*
I have been a remodeling carpenter for twelve years and am interested in possibly becoming a home inspector. I am interested in knowing how to go about training for home inspecting and what training programs are better than others. Also, are there any horror stories about home inspecting that may cause me to re-think my options?
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Learn how to fight wood-boring beetles and prevent home infestations with expert advice from Richard D. Kramer, an authority in pest control.
Featured Video
SawStop's Portable Tablesaw is Bigger and Better Than BeforeHighlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
*
Tom,
I have seen classes that teach home inspection at my local community college (orange coast college) as well as the adult ed classes offered by the city. Now (Disclaimer) I cant speak for the quality of the classes or the content of the classes as I have not taken any of them. I just seen the listings. Maybe you could talk to one of your local city inspectors and ask for suggestions.
*Do you have to go to school for that? I wonder if some of those guys made it through high school. Generally, bad builders or frustrated builders end-up wanting out and move on the bureaucratic way. All you need is pals at the building dept. On my last inspection, the guy was sick and send his wife to check my electrical. She had never seen a 4 prong 240V outlet before, so she said she had to check at the office before she could OK the job...fv
*I thought about doing home inspections in 1986. Went to a few meetings of the home inspectors association in southern CA, and went on a few inspections to see what they do. They were VERY CAREFUL TO NEVER OPEN OR MOVE ANYTHING. This was because they didn't want to be accused of causing a malfunction. "The dishwasher wasn't leaking until YOU came along." So none of them carried any tools except a good flashlight and a ladder.In general they were hated by the real estate agents because they ruined a lot of deals by spotting problems with homes.Their reports had to be worded very carefully so as not to be interpreted as guaranteeing the condition of something. Consider an intermittent lightswitch for example. It seems to work fine when you flip it on and off, so you give it the OK in your report. Then the buyer discovers that it Doesn't work sometimes, and he wants YOU to pay for a new one.If a major unit appears to be in good condition at the time of your inspection, are you going to guarantee that it won't break down in a month? six months? A year?My observation was that most of the inspectors spent more time in court than anywhere else, and most of them were NOT happy people. That is why I didn't go into the home inspection business.The industry may have changed in 15 years... I advise you to get to know a few inspectors and check it out before you leap.By the way, most of the guys who were doing inspections then are doing APPRAISALS now. Better pay and easier work.Best wishes.
*You started in the wrong field, you have to be an ex plumber to be a building inspector. Our regional inspector is and the stupid ass told me basically that he didn't know what quarter points for a beam was so he wasn't going to let me use them. Go figure.
*Building inspector and home inspector are two totally different things. The home inspector is the guy that is involved with buying/selling a house. There is a national alliance for home inspectors. Not sure of the name....home for lunch...I'll look it up later. I believe they have a web site. To join the membership, you have to do like 100 certified inspections first, and be in business for a certain amount of time. Then, they have updated training and such. Our home inspector was great, I did an extensive walk thru first, then happily paid the guy the $300 or so for a second opinion. I've considered this before, but feel I don't know enough about HVAC, and appliances to be quailfied. And, I don't want to learn enough about HVAC and appliances to be quailfied! Our guy found a bad heating element in the DW, a few minor gas leaks, something about the furnace, bad electrical splices in the basement and attic, and pegged the age of the roof and when a reroof will be needed. Our bank required an inspection for the mortgage. We had the sellers do about $1500 worth of repairs. Good return on the $300. Guess some are good, and some not. Jeff
*Make sure you have all the required tools.White cane.Guide dog.Dark glasses.Oh, and can you bend over far enough to put your head up yera$$ ?? If not, you don't qualify.hehehe
*Luka...duh you forgot the most obvious. 1) labotomy....2) failed business(some sort of construction related helps)
*How about a failed labotomy ?Seriously, though, I make these jokes because they are so easy. Not because that's what I actualy think of most inspectors.(Operative word being most, of course...)
*I've hired several different house inspectors over the years, and have also considered getting into this as a side line myself.I will never hire another one when I buy my next house. None of these guys caught anything I didn't see. I've always had to push them into going places they didn't want to check ("What, you want me to get in that crawl space?!?"). The guy's I've hired seemed to be people with little experience trying to make an easy buck. Sorry, I'm sure there ar great ones out there, I just haven't found one and not willing to waste another $300 trying again.Since there seems to be a lack of quality in this area locally, I was thinking I could do this part-time myself. I have a good relationship with realtors in the area and think I could make it fly. I am concerned about liability of hidden things not detected (ie bad wireing/plumbing/rot inside walls that isn't yet evident on the outside), and wonder what my liability insurance costs would be. Is there a licensing proceedure?
*Tom,I'm a (private) home inspector, doing inspections mainly for home buyers, some for sellers.It has gotten a lot easier since my lobotomy, although I keep misplacing my white caneAfter 6 years altogether, and 3 years doing nothing but HI's, I've come to realize technical skills and knowledge are only 1/3rd the battle. Business skills, esp marketing are another 1/3rd, and people skills/psychology are the last 1/2 (We're also good with math)Most HI's hold themselves out as generalists; you have to know enough to know when to refer the client to a specialist. (As I tell my clients: "If I knew as much as a licensed electrician, plumber, HVAC mechanic, structural engineer, roofer, appliance tech, window tech, etc, I'd be driving a Mercedes pickup and have 2 or 3 boys to carry my ladders. And, you'd be writing a bigger check.")One thing good HI's bring that the "specialists" sometimes miss is a "whole house" perspective.It can be a fairly high liability biz. Natioal average is 1 law suit/1,000 inspections.I have found it important to create an accurate understanding in my clients about what I can and can't do for them (and I have walked out on clients during inspections where I thought they had unrealistice expectations of what I could do for them or what kind of condition an older house should be in.)The leading trade association is the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) which you can find at http://www.ashi.com/Another association is National Assoiciation of Home Inspectors (NAHI) which is at http://www.nahi.com/I don't know much about NAHI; ASHI just finished it's annual convention in Vegas last week. Excellant speakers (mainly.)Take a look at the ASHI Standards of Practice; that'll give you a good idea of what an "industry standard" inspection will involve, but you've also got to see some inspectors in action, as well.I went to the Midwest Inspectors Institute a few years ago and recommend it. http://www.midwestinsp.com/Main.htm.At the time, I spoke to a dozen or so schools and don't regret choosing the above. The technical information was very good, the presentations were excellent! (5 1/2 8-10 hour days of instruction and the instructors kept our attention the whole time!)Some states have licensing or registration requirements, many are looking at licensing.I feel it's important to keep and communicate a sense of perspective; you don't want to scare your clients out of a decent house for minor stuff, you want to be sure they're aware of major stuff. (Communication skills are b very important.)It's a high turnover biz: in my area, there is a core of about 20 inspectors, every year 10 or so new ones turn up in the yellow pages, and 10 or so disappear.Don't rely on simple math: $250/inspection (prices vary region to region, but that's probably about the national average), 3 inspections a day, say 48 weeks a year. Hmmm. $180,000!!!! Ain't gonna happen. I know 2 home inspectors with a year or 2 experience and they each made about $25,000 gross the first year. There's a fair amount of overhead (more than is obvious.) E&O (starts about $1,500, and up), Reporting costs, marketing materials, milage (A LOT of milage) office, etc. I do about 450/year.Many (some?) home inspectors will take people considering the biz along on an inspection. (Try your local ASHI group, they give Con't Ed credits for this.)BTW, as surpising as this may seem, some builders don't like home inspectors! Sometimes its because they ran into a jerk HI who made mountains out of mole hills, sometimes it because the HI found some major non-conformity/screw up.I get along fairly well with the builders I know. (There are some I've decided not to get to know) When I spot some extra touch or something unusually well done, I point that out to my clients, I figure that's as important and meaningful as pointing out the problems.Bob WalkerNW Ohio
*Bob Walker-Good post!
*Gee Bob, I t'aint gonna get me a home inspector, I can run trim real nice, and frame a complex roof....so why bother? BTW....I totally agree with you. Hire a pro, listen to them! Like I said, I know next to nothing about HVAC, but know alot about the conditions of old homes.....the inspector probably didn't know as much about remodeling old homes as I do....but, he had a better full knowledge of the entire house. Sometimes, alot of general knowledge can be a good thing. And, the main reason I was gonna get an independent inspector, whether the band needed it or not.....was to get an unbiased opinion. My wife loved the look of the cute little house. I loved the old style of the cute little house....I knew I'd be the first one to minimize any defects, just so we'd go ahead and buy it! Ya can't knock an entire industry just because you screwed up and hired the wrong guy. Jeff
*I agree Bob, good post.Also, I am wondering why inspectors are called to task for stuff that there is no way anyone could have known. Short of doing demo work... No one wants the inspector to tear out the walls, pull off the siding, tear out the french drains, etc, yet everyone expects them to be able to magicaly know whether there is anything wrong there.Most people in the construction business who are any good at all at what they do, don't have those kinds of expectations from the inspectors. They know that if they are called in to do a, (for instance), bath repair, they have no way of knowing what they are going to find inside the wall or under the floor, until they actualy start to tear it apart.But homeowners expect the inspector to have some sort of house 'ESP' that is able to detect rot through a layer of drywall on top of an old plaster/lath wall. Or that enables him to know exactly how long the water heater element is going to last. Or to know that the french drains have filled halfway full of silt in two spots about halfway along the run, because they were not installed correctly.They also expect the inspector to crawl through an 18 inch crawlspace full of chicken manure, (the previous owners kept chickens under the house), and track every single pipe/wire from source to finish, for a measly 250 or 300 bucks. This same homeowner would never go into that same crawlspace for any amount of money.No, I don't think I'll ever be looking longingly at the job of house inspector.
*Jeff,I hired an inspector to do the house I'm in now, for the very reasons you mentioned. (Actually, I hired 2, fired the first one about an hour into the inspection.)FWIW, At the beginning of i every inspection I say:"Let's talk about the scope of the inspection. The intention of the standard home inspection is to look at exposed-to-view things. I can't see inside walls or through concrete. I'm mainly looking for things which are in need of major repair or which require further analysis by a specialist. Like a family doctor, I'm a generalist. Sometimes I'll see things I don't like or aren't done in accordance with usual practices, and I may refer you to a specialist for further review."(Note the "usual practices." "Code" is a 4 letter word for HI's. I do inspections in about 20 different code jusrisdictions, on all ages house. In most cases I won't know exactly when a feature was done, or know exactly what the particular jurisdiction's code was when something was done. I'll sometimes say: this isn't the way we'd do it today." Then give an explanation as to how important an upgrade to "current practices" might be.
*Bob,Excellent post and great view point. The one and only thing I can say about our HI's in this area is, most have a remodeling, construction or handyman business as well. Kinda makes me leary of conflict of interest.We had one guy come through one of our new houses for the buyer, he was originally from California, gave us a terrible report for not having ties and hurricane clips and all kinda stuff they do out there. The people didn't buy the house but I did have this guy come back out with our building inspector to get a clue as to how we do things here...Steven
*Stephen:The ASHI Code of Ethics prohibits doing any repair work on homes inspected to avoid that sort of conflict of interest. (It even prohibits recommending companies to do suggested repairs! I would never violate that Code of Ethics, of course, but on ocassion, I think some of my clients might have overheard me mutter to myself: "well, the 3 companies I would use on my own home for this kind of thing are x, y & z" )Those of us who just do inspections full time know for an absolute fact that the best HI's are those who do it full time; of course, the part time guys know for a fact that the way they do it is best!It is a bit tempting this time of year when inspection volume is low to accept repair work, but all it would take is one disgruntled person (agent) to start slamming me for taking repair work on a home I inspected and the whole biz could nose dive (word travels fast in small towns, malicious rumors even faster)
*I have hired a number of home inspectors over the years (I'm a moderately talented DIYer, so I expect to pick up the obvious stuff). Most have been useless, but 2 have been worth far more than they were paid. Like every other group, the good ones were worth it and the bad ones weren't.
*charlesaf3 -Anything you can think of that distinguished the good ones from the bad - in terms of picking a home inspector?E.g, were the good ones members of an org like ASHI? Did they have a particular background? Did you get referrals to them? From whom?
*
I have been a remodeling carpenter for twelve years and am interested in possibly becoming a home inspector. I am interested in knowing how to go about training for home inspecting and what training programs are better than others. Also, are there any horror stories about home inspecting that may cause me to re-think my options?