TOPIC: Question About Becoming a Home Inspector

Aww shucks!

This is a great thread but sometimes i think some of the senior more experienced Home Inspectors can be incredibly negative. I would hope that the training and certification process would weed out those without any real desire or necessary knowledge. I guess joining this forum i hoped for more of a brotherhood.

Hi Kaz! You'll find that the member share are extremely helpful. Many of them started up and struggled financially in the beginning so it's more that they're speaking from experience. Of course how the market is when you start has some to do with that too.

When I first started I had a 20+ year background in remodeling and various trades.  I took an 11 day class from the top school at the time.  That was 2005.  Out of 16 in my class, only 1 other besides myself is still inspecting.  The others did not make it through the crash of 2008-2010, heck some didn't make it through the boom of 2006-2007.

This is not an easy business.  Plan on spending $10k off the top for school, additional training, tools and basic business items like business cards, software, computers, printers, business licenses, and marketing materials.  Don't forget your financial set up as well.  It may mean incorporation or another type of business entity.  Only your attorney and accountant can give you information that is specific to your state and your business.  Sure you can rely on generic contracts and word of mouth advise from a variety of message boards, but in the end, if you want to be a professional and set up your business correctly, you should have an attorney and CPA to help you the first couple years.

You also need to research your specific service area.  How many inspectors are in your service area?  What is the average inspection price in your traveling range?  Some states are $350, some states are $250.  Some states have weather issues during times of the year that do not allow for multiple inspections per day, some do not.  If you are in an area where the normal price is $250, how many inspections do you need to live on?  I would venture to say that the average inspector might get to 100 inspections their first year.  If your area real estate market is still slow or on the small size, it may take 2 years to reach that amount, or longer.  That would be $25k gross in two years.  Take off the gas, taxes, insurance, supplies, marketing and other various costs and how much will that leave you?  Enough to live on?

Sure there are inspectors that do very well due to their previous contacts or perhaps they bought an existing business.  Don't fall for the, "Make $75k working part-time and set your own hours" bullshit that some schools have in their advertising.  The odds of doing that are in the very slim range.  Since you don't have any construction or trade background, I highly suggest you find a school that has hands on training as part of their curriculum.  If you have never seen the inside of a furnace, electrical panel or the structure of a home, you have a LOT to learn.  And regardless of what online schools or trainers tell you, until you have seen something in person and been able to touch some of those items, a picture, powerpoint or diagram just won't prepare you for real world work.

Good luck.

I will second Stephen's opinion about your service area?

I can't break into my local service area (where I live) because it's flooded with new inspectors and old ones that have it wrapped up. I know all the builders. I used to be a realtor there 30 years ago, still have many contacts and friends who own real estate companies. These types of realtors don't sell anymore, they run businesses.

The perception is that home inspection is an unnecessary necessity.

I prefer to drive to Nashville and work the corporate music industry. Realtors are professional and dedicated. Clients really want to know what you have to say.

As I posted before somewhere, if you're coming from the construction industry because things are slow, consider the numbers. Of all the houses that are constructed, not all of them are sold by realtors, not all of what realtors sell a get inspected, and home inspectors are at the bottom of the food chain and flood the market with their numbers and low inspection fees which they cannot survive upon.

The sheer number of new inspectors trying to get a start, playing the Walmart game (cheaper drives business), are so frequent that they are a constant challenge to the seasoned home inspector. They come and they go, and they come and they go some more. Their sheer numbers offset the potential "washout". Just because they come and can't make it, doesn't mean you're okay now, because in the year it took them to fail you have another 15 inspectors trying to fill the slot.

You ask for perspective, you get perspective and then we are negative thinking. We are pragmatists.

Good luck with your endeavor, you can succeed if you do it professionally and perceive yourself as a professional. What you learn in home inspection school does not make you a professional. It's what you bring to the table.

Kaz...find out about local business networking groups...some are good, some are not so good. I happen to be in a Local BNI group in St Charles, IL which is phenomenal. I'm in a group with 25 other local business owners, and they ARE my co-workers. There's an attorney, CPA, plumper, mortgage lender, electrician, psychologist, Realtor...etc. We rely on each other and work together. Training and certification/licensing is the bare minimum.   Strive to be #1, but never have that pompous, or that cocky "no-it-all" attitude.  Example....just recently, a home inspector from Illinois called in to the WGN Lou Manfredini "Mr Fix-it" National Radio Show.  The guy had suck a cocky attitude.  They let him speak...but as soon as he hung-up...they tore that guy apart for the next hour, "rightfully so"!  Just like any business... you're going to have competition...but if there was no competition, that would also mean there is no demand.