Around The CoRner

This month I celebrate 25 years since I reached full Member (now ACI) status in ASHI. And no, it doesn’t seem “just like yesterday,” it seems like forever ago. I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be working at a newspaper somewhere or at a television station as a reporter. People who knew me in my younger days ask me “What happened?” like I had some terribly disfiguring accident that prevented me from becoming what they thought (and I thought, too) was my destiny. Well, as with many others, I guess, the deviation from my birthright path began when I uttered the words “Will you marry me?”
I began my journey as a home inspector on August 13, 1989. My boss and instructor was also my new father-in-law (there’s your “Aha!” moment). I studied for months before moving back from Murfreesboro, TN, to Northern Virginia (a brief dalliance into the world of professional songwriting). My new boss would hand-write 50 to 100 questions on sheets of legal pads and mail them to me every week or two. I read Becker, I read Seaquist, I read everything I could get my hands on. He insisted, right off the bat, that I must join ASHI and work hard to reach full Member status as quickly as I could. He insisted I attend the local ASHI meetings, which were the MAC-ASHI meetings in Rockville, MD. I decided to take advantage of the wisdom at those meetings. Now, remember it was 1989. All the inspectors there were in their mid-40s on up. I was 27. I walked up to one of the “gods” in the room, a venerable inspector named Speed Williams. I introduced myself and asked him a home inspection–related question. To this day I can’t remember what the question was, but I remember his reply: “That’s the dumbest question I’ve ever heard.” I froze. It was a full-on, deer-in-the-head lights, pee-just-a-little moment. I wanted to turn my head to gauge how far I was from the door, but I couldn’t pull my eyes from his.
If it had stopped at that moment, I’d have probably never remembered the incident. But there was more. He then said the absolute worst thing he could have, and he said it right at my flushed, freckled face: “You’re not a home inspector, are you?” I was crushed. For years later, I would wonder what could have made anyone that angry. Today, after decades of dealing with agents, lawyers and builders, I fully understand. I didn’t let that incident stop me, though, and I am so thankful I didn’t. By the way, if you’re reading this, Mr. Williams, it’s OK, we’re cool. I continued attending chapter meetings, eventually taking part in forming a new chapter in Northern Virginia—NOVA ASHI. Next year, that chapter will celebrate 25 years. I credit much of my learning and growing as an inspector to being part of an ASHI chapter.
To give some perspective to those of you who are newer to this profession than I am, I remember the debates on the use of moisture meters during home inspections as being “beyond the scope” and a lawsuit waiting to happen. I remember having to find a pay phone when I got lost, the library of maps in the backseat and the carbon paper I used to create a copy of my handwritten report. We only had seminars and conferences when we wanted education for MRCs. No cell phones, no Internet, no GPS, no email…it was a simple life. In a very short amount of time, this profession has gone from the Victorian Age to the Space Age. No more will you find home inspectors who use nothing but a flashlight and a screwdriver. We now have thermal imaging cameras, all sorts of moisture meters, carbon monoxide detectors, combustible gas detectors, digital thermometers, laser measurers, receptacle testers that will measure more than you’ll ever need to measure and much more. We have freakin’ drones, for God’s sake! But now, instead of gathering together to learn and share, we spend our time in the “E”-world and not in “THE” world. We do all of our business via email or text messaging. We do our marketing on the web, Facebook and Twitter. We get our CE credits from this site or that site.
I pass along these thoughts along as someone who has seen the changes. You are depriving yourself if you are not participating in your local chapter or attending as many seminars as you can. You will become as two-dimensional as your website pages if all you do is melt into your desk chair at the computer or are permanently bent-necked over your phone. Go make friends, shake hands, share stories and ask questions. Help your chapter grow or help put together a local meeting group. Today we are losing human contact in so many parts of society. Let’s not lose it in ASHI.
~ Jim
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