What is the residential and commercial inspection market like? Good time to get in?

Hi everyone. I am currently a non- certified commercial asset inspector. I have been doing this for 7 years and I’m looking to move up the rung and become a certified commercial inspector. However, I was advised that it is better to start out as a residential home inspector before getting into commercial.

What is the market outlook like right now for these careers? Is this a good time to get in? I am in California- Sacramento/ San Francisco Bay Area. Should I start out as a home inspector, even though I’m not that interested in it? What are the best courses and certifications? How much investment, time and money, should I expect to put into my new business?

All the best

Really? You might want to find something that you really want to do.

Relying on market conditions isn’t the way to start a business…

Most commercial buildings are similar in a lot of ways to simply a very large house. The training for commercial inspections will refer or incorporate much of what you have already learned from home inspection training, and is not repeated throughout commercial training.

The commercial inspections are a “step up” from a routine home inspection, and it would be very difficult to “graduate” into commercial without doing home inspections.

Analogical humor would be you’d have to learn to operate on a determined amount of monkey’s brains before you could be a brain surgeon for people.

visit NACBI http://nacbi.org/

Dale Duffy is one of the best in the business

I’m like the others…why the heck would you want to do something you don’t want to do?

Juan correctly writes:

If you have to rely on a freak time in the market where demand for inspections outstrips the supply of inspectors, you will not succeed.

I am interested in Commercial Inspections. I am not so interested in home inspections. I thought I made that clear.

This is a home inspector organization :slight_smile:

Yes I know. My point is (thought I made it clear. Sorry if this confuses some of you) is it necessary to first start out as a home inspector, or can I get straight into commercial inspections.

Try Nacbi.com and post your question there. Daly Duffy and the rest of the guys there can answer your questions if going commercial is the way you want to proceed.

QUOTE=Cal Hutchins;116483

What is the market outlook like right now for these careers? Is this a good time to get in?

NO

If you can’t inspect a home, you sure as hell won’t be able to properly inspect a commercial property. Evaluating a 2 ton heat pump is much easier then 3 RTU’s and make up air systems on top of a resturant roof.

Do you want to do general inspections on commercial properties or bring a team of contractors and produce a very technical report?
There is a huge price difference, required knowledge difference and liability difference.

Most commercial property buyers do not need a full blown inspection with electricians, HVAC techs etc involved because they will be doing major remodeling anyway.

In this area they just want a general inspection and many times only because their banker told them they had to.

Here is the International Standards of Practice for Inspecting Commercial Properties: www.nachi.org/comsop.htm Other than our “Now That You’ve Had a Home Inspection” book which is sold in cases and given to clients, the International Standards of Practice for Inspecting Commercial Properties is the #1 best selling book in the inspection industry. Also, it’s companion commercial course (based solely on www.nachi.org/comsop ) has been awarded 19 separate governmental accreditations.

No to the first, and yes to the latter. On that note, you can do anything that *you *want to.

I can answer his questions.

Q. Time to get good?
A. More than you thought.

Q. How much money invested?
A. More than you wanted.

General inspections are more appealing to me, I like to examine all components of a building. Each one is different. That’s what really fascinates me about this industry. I think I would get burnt out after inspecting my 1,000th ranch tract home. Inspecting high value custom homes would be really fun for me too, though.

Commercial inspections is more like General Contracting. It’s a marketing and management business… not an inspection business (at least the way I do it). You bring in experts for everything you need to fulfill the agreed upon scope of work.