I is appalling to read about the exaggerated income potential promoted by training course providers to attract naive newcomers into their classrooms.
Even Carson/Dunlop is using the misleading scheme by claiming that "Inspection Consultants" can easily earn these days between $350.00 and $600.00 per inspection, and that many are performing two or even three inspections per work day.
Here are some realistic facts about the recent income potential for home inspectors in the greater Toronto area:
The monthly home sales published by the *Toronto Real Estate Board *include all transactions in the *“GTA” *- which extends from Burlington in the west to Oshawa in the east, and Newmarket in the north. The territory has a population of about six (6) million.
The sales figure published for June 2012 was **9,422 **including about 2,000 condo sales, which virtually never become subject to inspections. Under the optimistic assumption that about 75% of the remaining 7,422 home sales have actually resulted in inspection requests, and that only 350 **home inspectors **are competing against each other in the described area, the potential demand for home inspections has theoretically resulted in 16 possible inspection requests for each competitor during that month.
**I invite anyone to challenge my statistic **- but I would prefer to hear particularly from single operators who are actually charging $350.00 and up, and perform currently at least six (6) inspections per week.
**RUDOLF REUSSE **- Home Inspector since 1976 - Retired
Back in the office for just a bit Rudolf.
No I do not get that many inspections.
But If you combine all an Inspector can do you can make a good living.
$65.000 is attainable then and was on the CARSON DUNLOP openiing class for HOME INSPECTION CERTIFICATE. 15 Students
Now we have a new breed of Inspectors
HOME INSPECTION TECHNICIAN DIPLOMA. 32 Students
1 retired OAHI and one registered student I trained.
At least Holmes stopped advertising here.
Hi Rudolf,
where does the 350 inspectors figure come from? Just FYI, we are not a single man operation. We have 3 inspectors, one of which is the franchise owner. I average 6-8 inspections p/week; the same for my colleague. The owner averages more like 4-5.
Not knowing Canada but assuming business is not that far off the scale from U.S.A you are going to have 5% or less of your Inspectors getting 90% of the clients.
You have newbies,semi-retirees,pt firemen,architects,bad businessmen,bad inspectors,engineers,in between construction job types,bad personalities,poor marketers,etc.It adds up to where those who spend every day thinking about success,acting on it,working hard,networking,outgoing,business oriented,have good reports,good detectives during physical inspection,create first page websites,evolve with the changes take most of the clients and do not let go.
The assumed number of home inspectors operating in the GTA was given to me. The source claimed that the figure was based on current OAHI & NACHI members operating in the area.
I am convinced that home inspectors who are associated with "Amerispec"“Pillar To Post” or “CarsonDunlop” are averaging a higher percentage of inspections than a single operator. However, based on the replies posted here, there are obviously not many lucky home inspectors around who can claim that they are averaging six inspections weekly.
Ha ha that is my plan and may need to cut out the cheese soon.lol
Seriously one needs to find a balance and the biggest hurdle is when business picks up you need to handle the extra volume.
365 inspections doe not “NOT” mean one per day,it means 3-4 in one day with possibly a week of no calls.
Being able to shorten report time and be efficient is a challenge during the busy periods.
Long ago, in the first year I became a home inspector, if I would have done only 6 inspections a week for $350 each… I would have climbed to the top floor of the tallest building in town, jumped out the window, and slit my throat on the way down.
After you pull out of the business the bare minimum you need to live on, you should plow back (reinvest) every last penny into marketing until you exceed capacity (your company’s ability to service the number of prospects trying to hire you). At that point (where you simply can’t pack your schedule any tighter) you can:
market less and keep that reduction in expenditure as profit;
expand capacity (hire help); or
raise prices.
In the inspection business… it is nearly impossible to SAVE your way to prosperity. (I should probably start a new thread regarding this in the MISC forum).
I have been doing home inspections in Northern Ontario in a small (55k) city. The first years were lean and prices low but I did just what Ben suggested, I reinvested every penny back into marketing and not advertising. There is a difference and if you are interested you can contact me. I started charging between $275 and $300 per inspection. I am now charging $400 and have been doing 400 to 500 inspections per year. Depending on how you guestimate the statistics I have probably a 50% market share. I have hired a second inspector and we use a team approach. Just like the real estate business 20% of the people make 80% of the income. I just decided that I was going to be in the 20%!! Truth be told most people aren’t willing do do what it takes to be successful. Most people do just enough to not get fired or to just get by. There really isn’t as much competition when you look at things this way. There are companies selling franchises (I bought one that is how I know) that make extravagant promises and when you can’t attain these unrealistic artificial goals take the franchise back from you. I trained with 6 other inspectors and within 18 months I was the only one left that had his franchise. They are not in the business of inspections they are in the business of selling and taking back franchises. Moral of the story; do your research, do everything it takes to be successful plus 25% and you will be prosperous!
