to view and print at any time.
      The online, electronic-signature agreement system is free.
Site: InterNACHI's online inspection agreement
Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's free online Radon Measurement Service Provider course.

Site: Radon Measurement Service Provider Course
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. This full-color, high-quality book adds value to your inspection report by properly explaining issues to your client so you don't have to. It also gives the client or real estate agent something to read while you are inspecting, and it provides supporting literature to any environmental inspections you are performing, such as mold or radon. As an extra advantage, it soft-sells un-ordered ancillary inspection services you might offer, such as mold or radon, while you perform the home inspection. Additionally, it reduces liability by eliminating future claims that you should have alerted your client to regarding environmental issues, even if you don't inspect for them. Finally, 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: Environmental Concerns Book
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 the 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: InspectorPages website
Cost: FREE
Order "Now That You've Had a Home Inspection" book. This book is designed to reduce inspector liability and get inspectors more work.
Site: Now That You've Had a Home Inspection...
Cost: $2.20
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: Structural Issues for Home Inspectors course
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 a photo of your booth after the event is over and return the displays to us.

Site:Inspector's trade show display
Cost: FREE
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: InterNACHI's real estate agent database
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: List your Inspection Company at CorrectInspect.com
Cost: FREE
Take the "Water Heater 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 and open to all, and can be taken again and again, without limit.

Site: Inspector's Water Discharge Piping mini-course

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: Inspector's certificates of completion
Cost: FREE
Order license plate covers for your inspection vehicle. No charge.

Site: Inspector's license plate covers

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 client's call-back number. The InterNACHI member is given several other options, as well. There are no phone toll charges, lead generation fees, or other charges for this service. It is a free InterNACHI member benefit.

Site: Inspector's "Call Me Now" Option

Cost: FREE
Enter your inspection website in InterNACHI's search engine optimizer. Most of your new customers don’t get to your website by typing in your URL address first. Instead, they use a search engine (such as Google) 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 website 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 websites 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-to-10 rated system that’s a rough indicator of how searchable (or "find-able") Google’s search engine considers your website. Very few websites reach the 8-10 range (MSN.com, one of the most popular sites on the ‘net, is only a 9). On August 22, 2006, for example, InterNACHI had a PageRank of 6, which is very good. Most small inspection websites 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 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 website is, it simply doesn’t reach a broad enough audience to compete with general-purpose sites like Amazon.com. Both Alexa and Google keep track of how many websites 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 website’s PageRank, Traffic Rank, and the number of page hits via 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 website to 900+ search engines. There is no charge for this service.
Site: InterNACHI's search engine optimizer
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: U.S. Chamber of Commerce membership

Cost: FREE
Take the online "Emergency Egress" mini-course. This course helps teach members how to recognize missing or obstructed 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: Inspector's Emergency Egress mini-course

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 multi-inspector firms' websites.

Site: Multi-inspector's tagline
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: Inspector-related images
Cost: FREE
Take the online "Photo Defect Recognition/Report Writing Tutorial." The purpose of this photo tutorial is to help you recognize the most 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 pictures 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: Inspector's Photo Defect Recognition/Report Writing Tutorial

Cost: FREE
Participate in the InterNACHI Wiki. It's like a Wikipedia for inspectors. No charge.

Site: Inspectors Wikipedia
Cost: FREE
Stop by your local store and make sure the manager is carrying PRO-LAB kits which promote InterNACHI members. More than 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, 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: PRO-LAB kits
Cost: FREE
Enter to win the 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: Inspector's Daily Door Prize
Cost: FREE
Learn when to use digits and hyphens in an inspection report.
Site: Digits and Hyphens in Inspection Reports
Cost: FREE
Start using a great tagline: "Anyone Else is Just Looking Around." InterNACHI members may use the Trademarked tagline at no charge.
Site: Inspector's tagline
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: 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: Inspector's Vermiculite Insulation mini-course

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: Inspector's Consumer verification seal

Cost: FREE
Use the Radon Inspection Agreement at no charge.
Site: Radon Inspection Agreement
Cost: FREE
Read about how to create a better brochure.
Site: Inspector's Brochure
Cost: FREE
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 email addresses with no limit. Some members already have over 15,000 email addresses entered into the system under their names. The system also permits members to delete individual addresses, delete all their addresses, or download their entire list of addresses into a Microsoft Excel-compatible "CSV" format, manipulate it, and re-upload it with the changes. The e-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 e-newsletter comes from the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI) but includes the name and contact information of the InterNACHI member who provided the agent's email 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 professionally 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: Home inspector's e-newsletter system

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 welcome to copy this book in its entirety, reprint it, distribute it, and put it on their websites without written permission from the author.

Site: Downloadable book link to Real Estate Agents
Cost: FREE
Visit the Inspector Mall online. More than 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: Inspector Mall

Cost: FREE
Order decals. They're screen-printed on 5-year vinyl. No charge.

Site: InterNACHI decals
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: InterNACHI chapter

Cost: FREE
Set up your own InterNACHI Chapter website to promote yourself 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 images 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: InterNACHI Chapter website

Cost: FREE
Place your next order from Staples online and get free shipping.

Site: Inspector's office supplies online

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 International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI).
      Course Fee: Mr. Gromicko and InterNACHI offer this course FREE to all InterNACHI members and InterNACHI chapters that procure CE approval from their local Board of REALTORs and/or real estate licensing board.
      This is an excellent course for an 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: What Every Real Estate Agent Needs to Know about Inspections course
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 used in the course, including diagrams, illustrations and photos,
      including photos 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:
            1. the course, quizzes and final exam incorporate built-in intelligence which identifies and
                 strengthens each student's unique subject weaknesses;
            2. not only is each question weighted with regard 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 penalized, 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 penalized 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 penalized, 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 his/her 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: Roofing for Inspectors course

Cost: FREE
Get this free 64-page book: International Standards of Practice for Inspecting Commercial Properties.
Site: Commercial SOP
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: Inspector's help line

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, one-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: OverSeeIt.com

Cost: FREE
Try the "Ultimate State / Municipality Exam Prep" course. A few states, and even some local municipalities, require you to pass a separate exam for licensing purposes. Typically, these government-adopted exams are fundamentally 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. It's 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 more than 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 often. The exam prep tool is free.

Site: InterNACHI's Exam prep tool

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: Inspector's name search tool

Cost: FREE
Make sure you are listed in FindAnInspector.us. It gets about 1.5 million hits by consumer and real estate agent per month.

Site: FindAnInspector.us
Cost: FREE
Use the Client Satisfaction Survey. InterNACHI's Customer Satisfaction Survey hits seven 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 handy document  to have to
        present to a complaining REALTOR, and can often end a legal action all by itself. It's the 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 ever will 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 an 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 responding: "I'm sorry, but my client has given me written instructions 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 four e-newsletters a year packed
        with helpful homeowner maintenance tips.   These newsletters are well received as they come
        from the International 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: Customer Satisfaction Survey
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: InterNACHI's Electrical course
Cost: FREE
Make sure you are listed in InspectorSEEK.com. InspectorSEEK.com gets over 1.8 million consumer hits a month.

Site: 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: Inspectors Certificate of membership
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: Inspector Radon testing waiver
Cost: FREE
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 to 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;

   •
abiding by the industry's toughest Code of Ethics;
   •
substantially following a Board-approved Standards of
      Practice, such as ASHI's, CalNACHI's, CREIA'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™. Its 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® are 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: Become a Certified Master Inspector
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: Inspector mold testing waiver

Cost: FREE
Use the Log Home Disclaimer. The Log Home Disclaimer is free.

Site: Inspector Log home disclaimer

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: Online Polybutylene Plumbing course

Cost: FREE
Attend an InterNACHI event. InterNACHI hosts over 400 inspection-related events a year. Many are free.

Site: InterNACHI events

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 affect 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 members' contact information is promoted on the Internet even if they don't have a website," says Nick 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," adds Gromicko.
   You can list your inspection company on all of them at no charge.

Site: Get Listed on InterNACHI's leading websites
Cost: FREE
Order a Tribble (microwave oven testers). They're simple to use. Put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, and if it comes out warm, the microwave oven works! They're reusable, over and over again. Use it till you forget it in the microwave at your last inspection. Tribbles are free. Get yours.

Site: Micro-testers
Cost: FREE
Order a tablecloth for your next event. There is no charge.

Site: InterNACHI tablecloths

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: InterNACHI tutorials

Cost: FREE
Visit the Citizen's Information Center where InterNACHI members can use inspection-related articles royalty-free. InterNACHI members may use the articles or parts of them and put their own names on them at no charge.
Site: Inspection related articles
Cost: FREE
Visit InterNACHI's Inspector Glossary. It's online, searchable and totally free.

Site: Inspector glossary

Cost: FREE
Download the real estate presentations. They are the best PowerPoint presentations in the inspection industry, and all free.

Site: Real Estate presentations

Cost: FREE
Check out InterNACHI's insurance discounts. InterNACHI members save thousands of dollars on GL, E&O, and other types of insurance.

Site: Inspector's insurance discounts

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 at no charge.

Site: Inspector websites of the week

Cost: FREE
Get up to 250 solid local inspection leads.
Site: Inspection leads
Cost: FREE
Check out the Inspection Graphics Library. Members are allowed to download high-resolution versions of each graphic for use in their brochures, reports and websites.
Site: Inspection Graphics Library
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: Inspector Articles
Cost: FREE
Order a photo I.D. card at no charge.
Site: Inspector photo I.D. card
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's free.

Site: Ethics obstacle course

Cost: FREE
Improve your website with these great logos, images, taglines and links.

Site: Inspector website extras
Cost: FREE
Get a state-specific logo. There is one for every state and they are all free.

Site: Inspectors state specific logo
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 safety seats for weekly rentals.

And, in support of the InterNACHI Foundation, Hertz is donating 2% to the InterNACHI Foundation. The discount card is free.

Site: Hertz discount card

Cost: FREE
Add this promise to your brochure and website. It works, and it's free.

Site: Inspector promise

Cost: FREE
Read about how to make your website better at no charge.

Site: Inspector website management tips
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: Avis discount card
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: InterNACHI's message board

Cost: FREE
Create custom binders. They work!

Site: Inspector's custom binders

Cost: $100/case.
Order free brochures. They work!

Site: Inspector's brochures

Cost: FREE
Use the Report Review Committee. InterNACHI's Report Review Committee reviews members' 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 four mock inspection reports to the Report Review Committee before performing any fee-paid inspections. A mock inspection is an inspection 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 an 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: Inspector's Report Review Committee
Cost: FREE
Watch a show on NACHI.TV. NACHI.TV is totally free.

Site: NACHI.TV
Cost: FREE
Try to answer the Question of the Day. It's fun, educational and free.

Site: Inspector's Question of the Day

Cost: FREE
Make sure your contact information is accurate 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: Inspector's member-controlled profile editor
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 -- that's over 1,200 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: Expand your market with FindanInspector.US
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 appears 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 all the time. 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 who requests the selection will get forwarding labels for 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 for the library, and reduces the waiting time for members. You pay only for shipping. The books and videos are free.

Site: InterNACHI Library
Cost: FREE
Enter InterNACHI's chat room. It's wild at times, and free.

Site: Inspector's chat room
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 list your ancillary services on InspectorLocator.com

Site: InspectorLocator.com

Cost: FREE
Read about logo usage. Logo usage is free.

Site: Inspector logo usage

Cost: FREE
Get a professional email account. InterNACHI provides professional email aliases to each of its members. These state-specific email accounts give members a professional email 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 email address you've provided to InterNACHI.
   "We find that many members use their personal email 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 email account, we provide a clean, marketable email address without any additional hassle."
   Members' 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: Inspector's e-mail aliases account
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: Commercial Inspection agreement

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: Inspector's Professional Services contract
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 for everyone.

   Advantages for 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 for 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 for 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 buying but did not purchase.
   Four 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 FetchReport technology exclusively. The entire system is totally free.

Site: FetchReport.com
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: Inspector's authorization to pay at closing
Cost: FREE
Take the AutoCorrect tutorial for report writing in MS Word. It's free.

Site: Inspector's AutoCorrect tutorial

Cost: FREE
Order the "Electrical Inspection Checklist."

Site: Electrical Inspection Checklist

Cost: $15.
Learn the difference between "farther" and "further." No charge.

Site: "Farther" versus "further"

Cost: FREE
Install InterNACHI's Inspection 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: Inspector's Glossary

Cost: FREE
Download a "Grounding and Bonding" PowerPoint presentation. Free.

Site: Inspector's Grounding and Bonding presentation

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 pays only 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 and appropriate. 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: Inspector's hold-harmless clause

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: Build an inspector's tamper-resistant radon cage

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: Converting calls into inspections

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: Turn complaints into marketing gains

Cost: FREE
Order a copy of "Inspect and Protect," 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 100%, 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: Inspect and Protect
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: Inspect and Protect PowerPoint presentation

Cost: FREE
Learn about a real estate agent's duty in choosing an inspector. No charge.

Site: Real Estate agent's choices on inspectors

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 items, as well as 150 annotated, full-color 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: Inspector's Manual for a Happy Home

Cost: $5.
Send a seller inspections letter to all your local sellers. There are numerous advantages for the seller using this letter. 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 negotiating 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 re-negotiations. 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 at the last minute. The report provides full-disclosure protection from future legal claims. Use the free sample letter sellers.

Site: Seller inspection's letter
Cost: FREE
Send a seller inspections letter to all your local real estate agents. There are several advantages for the real estate agent. Agents can recommend certified InterNACHI inspectors, as opposed to being at the mercy of buyer's choices of inspectors. Sellers can schedule the inspections at the 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 a 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 re-negotiations. 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 at the last minute. Reports provide full-disclosure protection from future legal claims. Use the free sample letter to agents.

Site: Seller Inspections Letter for Real Estate Agents

Cost: FREE
Download the "10 Top Problems Found in Homes" PowerPoint presentation. It works and it's free.

Site: Top 10 Problems Found in Homes presentation

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: How Sellers Can Speed Up Their Home Inspection

Cost: FREE
Learn what to say when clients complain about the inspection fee. It works! No charge.

Site: What to say to inspection fee complaints
Cost: FREE
If you are a member, use your IAC2 logos.

Site: Inspector IAC2 logos
Cost: FREE
Order a PRO-LAB catalogue. It's free.

Site: PRO-LAB catalogue

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 discovered 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: InterNACHI's inspector's location database

Cost: FREE
Order an LED microwave oven leak detector. Reuse these meters again and again. The LEDs light up! Great giveaways, as they are inspection-related. Each comes in a bag that you can add your business cards to.

Site: Inspector's LED microwave oven leak detector

Cost FREE
Order an inspection newsletter. Free.

Site: Inspection newsletter
Cost: FREE
Learn about incorporating. No charge.

Site: Inspection business ownership

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: InterNACHI University

Cost: FREE
Check out this seller inspection marketing idea that doesn't cost anything.

Site: Inspection marketing idea

Cost: FREE
Order the IAC2 Mold Report Writer. Or just download the Report Writer demonstration at no cost.

Site: Inspector's IAC2 Mold Report Writer
Cost: $200.
Try InterNACHIGauge for 30 days. This home inspection software is especially for InterNACHI members.

Site: Inspection software at InterNACHIGauge

Cost: FREE
Order free IAC2 inspection vehicle decals.
Site: IAC2 decals
Cost: FREE
Download the Electrical Defects and Code Violations PowerPoint presentations. They are free.

Site: Electrical Defects and Code Violations presentations

Cost: FREE
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: Inspector's auto-phone notification
Cost: FREE
Get insurance inspection work with our approved 4-Point Reporting Form.

Site: Inspector's Approved 4-point Reporting Form

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: NACHI.TV

Cost FREE
Add the MoveInCertified report download box to your website. If you are using your own website 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: Inspector's MoveInCertified reports download box
Cost: 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: Inspector's Directory

Cost: FREE
Offer accessibility inspection services on existing commercial buildings. Download the free forms.

Site: Accessibility Inspection Services forms
Cost: FREE
Download a standard mold inspection agreement template.

Site: Inspector's mold inspection agreement

Cost: FREE
Order bundles of Real Property Times®.

Site: Real Property Times
Download a copy of InterNACHI's International Standards of Practice for Inspecting Commercial Property.

Site: International Standards of Practice for Inspecting Commercial Property

Cost: Royalty-FREE
Take the online Green Building Inspection course. Free and open to all.

Site: Green Building Inspection course

Cost: FREE
Get Infrared Certified™

Site: Infrared Certified

Cost: FREE
Read about how to make a better NACHI.TV commercial for your inspection business.

Site: Inspector's commercial at NACHI.TV
Cost: FREE
Learn how to inspect stairways.

Site: Inspecting stairways

Cost: FREE
Use InterNACHI's infrared addendum.

Site: InterNACHI's infrared addendum

Cost: FREE
Check out the free General Liability insurance offer from FREA.

Site: Inspector's General Liability insurance

Cost: FREE
Order this book which promotes InterNACHI members to real estate investors.

Site: Inspector's promotion to investors

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 pollution;
   ● 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: Green Certification
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: Inspector's article to real estate agents
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: Consumers Green Home Quiz

Cost: FREE
Take the online Plumbing Inspection course. The 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: Plumbing Inspection course
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: Log Home Inspection course
Cost: FREE
Email-blast this membership requirement comparison to the local real estate agents in your market.

Site: InterNACHI membership requirement comparison
Cost: FREE
Read about the biggest inspector marketing plan ever undertaken... to promote you!

Site: Inspector Marketing Plan

Cost: FREE
Order your free MoveInCertified.com signs.

Site: Inspector's MoveInCertified.com signs

Cost: FREE
Get paid for submitting your commercial inspection PICs.

Site: Compensation for commercial inspection PICs
Cost: FREE
Watch advanced online video courses. They're state-approved for Continuing Education purposes. Includes free, downloadable course material (yours to keep), final exams, and printable Certificates of Completion.

Site: Inspector's online video courses
Cost: Inexpensive
Order your free, 5-year, gold InterNACHI pins.

Site: Inspector's 5-year pins

Cost: FREE
Visit InterNACHI's House of Horrors.

Site: InterNACHI's House of Horrors

Cost: FREE
Order the Inspection Narrative Library.

Site: Inspection Narrative Library

Cost: $99
Visit InterNACHI's "Green" section.

Site: InterNACHI's Green section

Cost: FREE
Check out how Home Depot, Lowes, and Guardian promote InterNACHI members.

Site: Inspector's promotions
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 distinguish your business from the rest of the crowd.

Site: Inspector's limited home warranties

Cost: Very inexpensive.
Take this short survey to help us develop more InterNACHI membership benefits.

Site: Inspector's Membership Benefits Survey

Cost: FREE
Download and print your IAC2 Membership Certificate.

Site: Inspector's IAC2 Membership Certificate

Cost: FREE
Download and print your Infrared Certified Certificate.

Site: Inspector's Infrared Certified Certificate
Cost: FREE
Check out InterNACHI's program to acquire the commercial inspection market for its members.

Site: InterNACHI's Commercial Inspection Market Program

Cost: FREE
Read Attorney Mark Cohen's warning on marketing yourself as Code-Certified.

Site: Inspector's Code-Certified warning

Cost: FREE
Download your free copy of Inspector's Quarterly.

Site: Inspector's Quarterly
Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's free, online Commercial Inspection Prerequisite course.

Site: Commercial Inspection Prerequisite course

Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's free, online Inspecting Foundation Walls and Piers course.

Site: Inspecting Foundation Walls and Piers course

Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's free, online Mold Inspection course.

Site: Mold Inspection course
Cost: FREE
Get listed for free and forever on Closing.com.

Site: Get listed on Closing.com

Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's free, comprehensive, online Wood-Destroying Organism Inspection course.

Site: Wood-Destroying Organism Inspection course
Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's free, online 25 Standards Every Inspector Should Know course.

Site: 25 Standards Every Inspector Should Know course

Cost: FREE
Offer indoor allergen testing with National Jewish Health.

Site: Indoor allergen testing
Cost: Call.
Boost your search engine optimization by contributing to this solely inspection-related blog.

Site: Inspector's blog
Cost: FREE
Offer a discount on PODS to your clients.

Site: Inspector's discount on PODS
Cost: FREE
Offer Commercial Green Features Inspections.

Site: Commercial Green Features Inspections
Cost: FREE
Offer Commercial Fire Door Inspections.

Site: Commercial Fire Door Inspections

Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's free, online Moisture Intrusion Inspection course.

Site: Moisture Intrusion Inspection course
Cost: FREE
Offer Phase I Fireplace and Chimney Inspections.

Site: Phase I Fireplace and Chimney Inspections

Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's one-day, hands-on, Commercial Fire Door Inspection course.

Site: Commercial Fire Door Inspection course
Cost: FREE
Download InterNACHI's Well Water Sampling Agreement.

Site: Well Water Sampling Agreement
Cost: FREE
Offer Radon Mitigation System Inspections.
Site: Radon Mitigation System Inspections
Cost: FREE
Request a custom graphic.

Site: Inspector's custom graphic
Cost: FREE
Hiring an assistant inspector? Use this employment agreement with non-compete clause.

Site: Inspector's employment agreement
Cost: FREE
Retaining an assistant inspector? Use this independent contractor agreement.

Site: Inspector's independent contractor agreement
Cost: FREE
Is your client an LLC or corporation? Use this personal guarantee.

Site: Inspector's guarantee
Cost: FREE
Earn an extra $150 per inspection with Guardian.

Site: Earn extra on your inspection
Cost: FREE
Take the free, online Introduction to InterNACHI's Residential Standards of Practice course.
Site: Residential Standards of Practice course
Cost: FREE
Download InterNACHI's Release and Hold Harmless Agreement (for turning on utilities).
Site: Release and Hold Harmless Agreement
Cost: FREE
Download InterNACHI's Winterization/De-Winterization Agreement.
Site: Winterization/De-Winterization Services Agreement
Cost: FREE
Visit the Image Library of Major Pests in America.
Site: Image Library of Major Pests
Cost: FREE
Visit InspectorOutlet.com for the best deals on everything inspection-related.
Site: InspectorOutlet.com
Cost: FREE
Get your client a $125 VISA gift card with DIRECTV.
Site: DIRECTV
Cost: FREE
Simple steps you can take to avoid litigation.
Site: Avoid Litigation
Cost: FREE
Visit the library of inspector articles.
Site: Inspection Articles
Cost: FREE
Get a free book display. Get paid for marketing yourself and your inspection business.
Site: Inspector Book Displays
Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's free, online Deck Inspections course.
Site: Deck Inspections course
Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's free, online "How to Inspect the Exterior" course.
Site: How to Inspect the Exterior course
Cost: FREE
Use InterNACHI's free, online First-Time Home Buyer-Friendly web seal.
Site: First-Time Home Buyer-Friendly web seal
Cost: FREE
Improve your bottom line with InterNACHI's free, online Net Profit Optimizer.
Site: Net Profit Optimizer for inspectors
Cost: FREE
Take InterNACHI's free, online "How to Inspect HVAC Systems" course.
Site: How to Inspect HVAC Systems
Cost: FREE
Give your inspection clients a free $200 VISA gift card.
Site: Free $200 VISA gift card.
Cost: FREE
Take IntNACHI's free, online "How to Perform Wind Mitigation Inspections" course.
Site: How to Perform Wind Mitigation Inspections
Cost: FREE
InterNACHI is pleased to announce that it has launched its international website, NACHI.org.
     The site boasts hundreds of "under-the-hood" improvements, 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 several years.
     These back-end changes are being set in place to handle not only the large expected growth, but also to 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 235,000 pages). As the old data is ported to the new system (which began July 2007), it is continually evaluated, sorted and tagged for easier access.   Although the site is much larger in size, it navigates like a much smaller site due to advanced taxonomy and layout. Existing products, 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 members' own inspection businesses, have been launched separately and immediately so that members need not wait.
     A new tagline has been chosen, as well: "Inspecting the World," which 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.
      Inspectors everywhere can expect that the new InterNACHI.org will be nothing short of the 8th Wonder of the World.
Site: InterNACHI logo
Enjoy some inspection cartoon strips. Free and open to all.

Site: Inspection cartoon strips

Cost: Free
Join InterNACHI: Join InterNACHI You'll be so glad that you did!

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