First post; First Inspection

[Michael P. Rodman]

Hello to all,

Background: 15 years of residential and commercial insurance sales coupled with 9 years of construction prior to that.

A new partnership in the insurance office didn't work out well and I left the industry after 15 years and thousands of property inspections for both commercial and residential properties. Although not as detailed as the average Home Inspector completes.

Career change: With a decision to make a career change and the purchasing of some rental property, I watched as a Home Inspector plied his trade. It wasn't long after, materials from AHIT and Kaplan-ITA were on their way. I did look into attending a Home Inspection school/seminar but decided to go with the Home Study route.

A few days ago I completed my first Home Inspection and slugged my way through the Home Gauge software without looking into the Help options or the online manual.

Yesterday I deposited my first check.

Being a "New Guy" is nothing new to me personally. I've worked on commissions for 15 years and in my mind woke up unemployed every morning. As I become better at Home Inspections and earn more, I fully intend on becoming a paid member here and downloading informative videos as I grow.

For now, the consensus between the wife and I are to invest the earnings back into the business as we go, increase the advertising and marketing efforts and allow the business to build upon itself.

I thank you for your time and patience and hopefully I might be able to answer insurance questions for you, as I might have industry specific questions to ask of you!

Again, I find this site to be highly beneficial and look forward to becoming a bigger part of it in the future.

Respectfully for my first post,

Mike

[mnahrgang]

Mike,

As a new inspector, the best investment you could make right now is InterNACHI membership. The amount of FREE training that is available to you is worth 10 or even 20 times what your membership dues are (probably more than that.)

In spite of your experience, and with all due respect, you need that information.

Best of luck to you.

Mark

[Bob Elliott]

Yep
Get in now as I credit NACHI with my success.
Get the benefits of membership.

Do not wait.

[Michael P. Rodman]

I respect and agree with your opinions on membership here!

[Steven C. Meyer]

Mike

Good luck in your new venture, am sure you will do well. I, too have a similar background, as an general contractor, and prior to that as a independent insurance adjuster/investigator. You, therefore, have some of the "tools" to do a good job, a questioning mind.

I, too, also agree with the prior posts, (I will catch flack on this, as I have also procrastinated on joining NACHI), but when the time and finances are right you can't find a better organization to be affilated with!!

The knowledge you will gain with nachi, not only with the courses, but just the posts on various topics, will far exceed anything you "learned" in a school.

Again, good luck, and as you said "every morning is a morning of being unemployed, with that attitude, your survival/sales ability will take you a long way. You will always have to "scramble" for business, but the rewards will be worth it.

I wish you all the best!!

[Frank M. Carrio, CMI]

Originally Posted by Michael P. Rodman

Hello to all,

Background: 15 years of residential and commercial insurance sales coupled with 9 years of construction prior to that.

A new partnership in the insurance office didn't work out well and I left the industry after 15 years and thousands of property inspections for both commercial and residential properties. Although not as detailed as the average Home Inspector completes.

Career change: With a decision to make a career change and the purchasing of some rental property, I watched as a Home Inspector plied his trade. It wasn't long after, materials from AHIT and Kaplan-ITA were on their way. I did look into attending a Home Inspection school/seminar but decided to go with the Home Study route.

A few days ago I completed my first Home Inspection and slugged my way through the Home Gauge software without looking into the Help options or the online manual.

Yesterday I deposited my first check.

Being a "New Guy" is nothing new to me personally. I've worked on commissions for 15 years and in my mind woke up unemployed every morning. As I become better at Home Inspections and earn more, I fully intend on becoming a paid member here and downloading informative videos as I grow.

For now, the consensus between the wife and I are to invest the earnings back into the business as we go, increase the advertising and marketing efforts and allow the business to build upon itself.

I thank you for your time and patience and hopefully I might be able to answer insurance questions for you, as I might have industry specific questions to ask of you!

Again, I find this site to be highly beneficial and look forward to becoming a bigger part of it in the future.

Respectfully for my first post,

Mike

Quote:
It wasn't long after, materials from AHIT and Kaplan-ITA were on their way.
End Quote:

Mike,
AHIT and Kaplan-ITA have some good study material. But..... You need to actually read, comprehend and APPLY what you have learned.
Being self employed for the length of time that you have been tells me that you are "self disciplined" and "self motivated".
I am sure that you will apply yourself to this material.

I suggest that you take the NACHI online exam over and over and over again.
{It will be different each and every time.}
Print out the results. It will show you where your strong points are and where you need to strengthen your training.


With your "weak points" exposed by the NACHI tests you will be able to go to your AHIT / Kaplan-ITA material and be able to study the subject {s} until any and all confusion is gone.

• The same holds true for the Free NACHI videos.
• You have a wealth of free information at hand.

I know of no other Home Inspector's association who has taken the time, and made the effort to provide this free "To the Public"!

Good Luck!

[John Shishilla]

As a Contractor, Accredited Claims Adjuster and new to the "home inspector" bit, I wish you the best of luck. I do lots of insurance inspections and hand out many business cards, have a phone book add and just added a thermal camera to my tool belt. The best investment I made in my company was joining NACHI. They showed me the way. I now have 2009 F150, a full time office manager and another inspector. Join take all the training you can and follow the advice on "If you are not inspecting today page" I have weeks were I am to busy to get on the website. Good luck!