I thought I would introduce myself and hopefully get some good advice from you guys that have been doing this for many years. I live in East Tennessee and have been a general contractor, subcontractor, handyman and house flipper for 25 years. I have a lot of experience and knowledge in the residential field but after reading this board I realize that I have many gaps in my education pertaining to inspections. I am just starting on my journey to becoming a home inspector and haven’t even joined NACHI yet but I intend to. After spending some time reading this board it becomes quite overwhelming when I see how much knowledge an experienced inspector has amassed. Right now I am trying to get my thoughts in order regarding testing for license, insurance, business structure, marketing, tools and broadening my education. I would appreciate any advice or encouragement you guys can provide.
Hey Don,
Welcome to the boards. I hope it will be a nice experience for you as it has been for myself. My advice would be is to join Internachi as soon as possible and begin your journey. I wouldn’t stop there. Work on a company name, logo, website etc. You may not be ready to start inspecting right away, but at least you’ll have it set up when you’re ready. Take care and good luck.
Hi Don:
Welcome to the zoo!
Work your way through the hundreds of hours of free training available to members as a start.
Don’t believe the pitch from Home Inspection trainers ( if you look a outside training) that you will start out making $100K first year. Most don’t make it past the first year.
Good luck
Cheers
Step # 1- Join InterNACHI. Send an E-mail to fastreply@internachi.org and put in the headline 6 month trial. Then say: Nick Gromicko, I read on your message board that I could get a free 6 month trial membership with InterNACHI. Then tell Nick what you told us here. Once Nick approves, you will get several emails (with username and password and requirements, etc). You are going to have to take an pass InterNACHI’s entrance online examination. Then do as Doug and Vince suggested. I too welcome you to the best Home Inspector Association out there.
Hang in there, stay safe and good luck
Now E-mail Nick Gromicko and get this thing started.
Thanks for the good words, guys! Too bad about not seeing the 6 month free trial first. I jumped the gun and signed up. Lol. I don’t have any misconceptions about making 100k the first year. Right now my time is spent on some investment properties and a few flips so my time is flexible plus I don’t need to replace an income. I would like to go full time and make 100k+ but I know there isn’t anything such as overnight success.
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Join.
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Write a business plan. How much do you think you need to make per month/year? How long will it take to get to the point where you make that amount? What are you going to do for money in the mean time?
Many think they want to be inspectors, few realize there is a huge gap between “think they can” and “can make it happen”.
What Michael said may still be worth a try, Don. 
Finish your profile
My advice would be to not read the forum. I tried doing that when I was first starting out and didn’t get much out of it. This place is mostly for inspectors to argue and for you to get conflicting information.
Now that you have basically called the INACHI forum crap what would you then recommend to the OP?
I have not called the forum anything. I stated that in my experience it was not useful for a novice inspector. My recommendation would be to take InterNACHI classes and watch Ben’s videos on how to do an inspection. If Don has 25 years of varied construction experience, he should already have a leg up on a large percentage of guys that enter the industry.
Unfortunately your statement has painted a negative and very broad brush on the members of the forum many of which are excellent resources for answers. There is quite a bit to be learned from the forum. That includes everything from the correct information down to the incorrect information. Part of that learning is to distinguish between the value of the various sources. Even some members with limited experience in the industry have provided new and very useful information to veterans in the industry.