More than 5 years in the making, qualified home inspectors are now eligible to apply for individual ShowingTime and SUPRA subscriptions through FMAAR.
For more than 5 years, Nordic Inspections has approached FMAAR about creating a path for qualified home inspectors to obtain professional property access. That opportunity has finally arrived.
Qualified home inspectors are now eligible to apply for an individual ShowingTime and SUPRA subscription through FMAAR. Access is not automatically provided to home inspectors. Each inspector must individually qualify, apply, subscribe, and maintain their own access.
To qualify, each home inspector subscriber is required to hold either a home inspector license or an NRPP radon testing certification. The individual subscription fee is the same as it is for a licensed Realtor.
For Realtors, the result is pretty simple – When an authorized home inspector is performing an inspection on an MLS listed property, you may no longer need to rearrange your schedule just to meet us at the property and open the door.
And that is only part of why we believe this is a positive change.
Why We Have Worked Toward This
Over the years, Realtors, sellers, and inspectors have found all sorts of ways to make property access work. Such as a Realtor might arrive before the inspection, open the door, and leave for another appointment.
A seller heading to work might leave the door unlocked so the inspector can get inside or share a garage, front door, or other personal access code.
Everyone involved was simply trying to make the scheduled inspection work, but those arrangements were not always ideal, and we believed there was a better way.
Allowing qualified home inspectors to apply for their own individual property access creates a process that can be more convenient for Realtors while also improving security and accountability for sellers.
Realtors will not need to drive across town simply to open a door when an appropriately qualified and authorized inspector can manage that responsibility and sellers will not need to sacrifice security simply with an open door or personal code because an inspector needs entry, as the inspector would be accountable for appropriately scheduling and managing their own access.
So, What Will Nordic Do Differently?
Nordic inspectors who have qualified, applied, and subscribed to the new access will begin taking responsibility for scheduling their own property access through ShowingTime.
When Nordic is performing an inspection, our team will generally submit our own ShowingTime request before sending our normal inspection confirmation to the buyer’s agent and buyer.
For a typical inspection, we plan to request access beginning 30 minutes before the scheduled inspection time. This gives our inspector a reasonable arrival window to access the property and begin preparing for the inspection.
You do not need to schedule a separate ShowingTime appointment simply to provide Nordic access. If you decide to attend the inspection, our inspector will already have arranged access to the property.
Our normal communication with the buyer’s agent and client will remain the same. This change is about taking more responsibility for our own property access, not reducing communication with the people involved in the transaction.
We also plan to use this access for approved radon equipment deployment and retrieval when appropriate. This should reduce situations where an agent needs to make an additional trip to a property simply so we can place or retrieve a radon monitor.
If more than one Nordic inspectors are assigned to the same inspection and either inspector may need to enter the property, we may request access for both.
Our goal is simple. When Nordic needs access to perform a scheduled service, we want to take responsibility for coordinating that access whenever possible instead of unnecessarily placing that responsibility on the Realtor.
What Does This Mean for Buyers?
For most buyers, very little will change.
We will continue encouraging buyers to participate in their inspection. We believe the end of the inspection is particularly valuable because it gives the inspector an opportunity to walk through the important findings, answer questions, and provide context before the client receives the final report.
Our standard request will be for buyers to arrive no sooner than approximately 1 hour before the anticipated completion of the inspection. We encourage buyers to coordinate their arrival with their Realtor so everyone knows when they plan to be at the property.
If a buyer would like to be present for the entire inspection, we will ask that their buyer’s agent be present with them.
There is an important reason for this.
Having professional access to a property also means accepting responsibility for that access. An inspector needs to be able to concentrate on the inspection while respecting the seller’s home and belongings.
Should a buyer arrive with several family members, friends, contractors, or other individuals and people begin moving throughout an occupied home, it becomes difficult for the inspector to both perform the inspection and reasonably monitor everyone who has entered the property.
We do not feel it is fair to the seller, or appropriate for us as the party responsible for access, to have several individuals moving throughout an occupied home without appropriate supervision.
We suggest that buyers coordinate with their Realtor to arrive toward the end of the inspection. This gives the inspector time to complete the detailed portion of the inspection while still giving the buyer meaningful time in the home for the final discussion, questions, and review of the significant findings.
There is always a learning curve
We have spent more than 5 years working toward this change, and we have also spent considerable time preparing for it internally.
Our team has been going through extensive training on the new process, including how appointments are scheduled, how individual inspector access works, how we handle multiple inspectors, radon appointments, scheduling conflicts, and changes in inspector assignments.
We want to get this right.
At the same time, no amount of internal training can anticipate every situation we will encounter once the process is being used every day.
This is new for us as inspectors, and having inspection companies independently scheduling their access will be new for many Realtors, sellers, and others involved in the transaction.
We expect a transition period, and we expect a few bumps along the way.
You might see a Nordic ShowingTime request you were not expecting. There might be an occasional scheduling overlap. An inspector assignment might change after access has already been approved. A seller might wonder why the inspector requested access 30 minutes before the scheduled inspection. And occasionally, we may simply get something wrong.
If that happens, we will work to correct it. What we ask for is a little patience and communication while everyone gets accustomed to the new process.
If something about a Nordic access request does not look right, please contact us. We would much rather have a quick conversation and straighten it out than have anyone make an assumption.
We also want your feedback. If something about the process creates an unnecessary headache for you, tell us. We want to know. The entire reason we advocated for this change was to make the inspection process easier and more professional, not more complicated.
One Important Limitation
Our new access does not mean Nordic can independently access every property we inspect.
Our ShowingTime and SUPRA access applies to properties listed through the MLS where that access is available.
For private sales and other properties outside of the applicable MLS access system, entry will still need to be coordinated with the Realtor, seller, or other appropriate party.
There may also be individual properties or circumstances where inspector access is unavailable or where the seller has established different access requirements.
In those situations, nothing really changes. We will communicate with the appropriate parties and coordinate a reasonable method of entry.
Where We Go From Here
Professional access comes with greater responsibility for inspectors.
If we are going to ask for the ability to independently access someone’s home, we need to treat that privilege accordingly.
Nordic intends to do that.
After more than 5 years of conversations and continued effort, we are grateful to FMAAR for creating this opportunity for qualified home inspectors.
We are also grateful to the Realtors who have supported the idea and helped us find ways to access properties over the years.
Now comes the part where we put the new process into practice. We expect to learn a few things along the way, and we appreciate your patience while we do.
Ultimately, we believe this will create a simpler, safer, and more efficient inspection process for Realtors, sellers, inspectors, and the clients we all serve.
Thank you for working with us as we take this next step.