Look Who’s Talking

 

You might be surprised by the telephone calls that come to the Communicator. While putting together the content for issue 45, the FBI, several Assistant U.S. Attorneys, one of the prosecutors involved in the case against the alleged perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, the director of developmental operations for the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM), and a good number of readers all called the Communicator. The conversations were as different as the entities they represented, but the overall message was the same; this spring and summer changes are afoot for home inspectors and appraisers.

 

In midsummer, the home inspection industry will turn its eyes to West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania where ASTM will re-convene its exploratory meeting regarding the adoption of nationwide home inspection standards. The response to the first meeting, held in Las Vegas in February and covered in “Nationwide Standards may Change the Future of Home Inspection” on page 48, was passionately divided. Associations, independent home inspectors, education providers, and franchise owners expressed their opinions in the initial Las Vegas meeting. Then, they called the Communicator and continued to express their opinions about whether or not the industry is ready for nationwide standards.

 

Having an educated opinion about the proposed standards is important; expressing an educated opinion about the proposed standards is necessary. While each home inspector has his or her reasons for belonging or not belonging to an association or trade organization, there aren’t any good reasons for not taking the time to investigate and understand how ASTM standards could change the way you run your business. The Communicator invites you to do a little research, and then let us know what you think about creating and adopting nationwide home inspection standards. While we love to talk to readers on the phone, written opinions are more valuable to the Communicator as a publication. Please email your opinions to editor@frea.com or send a letter to:

 

Communicator magazine

4907 Morena Boulevard, #1415

San Diego, CA 92117

 

We are no less interested in hearing from the appraisers who read our magazine, and issue 45 certainly gives appraisers plenty to have an opinion about. For “The Zaio Experiment” on page 36, we spent six months tracking the progress of appraisers who invested in Zaio, the highly-publicized nationwide appraisal venture. The company’s rapid growth and unparalleled ambition already have appraisers talking; we’d like to know what you think. Appraisers are also doing a lot of talking about fraud. In “FBI Links Fraudulent Appraisers to Terrorism and Organized Crime,” on page 24 we devote the third in our four part fraud series to the frighteningly sinister side of valuation fraud. Valuation fraud hits so close to home, that appraisers frequently contact the Communicator to tell us how fraud affects their businesses. We encourage you to continue sharing your stories with us.

 

 

Last but certainly not least, the Communicator wishes a very happy tenth anniversary to NDCdata.com, our sister company and the data provider for thousands of our readers. We celebrate the company’s success in our cover story, “The National Data Collective Continues to Evolve” on page 28.