On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 23:27:01 GMT, Dan wrote:

On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 22:28:56 GMT, Lit Ticker
wrote:

Does anyone have experience in this area? There was an ad in the local
paper for a class that was 60 hours (10 hrs per day, Friday, Sat and
Sun spread out over two weekends). It included one field trip to
participate in a home inspection. After the class, you were supposed
to be prepared enough to pass a certification test in Illinois. I live
in Ohio where there is no certification requirements. The cost was
$1795, which after researching other classes on the web, wasn't
unreasonable. There is an opportunity to make $100/hr since each home
inspection takes 3 hrs to complete and typically costs $275 - $325.
The guy I spoke with said he knows one person that's making $200K/year
but is doing 3 inspections per day which is pushing it. I imagine the
hardest part of this business would be marketing your self to realtors
and getting your name known. The yellow page had quite a few home
inspectors available but I'm not sure what the demand would be to know
if the market is saturated. Does anyone know of any pitfalls to this
line of work? TIA
Lit Ticker

*Please REMOVE the obvious for my correct email address*

I hate to discourage you, but if you have to attend a class to do
this, you're probably going to have a hard time. Every house is
different and a solid background in building, remodeling, plumbing,
mechanical, electrical and code requirements is just the beginning. I
do home inspections but I also do a lot of new construction
inspections and commercial plan review work as well. Client
expectations are high and you better be prepared to back your report
up in court if you don't want to wind up broke. Check the
International Code Council's web site for additional qualifications
that could help you stay out of trouble. That said an ASHI
certificate is virtually a necessity.

Good Luck!

Speaking as a homeowner, I doubt very much that I would ever hire
someone who's only experience was 60 hours of "classroom" training.

Look at the math: I could hire you with zero eperience in the
business and zero experience in construction and pay $300 or I can
hire someone who's been a contractor or engineer or builder for years
and has also maybe done 1,000 or more home inspections for .... $300
or so. See the problem?

And even if you undercut the price, I'm not interested in saving a
hundred bucks or so when the item being inspected is a $400,000 house
that will hold my family and my life. Maybe if you posted a bond for
the value of the house and left it there for five years until I knew
the place was as sound as you said it was. Probably cost more than
you'd make ont he job though.

This is one business where you need experience to even think of
starting or only fools will hire you and fools are often the first to
sue when things go sour.

Not to be offensive but consider becoming a city code inspector,
judging by reports here, some places only check to see if you are
breathing before they send you out to pass judgement on other people's
work.

Jim P.