PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

(Transcript is AI generated and innacuracies may exist – please refer to the full recording) 

Ian (00:02.686)
Welcome back everyone to Inspector Toolbelt Talk. And I’m gonna call this episode, I’m gonna preemptively call it, the conversation that got away from me. Because we have the infamous Nick Grimico and Nathan Thornberry on today. Yep, this is being recorded and released fairly quickly because there’s been a lot going on. We’ve had report hosts going after Spectora for a while. And then just yesterday, the message boards and Facebook and everywhere else blew up.

with a whole bunch of stuff. And correct me if I’m wrong, guys. And I’ll let you swing here. Basically, it comes down to report hosts as they own comments that are used in Spectora reports. So Spectora is settled, and they’re going to have people change their templates. But then they’re also going to erase inspection reports. In some cases, thousands of them.

that have used those comments that report host says that they own. Is that correct?

Nathan.tv (01:05.932)
I’m not sure you’re 100% accurate there. You’re not far off. I’ve heard from users that got in touch with the folks at Spectora and asked directly on that question that they weren’t deleting. They were eliminating access, online access to historical reports and that any reports needed in the future for whatever reason could be requested by the client from Spectora or by…

by you the user from Subject to Torah. But otherwise, you got it all correct. Pretty much, I think. I think that’s a good summary.

Ian (01:41.65)
Yeah, it’s a big issue with a little one sentence or two sentence summary that I did there.

Nick (01:46.442)
Oh, we already got a reply. They’re already on it. We have a libel suit because they are saying with this, with their actions that Canton and me and my brother and InterNACHI stole their stuff. Said it to the wrong people. They said it to the entire inspection industry. So we got libel suit now. I told you the attorney can figure out anything like in seconds.

Ian (02:01.671)
Okay.

Ian (02:07.05)
So.

Nathan.tv (02:10.731)
Well, I don’t think that’s right, Nick. I don’t think that’s somebody conjuring a legal position. I think it’s a great legal position and also an obvious one. And I think that the users of Spectora, as much as Spectora might get in the mix here, because they were the ones that agreed to a settlement statement, I think everybody needs to be looking here at report host or report host as I call them.

Ian (02:10.858)
So that’s your attorney?

Ian (02:36.15)
Hehehehe

Nathan.tv (02:38.484)
You know, why exactly do you make settlements that you know harm the end user or the inspectors? Like, why would you even agree to that? That doesn’t make any sense to me.

Nick (02:47.314)
I can answer without using the cuss word that we’re not supposed to use. They’re weak. You know what I mean? Spectora, bunch of weaklings. Somebody tells me delete a bunch of, you know, international member stuff immediately. I’m going to tell them to go, you know what. By the way, I’m going to learn from Nathan. Look at Nathan. He’s got a…

Ian (02:58.975)
Who’s weak?

Nathan.tv (03:11.732)
Yeah, but that’s because you have the money to fight it, Nick. That’s not fair. You know, we both know.

Nick (03:21.382)
Spector doesn’t? So they’re.

Nathan.tv (03:23.164)
99.99% of business owners and even the higher percentage of that of people cannot afford to fight these fights.

Nick (03:29.486)
Nathan, you know, I always look I always learn a lot from you and look at you. You quickly put your Domain name behind you while I all I have behind me is the laundry in my garage where I wash The rags that I clean my car with

Nathan.tv (03:45.12)
Well, that’s also a form of marketing.

Nick (03:47.435)
We are not on the same level. I aspire to act as quickly as you. We think similarly, you’re just always a little bit ahead of me. Look at that.

Nathan.tv (03:53.222)
Oh, you’re too kind.

Nathan.tv (03:59.465)
Well, I mean, look, I think clearly…

Nick (04:01.769)
I’m promoting all sorts of dryers. You’re promoting a show.

Nathan.tv (04:05.824)
I just have sympathy for Spectora. I mean, I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending things where I was blatantly right. And not everybody has the luxury of being able to do that. I’m not saying that it wasn’t a well-earned luxury, but still it’s just, it’s not for the common man.

Nick (04:08.758)
or don’t.

Nick (04:23.042)
Okay, let’s go. Let’s go the other way. What do you think this costs them? You know, it’s always thought it’s always easy to look at things out of pocket What are your costs out of pocket and defending something right? You got a lawyer business stuff But what do you think it cost them to take to take customers piss them all off delete reports, you know libel Kenton Shepherd libel internachi get me all fired up have a bunch of bad press and then open Basically reveal the mystery to the world

That you’re just a little you know what sitting there and we’ll do whatever anybody says if they send you a nasty letter from an attorney I mean, what does that cost?

Nathan.tv (05:01.349)
No, I think there was a balancing act here though, Nick, and the balancing act was the human need to survive. If they go through an expensive lawsuit and are found liable for damages in the short term, they lose everything. So it’s a binary where it’s zero now going down this path if they don’t have the money to fight it, or they think that there’s a potential for a downside, which there always is, there’s no guarantees. And so they…

They decided to play the long-term play and say, well, we know that there’s all these consequences, but we’ll figure out a way to make up for it. And they were given a giant gift by you and I noticing and pointing largely to the guilty party. So I don’t know, I think that they just went with the survival mode and basically they were in the movie of Saw. How old is your daughter by the way, Ian? I want…

Ian (05:53.95)
Mine? She’s 13.

Nathan.tv (05:55.724)
She’s 13. All right. Has she seen a song movie? Does she watch horror flicks?

Ian (05:58.858)
No, no, I don’t even I’m a weakling when it comes to that stuff. I don’t

Nathan.tv (06:02.388)
Well, then I’ll make a minor, minor allusion to the Saw series and say that Spectora chose to live and not to die.

Nick (06:13.398)
Well, maybe Spectora should hire your 13 year old daughter to handle their legal strategies. You know what? Maybe not because she’s 13, she’s too old. It’d been great job for her at age 11. Because it’s like they’re acting like an 11 year old girls over there.

Nathan.tv (06:30.816)
Maybe so. I think there’s a dual party case to be had with largely the target on report hosts, but you have to connect them and establish standing. So Spectora ends up getting wrapped into it. And maybe their chess geniuses and saw this move potential where multiple inspectors would cancel the settlement.

they didn’t have the standing to sign it. And their attorney said, hey, sign this anyway, make one of your competitors even more hated than you’re gonna be.

Nick (07:06.846)
Not everyone has your not everyone has your brain just like not everyone not everyone has my money Maybe maybe the two of us ought to step in and handle everything

Nathan.tv (07:10.027)
Yeah.

Nathan.tv (07:14.15)
Well, I-

Nathan.tv (07:18.452)
Well, and also they have a big problem. Spectora has not been quiet about their business acumen. They’ve often particularly growing in mostly in the realm of these coaching and consulting groups that tend to have the larger multi inspector firms in the industry and talked on a business level. They’ve been pretty open and honest and transparent to their credit about their intention to eventually have something we’re selling, which is fine.

But if you destroy the thing now, they might think that there’s a much bigger number that they were negotiating on, Nick. And who knows whether report hosts, attorneys who apparently are good at getting money out of people saw that potential and were leveraging it.

Ian (08:02.77)
Here’s something that a user brought up. They asked, do you think that Spectora did this because they have venture capital or purchaser on the sidelines and they wanted this to go away with minimal damage? And then maybe the damage happened afterwards.

Nick (08:19.466)
Yeah, it’s often difficult to sell something while you’re in the midst of some big crazy lawsuit that appears from the outside to be maybe something that could take you down, right? Everyone is risk averse, so that’s not a bad argument. It’s not a bad possibility.

Ian (08:33.545)
Mm-hmm.

Ian (08:38.251)
Yeah.

Nathan.tv (08:39.304)
And that really just leads to who’s making the call, right? I mean, you’re looking at either an outside investor currently, Nick took that to mean, you know, the new investor, the one that might be walking in the door and either party could say, yeah, this is really not worth the risk. Let’s get the heck out, pull the shoot, you know? But I think there’s another investor that, you know, is my argument that likely happened. It’s Spectora, the owners that we know of.

They made that call like an investment. I have to say, if they don’t have the millions of dollars cash position to justify taking a risk bet on this, then they made a pretty savvy decision.

Nick (09:24.654)
Is it possible they actually didn’t make the decision, that they already sold and are owned by somebody else who made it?

Nathan.tv (09:31.881)
Yes, that’s a possibility.

Nick (09:33.814)
That’s what I think.

Ian (09:35.562)
So as part of their terms of service, I looked it up not long ago, and maybe it’s changed, but they said they would disclose any purchase of Spectora. Do you think somebody purchased in a way that they didn’t have to disclose it?

Nick (09:47.202)
So saying something that you’re gonna do something is not an agreement

Nathan.tv (09:52.32)
Well, and saying they’ve been purchased is one word that if you get into the world of investment banking and M&A, doesn’t actually get uttered until long after the deal’s negotiated, agreements are done, original signing is done, first payments done, and ongoing payments are done. So all you have to do is semantic. Yeah.

Nick (09:57.122)
Bye.

Nick (10:12.666)
Plus, there’s a fine line between purchased and invested, too. I mean, somebody can invest millions of dollars into your company, have 99% of the stock, and say that it’s not a purchase.

Nathan.tv (10:24.428)
That’s right.

Ian (10:24.702)
Well, it’s interesting. I’m not accusing Spectora of this, but it does make me wonder because we’ve had multiple venture capital firms approach us. And what they want to talk about is, how are we like Spectora? And I’m like, oh, that’s interesting. So it’s not like there’s not venture capital out there. And smaller and larger firms that have not done a ridiculous amount of research on our industry.

Nick (10:49.386)
It also might be that they have a bank loan too, or they’re factoring something. So and under their agreement, they can’t get the factoring for future money if they’re in the midst of, if they are a defendant in a lawsuit.

Nathan.tv (10:49.525)
Well, h-

Nathan.tv (11:02.752)
Well, I’ll give you a worse, Nick. We know they have personally guaranteed debt. And we know it’s, I should say, we know it’s very, very likely that they have personally guaranteed debt because who doesn’t from these government loans during COVID?

Nick (11:20.182)
Well, talk about COVID, you know, the ERC money that got stopped by the IRS because there was so much fraud with this. What does ERC stand for? I can’t remember now. Women retention credit. So the government stopped it because there was so much fraud. So a new industry popped up, which is, where they factor the money based on your application. So if you file the application.

Nathan.tv (11:29.545)
Employee retention credit.

Nick (11:46.838)
and they can see the filing of the application, they’ll factor your money for 15% or something like that. They’ll say, look, we’ll wait the 18 months that the IRS is waiting to cut you your check, we’ll give you your money now, but we’re taking 15 or 20%. All that is very likely dependent on you not being a defendant in a lawsuit.

Nathan.tv (12:06.708)
Yeah, that’s true. Although, and I’ll take the lead a little bit on this one being that we file on behalf of clients, ERC applications. We have a program for that and we worked with several inspectors as a matter of fact, so, well, I’ll be happy to do anybody’s just send me an email, Nathan at nathan.tv. But the, but the reality is, is that that, that is a debatable point.

Nick (12:22.719)
Put it on my… I don’t know.

Nathan.tv (12:36.2)
I’m being told by some pretty inside people there that they were just overwhelmed with volume and didn’t have the committed staff. So it’s really easy to say, oh, there’s fraud. We need to tap the brakes. But really it was an employment issue that the less the government says that even they have a problem getting staff, the better. So the Illuminati, no, for sure. We’re just outsiders guessing. But I think it could be a little bit of both.

That being said, we are processing applications right now. We’re doing those docs and we do it at an incredibly low rate, but we’re basically preparing them for the January 1 or thereabouts launch again at this point. And it should come screaming back. There’s been no indication of that. And this was all passed by Congress. So I’m not too concerned. I have never suggested to any of our clients to factor that. That’s insane. But if they want to, you know.

Ask me. I’ll do that.

Nick (13:34.046)
Well, you know, if they have to wait 18 months, which is what I hear, you know, then some people can’t, you know, want their money now, you know.

Nathan.tv (13:44.748)
We’ll get it in less than 18 months, but going back to the issue at hand, it’s pretty clear that InterNACHI is considering strongly a libel suit. But what do users do now to get that injunction so that they don’t have to have this huge inconvenience of coming up with new comments and deleting old reports and only having access via phone calls?

Ian (13:45.007)
in a roll.

Nick (14:03.703)
Yes.

Ian (14:14.68)
If I could just before…

Nick (14:15.484)
Yeah. So, before it came on the air, you know, I was talking live with the law firm, and they’re working on trying to get an injunction or some other strategy to see what they can do to help internachie members.

Ian (14:30.858)
So if I could, I’d like for our listeners.

Nick (14:33.251)
I can only wait for the whole industry. I’m only I only have standing to file an injunction on behalf of internet G members. I don’t an internet cheap stuff. I don’t I can’t save non-members

Ian (14:44.906)
So if I could, I’d like the audience to know what an injunction is and what that means, because some people didn’t seem to understand that in some of the groups. But first of all, I would like to say my personal opinion of the Wagstaffs. I think they’re awesome. I’m going to assume that this came from what Nathan said, maybe it’s business acumen. And I’m not saying that if they have investors or something that it’s a bad thing. I actually really like the Wagstaffs and I think they’re honorable.

Nick (15:05.718)
No, you gave the answer in your sentence. You said it in the first part of the sentence. So you just said you could replay this. Nobody wants to replay it, because I can listen. And you said at the end of your little talk just now that they’re likeable. Likeable people, you know, and me and Nathan are probably not likeable people often. Likeable people don’t go to war easily. They try to do.

Ian (15:10.876)
Okay.

Ian (15:15.593)
Okay.

Nick (15:34.23)
They try to appease everyone, settle, and go away gently. It’s just in their nature. So you answered your own question. They’re likable. That’s a problem sometimes in business. Sometimes in business, you have to turn and fight.

Ian (15:53.626)
Yeah, and I’m probably a little bit more towards that, not likable, but a little bit more towards the, okay, let’s make peace kind of situation. And that’s probably a disadvantage I have in business. But I would like to talk about the injunction. What does that mean, Nick? Or Nathan, you can too.

Nathan.tv (16:10.217)
I’ll give you… oh, I’m sorry.

Nick (16:12.331)
It’s a court order that overrules a previous agreement. So if you may turn an agreement on Monday and a court order comes in on Tuesday that says you can’t do what you agreed to, you can do what you agreed to. That’s great.

Nathan.tv (16:25.364)
Well, I’ll give a slightly different opinion on that one. So someone can be, you know, somewhat in line with contractual obligations, but be doing something that causes the other party irreparable harm that unless or a third party in this case, so sure, sure. Which, which causes indirectly the irreparable harm to the party with standing, of course, which is, you know, kind of one in the same, but it, but it’s basically like, you know, it.

Ian (16:25.556)
Okay.

Nick (16:41.482)
or a third party in this case.

Nathan.tv (16:55.328)
If let’s just say that this is a very is a ridiculous scenario, but let’s just say that your neighbor, you know, put up a fence that made it so that the fire department couldn’t get to your house and your house was on fire. Well, that would be a pretty good reason to take action, maybe even without a court. But if the fire was real slow burning, I suppose you could get an emergency injunction. So, you know, to make sure that they did not put up the rest of that fence or whatever.

That’s the business equivalent of it. And I think, I think every inspector that is losing something here or having to work on behalf of someone else for free, uh, by force has a justification for an injunction to say, Whoa, whoa, pump the brakes here. This settlement involved us. We weren’t willing parties to it. Uh, and we don’t know what it says. We have no idea what the, what other consequences might come from it. So

This thing needs to be stopped right now. We need to determine whether the parties that negotiated the settlement even had a right to on our behalf because we would argue that they did not. Right. So, so we can, we can make the, whatever the settlement agreement is, null and void exposed report post for what they are. Uh, and you know, make it so that this, this money stream stops.

Nick (17:58.93)
No, they do not.

Ian (18:01.788)
Okay.

Ian (18:16.758)
Okay. I do. I’ve heard two things, a libel suit and an injunction. I think both of those are personally, I think it’s warranted against report hosts because this is ridiculous. As I mentioned on the message board, actually to one of your comments, Nathan, is that this does not set a legal precedent because there was no, there’s not like an open court case that says the judge decided this. So there’s very little legal precedent that can be taken from it, but it does embolden people.

and emboldens report hosts or report hoes as you call them. What do you guys think of that opinion? Yes or no?

Nathan.tv (18:54.036)
And by the way, for your daughter, that is a garden tool. Report writer for a garden tool.

Ian (19:02.054)
Yeah, they’re the guys are teasing me because I blamed it on my daughter that I don’t allow sharing swearing on our show. But it’s actually for me, I’m just weak willed and I don’t like the big bad words. So

Nathan.tv (19:12.748)
No, stop being so…

Nick (19:15.714)
I’ve known Kenton for 30 years, and I’ve authored a lot of stuff for this industry over that 30 years. And every now and then I try to author something for him that he could use in something he’s working on, a narrative or an article or whatever. This guy changes every word. He never happy with nothing. The idea that Kenton Shepherd would go to report host and steal their stuff and use it is ridiculous.

I mean, this is one guy that just doesn’t, that would never take a single sentence and let you keep it. He will change every word in it.

Nathan.tv (19:51.244)
Oh, totally. And he’s not the only one in this industry that have been coming up with these comments forever. Let’s give credit to Mike Casey and, uh, and Alan Carson, and then all the original old school, uh, ashy guys that like, like my father, that, you know, put their comments into the, the box and shared it with everybody in the congregation. So, uh, you know, these comments, you know, they’re all for most comments.

are about 90% of the most common issues. They’re written slightly differently, I’ll give you that, but they’re more or less plagiarisms and shares from each other for the last 30 to 40 years in this industry. And so it’s just…

Nick (20:31.53)
But trying to track down the guy who originally thought to explain that a water heater is leaking is ridiculous.

Nathan.tv (20:36.533)
Hey.

Yeah, I don’t see how report hosts would, you know, would be in front of a judge on these claims, and I’m not sure they ever have been. We need to check, but I haven’t found any evidence that they have been. I can’t imagine that a willful and strong-moneyed party couldn’t win this once and for all and just show them that they have no hope.

Ian (21:02.802)
Well, you know, I kind of related to this too, because the comments that I’ve seen, for the most part, are simplistic. So it’s kind of like, and these are private transactions for home inspectors. I’m dealing with one person. So I used the illustration the other day explaining to somebody, if I send an email and I say, thank you for your business in my signature line. Now a big corporation says we’ve been using that for 20 years. You can’t use that. I’m like, okay, I sent a private email to this person with that line. That’s a pretty common line that

Everybody uses how are you going to take those few short words? It’s not like a novel

Nick (21:34.566)
Even listen listen, they’re a bunch of hypocrites even the name of their company, which is trademarks You know is descriptive report host it hosts reports, right? So maybe I maybe my patent attorney and trademark attorneys Who go should go start the process? To have their trademark canceled next On the same grounds, right that report hosts are words that i’ve used

when I was a teenager and I was thinking about hosting reports somewhere. So, I mean, is that what we’re going to do? They’re just as guilty just in their own name. They didn’t use a word like Xerox or something that is unique. They used a descriptive two words out of the English language. So I’m going to find out why to unwind their trademark now.

Nathan.tv (22:08.213)
fingers

Nathan.tv (22:20.82)
Well, I have to disagree with you on that one.

Nathan.tv (22:26.332)
Nick, I think you have two enormous challenges there. One is that, yes, it’s purely descriptive, just mix the words around, but plenty of trademarks have been established in the same way. And two, you know, inspection software over time has been, you know, morphing into more than just reporting, as we know, and certainly more than just hosting reports, they’re report hosts, but they actually have an interface to make a report. So they would have, they would have a challenge to that, that would, would supersede your argument.

Nick (22:55.935)
No, no, you missed a point. All of this stuff, actions like this, basically end up in part, in the big part mostly, as a game. And the game is, let’s see who runs out of money first. And I wanna play that game with report hosts.

Nathan.tv (23:00.492)
Mm-hmm.

Nathan.tv (23:12.988)
It’s just not a game I generally like to play. That’s all. I mean, I’m too nice and I’m known as Mr. Nice guy. It’s my.

Nick (23:15.597)
I love it.

I know you. Help me, Adam, get me in the ring. Get me in the ring. I will slaughter this piddly dragon wannabe. Let, get me, somebody get me in here.

Nathan.tv (23:30.152)
I just can’t recall ever going after someone with that strategy. I don’t. My strategy legally is if you’re right, then have the will to take it to gavel unless there is a darn good reason not to.

Nick (23:47.318)
Well, so let me ask you a question If you’re in a battle with someone and they decide they want to have a duel with you and they get to choose the weapons And they actually choose let’s say they choose a sword or a pistol right and they come at you with that weapon Isn’t it reasonable that you can defend yourself with that weapon and attack with that weapon they are they came after spectora? with

Nathan.tv (23:56.928)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (24:12.298)
The following argument we’re gonna cost you money do something stupid to all your customers Is there any shame in me using the same the same sword that they chose they chose the weapons When going after them saying you’re gonna run out of money going up against Nicaramaca

Nathan.tv (24:18.128)
No, I, that, that is…

Nathan.tv (24:30.524)
It’s not shame. You get full credit for winning that battle, but they might be aiming at winning the war. So I’m sorry, running away might be the best strategy that day, even if it means that some of the villagers… Yes, yes.

Nick (24:43.206)
The inspector might be trying to win the war, not report. Yeah, I think the analysis of Proffitt here today is correct, that they are nice guys. Having known them for years, they’re my corporate neighbors here in Colorado. They’re nice guys. I think so. And that might also be.

Ian (25:03.259)
I think they’re honorable too.

Nathan.tv (25:09.492)
I’d have to check.

Nick (25:10.93)
A problem of times, right? Because piddly dragon wannabes have no honor. And that’s what report host is, report host.

Nathan.tv (25:20.128)
I’d have to check, but they’re so chill, so nice. I think they might even be clients of our, you know, Blue Moon Hemp Company’s, you know, drugs we deliver to your door.

Nick (25:30.361)
I’m just passing by over here. Oh my god, there’s a laundry behind me. What am I for my career? I got an iron.

Ian (25:33.142)
This is, hang on, I’m starting a Bic distribution pen company right from my desk, there you go.

Nathan.tv (25:42.181)
That’s… Well, well, you know, I mean, my god, where do I go from here?

Nick (25:45.644)
I mean, because I did this on a fly, I didn’t realize what my background is. Now all my members know that I’m like so OCD that I wash my towels that I use to wipe my car off and then I actually iron them before I put them away. Oh my.

Nathan.tv (25:59.176)
Well, Nick, the next time you have to do something like that, you want to make it go fast. And if you’re also addicted to opiates, we have our state of the art Kratom Vapes to help you get through your day.

Ian (25:59.687)
Oh nice.

Nick (26:04.194)
Well.

Nick (26:08.73)
Oh Well, I think this thing members learned a lot a little bit about me but they learned a lot about spectora, that’s the problem You never want to make yourself. I mean, maybe I am too. You never want to make yourself you never want to publicly Display your weaknesses if you have them. It’s not to your advantage to tell potential enemies

Ian (26:09.898)
Ha ha ha!

Ian (26:15.09)
Ugh.

Ian (26:22.303)
You know, I would…

Nick (26:36.158)
you know, where the holes in the fort are. And Spectora did just that, I think, in this case.

Ian (26:44.934)
Yeah, I have to say though, I think there’s a measure of that, but I also think there’s a measure of what Nathan is saying too. I mean, I’m trying to put myself in their position and then in a position of ultimately the end user as the home inspector. In the position of Spectora, you know, would I make a different decision? I don’t know enough the details to know, but I can see where they came from. If I were in the position of the user, I’d be hopping mad at both report host and Spectora.

Nick (27:13.046)
So let me ask you a question. Why do you think that they were not only just weak, in my opinion in this case, but not so smart, why didn’t they just call me? They see a long three decade history of people calling me and receiving immediate, aggressive help to defend them. They’re right down the street from me. Why don’t they call me and say, hey, we have something that’s gonna affect your members?

Ian (27:23.838)
That is a good question.

Ian (27:39.306)
Can I ask you, so there’s a post from, was it a year or two ago, maybe three years ago when this started, and you had posted on the message board. Did you want them to call you, or what were your thoughts at the time?

Nick (27:53.478)
But I know what I mean. I post a lot of mess posts on a message board You know, I mean it’s good thing I don’t drink or I’d be you know guilty of pui posting under the influence but and some people think Think I’m pui but I don’t know what I said But basically I tried to settle this with the report us long ago and it went after one of our members, right? I said, listen, I’ll just give you the money. What do you want? You know, just get it Get it out of the way one, right?

Ian (27:55.751)
Yeah.

Ian (28:06.358)
Well, you can try some of Nathan’s hemp and then maybe… ..

Ian (28:15.284)
Yeah.

Ian (28:18.632)
Yeah, remember that part.

Nick (28:22.766)
Um.

Ian (28:25.662)
Why do you think though, so I re-

Nick (28:27.647)
It shows I’m not completely, you know, refusing to enter into a settlement agreement to help somebody on some small issue. But on this, I think Spectora has reputation to defend, and it has its customer base to defend, and they’ve done neither.

Ian (28:39.942)
Well, so…

Ian (28:51.314)
Well, I kind of wondered about that. Maybe this discussion is kind of clearing it up for me a bit. But I wondered why, when you offered to settle this with report host, I’m like, why are they basically saying no to Nick? And I’m like, I’d rather just get this dealt with.

Nick (29:07.12)
I offered up their damages, which is why I don’t know what I offered them, 100 bucks or something. Don’t get me wrong, but I think they’re wacky, as Nathan explained, they’re whacking people for thousands. Yeah.

Ian (29:11.27)
Yeah, well, I understand why they didn’t take that one.

Ian (29:18.968)
Yeah. One inspector’s paid how much, Nathan, did you say?

Nathan.tv (29:22.292)
$7,000. Yes.

Ian (29:25.054)
Personally to them right that’s oh jeez. I mean, how does that even happen?

Nathan.tv (29:31.065)
This is their business model, folks. This is it. They don’t have a report system that is functional or popular. And let me tell you, I know that because we run the largest to this day, the largest environmental lab and environmental products in our industry. We’re dealing with everybody. Priority Lab and Breeze, we give a large swath of the home inspection community throughout the country, throughout Canada. And I can count on.

Nick (29:34.262)
process all over again.

Nathan.tv (29:59.212)
One finger. I use this finger though, Ian. Um, one finger. How many people have ever asked me for an integration with Report Host? And I get asked about everybody’s software.

Ian (30:03.019)
Hahaha.

Nick (30:11.09)
Nathan, you know, I like in branding, I like a color in the name and I like an object that you can hold in your hand like blue frog. If tomorrow after someone hears this interview, they ask me what did, what brand did Nick come up with as an example yesterday, they’re going to say blue frog because they can imagine holding it in your hand. Breeze is a tough brand to brand. And so I want to know why you’re not on this interview.

holding up my little fan, my little personal fan battery operated, and letting your beautiful hair blow in the breeze as part of your promotion today.

Nathan.tv (30:50.804)
Well, because I know that brands don’t matter unless you’re freaking Coca-Cola. And anyone that pays for branding or spends a lot of time on branding, they’re idiots. Nothing of mine has ever been, I mean, it’s been better branded than most, but it’s not like we focus on that. Or there’s companies that spend millions of dollars on a single logo and a concept.

Nick (31:05.142)
Thank you.

Nathan.tv (31:18.054)
with these agencies that do this and they don’t get a return on investment.

Nick (31:20.778)
There are also associations that use their members’ money to brand themselves. And there are associations that use their association to brand their members and promote their members. It’s completely opposite philosophies. And if you look at the inspection industry association world, you will note that one works and one strategy doesn’t.

Nathan.tv (31:31.806)
Mm-hmm.

Nathan.tv (31:43.744)
Well, and it’s publicly public knowledge because it’s a, you know, it’s not for profit association. So you can see the sort of the results of those branding efforts. And there’s been a number of groups that thought that they were a marketing agency for their members. And it never came to pass. I mean, try as they might. And yet you got to give them give them credit for trying, you know, but that’s about where the credit should stop.

Nick (32:13.943)
Yeah, let’s just be glad that they are all suffering from rigor mortis at this point. Let’s not get into ashy bashing. Let’s move on to something.

Nathan.tv (32:23.2)
Hold on, hold on, hold on. You know how to identify an ashy member? You just look for somebody dying of old age. Yeah, okay, we get it, Nick.

Ian (32:33.494)
the

Nick (32:33.772)
and taking your money and branding themselves.

Ian (32:37.198)
Alright, so I have a question. This is amazing, but I have a question.

Nick (32:40.194)
All 12 of them, all 12 of them is my favorite word.

Ian (32:45.031)
I have a question that I’m at.

Nathan.tv (32:45.554)
Yeah, I’m actually scared. No, not really. No.

Nick (32:46.322)
This actually got me to imitate myself on this show. Do you believe this? I’m actually imitating myself. I don’t even know who I am anymore. Give me a mirror. Ha ha ha.

Nathan.tv (32:50.448)
Alright, now, it’s-

Ian (32:53.686)
Ha ha ha.

Nathan.tv (32:54.304)
These are not my views. These are not my views, but I think of the biggest insult ever from Nick Rami goes like, yeah, Ashley and Nahi and all these guys, they’re like the shakers of home inspection.

Nick (33:07.574)
You read that? The sort of shakers was a religious group out in Ohio, and they had this funny thing which is probably gonna kill them, which is that they’re not allowed to breed. They kept women and women in separate buildings and they couldn’t have kids. Oh my God.

Nathan.tv (33:22.676)
So they’re actually in a Northeast, I think Massachusetts last I knew there were three of them left and they were on a property living for free in.

Nick (33:30.815)
I Shouldn’t complain about I can’t complain about the shakers I’ll tell you they taught me something in business a long time ago And I’ve done it even to this day even this morning and which is that I read something I read a book on shakers and they used to make things simple, you know I mean sort of like form follows function kind of design and I was looking at one of the chairs. They made it was just so beautifully simple, you know, and I read about it and they said

We do everything to the grace of God. And I’m not a religious person or anything, so I’m not quoting, you know, I’m the last religious person on earth. But when I read that, you know, we do things to the grace of God, I started doing that in everything I do. When I try to do something, I do it to the grace of God. I try to do it as cleanly and neatly and as beautifully and as well as I possibly can. So as much as I laugh at the shakers strategy, which is…

not far from the ashy strategy. I must give some credit to the Shakers for actually changing my the way I think about something. If you have my hose, if you give me a hoe and ask me to hoe a garden right now. I will do it to the grace of God. I will try to do it as nicely straight and as beautifully.

Nathan.tv (34:28.003)
Ha!

Nathan.tv (34:38.933)
order.

Ian (34:47.317)
But a report ho.

Nick (34:54.75)
as I possibly can. I think that’s why I’m here on Earth.

Nathan.tv (34:59.804)
Okay, so I’m really sorry to ask you members, you’re all my friends, you’re my family, you’ve been seeing me since I was a little kid. But I have to add in one more thing.

Nick (35:08.678)
Yeah, yeah. The Nanachi staff is desperately working on getting a discount on Geritol.

Nathan.tv (35:14.336)
Yeah. We’d like to extend a free membership offer to all members of the American Shakers of Home Inspection.

Nick (35:19.55)
We make it.

Nick (35:25.226)
What a bunch of buffoons. I mean, how did I end up in an industry, you know, with another association of just a bunch of buffoons? I don’t know how it happened.

Ian (35:25.279)
So as a…

Ian (35:35.298)
So remember when I introduced this episode and I said the conversation that got away from me this is This is awesome. I do have a question for you guys though going back to the This has been great. They’re going back to the impact on the industry as a whole though I’ve been asked a lot over the past few days about our software and other software they’re like what stops them from suing you and They give me scenarios. What if somebody has a spectora template?

Nick (35:39.422)
Yeah. Give me something that looks…

Nick (36:02.645)
The answer is to stop him right off the bat you nip it in the bud. That was the answer We shouldn’t we should nip this in the bud right now. That’s that’s what stops them from assuming you Get them once

Ian (36:11.769)
Do you agree with that, Nathan?

Nathan.tv (36:12.064)
And that’s why this is an industry issue. And that’s why we care even if, you know, I don’t have nearly the position in the industry that Nick does at this point, but it still would affect me to have a software company that imposes a cost on industry participants, including inspectors directly and software companies like yours, because they will come after you, that’s clear. And add an expense from your side that gets passed on to the inspector.

Nick (36:15.054)
You know what, it’s happening.

Nathan.tv (36:40.972)
add an expense directly to them. And we didn’t add anything to the customer experience. We added nothing to the value of what we do. We just added expense. And that results in less success in the industry. Period. End of story.

Ian (36:55.502)
Yeah. And that’s exactly what I was thinking of. If there’s going to be that kind of litigation or that kind of worry of litigation, you’re going to have to have companies like Minet are going to think, do we need to keep an attorney on staff? Do we need to have a cash of cash, so to speak, to have on hand for when this happens or if it happens?

Nathan.tv (37:13.524)
So let me tell you the biggest cost though, because this is the biggest cost and then Nick can try to find a more expensive thing than this. I challenge him. And he had the number one cost of COVID was human life in minutes. So you won that round, Nick. Let me give you this round on this.

Nick (37:27.51)
It was a good analysis and I did that long before it became a popular philosophy or theory. I want to see what came out. I analyzed how many deaths are going to be caused because of the shutdown in loss of life expectancy I did a calculation it’s a long calculation in loss of life expectancy what the shutdown is going to how many people are going to Be slaughtered because of this shutdown and it turned out two years later. That was right

Nathan.tv (37:34.042)
So let me give you that.

Nathan.tv (37:39.688)
Yes. And that was a great dark.

Nathan.tv (37:51.68)
So, so the.

I have an equivalent to you in this report host stuff that I… Okay. So let’s say that somebody were looking at buying an inspection software company. And this is totally hypothetical, but let’s say that they went after Spectora as a target to purchase. Well, if that transaction goes well…

Nick (37:57.632)
Okay, ten more years.

Nathan.tv (38:16.192)
that increases the benefit to innovators, people that program these kinds of things to participate in the industry and invest in the advancement of what we do as an industry, which has a value that is not even calculable. But right now, because of this issue and how public it is, if I were a buyer of Spectora and I knew what I was doing, I would be asking for the results of this database update.

so that I could identify exactly how many users are using. And I would ask for them to identify all of the, you know, the incursions on somebody else’s copywritten material. And I’d look at it and it would be, you know, a lot. And that could scare somebody off or at least diminish the value some. And that’s not okay. We need to overturn this thing for as much as it might seem like I’m helping the brothers make some money here, make more money than they would otherwise.

Ian (38:43.242)
Mm.

Nathan.tv (39:10.704)
It’s really about the industry because I want the next innovator that’s even bigger to be well rewarded for making this industry even better.

Ian (39:20.062)
Well, let me take that to the next level, Nathan, because I agree with you. There’s a cost that we don’t see. But what about companies like, did you guys see what porch closed out yesterday? I mean, if they don’t get their stuff together by March, they’re gonna be enlisted from NASDAQ. They went from 60 some-odd cents down to like low 50s. Yeah, but that, if I were an investor, which actually the other day, people are gonna…

Nick (39:37.584)
Motherfuckin’ bitch! They’re in their fifties.

Nick (39:46.05)
But you’re sitting on 400 million cash now.

Ian (39:49.37)
Yeah, they are sitting on a lot of cash, but if you’re an investor, they’re going to have to do a stock split here at some point. They’re going to need to get it above a dollar at some point. But

Nathan.tv (39:57.268)
Which affects nothing, by the way.

Ian (39:59.75)
Yeah, no, it doesn’t affect anything. But what are, what are people going to be doing looking at this? Like, okay, so now there’s a lot of turmoil in the industry that in an industry that you’re relying heavily on for your information, your products, your software that you own. Do you think that it was connected that they went down almost 10? I think it was almost 10 cents yesterday, maybe eight or nine cents.

Nathan.tv (40:21.268)
think anyone pays that much enough attention to this industry because of its size and scale that this would affect any mindsets of any participants at all. I don’t think anyone’s going to make quite the connection that they could so easily make with Spectora, you know, directly on this that that, oh, gosh, this is porch group and they own, you know, two or three report software writers, actually four. And I think it’s four. Yeah, I know I, I sold one.

Ian (40:31.273)
Okay.

Ian (40:51.169)
Yeah, HIP, ISN as a report writer, POMTECH. And.

Nathan.tv (40:51.246)
Um.

Nick (40:53.206)
Thank you.

Nick (40:56.922)
and still run as independent operations instead of doing what you do when you buy four or something, put them all together under one management. I don’t get that at all. But I think that stock price and everything else is all dependent on pending on sales. As long as we’re only doing 3.5 million homes a year in this country, anything related to real estate transactions is going to be down.

Ian (41:20.166)
Yeah, no, that’s true.

Nathan.tv (41:21.1)
Well, and let’s look at what would really affect purchase stock price tomorrow because believe it or not, I think in our little bubble in the industry, we tend to look at them and say, well, you know, you’ve heard what people say. But if you look at them from a standpoint of cash on hand ability to deal with issues like that Texas Department of Insurance right away, right, the stroke and a $50 check. If you look at the actual number of transactions, their overheads,

Ian (41:43.089)
Mm-hmm.

Nathan.tv (41:48.836)
The things that they’re doing that would impress you as a stockholder, they’ve done relatively well, all things considered, much better than how a home inspector views them. I’m one of the largest shareholders of Porch, so I’m happy about that. I have no problem with where their stock price is today. That’s arbitrary. What will drive that up are three things, actually. Nick got the very first one.

Nick (42:08.526)
because you’re not selling, because you’re not selling.

Nathan.tv (42:17.664)
they can play in the market. And that’s all a stock price is driven off of, the fact that real estate’s going well. Number two, when interest rates and bond levels level out or do something other than taking all the money out of the market and just right into bonds. Yeah, exactly. And that has a far reaching effect that they need a little bit of.

Nick (42:38.479)
and out of the banks.

Nathan.tv (42:44.796)
And then I think the third thing is tech stocks. Unless you’re an AI chip maker, which isn’t a real thing, by the way, unless you’re one of those guys and you’re in tech, you’ve been punished by a good double digits over the last nine months. And so they don’t have tech to brag about, they don’t have real estate to brag about, and people are moving money out of the stock market. Well, a group like Porch is going to be ignored in the markets under that circumstance. And

they’re taking a hit because of it.

Ian (43:16.13)
Okay. So you think if I gather what you’re saying there, you think that porch is really kind of unaffected as a whole? And to be honest with you, Nick posted a picture of Amfam’s headquarters, and we have porch. I don’t think report host is going to be like, hey, out of my garage, I’m going to see if I can attack porch. I think they went for the target that they thought they could work.

Nick (43:29.449)
It’s just not

Nick (43:45.402)
Unless you’re selling stock prices just noise, who cares? Hopefully it’s gonna change. Matt bought like two million bucks worth of his own stock recently. Yeah, I mean, at 50 cents, no one’s gonna deny that it’s a buy.

Ian (43:48.89)
Yeah. I would agree with that.

Ian (43:56.454)
I saw that like tons in like five different sessions, right?

Nathan.tv (44:05.832)
Yeah, I think it’s a huge confidence booster that Matt has so much of his own money tied up. I mean, his family’s future is very much dependent on this. And yeah, well, and I kind of have like a big brother, little brother relationship with Matt in some senses, you know, like, it’s okay if I mess with him, somebody else does, I’m going to beat him up, you know, but Matt has this stubbornness when it comes to failure.

Nick (44:12.334)
One. Sister, two.

Nathan.tv (44:31.48)
And it’s amazing. He doesn’t not accomplish what he sets out to accomplish. And for him to be putting in a lot of money, you can see the big insider trading deals from this year, last year, when I was technically an insider. And you’ll see a month where he bought a million and I bought a million too. That was neither were obligatory, just we’re good. We wanna own more and more of this thing. And between him and I, Nagel and…

you know, the other let’s call it a top 10 owners. We own a substantial part of that company and we’re not worried about the stock price on the daily.

Ian (45:08.718)
Okay. So I think, so Spectora as of, I don’t know, like a year ago or something, they said that they were the largest home inspection software provider in the inspection industry. So they have the potential to affect a large portion of the industry. Report Host would affect a large portion of the industry by going after Spectora. Do you think that, I don’t know, I kind of feel like Report Host kind of…

When you’re going down anyways, you go around swinging and calling people names and throwing a fit.

Nick (45:43.503)
Is that it or did they get some money out of this too because I don’t see the point I don’t see them and making someone change a couple of words around on some report who cares? Where is the financial benefit in harassing everybody over piss-ass little things?

Ian (45:46.002)
I don’t know, did they?

Ian (45:59.406)
But that’s what I’m getting at though. Like the settlement, like if they were just after money, wouldn’t they have just taken the settlement? Because I’ve heard that word, settlement, happen. Instead, they kind of stuck it to the users, it feels like. The report is dead.

Nathan.tv (46:12.352)
They did, but you said it best earlier, there’s no legal precedent set here, but there kind of is because most precedents set are not set in a courtroom, by the way. Legal precedents set in a courtroom are just kind of books meant to be rewritten someday. When it comes to this, I have not seen them go after anybody or at least I have not heard them go after anybody with the, hey, just change some words and we’re good.

Ian (46:23.889)
Mm-hmm.

Nathan.tv (46:40.384)
to Nick’s point, they were after cash and they very likely got it. Like I’d be, I’d be blown away if they didn’t get some cash too, but I think they purposely made this part of it. I think they took less cash than they could have maybe got in order to do this and make sure that every software company and home inspector in the world knew that they had to write them a check when they come asking.

Ian (47:02.322)
I guess that’s what I’m getting at. That’s the way I kind of feel as a software company.

Nick (47:04.927)
So that’s a pretty good strategy. You know, you take out the big dude, right? In a dramatic way where Spector has to announce and tell everybody and change all their and take down templates and fix narratives and all that. Right? Now, once you’ve established that, nobody even can think about the legal strategy in detail. All I know is, look, these guys took out Spector and made them grovel. Now they’re coming after little me and my home inspection company. I’m gonna write them their $7,000 check.

Ian (47:30.898)
Yeah, and I think you guys are hitting the nail right on the head because you come after and s-

Nick (47:34.218)
This is what we’re doing about now. So we got to take them out now Get in the ring. Let me let me get let me tear this thing

Ian (47:37.587)
Yeah, so.

Yeah, because this is affecting and will affect the international members and home inspectors all over. But like you don’t come after Inspector Tool Belt, a fraction of the size of Spectora and say, hey, look, we took them, Inspector Tool Belt, knee in. They’ll be like, uh, OK. And, you know, so they’re going to they’re going to go after the big kid on the playground, kick him in the face, fight dirty, you know, kick him in the groin. And then everybody else is going to be like, oh, man.

Nick (48:05.474)
Think about this statement that they’re making if they’re saying that internet she was stole all their stuff Why didn’t they come after me? if Why are you going after a platform that has their stolen stuff on it want to come after me? I’m here, but me my washing dryer and my ironer right here soon

Ian (48:14.3)
I think the answer is clear.

Ian (48:23.518)
Because you, your washer, dryer, and iron are going to fight tooth and nail.

Nick (48:26.954)
Yeah, that’s why so they did an analysis. They said let’s we need a bunch of publicity We need to knock out someone who’s big but willing to go down for us So now we have that now we can go after everybody for seven grand

Ian (48:39.434)
Do you think they were, do you think report hosts was that smart to do that? Or do you think they threw a fit when they started to lose all their users?

Nick (48:46.658)
smart enough to not sue the person they say that has actually stole their stuff. Right? If this is an issue of ethics, and they’re standing on the ground because someone took my stuff and I’m going to defend myself, why don’t they go after the guy they say stole it? I’m right here.

Ian (48:51.451)
Yeah, well, yeah.

Ian (49:04.594)
Yeah, I don’t understand. Fundamentally, I don’t understand the platform. That’s like going after WordPress because somebody built a website that stole your content. You know, why, how does that even work?

Nick (49:14.538)
Yes, it was a little bit more than a platform though, right?

Nathan.tv (49:17.736)
Well, hold on guys. We have, speaking of precedent, we have plenty of precedents for going after platform owners now, including all of Europe with Metta and X. I mean, you know, they’re, they’re holding them responsible for posts that are an actual video just posted at a different time. I mean.

Ian (49:27.324)
Okay.

Ian (49:31.236)
Oh well.

Nathan.tv (49:42.3)
If you can be held responsible for that, if WordPress were actually involved in the hosting process, which I don’t know if they are, we host a lot of websites at ultimate website creator and economicaldomains.com. But if somebody was hosting something on my platform and I had a reasonable way to know what it was and know that it was criminal, I do have an obligation to take it down these days. Yes.

Nick (50:08.95)
What was the name of the domains, uh, so you have, no, no domains dot what?

Ian (50:09.477)
Okay.

Nathan.tv (50:12.421)
I have ultimate website, ultimate website, creator.com.

economicaldomains.com.

Nick (50:19.926)
dot what calm okay i’ll just start helping you out i’m stopping out nathan doing what i can listen once i know what the mark is i fall in line and help you out

Nathan.tv (50:21.428)
Yeah. Well, we’re huge in India. I sell more dough.

Nathan.tv (50:33.116)
I appreciate that. But yeah, we’re huge in India. That’s where we tell most of our URLs, no joke. Yeah.

Nick (50:37.006)
It’s called what? This thing goes.

Ian (50:41.011)
Okay.

So that’s interesting though that I never really thought about it that way, Nathan. You kind of gave me a new opening in my line of thought because I was using that WordPress thing. They do hosting, but it’s more of a CRM than a hosting platform. But any hosting platform, you’re going to use HostGator or A2 hosting. I guess that’s a bad analogy because you’re right.

Ian (51:11.75)
stuff on their platform and they’re like, we didn’t put that there. And they’re like, well, you should have a way to control that. And it’s like, okay.

Nick (51:19.022)
I mean, I’m the only person who successfully sued all three credit agencies. And went right around the consumer, the credit fair credit act or whatever, which is by them so that you can’t sue them. So the way I did it is I went after them for libel. I said, listen, you can you can say my score, anything you want. You can say all kind of bad things you want. You just can’t say to anybody. You can you can score me all you like. You just can’t tell anybody. I’m suing you for telling other people. And I won on all three.

Ian (51:30.58)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (51:48.842)
All three credit agencies had to take everything bad about me down.

Ian (51:53.675)
So is that official, your liable suit and your injunction? Because injunctions have to go quick, right? The liable suit can take time.

Nick (51:58.386)
Oh, the injunction, you have to do quick, which would be against Spectora, right? And then the libel suit would be against report hose for saying, for, for taking action and not correcting it. That implies the outright says basically to the, to my industry, that internet she stole their stuff. We did not.

Nathan.tv (52:18.924)
I think your liable strategy is spot on. I think on the injunction and inaction from users, which is the affected party. So they’re the ones withstanding that need to take the action. I suppose you could try relating it to your complaint, but I think you need at least three users in order to create a mass action seeking an immediate injunction. And I would seek it.

against the entirety of the settlement agreement, which includes both report hosts and Spectora. I don’t think this is purely a Spectora issue. I think both parties had full knowledge that the party paying the bill wasn’t at the table.

Nick (52:58.466)
right? The part of being harmed wasn’t at the table.

Ian (52:59.86)
Okay.

So the injunction would be against both Spectora and Report Hosts, but the liable suit would be against Report Hosts. I do think, I’m not an attorney and I don’t pretend to be one, but what I know about liable suits, that seems reasonable.

Nick (53:14.918)
I play one on the best one.

Ian (53:18.23)
Because you’re suing somebody saying these are stolen comments and they’re very obviously, you know, from international.

Nathan.tv (53:25.176)
Probably 990 out of a thousand attorneys haven’t been to court as often as Nick or I have been in a single year. So we probably have a pretty good reason we’re agreeing on this stuff.

Ian (53:38.478)
Oh yeah, and I’ve not been to court, so I’m thinking you guys are probably more spot on than I could be. So yeah, I bet, you know.

Nathan.tv (53:45.008)
Yeah, we got good stories.

Nick (53:48.81)
Most attorneys have never been up the courthouse steps.

Ian (53:51.954)
Well, and I’ve heard from, I think it was one of the attorneys that, I don’t know if he still works with internaut, Mark Cohen. I remember him telling me one time, I was just talking with him. He’s like, I’ve seen Nick in a courtroom multiple times handle himself better and, you know, say things that are spot on. I don’t know. He put it really eloquently. I’m not, but that just shows your guys as both of your experience in courtrooms. So, Hey, you know, I got to say.

Nick (54:13.634)
Yeah.

Nick (54:20.803)
Thanks to Ashy who sued me I think nine times and lost all nine. I’ve gotten a lot of experience in depositions and courtrooms.

Ian (54:28.818)
Well, I actually did a look up of all the times your name, Nick, in particular, I haven’t done one on you yet, Nathan, that your name has come up in court records. And I was going through the list. I’m like, oh, wow, it was a long list. Yeah. But.

Nick (54:41.494)
Yeah, well, I like it. I mean, you know, I understand how for the average person that, you know, it makes your stomach sick. Not only, you know, in fact, probably getting sued is only second worst to being threatened by a lawsuit. Because when you’re threatened by a lawsuit, you have nothing to do. You have to just sit there and kind of wait, right, to get served.

Ian (54:52.521)
Yeah.

Ian (55:02.535)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (55:05.986)
And it’s enough to make your average home inspector, your average InterNACHI member vomit in a toilet. And so I really sympathize with, you know, the Kevin and that if that was what was happening to them physically and emotionally, you know. I’m just, I’m an oddball, Nathan’s an oddball. I love it. I would prefer, I played full contact football for four decades, probably more than anybody you’ve ever met, but I would much rather be a defendant in a lawsuit.

Much love.

Nathan.tv (55:36.812)
I think there’s a difference of scale here, Nick. I don’t think we’re that as odd as we seem. I think that, you know, like when you’re 16 and you get pulled over, lit up by the cops, like you freak out. And then you either learn that there were, the lesson that the consequences are not that bad unless you did something really, really horribly wrong. Or, you know, you try to avoid it in the future. For me, you know, I’ve been pulled over some 27 times and

Nick (55:49.012)
Right.

Nathan.tv (56:07.128)
I just say hello, you know, and I think it’s the same kind of thing when it comes to legal issues. You know, you eventually realize that it’s like, it’s like getting pulled up pulled over where you’re doing something wrong. Did you have a reason? What’s the real consequence? And you start weighing that.

Nick (56:12.418)
Yeah.

Nick (56:23.018)
Yeah, I mean, I can’t tell you how many times that an internet member called me and said, I’m getting sued, and it turns out that they’re not. Someone on a phone said that they’re gonna sue them. That’s not the problem. I mean, there’s nothing for you to do right now. I’m sorry, compartmentalize, go back to doing your work, and forget about it.

Ian (56:30.119)
Yeah.

Ian (56:33.49)
Yeah, everybody likes to throw that out. So I’ve never actually been sued. And that’s a good point.

Ian (56:43.698)
Yeah, I’ve never been sued. I’ve been in the home inspection industry now for just under 20 years, but I’ve been threatened several times and they’re like, I’m going to sue you. I said, okay. They’re like, ah, even attorneys will start to yell and get upset. I’m like, well, do it or don’t. I mean, I can’t stop you. And when I learned, like you guys said, once you learn that, you’re like, okay. And they always went away because then they looked at it and they’re like, is the juice really worth the squeeze? You know, I really don’t have anything.

Nick (57:07.79)
Yeah, I once paid my entire law firm to stay up all night. This is a true story. Some guy, I actually got emotionally angry. Some guy, we had some arguments and he goes, oh yeah, sue me. Wrong thing to say to me. So I paid my law firm extra to stay up all night. We got the suit drafted by about 7 a.m. We got it to a sheriff by 9 a.m. I served him by 11 a.m. the next day.

Yeah, I mean, this stuff is better than any Super Bowl to me. I would rather be a defendant in a lawsuit than to watch any ball cross the line or go through a hoop. They’re not even close.

Ian (57:56.798)
Well, I’m glad then you guys are on the side of home inspectors because the guys that I’m talking to are nervous, especially knowing that one guy paid out seven grand. And some of them…

Nick (58:04.707)
I’m.

Nick (58:07.906)
We’re not homing don’t do that. Please don’t spend any money. Don’t give them any pet a single penny. It only fuels them

Ian (58:15.698)
Yeah. And interestingly enough, these comments, I have heard through the grapevine that guys are finding these quote unquote comments and they’ve never had anything to do with report hosts. So somebody shared a template with them once, or they worded something kind of like report hosts worded something or supposedly, allegedly, and they’re just finding them. So this is going to crop up more and more and guys are worried. What do I do? How do I know?

Nathan.tv (58:40.532)
I think if you’re at home and you’re an inspector and you want to take not a Nick or Nathan sized step in the right direction on this, but you want to take a U size step, here’s the two things you can do today. Number one, if you’re a report host client or considering a report host, go to Spectora, go to HIP, go to one of the other guys.

Nick (59:04.652)
Yeah.

Ian (59:04.87)
Inspector Toolbelt.

Nathan.tv (59:06.1)
Instead you’re doing well, why not? I mean, you know Ian already and he hasn’t been sued. You could be his first. But the other thing that you should do is, and this would be an incredibly cool thing to do. If you want to spend $10 making somebody’s life hell, here’s how you do it. Get somebody to look up the home addresses. I don’t know who that might be. Of all the participants in Report Host. And post it publicly.

Nick (59:10.432)
It’s not the post-partum.

Ian (59:12.342)
There you go.

Nathan.tv (59:35.388)
and then have everyone in the industry that is up for it today, write three certified letters to the place of their business and the place of their home and the other place of their home. I think there’s two of them, but I could be wrong. And it should say in this, here’s a certified letter telling you that of exactly my sources of all of my comments, I’ve gotten them exclusively from InterNACHI and other industry participants. And I’ve never heard of your completely irrelevant software company.

But if you would have a concern or have a comment that you claim rights to, please send it back to me in the form of an Excel spreadsheet so that I can look and be not subjected to your frivolous exploitations. And just pummel them, if we pummel them with mail and let them know that they are done.

And everybody that gets a notice from them, everyone that gets a legal request, I’m not giving you this legal advice, but gosh, I mean, how are they going to stand up and, and tell their attorneys, yeah, we’re going to spend 10 to 15 grand on every single one of these little inspectors. They can’t.

Nick (01:00:45.01)
I already called them yesterday. I called report host yesterday. You get a voicemail, some woman’s voice answers it very nice and polite. And I left them a message. I said, if you sue an Internet G member, I’m going to view it as you suing me. So I don’t want to sound like the Cuban missile crisis, but that’s basically what we got going on here. You know, a missile launch that a member is a missile launch that Nick Romico’s children.

Nathan.tv (01:01:06.196)
Well, I think Nick Gromicka should do what I just said, except for on his certified letter, he should say, please remove any mention or marks of mine from your website. Um, I think that would be a good certified for them to get as well.

Ian (01:01:19.606)
So, um, we’re running out of time here, guys, but honestly, I really can’t thank you both enough for being on the show. This is a big… Yeah, I’d love to hear.

Nick (01:01:26.922)
For Nathan though Despite Nathan TV lucky knows it’s coming Despite Nathan TV Nathan TV are there any other Yeah, well, I just think Yeah, I mean, that should be the guy should be the guy should be rewarded and that’s the best I can do Besides Nathan TV. Are there any other URLs that?

Ian (01:01:41.642)
Wait, wait, what was that, Nick? Was it Nathan.tv?

Ian (01:01:50.314)
Oh yeah.

Nick (01:01:57.793)
you can promote today that we can help you with.

Nathan.tv (01:02:00.684)
I think if you were to go to discoverbreeze.com, you’d solve all of your environmental testing concerns and probably make more money. And if you wanna celebrate, just go to bluemoonhemp.com where we sell products that are not to be abused.

Nick (01:02:12.394)
And let me help with the branding with Breeze.

Ian (01:02:17.938)
If you guys can’t see this, if you’re listening to the audio version, Nick’s hair is blowing in the wind. And I think we have our new logo and mascot for the breeze. Thank you guys. You’ve been awesome.

Nick (01:02:22.455)
blowing in the wind.

Nick (01:02:28.214)
Thanks for having us on.

Nathan.tv (01:02:29.86)
Thank you.

 

Outro: On behalf of myself, Ian, and the entire ITB team, thank you for listening to this episode of inspector toolbelt talk. We also love hearing your feedback, so please drop us a line at [email protected].

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*The views and opinions expressed in this podcast, and the guests on it, do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Inspector Toolbelt and its associates.