Home Inspection Schools: What are some good ones?

I need to asemble a list of home Inspection schools for the US and Canada. Here’s what I have so far (question mark means I’d welcome comments), If you know of others that you think are good, please post them…

  1. Inspection Training Asscociates
  2. Carson Dunlap
  3. American Home Inspector Training Institute (?)
  4. National Institute of Building Inspectors (?)

Thanks,

Kent

Professional Home Inspector Institute
Foley-Belsaw Institute
Charles Barnes School of Real Estate
Allied Schools
Kaplan professional schools

http://www.trade-schools.net/directory/home-inspection-training-schools.asp

Thanks, David. You’re on the Acknowledgements list.
I think Kaplan bought out ITA so that now they’re the same thing. They have a school in Denver, I’ll call them tomorrow to confirm.

Kent

http://nibi.com/index.html

Kent,

I attended traing at NIBI in New Jersey. 3 other Inspectors from our Office had also completed training with this school.

I found the training to be beneficial. I also received positive feedback from other Inspectors that also attended the training.

NIBI offers Classroom as well as On-Line training.

It’s Carson-Dunlop

For literally hands-on training, and on-site inspections, Arizona Sun Tech would be hard to beat. You view water heaters, combustion chambers, and coils that are cut in half to display their components. I repeat, Arizona Sun Tech would be hard to beat.

PS Yes, they provide demos of PVS software, but others as well.

Carson Dunlop, Arizona Tech. Got it, thanks.

NIBI, thanks Joe.

When I was looking at schools in 2001 I saw Carson Dunlop, but now after a google search I find their corresponence course listed on e-bay, some exam prep books, but they don’t actually look lke a school.

Has anyone gotten education through them?

I know of 6 or 7 that I have recommended in the last year whop are very satisfied and are well on their way into becoming good inspectors .
They have been very satisfied . I know of many other Canadian Courses and have not had any who have been pleased .
Roy Cooke sr Royshomeinspection.com

See:
www.hometraining.com
I recommend it highly!

C/D is ASHI’s Home Study Course. They don’t have live classes for new home inspectors. They do have a few live classes for things like “Commercial Inspections”.

ITA/Kaplan is as good as their local instructor. We’ve recently heard tales in various areas from guys who said their neighbors kid took their on-site class somewhere out in the Rockies or West Coast, scored real high on their written test and was then offered a job teaching HI (with no actual field experience). If doing ITA look into Tampa or San Diego (old farts). ITA’s newer courses and material push the SOP, etc of ASHI.

Just so everyone doesn’t think Mr Swift’s opinion is a biased one, Arizona Suntech is a great school. Hands on field inspections are the key. You inspect other students’ and customers’ houses. It really helps your report writing doing so many reports at once. Be ready to commit four weeks to school and another month after to complete your field inspections. They can usually get about 15-25 done during the class. And they do provide demos on other software, but they do a presentation on Inspectvue. I’m glad they did, and I use inspectvue now.

I took the Home Inspection (100 Course Hours) course from Allied Business Schools, Inc. There are three options; 1. attend in person, 2. take it via email, 3. take it via the mail. I chose online or email and it worked just fine!
The course material is up-to-date and easy to read/understand. There is a quiz for each of the 13 chapters in the text by Russell W. Burgess (2002, 5th Edition), published by Deerborn Real Estate Education. Thier response in correcting quizzes and Home Inspection Senarios. For your money, you get the primary textbook, a three-ring binder filled with the quizzes and situations to respond to, a good selection of home inspection tools, another book “The Home Inspection Troubleshooter” by Robert Irwin, and another “10 Most Common Questions Asked About Starting a Home Inspection Business and More”. I aced the final test and thoroughly enjoyed the whole course.
George Maher
Home - Safe Home, L.L.C.
Fargo, N.D.

I’ve had many meals with Alan Blaker from “Arizona SunTech” over the years at national seminars and other than getting real wordy sometimes, he’s a great guy and really wants to crank out good inspectors.

Thanks Dan.

Great information, thanks everyone. -Kent

American Building Inspection and Training Co. in Syracuse NY (ABITCO) is an excellent Home Inspector training school. Joe Mahr the owner/Instructor has over 25 years of experience in the Home Inspection business.

Anyone familiar with Arbutus Inspection Training in WA? Wendy?