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.

It amazes me how you continue to compare ASHI's CANDIDATE requirments withe NACHI's full membership requirements.

That ASHI "calls someone a home inspector" just because it allows candidate status is a gross misrepresentation of the truth and I find it offensive. It is this type of misleading statement by you that caused me to get involved in this discussion. This is not NACHI vs ASHI. It is truth vs misrepresentation.

ASHI allows candidates because it helps them meet experience requirements to become full members. You have to become a candidate to get your experience and work quality verified.

NACHI requries neither experience or verification of quality so they do not need candidates.

The ONLY reason NACHI is gaining membership is it is so easy to meet the requirememts and NACHI has done an excellent job of convincing realtors that the certification means something.

NACHI members will never gain respect among their peers until the have a REAL exam.

Their exam is farce.

I hope NACHI someday uses their current exam to gain initial membership and develops a real exam for full membership status.

IF NACHI was for real they would be accepted by state HI licensing like ASHI is.

You have continuously distorted ASHI's position and policies and I would expect more from a moderator.

But don't take my word for it. Read the link below. They admit it is a joke. They promise to update it, but it still hasn't happened. Why? They want the money, not a real orgaization. Not for profit doesn't mean there are not paychecks involved. Nick is making tons.

http://www.inspectorsjournal.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1226

www.ableinspector.com

http://www.inspectorsjournal.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1226

Read this link. Read all of it and decide for yourself. It gets better and better as the thread goes on.

www.ableinspector.com

I decided long time ago, in fact, around March 23, 2003, which is when I joined NACHI after a year of CREIA, ASHI, HIF, FREA, NAHI, and SPREI.

Best wishes to you.

Best wishes to you as well.

When I first decided to go full time in the HI biz I had several ASHI members bend over backwards to help me out.

They gave me phone advice, two of them let me ride out for the day with them without charging me.

Another pointed me towards sources of business through CDC's and gave me a few other pointers.

Now that I have relocated and am starting over, I have had to call on a number of members for questions and help. Basic questions like which water lab do you use?

What would I do whithout ASHI and its generous members.

I honestly don't know what I would have done without ASHI. ASHI policy encourages helping newbies like I was. I even grants CEU's for giving a ride along.

I do know what I would have done without any of the trade associations; neither they, nor any trade association, has ever been criticial to my business success. However, I have always liked contributing to my chosen professions.

Unfortunately, none of the trade associations that I joined my first year allowed for me to volunteer to help others. In spite of my various experience in real estate over 30 years, I was only a newby home inspector, and newby home inspectors, at least at that time, weren't welcome. In fact, as recently as these this past year, newby home inspectors (or at least non-members of CREIA and ASHI) aren't welcome. I had employees who came back from conventions begging me to never send them to another CREIA or ASHI convention. I knew from where they came; I had been there myself.

Interestingly, I always thought that it was new blood in the pipeline that allows organizations to continue to grow. Doesn't seem to be the thinking at some organizations.

Nevertheless, I've been able to contribute as much as I want over at NACHI, and while I have a few different pies cooking in the oven, I contribute over there as much as I can each day. I love helping others, regardless of how that help is perceived. But when the perception becomes brutal, I usually go somewhere else.

Each organization has its strengths and weaknesses. Hopefully, each organization's members can work to improve those. As my wise grandmother once told me, "You have to change to stay the same."

Were would you say the best place would be to take the course to be certified. I looked at the requirements of ASHI, how do they expect a new guy to be able to even be a member? I'm not taking sides in the arguement over ASHI and NACHI.

They don't expect you to be a member until you somehow go out and get experience, etc. Well how does that help (1) ASHI, or (2) the consuming public?

I'm not sure what you mean by "certified" because few states have certification, which is what makes so many anti-NACHI so angry since the "C" in NACHI stands for "Certified," i.e., the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors. Good marketing on Nick's part, but it has upset a lot of people in the industry, especially the other trade associations who didn't jump on that type of marketing when it was available.

If you're looking for home inspector training, though, there are quite a few good schools. Although I myself did not go to any school, I have no problem recommending ITA. You will probably need to supplement your schooling with additional schooling (pools, tennis courts, electrical, fire places/chimneys, etc.). I haven't seen any curriculum from any school that covers everything in the time they allot for "training."

Go to inspectionnews.com or nachi.org and do a search on "home inspector schools" or "home inspector training", etc., and you'll probably get more than you bargained for.

Thanks for your reply. I live in Indiana and I'm pretty sure you have to complete some sort of state reconized training along with some other hoops the state thought up.

James,

I am originally from Indiana. I have several contacts there and I can pass your name along.

With all due respect to Russel, his portrayal of ASHI membership and candidacy is not accurate.

You start out in ASHI as a candidate. You will be given state contacts to help you achieve full membership.

The current state chapter president is an extremely nice guy and I can guarantee you he will help you out.

There is even a local school which I can only give luke warm recommendations about.

Come to think of it Ivy Tech now has a HI school. That may be the one you want. Contact Steve Surette of Surette and assoc. in Indy. He is one of the instructors and can give you further info.

Ed Grist is the chapter pres and his contact info can be obtained from ashi.org

If you need any further help my web site is www.ableinspector.com

It should be done with repairs by tomorrow.

Thanks for the info, that will give me some direction. One more question and I will leave you alone. In your opinion do you think it is better to start out working for some one else or to just start your own company in the begining?

If you start out working for someone else, you probably should keep to yourself the fact that you are going to start your own company. No one really wants to train the competition so well, even though, ultimately, many people start their own businesses after having worked for someone else for many years.

This is my sixth company that I have created during my business career, and I always have jumped in feet first. I personally don't believe in doing something part time or, if I wanted my own company, working for someone else for a short period to get training. Of course, I have always had a good savings account set aside so that I didn't have to worry about paying the bills while I worked to establish my company.

And with all due respect to AbleInspector and ASHI, NACHI will probably do a better job for you of helping get you started. My expertise over the years has been in marketing/advertising, and I contribute a great deal at NACHI in those areas to help you get your home inspection business started. The marketing forums are in the Members Only Area, though, but if you would like some snippets of what we do at NACHI in the marketing/advertising realm, email me privately.

www.buyerpeaceofmind.com.

Thanks again for your input, it's always nice to hear from someone who has been there and done that. Especially for a new guy. I am on duty Thursday and leaving for vacation Friday for a week so I will email you when I get back about NACHI. Thanks again.