I'm an agent, and my husband was thinking of becoming a home inspector for part time.... Is it worth it? And does anyone have any suggestions as to where he can/should get certified?

Part time? I would say it's not worth it, all things considered (aggravation, insurance, liability, etc.).

I don't know Virginia's home inspector laws/regulations/certification requirements, so I can't help you there at this point.

However, feel free to visit nachi.org and ask the question on their free message board. You'll find some Virginia home inspectors who are only too happy to help you.

I disagree, foxtoy your husband should definitely go for it if that is what he wants to do. I started part time and scheduled my inspections for Saturdays. It took about a year before I was able to inspect full-time. The key is not to give up. Have your husband e-mail me and I will reply with several links to help him get started. It is a great profession and gets better every day.

As long as your husband has other work, or you don't mind being his sugar-mamma of sorts for the first couple of years. Starting out is tough! Lots of expenses and not much income...of course, he obviously has an "in" with one realtor already so that will help.

I am thinking about doing the same thing, any recommendations in regards to correspondence training, ITA, IHA, etc..,
thanks a bunch.

IMO, the best correspondence training available is by Carson Dunlap or ASHI at Home. ITA has a good program but I would go to one of their schools, ITA have some of the best instructors in the profession. You can't beat the hands on training at a school.

Most inspectors start out part-time and then move into full-time. It will take a few years to reach the point that you can work full-time and have a good income. You will need to choose real estate or home inspections, you can't do both.

I would also take and pass the NHIE http://www.homeinspectionexam.org/
This is the benchmark for all home inspectors in the country and is used by 17 of the states that have licensing. Chances are when Ohio adopts HI licensing they will also choose the NHIE for their state exam.

Scott covered it all pretty well. ASHI is clearly the premier HI organization. NACHI is a distant second, but has a lot to offer in some respects.

At one time, ASHI, indeed, was the premier trade association for home inspectors. However, it seems that by a cleverly calculated series of missteps by the organization, they have run a great number of their home inspectors out of the organization.

Four years ago, when I was a member, ASHI claimed over 5,000 members. A board member posted earlier this year that they were down to 3,200 members. Well, those members, many of them seasoned, competent inspectors, went elsewhere to satisfy their trade association membership. And many of them went to NACHI, which currently has about 6,600 verifiable inspectors on its roll.

Numbers, of course, are not the be-all and end-all to determining which association is the best, and it is my belief that no one association currently serves all of its members, or the general public for that matter, very well. That, in and of itself, probably says more than anything why there are so many national and state trade associations in the home inspection industry (NACHI, ASHI, NAHI, SPREI, FREA, HIF, CREIA, KREIA, FABI, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum).

My advice would be to do as I did, join them all, see what they have to offer, see which one you fit in well with, and then stay and contribute.

I am in the same boat as foxtoy's husband.I would like to start my own part-time HI business. It would probably never go full time because I am a firefighter full time. The nice thing is I only work every third day, so I would have plenty of time to do this part-time. My biggest problem is I don't know where to start, and who to get my traing through.

NACHI's membership has been growing because it is so darned easy to join. You can be a member without ever completing a single inspection.

NACHI's test is so easy it is a joke. I got 118 out of 120 while watching TV.

It took me 1 year to meet ASHI's requirememts.

It took me less than 1 hour to meet NACHI's requirements.

You tell me which is more meaninful.

www.ableinspector.com

James,

That is exactly how I started out. I was a FF full time. Eventually I quit the FD and now concentrate on the inspections. It's nice being home every night.

The FF is an absolutely perfect setup.

Only caution is I have seen many FF's try and fail. If you don't have a strong construction background, I would not recommend it.

If you do, contact a quality school like ITA.

www.ableinspector.com

What is more meaningful is how one contributes to one's profession. Because of ASHI's arrogance, many have chosen to go elsewhere to contribute to their profession.

I have no doubt that ASHI will recover, but I believe they lost the opportunity to be the leader in the industry. They are no better than any of the other national trade associations. In fact, I would probably recommend any of the various state trade associations, such as CREIA here in California and KREIA in Kentucky, over any of the national associations.

Unfortunately, CREIA has it's own type of arrogance. With the arrogance of CREIA and ASHI, both of which I was a member of during the height of their arrogance, I chose to join NACHI a couple of years ago. And I contribute to NACHI.

I would encourage everyone reading this to join any trade association (or all of them, as I did) and determine which is best for you. Then contribute to making that organization better.

You get out what you put in. Unfortunately, in some circumstances, some organizations don't want any input, leaving one feeling left out and, ultimately, causing one to drop out of that organization and go elsewhere. That is what has happened to ASHI.

Granted, there is a level of arrogance at ASHI. But you compare that to the arrogance of Nick Gromicki (NACHI)? He has to be one of the more arrogant people on earth.

There are multiple posts on NACHI's own chat board slamming him for being so arrogant. Honestly, his extreme arrogance is what keeps me from becoming a full member. Nick makes Donald Trump look like a kitten in comparison.

Hopefully NACHI's success (if you call it that) will force ASHI to wake up and be more sensitive to member's needs. I am in the process of hammering them now on this topic.

However, you completely avoided my point. ASHI membership is far more meaninful than NACHI.

The ASHI test takes hours to complete. The NACHI test takes less than an hour. The NACHI exam is a TOTAL JOKE! There are posts on a different board by people who took it and passed it who have no inspection training at all! One person on this board is a PAINTER - and he passed it.

There is no comparison between ASHI membership and NACHI membership.

Until NACHI gets a REAL entrance exam, I will continue to have NO RESPECT for them, or their members. My 13 year old son could pass that joke of a test.

www.ableinspector.com

The main difference between ASHI and NACHI in my mind is that NACHI at least requires a test of knowledge before they will take your money. ASHI and many of the others take one's money first, calls the person a home inspector, and then, usually within 12-18 months, forces the home inspector to actually pass a knowledge test.

Most of the people who dislike NACHI do so out of sheer jealousy because there apparently is a valid alternative to ASHI. Numbers many times do speak for themselves, and I'll just let NACHI's membership speak for the organization. Perhaps it might be more valid to compare NACHI at five years old to where ASHI was when it was five years old. I think NACHI probably wins that battle.

Nevertheless, I've got far better things to do than get into an ASHI/NACHI hammerfest. It's been done in many places, and, as a moderater here, I'd rather keep this a little more on the professional side since this is a Realtors' site.