Thanks to everyone who attended the annual confer-ence. It’s always been enjoyable for me but this year’s celebration of our 25th year made it even more so. The group photo we took is priceless, and I already having it hanging here in the office. We are already planning how to make the 2013 conference even better. What we can’t put on the agenda is the opportunity this meeting provides for networking with your peers. I continue to be blown away by all the friendships that have evolved even though you only see each other once a year.

I hope you realize this but the Omaha office walks the talk. We encourage you to market, network, and otherwise promote your business. If circumstances permitted, I would call or meet with someone every day to talk about this busi-ness and all of you. I had coffee with a commercial broker recently. I intro-duced myself when he was showing the empty space across the hall a few weeks ago. I called him a few times and I am confident he will refer us an inspection. The last commercial broker I invited to coffee referred us a $1,000 inspection.

With individual inspections, we ask the clients to call you directly. We do help coordinate inspections for clients who want multiple inspections in multiple states through the corporate office. They don’t want to call twenty inspectors and explain twenty times what they need. In this capacity, Omaha referred/coordinated well over 1,000 commercial inspections through September. We have quite a few more in the works and should finish the year pretty strong. Please share with us any leads that could become a national or regional account.

The election did not go the way I wanted but we can’t let that stop our prog-ress. The economy in the US has been improving and has been pretty strong in Canada. We’ve been doing more residential and commercial inspections both month-over-month and year-over-year. Residential and commercial values are rising and the number of foreclosures is declining. New construction starts are up as is consumer confidence. In short, the economy is on the upswing if the politicians leave things alone.

Thank each of you for being a part of NPI/GPI. Please stay in touch. We love hearing from you.

1 ................ From the President

2 ................ Annual Meeting Feature

2 ................ Welcome to the Family

3, 4 ........... Highlights

4, 5 ........... Award Winners

5 ................ Anniversaries

Roland BatesPresident

1. GE Profile ™ Front Load Washers – washer baskets may separate and break the washer’s top panel during use, posing an injury hazard to consumers.

� Recall Hotline: (888) 641-9739

2. LG Electric Ranges – burners can fail to turn off even after being switched off and the temperature setting can increase unexpectedly during use posing a potential burn and fire hazard.

� Recall Hotline: (855) 400-4638

Get more details at www.cpsc.gov and follow recalls and other news at NPIHome.com

News and informat ion f rom the f ranchi s e f ront l ine s .

November / December 2012

From the PresidentInside the Insider

Notable Recalls

Excellence is a common theme for National Property Inspections, Inc. Excellence in service to customers. Excellence in training, report writing and timely inspections. Ex-cellence in diversifying the inspection business. This year’s annual conference, held in Omaha Nov. 2-3, celebrated 25 years of examples of those kinds of excellence – and one more. National Property Inspections, Inc. celebrated 25 years of excellent friendships, the kind that make this company one of the oldest and most respected in the business.

That spirit of family was never more evident than Friday night at the annual meeting when President and Founder Roland Bates found himself at the center of a perfect storm of personal toasts given by the franchisees in attendance. Many thanked him for the op-portunity to build their own successful business through the NPI/GPI franchise model.

The franchisees coordinated a group picture opportunity and then had the photo developed, enlarged and mounted in time to present to Roland Saturday night. Also on Saturday night, more than 70 franchisees received awards for their hard work and dedication to growing their NPI/GPI business. Nine franchisees were specifi-cally honored for being with the company for more than 15 years:

Page 2

25th Anniversary NPI/GPI Annual Conference

Annual Meeting Feature / Welcome

» On your new license or accreditation.

Congratulations!

Max CheangJohns Creek, GA

Welcome to the Family

Ed Fillpot Round Rock, TX

» The NPI/GPI family is expanding and we would like to welcome our newest owners and employees.

Jeff Benson Employee of

John Besson Glenmoore, PA

Hugh MeadeJohnston, IA

Ted Eachus Taylors, SC

Christopher Bandy Employee of

Stephan Quigley Abingdon, MD

Christopher Bandy Employee of

Stephan Quigley Abingdon, MD

Chris Scherf Cedar Rapids, IAClyde Yost

Kansas City, MOKen Helbing

Oconomowoc, WI

Dave HardyPrescott, AZ

Dale Griswold Masonville, IA

Brian DaleyMadison, WI

Tom Sansone Rochester, NY

Jim Oezer, Jr.Racine, WI

Tracy Murphy Great Falls, MT

Greg Owens Lincolnshire, IL

25 YEARS 25 YEARS 25 YEARS 24 YEARS 21 YEARS

Clyde is the first NPI franchisee, ever!

18 YEARS 17 YEARS 16 YEARS 16 YEARS

GatherOpinions

GatherOpinions.com has several new options franchisees can use to gather more reviews and ratings from customers and Real-tors. Luke Armstrong and Kim Gatson presented a guide to the website at the annual meeting and discussed several new features of GatherOpinions, including how to set up customer emails to turn positive reviews from Gath-erOpinions into reviews on their Google Plus page.

Luke explained how to set up their “thank you” emails to custom-ers who leave positive reviews on GatherOpinions to make it easy for customers to also leave a review on Google by embedding the URL link to their Google Plus listing. Kim explained that many inspectors have found it effective to ask customers in person to leave a review. The inspector can send the customer an email in-vitation containing a link to the review website. Of course, word-of-mouth referrals remain important even in a digital world.

“Don’t forget to remind your happy customers to tell the agent how pleased they were with the NPI or GPI services,” Kim Gat-son said.

ContestHero

“ContestHero” is a new website where inspectors can invite cus-tomers and Realtors to enter contests sponsored by the inspec-tor. Luke Armstrong introduced this tool at the annual meeting. Contest Hero can be a fun way of interacting, especially with Real-tors. Most of the contest tracking and management is done online.

The ContestHero website will track entries. The inspector can follow up via email. Inspectors do need to make the contest open to the pub-lic in order to comply with regula-tions. Prizes can be as simple as a free car wash, and could be run monthly or quarterly. Invitations to enter can be emailed to all Realtors on the inspector’s list.

How-To Guides for both ContestHero and GatherOpinions are in the NPI/GPI Library. ContestHero can also be found at con-testhero.com/get-started.pdf.

The slate of educational seminars at the 2012 conference included a look at new technologies, both for inspections and marketing, at least one certification opportunity and business management techniques.

About a dozen franchisees arrived in Omaha five days early to attend a special Thermography Training Course/Examination. Completion of the course and a final test resulted in a “Level 1 Thermography” Certification. This intense course included hands-on training with the cameras and classroom instruction in preparation for the final exam. Congratulations to everyone who can now use this exciting technology for property inspections and energy assessments.

Building Science Thermography instructor Scott Wood also stayed around to offer an Infrared in Building Investigations course for the general conference attendees. NPI Technical Guru Randy Yates continued the technology trend with a high-flying Inspection Defect Training Using New Technology. Dur-ing that session, GPI Franchisees Brian Kuch and Don Andrews from Ontario demonstrated their use of video/camera extension poles as a tool to inspect and photograph roofs. NPI Franchisee Brian Wood from Virginia demonstrated a miniature helicopter equipped with a video camera he uses to inspect roofs. Both these tools are intended to help the inspectors provide more complete inspections when walking on the roof isn’t possible because of steep slopes, damp conditions or brittle roofing materials. This equipment is capable of producing both high definition video and still photos.

In demonstrating the remote-helicopter technology, NPI was introducing a cutting-edge trend that is under consideration for widespread use.

“Currently FAA and FCC regulations prohibit the use of the re-mote control helicopters for commercial purposes, based on our investigation,” said Yates, “but down the road there may be some opportunities to use such equipment on inspections once the FAA releases their revised regulations regarding small unmanned aircraft.”

Annual Conference Marketing Session

Highlights

Educational Opportunities at the Conference

Page 3

I thought I would chime in ... here is one of my favorite’s just had to use it the other day! “Prominent pet odor identified within inte-rior of dwelling at the time and date of this inspection. Recommend licensed contractor further evaluate to determine best method of eradicating situation.”

------------------------------------------------------

I’ve never been too keen on specifying a num-ber like #15 safety test in any report. I have modified my canned comment to read this way: “Manual jam reverse does not operate properly. The door should reverse with resis-tive force (hand pressure) applied to the bot-tom of the door when it is coming down. Rec-ommend this be adjusted per manufacturer’s instructions for safety.”

The Award Banquet and Cerimony is always one of the best parts of the annual meeting and this year was no different!

» PINNACLE AWARD - Back row: George Gabbert, Grant Versaw, Jim Giuffre, Greg Mathias, Gary Longstreet, Gerry Millen, Trevor Bridal, John Hamilton, Andy Alvarez. Front row: Anette Versaw, Susan Giuffre, George Gould, Susan Millen, Connie Bridal, Karina Alvarez

» PRESIDENT’S AWARD - Back row: Tony Marino, Terry Haynie, Judi Trelenberg, Jim Niederhaus, Rodney Twyford, Lee Ralph (Hogan), Scooter Holiday, Andy Wallace Font row: Steve Anderson, David Perrin, Steve & Lynn Gregory

Of course, one of the best parts of any NPI conference is the opportunity for franchisees, employees and family to share their success stories. More than a dozen attendees participated in an open forum at the meeting. Vice President Bill Erickson, talked about the positive results we have received from a web marketing strategy aimed at attaining more Commercial clients. He also discussed tips for handling customer complaints professionally and wisely. Attendees discussed their most effective marketing tactics and shared different promotional items. The networking and exchange of ideas was energizing. Many commented about how useful the session was, giving them such great new ideas to help grow their businesses.

» From the Floor

You really are the Heartland of America – warm hearts, friendly smiles and kind words. Everyone I spoke with was open and enthu-siastic. A wonderful gathering of exceptional people. You really are a family business, and I am delighted to be a part of it.

» Via LinkedIn

Unbelievable weekend. I couldn’t even think of anything to put in the suggestion box. I told my wife that on our 25th we will have a lot to live up to. Wish me luck.

Would anyone care to share their favorite Canned Comment? By Timothy McGuckin (This discussion generated 60 comments!)

Chiming in on the smoke detectors comment. I have a standard comment that I put in the report for older homes and even newer ones. “The NFPA, National Fire Protection Associa-tion recommends replacing smoke detectors every 10 years.” This is also according to most manufacturers. Being a Fire Inspector for 8 years helps me in this area. Hope you all have a good day.

2012 Award Winners

Andy WallaceLos Osos, CA

Tony MarinoSt. Petersburg, FL

Bill & Brooke CushingCheyenne, WY

Mike BirenbaumAnaheim, CA

John NelsonManassas, VA

Highlights / Award Winners

Success Stories & Comments

Page 4

From Linked In

A production ofNational Property Inspections, Inc

9375 Burt Street, Suite 201Omaha, NE 68114

Phone (800) 333-9807

TM

» PLATINUM AWARD - Back row: Gretchen Nylander, John Braddock, George Nicholson, David Riley, Kenny Smith Front row: Ryan Isaacson, Bob Mc-Donough, Jackie Riley, Patrick Riley, Rich Buhrman

Happy Anniversary

» AMBASSADOR AWARD - Todd Newhook, Mike Oberacker

» RISING STAR AWARD - Wes & Crystal Grant

Anniversaries / Award Winners Page 5

2012 Award Winners (Continued)

» Congratulations on your anniversary with Nation-al Property Inspections, Inc.

Don McLeod Brandtford-Woodstock,

ON

5 YEARS

Greg Eckert Cincinnati, OH

Ismir Keranovic Calgary, AB

5 YEARS

John Nelson Manassas, VA

5 YEARS

Bob McDonough Atlanda, GA

10 YEARS

Chris Harr Columbus, OH

5 YEARS

Charlie Garcia Santa Clarita, CA

5 YEARS

Mike Hogan Ottawa, ON

Paul Supplee Williamsburg, VA

10 YEARS 10 YEARS 10 YEARS