Private Home Inspectors - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

jcalvin · 08-01-2008, 10:58 PM

I am curious about using the down time in the market to work on becoming a home inspector. I have been lucky enough to work a few projects that were required before a home would sale. The jobs were quick, mostly fairly easy, and always paid well and on time.

Is there anyone out there that knows the process or any educational material/seminars on becoming a home inspector in NC? I am not aware of any in my area so I think it could be a good way to fill in the slack.

**Teetorbilt** · 08-01-2008, 11:34 PM

Here, a license is $25.00 and you're in business! There is another level (certified or something) that requires so many hours under a 'certified inspector'. Here, you can not have a business or be affiliated with a business that has anything to do with homes or construction.

Here, figure $200-400 a day + liability ins. These guys get tagged alot, nobody likes to hear about all of the faults in their 'perfect' home.

Mike B · 08-03-2008, 05:30 PM

I can't comment on NC, because here the industry is still unregulated and slightly self-regulated, but I'm doing something similar but plan on making Inspections my full time endeavor and putting Renos on the back burner, a conflict of interest seldom promotes confidence in potential clients.

I'm doing my studies through AHIT (American Home Inspection Training Institute) and my business plan involves some somewhat different approaches to the home inspection house buyers have come accustomed to. It will likely ruffle some feathers with the other Inspectors in my area, but it's an obvious gap in the process that I feel Real Estate buyers like myself have been getting the short stick on for years.....and I plan on changing that.

OCRS · 08-03-2008, 07:22 PM

My brother is a RHI. He gets min. $150 /hr. Usually $450 per and it takes 3 hrs. Sometimes 1 hr. Being RHI will bring you more calls. This is Canada, but depending on your market, it pays well.

mdshunk · 08-03-2008, 07:23 PM

check out www.nachi.org

I'm not sure that now is the time to become a home inspector. Homes aren't selling, so not many inspections to do.

orson · 08-03-2008, 08:17 PM

I'm not sure how it works in other locals but here all you have to do(besides licensing) is sell your soul to the realestate agents who are referring all the home inspection work.

OCRS · 08-03-2008, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orson

I'm not sure how it works in other locals but here all you have to do(besides licensing) is sell your soul to the realestate agents who are referring all the home inspection work.

Yep. But in the end, it's the same as any contracting work, volume of calls gives you a level of control.

LNG24 · 10-27-2008, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orson

I'm not sure how it works in other locals but here all you have to do(besides licensing) is sell your soul to the real estate agents who are referring all the home inspection work.

Semi old post so sorry for hashing it back up:

Reference: New York

Any Real Estate Agent that recommends ONE inspector is a fool. By common law, anything less than three names will constitute a recommendation and you, the agent and broker whom the agent works under, will be held liable if things go south.

Even if I provide you with three names, I will also include a trade organization for you to research on your own and make your own choice.

WHY? Easy: If a home goes south after closing the buyers will want to sue everyone. By contract law, the "Engineer" aka: Home Inspector, is liable for up to his take or somewhere between $400 and $800. The Buyer's Broker...well thats where the big bucks are so who do you think they will be going after?

There is no way I will put my rep and paycheck on the line for a home inspector. Any agent who does should not be practicing RE Sales anymore.

and for the record, there are, like in any trade, Good Inspectors and Bad. A good Inspector will clearly explain the workings of a house and break down items in categories. Critical, Urgent and Needs attention along with time lines. A Bad Inspector will convince a buyer that the caulking that needs to be redone around the front door or windows is the death of all. Or they will insist that the house be brought up to todays code even though the C/O is 20 years old.

BKFranks · 10-27-2008, 08:01 PM

This thread is a couple months old

orson · 10-27-2008, 08:31 PM

LNG,

We're on the less regulated side of things here in PA. Unfotunately home inspections don't operate that way here.

My cousin is an inspector and a very good one. He gave up on the residential inspection market because he wasn't willing to give half-assed home inspections so realtors could make their sale.

He now does just bank inspections on commercial projects.

A friend of my family recently bought a house and I recommended they use my cousin for a home inspection, or, if they didn't care to pay for a home inspection I offered to look the house over as a friend.

They opted to use the inspector recommended by the realtor.

The inspector looked in the attic and made a few comments about the air conditioning equipment and the insualtion in the attic.

I was up the attic of their split level checking out the insulation.

while I was there I happened to notice a few things about an addition that had been put on the house.

The local university had supplied the labor and "expertise" to build an addition onto this house. The original roof framing was done with webbed trusses so the university decided they could also use 2x4's for rafters.

They ran a 2x6 ridge pole that was sitting on top of a 2x4 nailed flat against the insulation on the gable wall and the other end was toe-nailed into the old rake board.

One of the rafters was cracked in half for about 2 feet from the ridge down.

The inspector didn't even bother to look at the framing while he was crouched right next to it.

That's a pretty average home inspection in PA in my experience.

Home Serve · 10-27-2008, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Yep. But in the end, it's the same as any contracting work, volume of calls gives you a level of control.

Your "volume of calls" depends directly on how many Realtors recommend you and nothing else for the first 5 years. The Realtors is who you market your business to.
I used to be a home inspector, if you don't know how to walk a very fine line it is almost impossible to be truthful. I couldn't do it, good $$$$ tho. At first I thought I could get around it but never could, you hit a bad house and are truthful with the prospective buyer and the first thing that Realtor does is bad mouth you all over the office.

bsp · 11-05-2008, 03:16 PM

I am a building contractor in NC and thought the same thing a few years back. Unfortunately I have been very disappointed in the home inspection business. Having been on the receiving end of many inspections I felt I knew what I was getting into. I was wrong. From what I saw the potential rewards did not out weigh the potential risks, especially in a down market. The process is potentially full of conflicts of interest and even corruption. The "client" on an inspection is often times not the one who will pay your bills. That person is the agent or agents. If your report blows a deal or two you will not hear from that agent again. I spent countless hours kissing agent butt knowing that a single bad report could blow it all away. In order to protect yourself from litigation (very big risk) you must be very thorough which often opens you up to litigation from the other side. All that being said it can be an interesting job, and when the market returns maybe even a profitable one. NC requires a license but if you already have a contractors license you can skip the apprenticeship part of the pre-requisites. It requires significantly more knowlege than one might think, a lot more than the typical general contractor needs. I know I may be discouraging you but you should go in with your eyes open. Check out NC dept of insurance website for info on licensing.

Wdavis3910 · 12-24-2008, 09:11 AM

I've done hundreds of Home Inspections in North Carolina - at this time the industry is dead. Don't base your business on the real estate agent they will screw you.

Tom
William Davis Builders

bwalley · 02-26-2009, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teetorbilt

Here, a license is $25.00 and you're in business! There is another level (certified or something) that requires so many hours under a 'certified inspector'. Here, you can not have a business or be affiliated with a business that has anything to do with homes or construction.

Here, figure $200-400 a day + liability ins. These guys get tagged alot, nobody likes to hear about all of the faults in their 'perfect' home.

I have seen many of the reports by these Home Inspectors, many of them have no clue what they are doing, they will say something isn't up to Code, yet they can't cite the code they are talking about.

Home inspectors should be licensed just like Building Inspectors or Contractors.

It is an unregulated trade in Florida, any hack with $50 can be a Home Inspector.

LNG24 · 02-26-2009, 09:26 AM

Funny, both guys are in Florida and we have two different views. Imagine that.

BWalley; Just like in ANY business, including yours and ALL of mine, there are Professionals and Hacks and everything in between. There is Certification for all Home Inspectors Nationwide. Some states go further and have licensing laws. If Florida does not, and I am surprised because of your GC laws, they maybe you should push for it to happen. Just remember that getting a license from the state does not make you a professional! Again, just look within our own industries that do require license.

Real Estate Agents hate Home Inspectors
Home Sellers Hate Home Inspectors
Buyers Hate Home Inspectors when they miss something hidden inside a wall.

Everyone sues Home Inspectors; See above

Of course there are people who love Home Inspectors; See Above

Same people that hate them love them when the Home Inspector finds a major problem and prevents a major lawsuit or even better...saves a life!

As I tell my inspectors; if you miss something you should have found, I am siding with the buyer! My buyer is hiring YOU to learn how this home works and spot problems and potential problems. It is not YOUR job to keep the deal together, that MY job. If I hire a mechanic to look at a car before I buy it, I don't expect it to break down a day later.

A good inspector will have no fear of killing a deal and he should immediately report any agents that accuses him of such. For the record, I will also stand behind any inspector that did his job and the homeowner tries to go after him later for something no one could have known.

bwalley · 02-26-2009, 09:36 AM

I am sure Florida will eventually start requiring Home Inspectors to be licensed, they have been adding new license categories lately and some counties are requiring more and more trades to be licensed.

Luckily there are not too many areas in construction in Florida that is not required to be licensed.

I have no problem with Home Inpsectors that know what they are doing, I have seen many reports where they nit pick little stuff, but completely miss or ignore rotted wood and structural issues.

One guy wanted a townhouse that was built in the early 80's up to the current building code, because he thought everytime a house was sold, it had to comply with current building code.

I have also talked to some of them for clarification on their reports about a code issue and asked them what code they were talking about, 1 guy said Bob Vila said it was code.

I used to do home inspection reports for realtors in the hope of getting future clients, but many of them wanted the minimum hack work to be done, just so they could close the deal, some of them would only call me when they needed work done on their house or if they needed to prove the contractor doing the repairs had a license.

Aiken Colon · 02-26-2009, 08:05 PM

Austin Texas as well as Canada are passing bills, or may have already that not only require a home inspection for a real estate transaction, but also an energy audit. There are other states that are planning this. I am sure very soon, mainly due to the energy efficiency part of the stimulus bill, this will become very standard US wide.

Kenton · 03-31-2009, 10:43 PM

Many states have no requirements and they often have a lot of non-professionals who give the home inspection industry a bad name. Even in states with requirements, those requirements vary.

www.nachi.org to find out how to enter this business.

I'm head trainer and course writer for InterNACHI. I'm also Director of Green Building and Director of International Development.
My courses and I are approved for continuing home inspector education in about 16 states.

If you're interested in becoming a home inspector start by taking one of our many free inspection courses and watching one of our 60 free online inspection-related videos. You won't find this type or quality of inspection education anywhere else and certainly not for free.

WE offer many, many benefits to our members including a huge amount of marketing help in a tough economy. I think it was January, we gave away 100 sets of homegauge software to the first 100 inspectors who asked. Homegauge sells for about $1000.

All through February we sent box after box of 80 page glossy homeowners guides to inspectors who were ordering them 50 to 100 at a time. The usually sell to inspectors for $2.00 each. We sent them all out for free for inspectors to give customers.

We were filming free commercials which we'd put online and them give the inspector a link for his website. Our website has 235,000 pages and gets 260 million hits a year. Great SEO. It was a shame... hardly anyone took advantage of it.

Go to nachi.org and look through the site and then compare it to other inspection trade organizations. See how many free, online comprehensive inspection courses you find on their sites, see how much free marketing help you get from them, then look to see what the InterNACHI educational requirements are for the first 2 years.

Our goal is to produce professionals and help them be successfull.

Micvanlen · 06-13-2009, 07:52 PM

Are many home inspectors structural engineers? I'm getting a lot of requests to remove weight bearing walls and I can't find structural engineers focused on residental to save my life.

Jordy3738 · 06-13-2009, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdshunk

check out www.nachi.org

I'm not sure that now is the time to become a home inspector. Homes aren't selling, so not many inspections to do.

If prices keep dropping, I think we are going to see an explosion in home sales. It's like the stock market, when things get low enough everybody will start buying.

People are going through tough times and having to unload properties for dirt cheap. There is a market to tap into but it's just not as lively as it was two years ago.