The about-face followed increasingly vocal outcry from home inspectors and Gov. Mike Easley, who warned that the rule change could harm consumers.

It is unclear whether real estate professionals will continue to push for the change. But experts say their organization, money and influence helped to get the proposal this far in the first place. The group has been traditionally successful at using political clout to get its way. Just this week, the real estate industry helped defeat proposals across the state that would have added a transfer tax to home sales.

Members of the state board that licenses home inspectors voted Friday to reject, for now, a rule change that would have prevented home inspectors from recommending upgrades and safety repairs for homes in the summary section of their reports. Opponents say the real estate industry wanted the change to reduce home inspectors' potential to delay or derail home-sale closings amid a nationwide housing slump.

"The proposed change caused a lot of concern," said James Liles, board vice chairman, who originally supported the measure. "Any time enough information comes to us that generates enough concern, it's important."

The board's decision Friday came one month after it tentatively approved the rule change. The initial ruling fueled fierce opposition from home inspectors statewide -- more than two dozen picketed the N.C. Home Inspector Licensure Board's meeting Friday morning.

A muzzled mouth

One inspector, John Farnum of Raleigh, protested with his hands tied in rope and mouth muzzled to express his outrage.

"This is a victory for homeowners and home buyers in North Carolina," said Frank Moore, a home inspector from Wake Forest who was among those picketing.

The board received dozens of letters from inspectors opposing the change and none in favor.

This week, Easley sent a stern letter to the board asking members to back off the measure, which he said would hurt consumers. Seth Effron, Easley's spokesman, said Friday the governor was pleased, but Effron declined to comment further.

The board voted 4 to 2 to send the proposal back to a committee, which has until March to recommend a new alteration or abandon the effort. Jim Long, the state insurance commissioner who sits on the board, voted in favor of tabling the rule change, a reversal from his support of the rule a day earlier.

Supporters of the measure, led by real estate agent John Hamrick, who began the effort two years ago when he was chairman of the board, said the change would benefit consumers by standardizing all reports and making information uniform and readable throughout.

Opponents argued that it would jeopardize safety by burying important problems or needed repairs in the often-detailed inspection reports.

Several opponents said they were confident that the real estate agents' effort would fade before the board's March deadline to revisit it, despite powerful real estate interests in support of the change.

'Whimpering death'

"I think this may die a quiet, whimpering death," said Marion Peeples, an inspector from Oak Ridge who helped organize the protest.

Board member Liles voted to send it to committee Friday. "It might not come up again," Liles said when asked about the proposed rule's chances of survival.

Liles could have a conflict of his own: He's a licensed real estate broker. The licensure board has, by statute, only one slot for a real estate appointee, and that seat is filled by Hamrick. Easley appointed Liles to the board specifically as a home inspector, a profession in which he is licensed but inactive.

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