Home Inspection Training School

[LJ Ross]

A friend of my nephews recently went through a 2 week class in the Kansas City area. My nephews friend is an engineer. He told my nephew that he was overwhelmed with how many things a home inspector checks that he had never thought about. He said the class was small (only 8 people) but had trainees from all over (Maine, Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, etc).

My nephews buddy told us that the class had 2 women & 6 men. He said the other trainees included a builder, a remodeler, a Phd college instructor, a lady code inspector for some city, another home inspectors son, etc. The head instructor's name was Dan Bowers and I think they said he's been real active in home inspections and lots of associations for over 25 years.

My nephews friend was very complimentary about this school. He said they didn't BS people and didn't put up with BS, and were very much to the point on things. He said they didn't try to snow everybody and tell them what an easy way to make a living this was but actually told them before he signed up and several times during the class that many new inspectors wouldn't make it out there. During the 2 weeks he was in class he went on several inspections with veteran inspectors and got to see things done from different perspectives. He also indicated that the instructors talked about the 3 major home inspector associations and didn't try to convince them that only one was any good. He said he was exposed to all kinds of reporting systems (checklists, computerized reports, etc) and told the strong and weak points of each. HE was real pleased he had gone to the class & got hands-on.

Now my Questions:

My nephew and I are thinking about getting into inspections as a team. I've seen a lot of classes advertised that are 2-3 day classes; or some home correspondence courses. What do you all think of classroom vs online?

Is 2-3 days adequate or should we look at 1-2 week classes? We don't have licensing to worry about yet in our area.

Would we be better attending a training school where the instructors have all been very active field inspectors for over 15 years like my nephews friend did, or go to one of the large scale franchise type schools where many of the inspectors have only been out there 1-3 years but are more techie (they've come from backgrounds as computer or software techs, etc)?

My nephew was a framer and I used to be an appraiser.

Thanks for your great site.

[Gerry Beaumont]

Hi there,

Welcome to NACHI, firstly Dan Bowers is a tremendous teacher (and NACHI member) and the school he teaches for is very well respected. You would not go wrong attending it for basic new inspector classes.

I personally would stay away from 2-3 day courses as they simply cannot cover enough information within 24-36 hours. I have previously taught a very intensive 60 hour course (inspection Depot Jacksonville FL) and a 140 hour college class.

In my mind the mininum that you should be looking for is a 1-2 week comprehesive course. That will allow you to come out of the gate best prepared for your new venture.

Regards & good luck

Gerry

[Mario A. Kyriacou, CHI]

Originally Posted by LJ Ross

A friend of my nephews recently went through a 2 week class in the Kansas City area. My nephews friend is an engineer. He told my nephew that he was overwhelmed with how many things a home inspector checks that he had never thought about. He said the class was small (only 8 people) but had trainees from all over (Maine, Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, etc).

My nephews buddy told us that the class had 2 women & 6 men. He said the other trainees included a builder, a remodeler, a Phd college instructor, a lady code inspector for some city, another home inspectors son, etc. The head instructor's name was Dan Bowers and I think they said he's been real active in home inspections and lots of associations for over 25 years.

My nephews friend was very complimentary about this school. He said they didn't BS people and didn't put up with BS, and were very much to the point on things. He said they didn't try to snow everybody and tell them what an easy way to make a living this was but actually told them before he signed up and several times during the class that many new inspectors wouldn't make it out there. During the 2 weeks he was in class he went on several inspections with veteran inspectors and got to see things done from different perspectives. He also indicated that the instructors talked about the 3 major home inspector associations and didn't try to convince them that only one was any good. He said he was exposed to all kinds of reporting systems (checklists, computerized reports, etc) and told the strong and weak points of each. HE was real pleased he had gone to the class & got hands-on.

Now my Questions:

My nephew and I are thinking about getting into inspections as a team. I've seen a lot of classes advertised that are 2-3 day classes; or some home correspondence courses. What do you all think of classroom vs online?

Is 2-3 days adequate or should we look at 1-2 week classes? We don't have licensing to worry about yet in our area.

Would we be better attending a training school where the instructors have all been very active field inspectors for over 15 years like my nephews friend did, or go to one of the large scale franchise type schools where many of the inspectors have only been out there 1-3 years but are more techie (they've come from backgrounds as computer or software techs, etc)?

My nephew was a framer and I used to be an appraiser.

Thanks for your great site.

What could you possibly learn in 2-3 days or 2 weeks?

[rcooke]

Originally Posted by mkyriacou

What could you possibly learn in 2-3 days or 2 weeks?

I have been told P2P does not want people from the construction industry .
I understand they have a 10 day course and away you go .
Told most of this time is spent on there report writing??
I wonder could this be the reason why so many P2P franchises fail.???

[Nick Gromicko]

And the one Pillar to Post franchisee that is doing well attributes his success to NACHI:

http://www.nachi.org/frankross2006.htm

Someone needs to clue P2P's franchisor (head owner) in on how to keep his franchisees strong. There is a reason A-PRO, HomeTeam, HouseMaster and NPI are kicking P2P's butt... they all belong to NACHI!

[briddle]

Definitely go for the longer class. There is way too much info to learn in a short time. You will still feel overwhelmed with a long course. I took a 2 week class-9 hours a day, studied about 4 hours each evening, and still wondered if I learned enough to get started.
Of course, 3 years later, I'm still learning more each day.

And Dan Bowers is one of the best in the business. In my opnion.

[Dan Bowers, CMI]

Bart -

Thanks for the kind words. Our philosophy from day 1 was contrary to what a lot of trainers do. We didn't try to talk people into coming to us. We realize that HI is not right for everybody - nor are they right for HI. At least 50% of the new HI's will never make it for one reason or another. We tell them that, and make sure they're aware of the liability involved. Too many of the other trainers that I know paint HI as a bed of roses - its not.

Our profession is amazing - I couldn't even begin to teach someone how to be an electrician, plumber, HVAC tech, roofer, framer, etc in 1-2 weeks. But we're trying to teach people how to be competent home inspectors in 40 - 90 hours of class or by watching a video on-line for those that don't want to take off work for a week or 2 to enter a new profession.

I actually think that to do a realistic job we ought to have a minimum of about 150-160 hours of classroom instruction, followed by 10-20 field inspection & report writing sessions before we turned them loose. That means we need a trainee for at least 1 month full-time or 2-3 months part-time.

The vast majority of people getting into HI are 35-55 and they don't seem to wanta give that type of committment in time or the extra $$$ involved.

[Dan Bowers, CMI]

LJ -

Who was your nephews buddy and where are you 2 located?? Where you go depends a lot on who is close to you OR if you're willing to travel, etc. It also depends on your background and personality. No school is perfectly right for everybody. I've had 3-5 students take other trainers courses (classroom and on-line correspondence) and afterwards pay us to come through our training because they didn't get what they wanted out of the 1st training. By the same token I've had 2 past students that didn't click with us or vice-versa and they've gone elsewhere. Send me an email at: theholmescompany@hotmail.com