Peter,
I think Jerry is right on. If you say it is not rocket science and only
requires "records or superficial evidence" then that is what will the clients
will think and that is what you will get. There are too many home inspectors,
unemployed architects and mortgage brokers who are passing the time as EPs.
What is needed is higher entrance barriers to raise the quality of the work
that is being done. There are firms out there that are nothing more than a bunch
of independent contractors who fill out a template and then attach 100 pages
of data base records to make the report look comprehensive.
I reviewed about 10,000 phase 1 reports in the past decade (which
I affectionately call the "Henny Youngman" era when banks were saying "take my
money") and you would not believe the characters that tried to pass themselves
off as EPs. So long as clients are willing to pay for those low-ball prices, we
will continue to commodity shops.
at least lawyers and engineers have exams they have to pass that require
minimal skills. The EPs have no such requirements.
worse, the site inspections and reports can be performed by
persons who are not EPs so long as they are "supervised" (usually remotely") by
an EP. The current system is a joke. Talented individuals at real
engineering firms cannot compete with the Phase 1 factories.
One of the reasons we had a sub-prime mortgage debacle was that anyone
could be a mortgage broker and we had lots of incompetent or unethical
persons conning unsophisticated borrowers to do loans they could not
afford. The EP world is fast descending to the depths of the mortgage business.
Larry