Why Some HGTV Fans Can't Stand Mike Holmes

Mike Holmes has racked up an impressive net worth thanks to his many HGTV offerings, and the fact that he's had so many shows over the years certainly suggests that he has a big following. However, not everyone is a fan. In fact, a number of home inspectors have taken to online forums to complain about him. Their gripe? The way he portrays them. 

Taking to the forums section of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (or InterNACHI) website, countless home inspectors have called out Holmes' habit of disparaging their professionalism. Sure enough, Holmes has written on his website, Make it Right, that he went into the home inspection business after coming across a number of inspectors who he felt weren't fit for the job. "Many home inspectors in the field weren't properly trained or qualified to spot issues in the house," he wrote in one blog post. Holmes also reasoned that that was a major issue for the profession as a whole, and stood to hurt countless unwitting homeowners. However, InterNACHI members felt as though his generalizations painted all of them in a bad light. 

Responding to a thread titled, ahem, "Mike Holmes is an Idiot" (yikes), one disgruntled inspector penned, "Mike Holmes has made it a practice to continually trash home inspectors. After [swinging] his trusty sledgehammer, the next comment is usually 'The home inspector shouldn't have missed this.' Mikey tends to forget, we aren't Superman, we don't have x-ray vision and we don't have a production company behind us giving us all the details we need." The inspector finished off his rant with a zinger: "Our profession is based on experience, training and education, not HGTV and their merry men." Yeah ... like we said, not everyone is a fan. 

"Holmes Family Rescue" fans were no doubt shocked (and maybe even a little sad) when Mike Holmes found himself in legal trouble over home inspections. ICYMI, Holmes was accused of giving properties in the TerraceWood developments the green light, only for them to be found to be riddled with defects to the point of some even needing to be demolished. It later turned out that Holmes' inspection company hadn't done any of the inspections. However, the fact that he was involved in the project in other ways, including marketing for the development, gave the impression he had signed off on the homes, and certainly raised a lot of eyebrows. 

Unsurprisingly, Holmes' haters over on the InterNACHI forums were thrilled to have new ammunition. One even quipped, "The home inspector should have caught it before it got to this point." Another of his critics slammed Holmes' attempted explanation video. "He answered some easy questions, threw most of us under the bus and promoted his inspection business with half-truths," they wrote, adding that they questioned his integrity.

At the time of this writing, the outcome of the lawsuit (which named a number of parties in addition to The Holmes Group) has not been resolved. As for what's happened to Holmes in the meantime, he's continued working in the construction business and recording his podcast, "Holmes on Homes." Having said that, we have a feeling that his haters over at InterNACHI probably aren't tuning in.