AccuSpec vs. Big Franchises
Who makes the best hamburger? Is it one of the big franchises? Nope. In fact, the big franchises would probably finish near the back of the pack if you ranked all of the possible contenders. Hand-made from a backyard grill wins, followed by cooked-to-order Mom & Pop places, then higher-end specialty chains, and so on. They might beat out the convenience stores, but they usually lean on their fried chicken anyway. So how do big franchises sell so many burgers?
Because what they're really selling is not the food. Food is not what they're good at; selling is. They sell convenience, speed (not so much anymore), low cost (not so much anymore), familiarity, and image. They do it with prime locations, adequate products, and lots and lots of professional advertising. And they make it all work by dealing in great quantities, not great quality. Unfortunately, this is typical of most franchise businesses in general.
But you need a home inspection, not a burger. You'll spend 20-30 years working to pay for a house, not 20-30 minutes. Is an "adequate" inspection satisfactory to you? Wouldn't you prefer a top quality, hand-crafted "gourmet" inspection if you could get it just about as quickly, for nearly the same money, and at greater convenience? I think most people would, if they could see that was the case. So when you're done here, click over to "Why Use AccuSpec" and give me a chance to show you why I believe that is the case.
A few other notes on home inspection franchises:
If you go online and look at their franchise info, some of them spend half of the "training period" on business training....i.e. how to sell, of course, and how to maximize ones' per hour pay (see "Why Use AccuSpec" on that one too).
It seems as if every inspector is "certified" by some outfit or other, usually with "institute" or "national" in the name somewhere. As far as I know, they are virtually all just inspection training schools, and they only "certify" their own students/customers. In at least one case I know of, the franchise actually owns the "institute" that "certifies" their inspectors! I don't see that information in their brocures. I wonder how many of the new franchisees has ever failed to be "certified" after plunking down tens of thousands of dollars for a territory. A real certifying body offers examinations which any qualified person can take (like NEHA on radon).
They typically list a bunch of optional services or specialized inspections on their websites and in their brocheres, with a disclaimer about how one must "check locally" for availibility. If you did check, you would find most are not available locally, but boy it looks good on the brochure, eh? Everything I say I offer is available, here and now.
They just love bells and whistles. Splashy binders and brochures, calendars, inexpensive maintenance manuals, repair CDs', etc. If you want something on maintenance and repairs, you can pick from a lot of material yourself for not much money. Which would you rather have; more of that stuff, or more inspection (carbon monoxide testing, heat exchangers, outbuildings, etc.)?